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inland empire

posted: ¤ 2008-09-01

so
after many months of panting for the new david lynch film
which for more than one reason i didn’t actually get to see in the theatre…

i finally got to sit down and watch it
before i go into what i thought of the film
i need to preface it with a little personal background

i can’t watch any of his films
without getting completely unhinged

when i watch a david lynch film
i get really inspired
i think its due to me listening to his films more than watching

perhaps what i love the most about his movies
is not the plot (in the utmost sense of the non traditional)
but rather the smallest details that are amplified by sound

whole minutes of footage could be freeze frames aside from one flickering light and an undertone of audio darkness…

he finds a beautiful/weird/frightening image at random,
draws you into it
and then makes you watch it while the audio makes it slip into something more evil
which while its not be the most hollywood accessible form of film making
someone with a taste for the dark and droll
like myself
stays happy and devoted and secretly wanting to score his next film [even if its the just david lynch reading a years worth of weather reports for two hours].

moving on!

anyone that has seen mulholland drive or lost highway from mr.lynch will know
there is a focal point for change or a turning point
where the main character will suddenly change into a completely different person, or walk through a door or into a corner of darkness and everything gets all past present future colliding confusion inducing batshit crazy
[its those moments i cherish the most]
where you suddenly are thinking, “wait so i blink and its a different film? so wait what am i seeing? how can this be?”

coming from the previous two films i have to say
that pretty much ALL of inland empire is “challenging” in the same way
theres the usual exposition that happens in the beginning to get you comfortable with linear time and consecutive events…
and then bang!
about 40ish minutes you will find the moment where you’d usually be saying to yourself “wow! so this is what it must be like to be a full time paranoid schizophrenic”
however,
heres where Inland Empire differs from his previous films
by the end you actually feel as if during the course of the film
someone snuck in and drained you of your sanity with a thick rusty needle
i felt QUITE insane when i turned the tv off.
its the most terrifying experience ive had [while watching a movie]

i spent two hours afterwards
staring into the dark
waiting.

It deserves to be watched again.

2008-01-09

ages melt

the only one of his I’ve seen is mulholland drive, which left an impression. you make inland empire sound really good, I’ll have to seek it out.

btw, thanks for the music. this past semester I went on a proem binge because your idm complements working on ee homework so well. negativ, among others, and cd2 of you shall have ever been are fuckin sick all the way through.
2008-01-10

ario

totally agreed on your review… it left me in a similar state. now watch this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKiIroiCvZ0
2008-01-10

Wolfslice

I caught it in the theater with Lynch himself in attendance to answer questions and play a duet with Chris Isaak (Lynch plays a mean maraca). Since then I’ve watched it 4 times on dvd.

I’m pretty convinced that in all of his movies there’s a mostly straight forward narrative, it’s just buried under heaps of symbolism only Lynch could hope to understand.

I know what you mean when you say you feel the “smallest details that are amplified by sound,” he is a master at that, for sure. My favorite of those moments is in “Wild At Heart,” in which he periodically cut to this decrepit white house with this low, distorted “wonf!” sound. It scares the shit out of me.
2008-01-10

proem

i tend to agree with the straight forward narrative cuz theres always that exposition in the beginning where it starts like a typical hollywood film but then slips into lynch territory.

i just wasn’t expecting inland empire to dive in so quick and remain so unrelentingly crazy.
2008-02-28

Josh

You’re only a year behind. :) I was in the front row when Lynch introduced his film to the city of Chicago. I was close enough to stab/hump him and kill him/cum before they could have pulled me off. In the end I decided just to record some video:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ipU9U7cpJCw
2008-04-24

Bazarov

I not a fan of David Lynch’s work at all. I find his movies to be pretentious and empty. You guys might like Notes from Underground the movie, if you haven’t already seen it. The novel is of course brilliant but the movie is very well done. Go here:
http://www.notesfromundergroundmovie.com/

Another one that is as obscure as it is amazing is Jan Svankmajer’s Faust, which may a little difficult to find but trust me, well worth the effort to obtain.