David Lynch once made Eraserhead as an experiment in what works when combining sound and image to create a certain atmosphere. Every other Lynch movie uses the unique tricks developed in that movie. But Eraserhead was relatively poor on structure, so ever since he developed not only a grammar, but also some interesting semantics.
Mulholland Drive for example was largely a dream, combining several worlds but still clearly distinct from each other. Now Lynch goes one step further and mixes all worlds in time and space to create possibly his most complex movie to date, comparable in structure only to Medem's Lucia y el Sexo.
Inland Empire is also his least accessible. It will take you at least the first hour (of three) to figure out the structure. And you have to work hard on that as a viewer, otherwise the rest makes no sense.
Basically, it tells the story of a troubled woman in a troubled part of Inland Empire. Her life is the lowest level in the movie, and all worlds are stacked upon this one. She dreams she is an actor acting in a movie. This movie is a remake of another movie, which is based upon a gypsy tale. But these 5 worlds also interact and interfere. And what happens in the movie is sometimes the reverse or the complement of the story of the original movie (stabbing of 2 actors vs. stabbing of Nikki). On top is the meta-world of the rabbits, commenting all other worlds (see for example how the canned laughter is used).
Lynch studied in a depressing area of Philadelphia and this must have influenced his life, contributing to the dark movies he usually makes. And Inland Empire (San Bernardino especially) is no happy place either. Despite the layered setup Inland Empire feels more realistic than other Lynch movies, so I also find it more depressing.
I saw this on one of the largest screens available and the DV showed its obvious technical limitations. For the worlds Lynch defines I do prefer 35mm.
Note: See the shot with the Lolita poster: It's the movie he recently mentioned on TV as one of his personal favorites.
Mulholland Drive for example was largely a dream, combining several worlds but still clearly distinct from each other. Now Lynch goes one step further and mixes all worlds in time and space to create possibly his most complex movie to date, comparable in structure only to Medem's Lucia y el Sexo.
Inland Empire is also his least accessible. It will take you at least the first hour (of three) to figure out the structure. And you have to work hard on that as a viewer, otherwise the rest makes no sense.
Basically, it tells the story of a troubled woman in a troubled part of Inland Empire. Her life is the lowest level in the movie, and all worlds are stacked upon this one. She dreams she is an actor acting in a movie. This movie is a remake of another movie, which is based upon a gypsy tale. But these 5 worlds also interact and interfere. And what happens in the movie is sometimes the reverse or the complement of the story of the original movie (stabbing of 2 actors vs. stabbing of Nikki). On top is the meta-world of the rabbits, commenting all other worlds (see for example how the canned laughter is used).
Lynch studied in a depressing area of Philadelphia and this must have influenced his life, contributing to the dark movies he usually makes. And Inland Empire (San Bernardino especially) is no happy place either. Despite the layered setup Inland Empire feels more realistic than other Lynch movies, so I also find it more depressing.
I saw this on one of the largest screens available and the DV showed its obvious technical limitations. For the worlds Lynch defines I do prefer 35mm.
Note: See the shot with the Lolita poster: It's the movie he recently mentioned on TV as one of his personal favorites.