Inland Empire (2006)

Directed by David Lynch

One drawback to living in Poland is that films tend to arrive a little later than they do in the UK, or

anywhere else for that matter. Inland Empire premiered at the cinema in July 2006 in Italy, it did not 

appear in Poland, the country in which a fair amount of it was filmed, until July 2007. Being in 

Bochnia though means there is an additional wait to each production… two months seems about 

right. I am however thankful, perhaps I could even say I am in the right place at the right time...

My expectations for this film were mixed. I had read a few articles suggesting that the story has no plot and that the entire film is nothing more than a bizarre dream sequence, but that is what I had come to find from the majority of Lynch’s work, most of which I solemnly treasure. Bochnia has a tiny cinema; it has one screen and shows four films a month. Inland Empire had been running for the past four nights and the only reason that led me to believe it might draw a large audience at every screening was because a fair chunk of the film was shot in Poland, spoken in Polish and played by Polish actors. When I arrived at the Kino Regis however there were no more than eight people in the audience, I bought my ticket for fourteen zlotys and sat in the row second from the back, dead in the centre. The cinema was dark and playing a loud thrash metal song which didn’t ease my anticipation. I was a little hungry, but ready to be taken on a ride of whirling drama, beautifully lit hallways and eccentric character profiles. Within minutes of the film starting, the people sitting behind me had stopped talking, either that or the colossal volume of the manic soundtrack to the films introduction quilted their gibbering. I was instantly flung into brightly lit and darkly coloured Lynchian fantasy world, where man rabbits dwell, lonely girls cry and people speak in disjointed tongues. 

The film follows the experiences of Laura Dern’s characters Nikki and Susan as they are both slung into a psychotic mystical adventure. Dern plays both her characters with grace and tidiness, allowing Lynch to toss her character ferociously between sweet glamorous celebrity to beaten and soiled whore. The film ties together footage of bilingual conversations, psychotic murder and prostitution with strings of dialogue that continually reference previous non-linear scenes. The central layer of the plot is built on the foundations of a Hollywood director remaking a cursed German film. 

The screening I saw fronted Polish subtitles during the dominating English speaking scenes, which would not have been out of the ordinary in any other film. Inland Empire however encouraged me to translate, take mental notes on the script and try to find relevance in the English/Polish language patterns, which I suppose is a metaphor for my experience while watching the film. Inland Empire worked as something of a muse in that it gave me ideas, not only about language, but also about story and the audience participation in such an original production. 

The most uncomfortable moments in the cinema though were not the sporadic loud booms juxtaposed with horrific imagery and demonic lighting, but were in fact when ‘Black Tambourine’ by Beck became the soundtrack to Dern running down a dark boulevard and being taunted by hookers. I am a big fan of Beck but this just seemed like an absurd choice for the film, I would have thought Lynch would have realised his musical errors in Lost Highway, but to find such an awfully contrast musical accompaniment to an almost flawless film made me feel a little cheated. The use of Little Eva’s ‘Locamotion’ though was a real treat and fitted nicely, in a way that the glorious ‘Sixteen Reasons’ by Connie Stevens goes hand in hand with the eerie Hollywood portrait in Lynch’s previous film ‘Mulholland Drive’. 

Inland Empire had lots of room for experimental script writing and Lynch took full advantage of that with hackets of drastic dialogue and linguistic folklore; the story of the lady in a blonde wig that keeps a monkey as a pet and the tale of a one legged preteen murderer almost seem like lyrics from a Tom Waits track. Elements such as these made the ‘Black Tambourine’ shambles easier to swallow and the lingering characteristics of Lynch’s first films lead me to believe he will always be something of an inspiration as a truly groundbreaking filmmaker. 

Inland Empire is definitely not for everybody, if plots, linear story and sanity are your bag, it is advised you stay well away from this one. If however you are slightly prone to a bit of twisted cinema that frightens you, tests your wit and leaves you wanting more, then get your self a ticket while you can still see this masterpiece on the maybe not so big screen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nine divas dancing in a hallway to Little Eva's 'Locamotion'

 

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Copyright Daniel Emmerson 2008 all rights reserved