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Inland Empire (film)

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Inland Empire
Directed byDavid Lynch
Written byDavid Lynch
Produced byDavid Lynch
Mary Sweeney
Jeremy Alter
Laura Dern
Marek Żydowicz
StarringLaura Dern
Jeremy Irons
Justin Theroux
Harry Dean Stanton
Julia Ormond
CinematographyDavid Lynch
Edited byDavid Lynch
Music byDavid Lynch
Krzysztof Penderecki
Distributed byStudioCanal
518 Media and Absurda (US theatrical)
Optimum Releasing (UK theatrical)
Rhino Entertainment (Region 1 DVD)
Release dates
September 6, 2006 (2006-09-06) (VFF)
December 6, 2006 (2006-12-06)
Running time
Regular:
179 minutes
Extended:
254 minutes
CountriesUnited States
Poland
France
LanguagesEnglish
Polish
Box office$4,028,293[1]

Inland Empire is a 2006 psychological thriller film [2] with elements of horror written and directed by David Lynch. It was his first feature-length film since 2001's Mulholland Drive, and shares many similarities with that film. It premiered in Italy at the Venice Film Festival on September 6, 2006.[3] The feature took two and a half years to complete, and was Lynch's first film to have been shot entirely in standard definition digital video.[3]

The cast includes such Lynch regulars as Laura Dern, Justin Theroux, Harry Dean Stanton, and Grace Zabriskie, as well as Jeremy Irons and Diane Ladd. There are also very brief appearances by Nastassja Kinski, William H. Macy, Laura Harring, Terry Crews, Mary Steenburgen, and Ben Harper. The voices of Harring, Naomi Watts, and Scott Coffey are included in excerpts from Lynch's Rabbits website project.

It was named the second-best film of 2007 (tied with two others) by Cahiers du cinéma,[4] and listed among Sight & Sound's "thirty best films of the 2000s", as well as The Guardian's "ten most underrated films of the 2000s".

Plot

The film begins in darkness until a film projector's beam reveals the film's title. Then we fade to an image of an old gramophone playing the voice of a man announcing, "AXXON N the longest-running radio play in history." After a series of ambiguous images, the scene fades to a dimly lit hotel hallway, where a man and a woman, both of whose faces are blurred beyond any recognition, enter the hotel room. They are speaking Polish. The man asks the woman to undress, which she does reluctantly. As she does this, the man asks her if she knows "what whores do", to which she replies, "they fuck." The film cuts to another hotel room, where a dark-haired woman sits crying while watching a television. On the television plays a clip from Lynch's short film Rabbits, featuring a family of rabbit-people in a small living room who speak in terse non sequiturs, occasionally followed by a laugh track. The female rabbit mentions a "secret" that apparently the male rabbit knows about. When footsteps are heard by the door, all three rabbits are captivated by it, and the male rabbit goes to investigate, but the source of the footsteps is not revealed. He walks out through the door and it closes behind him.

The male rabbit enters a dimly lit room, which then fades into a lavish golden foyer where a bald man sits on a couch. A bearded man stands talking to him. The seated man asks the other if he is "seeking an opening", and the standing man answers affirmatively, repeating variations of the phrase, "Do you understand that I seek an opening?" This conversation is also in Polish. The male rabbit then walks back to the door, as if to leave, and the lights fade out.

The film then cuts to an older woman (Grace Zabriskie) walking through a sun-drenched affluent estate. She steps onto the porch of a turn-of-the century mansion and a butler answers. The mansion belongs to Nikki Grace (Laura Dern), a well-known actress, who walks into the foyer behind her butler to see who is at the door. The old woman is granted permission to enter, claiming she is a new neighbour and wishes to introduce herself to Nikki. She is greeted and the two women sit down on a nearby couch, being served coffee by Henry, the butler. The older woman says that she had heard Nikki got a part for an upcoming film for which she applied, called On High in Blue Tomorrows (though the film's title is not yet mentioned). Nikki tells her it isn't for certain since her audition was very recent, but the woman insists she has got the part. The visiting woman then talks about a boy who opened a door, passed through into the world, and made a reflection, thus causing evil to be born. She then goes on to talk about a girl who got lost in a marketplace, then passed through an alley behind the marketplace which led to a palace. Nikki is unsure what the woman is talking about and asks her to clarify. The old woman disregards Nikki's inquiry, then asks if there is a murder featured in the movie for which Nikki auditioned. Nikki says there isn't, but the woman insists there is "brutal fucking murder" in the film. At this point, Nikki feels disturbed and asks the woman to leave. Disregarding Nikki once more, the old woman continues by talking about the mixing up of time, yesterdays, todays, and tomorrows. She remarks that it may be 9:45 when it is in fact after midnight. She then points to a second couch adjacent from them and says that, if it were tomorrow, Nikki would be over there. The film then pans to where the woman is pointing, and we see Nikki and several friends sitting on the couch. Her butler walks into the sitting room (where the old woman no longer reclines) and informs her of a telephone call. Nikki answers the telephone and realizes that it is her agent. According to the agent she has just received the part she auditioned for in On High in Blue Tomorrows. Ecstatic, Nikki hangs up the phone and celebrates joyously with her two female friends while her husband, Piotrek, ominously surveys their ectastic behaviour from the top of a nearby stairwell.

A week or two after she hears that she has got the part for the film, Nikki is interviewed with her costar Devon Berk (Justin Theroux) on a celebrity talk show called The Marilyn Levens Show. The host Marilyn (Diane Ladd) asks both actors whether or not they will have an on-set affair, to which both Nikki and Devon respond negatively. Afterwards, Devon is told by his entourage that Nikki is "hands-off", since Nikki's husband is an extremely influential and powerful figure. Later, on the set being constructed for the film, Nikki and Devon rehearse a scene with the director, Kingsley (Jeremy Irons). There is a disturbance somewhere on the set. Devon goes to investigate the noise, but finds nothing. Shaken by the disturbance, Kingsley confides with them that the film they are making is in fact a remake of an older unfinished German film entitled 4, 7 ("Vier, Sieben") that was based on a Polish "gypsy folk tale". It was abandoned because the two leads were murdered and the film was rumored to be cursed. Kingsley assures them both that nothing will come of it.

At this point, the film takes a drastic stylistic turn. Nikki's world begins to blend with that of the film they are making, putting into question whether or not the alleged "curse" is in fact real. There are multiple subplots which arise throughout the film that appear to have nothing to do with Nikki's story: Polish prostitutes confront various pimps while murder permeates their Polish city. A woman, Doris Side (who also plays the wife of Billy Side, a character in Nikki's film), is seen with severe stomach wounds and tells a police detective she is going to kill someone with a screwdriver. A mafia-like organization discusses one of their captives, remarking that the man claimed he was from "Inland Empire". When we return to Nikki, she is shopping for groceries when she sees a door labeled "Axxon N.", with an arrow pointing to a door. She passes through the door and enters a movie studio. She hears voices and begins running. She looks back, and sees herself seated with Kingsley, watching Devon chase her. She then realizes that SHE was in fact the intruder in the earlier scene and that she had watched herself sneak into the studio. Nikki evades exposure by hiding in a house found on the set, where she stays for most of the movie. When she enters the set house, it miraculously metamorphoses into an actual house somewhere in the suburbs. Nikki sees it is filled with prostitutes who are having a surreal party, exposing themselves to each other and dancing to 1960s music. She listens to their stories, smoking and donning their suggestive garb, eventually becoming one herself.

Much of the movie contains similar, seemingly arbitrary, storylines: Nikki is at a backyard party with her husband where she asks friends to "look at me, and tell me if you've known me before". Nikki wanders into a neighbouring yard dressed in a business suit when a man with a red lightbulb in his mouth emerges from behind a tree and slowly approaches her. Frightened, she picks up a screwdriver and brandishes it at him, before running away. At one point, Nikki climbs the staircase of a nightclub, and enters a room where a portly man with glasses sits behind a table (he is known as Mr. K). She sits across from him and begins a foul-mouthed monologue in which she unloads all her childhood scars, including being molested as a girl, where she gouged out the eye of her rapist. Snippets of this interview reoccur through the remainder of the film. Later, Nikki runs down Hollywood Boulevard, attempting to flee from a woman with a screwdriver (the same woman who had earlier confessed to the detective). Nikki is ultimately stabbed in the stomach by the woman, and she staggers down the street, eventually reaching the corner of Hollywood and Vine where she collapses near a building, next to a few homeless people. One of them remarks that Nikki is dying, then begins debating another about how to take a bus to Pomona. The younger one starts talking about her friend, Niko, who has a beautiful blond wig which makes her look like a movie star. She reveals that Niko is a prostitute, and has a hole in her vaginal wall. Soon, the other homeless woman notices Nikki is very near death. She holds a lit lighter in front of Nikki's face, who appears transfixed by it, until she finally dies. Off-camera, Kingsley is heard yelling "cut" and the camera pans back to show this had merely been a film scene. As the actors and film crew wrap for the next scene, Nikki slowly stands, and Kingsley announces her scenes for the film are complete. In a daze, Nikki wanders off the set and out of the sound stage.

Eventually, Nikki confronts the standing man from earlier in the film, now known as "The Phantom". She shoots him, which causes his face to become hideously disfigured, at first becoming a disturbing copy of Nikki's own face, but eventually morphing into something closely resembling a fetus. We next see the rabbits again, who are once more faced with the opened door. Nikki enters the room where the dark-haired woman was watching the television, and the two women kiss. Nikki fades away and the dark-haired woman runs out of the hotel room and happily embraces a man and child. Nikki is then seen back at her house, sitting and triumphantly smiling at the old woman from the beginning of the film.

The film ends with what appears to be a party of some sort taking place at Nikki's mansion, as the group of prostitutes dance and sing to Nina Simone's "Sinnerman" over the end credits.

Cast

Development

Production

Lynch shot the film without a complete screenplay. Instead, he handed each actor several pages of freshly written dialogue each day.[3] In a 2005 interview, he described his feelings about the shooting process: "I’ve never worked on a project in this way before. I don’t know exactly how this thing will finally unfold... This film is very different because I don’t have a script. I write the thing scene by scene and much of it is shot and I don’t have much of a clue where it will end. It’s a risk, but I have this feeling that because all things are unified, this idea over here in that room will somehow relate to that idea over there in the pink room."[5] Interviewed at the Venice Film Festival, Laura Dern admitted that she didn't know what Inland Empire was about or the role she was playing, but hoped that seeing the film's premiere at the festival would help her "learn more."[3] Justin Theroux has also stated that he "couldn't possibly tell you what the film's about, and at this point I don't know that David Lynch could. It's become sort of a pastime—Laura [Dern] and I sit around on set trying to figure out what's going on."[6]

Much of the project was shot in Łódź, Poland, with local actors, such as Karolina Gruszka, Krzysztof Majchrzak, Leon Niemczyk, Piotr Andrzejewski and artists of the local circus Cyrk Zalewski. Some videography was also done in Los Angeles, and in 2006 Lynch returned from Poland to complete filming. Inland Empire is the first Lynch feature to be completely shot in digital video; it was shot with a Sony DSR-PD150. Lynch has stated that he will no longer use film to make motion pictures.[7]

In an NPR "Weekend Edition" interview, Laura Dern recounted a conversation she had with one of the movie's new producers.[8] He asked if Lynch was joking when he requested a one-legged woman, a monkey and a lumberjack by 3:15. "Yeah, you're on a David Lynch movie, dude," Dern replied. "Sit back and enjoy the ride." Dern reported that by 4 p.m. they were shooting with the requested individuals.

Film critic Roger Ebert has noted that Inland Empire follows Mulholland Dr. and Twin Peaks in being inspired by the names of cities or the places in which they're set. "But often they don't have anything to do with the location at all," he adds. Lynch "doesn't let the actual geography of the place interfere with his vision."[6]

Financing and distribution

Lynch financed much of the production from his own resources, with longtime artistic collaborator and ex-wife Mary Sweeney producing. The film was also partially financed by the French production company Studio Canal, which had provided funding for three previous Lynch films. StudioCanal wanted to enter the film in the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, but it was not ready in time.[citation needed] Instead, it premiered at Italy's Venice Film Festival on September 6, 2006, where David Lynch also received the Golden Lion lifetime achievement award for his "contributions to the art of cinema." The film premiered in the United States on October 8, 2006 at the New York Film Festival, selling out both showings.[citation needed] The film received a limited release in the US beginning on December 15, 2006; distribution was handled by the specialist company 518 Media.[9]

Lynch hoped to distribute the film independently, saying that with the entire industry changing, he thought he would attempt a new form of distribution as well.[10] He acquired the rights to the DVD and worked out a deal with Studio Canal in an arrangement that allows him to distribute the film himself, through both digital and traditional means.[11] A North American DVD release occurred on August 14, 2007. Among other special features, the DVD included a 75-minute featurette, "More Things That Happened", which compiled footage elaborating on Sue's marriage to Smithy, her unpleasant life story, the Phantom's influence on women, and the lives of the prostitutes on Hollywood Boulevard.

Release

When asked about Inland Empire, Lynch responded that it is "about a woman in trouble, and it's a mystery, and that's all I want to say about it."[6] When presenting screenings of the digital work, Lynch sometimes offers a clue in the form of a quotation from a translation of the Aitareya Upanishad: "We are like the spider. We weave our life and then move along in it. We are like the dreamer who dreams and then lives in the dream. This is true for the entire universe."[12]

[T]he structure of Inland Empire differs from prior Lynch films, Lost Highway or Mulholland Drive. It is neither a Möbius strip that endlessly circles around itself, nor is it divisible into sections of fantasy and reality. Its structure is more akin to a web where individual moments hyperlink to each other and other Lynch films -- hence the musical number that closes the film which contains obvious allusions to everything from Blue Velvet to Twin Peaks.

Zoran Samardzija, 2010[13]

Richard Peña, an official at the New York Film Festival and one of the first people to see Inland Empire, has summarized the film as "a plotless collection of snippets that explore themes Lynch has been working on for years," including "a Hollywood story about a young actress who gets a part in a film that might be cursed; a story about the smuggling of women from Eastern Europe; and an abstract story about a family of people with rabbit heads sitting around in a living room"[6] -- Lynch's web-only video series, Rabbits. Peña's perception of a plot involving "the smuggling of women from Eastern Europe" stems from a scene in which one man asks another, in Polish, if he is selling the woman in the room.

The scholar Delorme indicated that the film is about adultery, but in a way that Lynch "avoid[s] a chronological unfolding of the scenes and situations provoked by the adultery", but rather "superimpose[s] them instead in as many scenarios developing from the potentials of the adultery", so that "[t]he narrative is constructed on strange characters brought together by a similar terror."[14]

Release dates

The film debuted on several film festivals around the world most notably the Venice Film Festival in Italy, New York Film Festival in New York, United States, the Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece, Camerimage Film Festival in Poland, Fajr International Film Festival in Iran, International Film Festival Rotterdam in the Netherlands, San Francisco Independent Film Festival in San Francisco, United States, Festival Internacional de Cine Contemporáneo de la Ciudad de México in México City, Mexico, Cinema Digital Seoul in South Korea and !f Istanbul International Independent Film Festival in Turkey. In late 2007 it was released in Iceland. The company that showed "Inland Empire" is called Grænaljósið or "The Greenlight".

Inland Empire was released and distributed by RYKO to the United States on August 14, 2007.[15] it was released on August 20, 2007 in the United Kingdom,[16] released on October 4, 2007 in Belgium and the Netherlands and distributed by A-Film)[17] and on August 6, 2008 and Distributed by Madman Entertainment in Australia.[18]

Reception

Overall the film has been well-received by critics. The New York Times classified Inland Empire as "fitfully brilliant" after the Venice Film Festival screening. Peter Travers, the film critic for Rolling Stone magazine wrote, "My advice, in the face of such hallucinatory brilliance, is that you hang on."[19] The New Yorker was one of the few publications to offer any negative points about the film, calling it a "trenchant, nuanced film" that "quickly devolves into self-parody".[20] Jonathan Ross, presenter of the BBC programme Film 2007, described it as "a work of genius... I think."[21] Damon Wise of Empire Magazine gave it five stars, calling it "A dazzling and exquisitely original riddle as told by an enigma"[22] and Jim Emerson (editor of RogerEbert.com) gave it 4 stars and praised it: "When people say Inland Empire is Lynch's Sunset Boulevard, Lynch's Persona, or Lynch's 8½, they're quite right, but it also explicitly invokes connections to Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, Jean-Luc Godard's Pierrot le Fou, Buñuel and Dali's Un Chien Andalou, Maya Deren's LA-experimental Meshes of the Afternoon (a Lynch favorite), and others".[23] However, Carina Chocano of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "the film, which begins promisingly, disappears down so many rabbit holes (one of them involving actual rabbits) that eventually it just disappears for good."[24]

Critics have criticised the film for being recorded in digital video, with Oxford University Press's Chris Hook suggesting that the use of such a medium gave the film an "unsavoury" aesthetic.[citation needed]

Laura Dern received almost universal acclaim for her performance, with many reviews describing it as her finest to date.[25] Lynch attempted to promote Dern's chances of an Academy Award for Best Actress nomination at the 2007 Academy Awards by campaigning with a live cow.[26] She was not nominated for the award.

References

  1. ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=inlandempire.htm
  2. ^ Buchanan, Jason. "Overview:Inland Empire". Allmovie. Retrieved September 17, 2010.
  3. ^ a b c d "david lynch given lifetime award". bbc news. 2006-09-06.
  4. ^ http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~ejohnson/critics/cahiers.html
  5. ^ Attwood, Chris (September 2005). "A Dog's Trip to the Chocolate Shop - David Lynch". Healthy Weathly N' Wise. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ a b c d Blatter, Helene (2006-09-03). "David Lynch turns his eye to 'Inland Empire'". Riverside Press-Enterprise.
  7. ^ Dawtrey, Adam (2005-05-11). "Lynch invades an 'Empire'; Digital pic details a mystery". Variety.com.
  8. ^ Shea, Andrea (2006-12-17). "David Lynch's Latest Endeavor Breaks New Ground". NPR Weekend Edition Sunday.
  9. ^ "Inland Empire release details". ComingSoon.net Film Database.
  10. ^ "Lynch to Distribute Inland Empire Himself". ComingSoon.net. 2006-10-09.
  11. ^ Goldstein, Gregg (2006-10-11). "Filmmaker Lynch to self-distribute 'Inland Empire'". The Hollywood Reporter.
  12. ^ Guillen, Michael (2007-01-24). "Inland Empire—The San Rafael Film Center Q&A With David Lynch". Twitch.
  13. ^ Samardzija, Zoran (February, 2010). "DavidLynch.com: Auteurship in the Age of the Internet and Digital Cinema". Scope: An Online Journal of Film and Television Studies, 16.
  14. ^ Delorme, Stephane (February, 2007). "Critique. Inland Empire by David Lynch". Cahiers du Cinema, 620, p. 10-12.
  15. ^ "Inland Empire (details of USA DVD release)". Ryko Distribution.
  16. ^ "Inland Empire (details of UK DVD release)". Play.com.
  17. ^ "Details of BE & NL DVD release". A-Film.
  18. ^ "Madman catalogue entry for Inland Empire DVD".
  19. ^ Travers, Peter (2006-11-21). "Inland Empire Review". Rolling Stone.
  20. ^ Brody, Richard (2006-12-11). "Inland Empire: The Film File". The New Yorker.
  21. ^ Film 2007, 5 March 2007
  22. ^ Wise, Damon. "Reviews Central: Inland Empire". Empire.
  23. ^ Emerson, Jim (2007-01-26). "Inland Empire". RogerEbert.com.
  24. ^ Chocano, Carina (2006-12-15). "Inland Empire". Los Angeles Times.
  25. ^ http://www.powerset.com/explore/go/Laura-Dern
  26. ^ Romanelli, Alex (2006-11-15). "Lynch, cow campaign for Oscar; Helmer touts 'Inland Empire' thesp Dern, cheese". Variety.com.
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