Inland Empire

I spotted David Lynch’s Inland Empire in HMV and impulsively shelled out an exorbitant £18. I’ve viewed it just the once so far and been left with little grasp of it whatsoever, except a sense of doubling, multiplying personality set adrift in movie fictions. I thought I’d watch the accompanying interviews to gain some informed insight. No dice, just a lot of hand fluttering from Lynch and much talk of transcendental meditation. Then I read some online reviews and found their authors also had no clue as to the film’s meaning. I’m surprised that these reviews still gave it high ratings.

Inland Empire is three hours long. I was reminded of the poetics of Tarkovsky, but transliterated into the harsh glare of digicam blowout and shorn of aesthetic pleasure. At two hours we took a break. Quite by chance, and quite humorously to my mind, the above screenshot illustrates the moment the film was paused.

I’ll be watching it again.

Inland Empire website
NYT review
Premiere review

Ah, just thought to check Guardian Online’s review, Peter Bradshaw’s analysis is admirable.