"Inland Empire" [Lynch, 2006].

[karamazov.]

"In the future, you will be dreaming. And when you wake up, someone familiar will be there."

imo, this, not "Mulholland Drive," is the ultimate Lynch. Comparisons to a number of great films ["8½," blah, blah, blah] are appropriate not only because these are great films, but because they are in particular films that push the formal perimeter, and make spectacle whatever cinematic machinations present, to such an extent that they become deconstructions of the form itself. "Inland Empire" is both an example of the most unrelenting nightmare dream-cinema, and of cinematic materialism* [via Kuleshov] to the fucking extreme.

Rather than the von Trier/Hitchcock-brand of cm-- remember, e.g., the absurd torrent of over-the-top misfortunes that befall our poor Björk in DitD, to the extent that lvt seems to be reveling in his sublimely manipulative cinema (and inviting his audience to revel in this to an equal extent)-- Lynch's is simultaneously more mechanical [the unrelenting experiments w/ the Kuleshov effect], and more frenetically intuitive and authentic. Also in the context of cm, the use of sound design [always seems to be impeccable in Lynch films] and soundtrack is interesting-- a good contrast would be with "Contempt" [1963], where there are only, iirc, two tracks, that play over and over again. Anyway, this is an utterly fucked-up nightmare, and I find its radically aestheticized view of the world to be a strangely comforting and beautiful exercise. I am both devastated and exhilarated.

*see "The Pervert's Guide to Cinema" [2006].

[???]

One of my favorites... I read a review somewhere claiming it's a film about Non-Euclidean geometry

[karamazov.]

Haha, excellent. url?

[lisa-]

inland empire is undoubtedly the purest distillation of lynch's aesthetic post-eraserhead, the clearest example of his cinema-as-nightmare. but mulholland drive is about other things too, even if it might not be such an extreme example of his stylistic concerns.

[karamazov.]

btw, forgot to bring up that woman's speech while Laura Dern is bleeding on the sidewalk. lmfao'd, because her slurred speech plus thick accent sounded to me at the time like the backwards speech in "Twin Peaks." The connection is probably -questionable- though, to say the least, haha.

inland empire is undoubtedly the purest distillation of lynch's aesthetic post-eraserhead, the clearest example of his cinema-as-nightmare. but mulholland drive is about other things too, even if it might not be such an extreme example of his stylistic concerns.

Yeah.

[cinesexual]

I saw this at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in the Czech Republic on a gigantic drive-in-size screen, which made all the close-ups even more disturbing, and the digital format somehow more present.

I prefer this to just about every Lynch since Eraserhead, mostly because its caustic satire and formal discipline are relentless.

[gogolit]

Couldn't finish it.

[VinegarBob]

imo, this, not "Mulholland Drive," is the ultimate Lynch.

This.

I've never seen another film that feels so disconcerting - a feeling I think Lynch has been trying to encapsulate in all his films since Eraserhead, with varying degrees of success. There are many isolated scenes from his films that convey this effectively, but Inland Empire is saturated with it. It's a magnificent and fitting swansong to Lynch's filmography and feels to me like he finally was able to accurately project what's in his head up there on the screen. It's one of the few films that gives me the fucking willies.

[Ag0stoMesmer]

Like everyone's said; unrelenting, caustic, disconcerting, nightmarish. Certainly his bleakest but I prefer the more full-spectrum lynch. MD, LH etc have tender, warmth, sexy and wonder amongst their 'darker' stuff. I missed those contrasts, those ups-and-downs, found it pretty gruelling. Perhaps that was the point, but I doubt it.

I think it was the jump to digital. Perhaps he was in a 'darker place' when he made it and the 'instance' of digital captured it, like the difference in composition between writing on a typewriter and a word processor?. He talks here about how he likes the lq digital cameras, the immediacy and long takes.

Couldn't finish it.

I took an intermission myself first-time, even after pre-ordering and looking forward too it for weeks.

I saw this at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in the Czech Republic on a gigantic drive-in-size screen, which made all the close-ups even more disturbing, and the digital format somehow more present.

Cool, that sounds like a great way to see it.

It's been a couple of years now, should perhaps re-watch, you never watch the same film twice and all, shame there're no drive-ins 'round here.