Eraserhead or Mulholland Dr. (films I’ve loved and loved analyzing for more than a decade), I know very little about the circumstances of Inland Empire’s conception or the various theories and speculations about its “true” meaning. In some ways, though, that almost feels like an asset for our discussion. The film is a hallucination, an ugly and invasive stream of unconsciousness that I’ll need to feel for a while before I dissect. This is my typical response to Lynch — his work invites interpretation and tends to come together logically once you give yourself over to the language of surrealism — but something about this one feels different. It feels less like a narrative and more like a pastiche of themes and ideas from previous films. Maybe it’s about filmmaking itself? When asked to explain Inland Empire, Lynch offered only this ancient hymn: “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.”
Lost Highway, which cause him to question what really happened and what didn’t. The case is extremely similar in Inland Empire, except that the entire film is presented as the tape and the audience is left to wonder what is really happening to Nikki and what is only happening to her character. Or are these things happening to both? Are they even really separate identities? These themes of perception vs. reality, or, even more specifically, perceptions of reality, are major in both Lost Highway and Inland Empire, and, as we will discuss in a later column, Mulholland Dr. as well. The three films have been popularly coined as Lynch’s "L.A. Trilogy" and have so many thematic elements in common that someone who wasn’t super familiar with each of the films might have a hard time discerning them at times. For instance, Lynch’s famous doppelgänger thing. Also (probably my favorite of the Lynch trademarks), the blonde and brunette contrast that exists among his female protagonists, especially in those three movies. I don’t want to go too far into it until we cover Mulholland Dr., but we see it in Inland Empire with blonde Nikki and the Brunette Lost Girl, who are revealed to be imperative to each other once we reach the end of the film. What do you make of that? Both Lynch’s blonde/brunette fascination and the scene where the girls find each other?
The Elephant Man or The Straight Story, too. Especially if I just finished Mulholland Dr. and wanted more unbridled insanity. It depends on what kind of Lynch mood I’m in.
Alejandra: To be honest, I am completely devastated that I didn’t love Inland Empire because now I can’t say that there isn’t a David Lynch movie I don’t like. Do you hear that? It’s Lynch wiping his tears away with his millions of dollars. Maybe I will be able to better appreciate it in the future, or maybe as we revisit Mulholland Dr. in a few weeks I will be able to run new threads through the L.A. Trilogy that will give me a newfound love for Inland Empire. Either way, I am thankful to have had to revisit it for this column because now I can say that I’ve actually finished it and I also got to witness Theroux’s incredible eyebrows. In all seriousness, if you have the time, I think Inland Empire is worth watching at least once for really witnessing how far Lynch is willing to push viewers for the sake of his art.
Rob: I hope those eyebrows eased your suffering, and I hope Inland Empire resonates with both of us a little more as the years go on. Next time, we’re going to tackle the aforementioned Dune, Lynch’s biggest (and most ill-advised) foray into Hollywood filmmaking. It should prove interesting. Until next time, remember: This world is wild at heart…
Alejandra: And weird on top.
Rob: I hope those eyebrows eased your suffering, and I hope Inland Empire resonates with both of us a little more as the years go on. Next time, we’re going to tackle the aforementioned Dune, Lynch’s biggest (and most ill-advised) foray into Hollywood filmmaking. It should prove interesting. Until next time, remember: This world is wild at heart…
Alejandra: And weird on top.
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