I completely forgot about this film, and just so happened to be up for renting a movie tonight. I will post again with a report. It will be in 250 words or less, and maybe in verse.
In under 250 words: Once a “story” begins it is hopeless, unless your character can stop being only that character. Even then, this may just be wishful thinking, and yet another story, but it is a really interesting story of resistance; one that comes at a time when we seem to have given up even on resistance. It is, perhaps, a metaphor for Lynch’s relationship to the Inland Empire of Hollywood filmmaking, but, in my opinion, this is not what is remotely interesting about film. This is now my favorite David Lynch film.
What I think fully:
“Inland Empire” has a double frame. 1) The dark-haired woman waiting in a hotel room, crying, and watching the disturbing “bunny show” on a television. 2) Next, the neighbor, the older Polish “gypsy” woman who visits Nikki, the actress’ mansion. A creepy conversation transpires, in which the neighbor indicates that Nikki will get the part in a film she’s up for, and explains a traditional fable in which “reflections” are the cause of evil in the world. She then points across the room and provides Nikki with a revelation of the future. The rest of the film is this “revelation.” The film closes, returning to this same scene in the second frame, in which Nikki sees herself at the end of the odyssey, at peace. Cut to a short scene in what appears to be a new owner of Nikki’s mansion. Ghosts/characters from the internal narrative appear, and the credit scenes begin. The internal narrative deals with a collapse of narrative—the collapse of story and reality and interchangeability of identity under these conditions. The revelation reveals both the evils of this condition, especially the commonality of systematic abuses of women under given narratives, while presenting a redemptive option—Nikki’s exchange of narrative identities allows the reunion/freedom of the woman waiting in the hotel room from the first narrative frame. This film establishes Lynch as the finest Feminist filmmaker working today. It would take a full essay to explain why I think this. Lynch utilizes motifs from previous films, and books can be written about the “referencing” of other films, genres etc., but all that is icing on the cake. What Lynch has finally gotten straight at this point is his presentation of systematic “underworlds,” Empires that exist at social levels and at the more basic level of narrative and identity itself. He has gotten how to express the way in which any warnings, self-observation, and narratives within narratives are devices that are party to the different systematic Empires they comment upon. The overall narrative of “Inland Empire” suggests redemption, not by way of commentary, but by way of identity dissolution pushed to its bitter end. Basically, the Empire can only be resisted when we are no longer who it says we are, but are everyone/anyone within it, as Nikki becomes lost in her role and becomes not only her “sister” narratives (the first frame character, the “original script” character, but also multiple abused women who give their accounts to an impassive agent of the Inland Empire. But, overthrowing the Empire is not possible; the Empire does not fall. Every story—every identity—is a “cursed story” as every identity is party to the Inland Empire as is every narrative, including this one, presumably. This film would be unwatchable if not for the genius performance of Laura Dern.
Nice analysis. It might be interesting to know that the film was shot without a finished script-- Lynch apparently was writing scenes on the spot. "Cursed" in another sense.
Did you think that the Polish girl (watching the rabbits on TV) is the girl (fictional? real?) who's story is being told in the "Blue Tomorrows" film? I thought so. And so I read into the film an account of authentic acting-- what it would mean to actually portray the inner life of another person (another kind of "inland empire").
I'd be curious to hear more about why this is a feminist film.
Yes—I agree with your analysis: Did you think that the Polish girl (watching the rabbits on TV) is the girl (fictional? real?) who's story is being told in the "Blue Tomorrows" film? I thought so. And so I read into the film an account of authentic acting-- what it would mean to actually portray the inner life of another person (another kind of "inland empire").
And…this is part of the reason why I think that this film is a feminist film. It’s what a good use of framing will get you—when the device adds to the content, something years of studying Plato’s dialogues has made me appreciate. I thought Lynch fearlessly took on his own classic motifs, syndicates that exist parallel to “normal life” (and are themselves normal in Lynch’s world, and maybe our own*), and which, in his films, have typically victimized women, and re-worked this theme more deeply. The way question of the fictionality/reality of the frame’s character and story becomes an account of authentic acting and—as you note—a problem of portraying the inner life of another person, expands the significance of “Inland Empire” from Lynch’s typical syndicates (already loaded with social commentary) to include syndicates of identity. So, instead of being like his older films, in which women are caught up in syndicates, and granted in some instances narrative redemption (Blue Velvet), because identity itself is at stake, the protagonist eludes all the operative syndicates when her identity dissolves. Nikki kills Bob (and Frank) on behalf of all the Lynch women characters, and solves her own mystery—her predicted, scripted death, and saves another woman/herself. No other character does this for her or her sister characters. The film isn’t so simplistic as to suggest that it isn’t also a narrative, a Lynchian Empire, and Lynch’s own repertoire is on the table clearly, but what it does seem to me to suggest is that Lynch was moved to reformulate the way his women characters navigate and resist within that Empire in a substantial way.
* I’m not all that given over to speaking of Lynch’s films as depicting the real world in a simple way. But here’s a “Lynchian” observation using your own blog. (Please, bear in mind that this is just that—an observation—and not an attack of any kind.) You posted “Overheard in Whole Foods” and got 16 comments. There was a lot people had to say about Whole Foods and the woman drinking wheatgrass juice that she thought tasted like “poo.” One of the comments brought up ATM (Does she do ATM?), and you had a really clever reply to that. Everyone posting here pretty much knows what ATM is, and most likely know what we know about it through the fact that it is a genre of porn. As a private practice without internet communication and its status as a porn genre, it wouldn’t be as well-known as it is, and also wouldn’t be likely to be a joke or causally mentioned. The very real health hazards involved are addressed substantially in the porn industry, and the amateur “dirty” films available followed upon the development of this porn genre—i.e. a push for more “authentic” ATM than offered by the porn industry. Symbolically, the genre (professional and amateur) trades deeply in the humiliation of women (and whether this is socially right, whether the women involved “want” or “enjoy” it or make a lot of money and don’t care, isn’t what I’m getting at). The basic point is that this genre, and our knowledge about it, arose from an industry and its effects, and the genre is specifically one that sets out to depict humiliating women for “entertainment” purposes. As Lynch would pose it, a certain sort of syndicate is operating, and erupts into everyday discourse. Of course, you state explicitly that vulgarity is to be expected on your blog, and that, ultimately it is a kind of “Doom-watch.” At the same time, there is really little we can do about this state of affairs—it is something we mention, something that “comes up,” and we can either ignore it (as I did), or move quickly past it (make a clever response to), while it is part of our “normal” world. Our “normalcy,” in a sense, depends on denying or glossing over the real normal state of affairs.
Wow--Thanks!!! Maybe I will write that up and send it to Philosophy and Film. I don't think a _Philosophy and David Lynch_ volume is what the world needs. Please tell me you have read David Foster Wallace's essay on David Lynch, "David Lynch Keeps His Head." If you have not read this, just say so, and it will be in the mail asap. The essay is reprinted in his book, _A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again_, which you need to read starting with the title essay for the most fucking fun you have ever had reading, well, any social commentary. (Side Note: DFW is the son of philosophy professor James Wallace and English professor Sally Wallace--he actually understands philosophy, and actually writes brilliantly.) In any case, this DFW essay is the model essay/publication on Lynch. Let me know if you haven't read it...
729: Your analysis on this movie makes me want to see it. I have not seen a Lynch movie since Mulholland Drive and Dune: The Final Director's Cut or whatever it was called.
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New eBook reveals Lynch's INLAND EMPIRE. It's Old World Politics, New World Prophecy: Understanding David Lynch's INLAND EMPIRE available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk Here is the link:
Observations from an old cranky jerk who happens to be a professional philosopher. Occasionally philosophical, most often just vulgar. Sometimes focused on sober points of logic and issues in political theory, but more frequently fixed on nonsense. Bad metal bands, crappy guitarists, stupid lyrics, celebrities, pop "culture," telemarketers, irrationality, and other annoyances. Always misanthropic. Anti-religious. Not particularly amusing, either. Some might say insulting. Strange mail. Kook magnet. Doom. Comments from other cranky jerks, young and old.
10 comments:
I completely forgot about this film, and just so happened to be up for renting a movie tonight. I will post again with a report. It will be in 250 words or less, and maybe in verse.
In under 250 words:
Once a “story” begins it is hopeless, unless your character can stop being only that character. Even then, this may just be wishful thinking, and yet another story, but it is a really interesting story of resistance; one that comes at a time when we seem to have given up even on resistance. It is, perhaps, a metaphor for Lynch’s relationship to the Inland Empire of Hollywood filmmaking, but, in my opinion, this is not what is remotely interesting about film. This is now my favorite David Lynch film.
What I think fully:
“Inland Empire” has a double frame. 1) The dark-haired woman waiting in a hotel room, crying, and watching the disturbing “bunny show” on a television. 2) Next, the neighbor, the older Polish “gypsy” woman who visits Nikki, the actress’ mansion. A creepy conversation transpires, in which the neighbor indicates that Nikki will get the part in a film she’s up for, and explains a traditional fable in which “reflections” are the cause of evil in the world. She then points across the room and provides Nikki with a revelation of the future. The rest of the film is this “revelation.” The film closes, returning to this same scene in the second frame, in which Nikki sees herself at the end of the odyssey, at peace. Cut to a short scene in what appears to be a new owner of Nikki’s mansion. Ghosts/characters from the internal narrative appear, and the credit scenes begin. The internal narrative deals with a collapse of narrative—the collapse of story and reality and interchangeability of identity under these conditions. The revelation reveals both the evils of this condition, especially the commonality of systematic abuses of women under given narratives, while presenting a redemptive option—Nikki’s exchange of narrative identities allows the reunion/freedom of the woman waiting in the hotel room from the first narrative frame. This film establishes Lynch as the finest Feminist filmmaker working today. It would take a full essay to explain why I think this. Lynch utilizes motifs from previous films, and books can be written about the “referencing” of other films, genres etc., but all that is icing on the cake. What Lynch has finally gotten straight at this point is his presentation of systematic “underworlds,” Empires that exist at social levels and at the more basic level of narrative and identity itself. He has gotten how to express the way in which any warnings, self-observation, and narratives within narratives are devices that are party to the different systematic Empires they comment upon. The overall narrative of “Inland Empire” suggests redemption, not by way of commentary, but by way of identity dissolution pushed to its bitter end. Basically, the Empire can only be resisted when we are no longer who it says we are, but are everyone/anyone within it, as Nikki becomes lost in her role and becomes not only her “sister” narratives (the first frame character, the “original script” character, but also multiple abused women who give their accounts to an impassive agent of the Inland Empire. But, overthrowing the Empire is not possible; the Empire does not fall. Every story—every identity—is a “cursed story” as every identity is party to the Inland Empire as is every narrative, including this one, presumably. This film would be unwatchable if not for the genius performance of Laura Dern.
729:
Nice analysis. It might be interesting to know that the film was shot without a finished script-- Lynch apparently was writing scenes on the spot. "Cursed" in another sense.
Did you think that the Polish girl (watching the rabbits on TV) is the girl (fictional? real?) who's story is being told in the "Blue Tomorrows" film? I thought so. And so I read into the film an account of authentic acting-- what it would mean to actually portray the inner life of another person (another kind of "inland empire").
I'd be curious to hear more about why this is a feminist film.
Spiros:
Yes—I agree with your analysis: Did you think that the Polish girl (watching the rabbits on TV) is the girl (fictional? real?) who's story is being told in the "Blue Tomorrows" film? I thought so. And so I read into the film an account of authentic acting-- what it would mean to actually portray the inner life of another person (another kind of "inland empire").
And…this is part of the reason why I think that this film is a feminist film. It’s what a good use of framing will get you—when the device adds to the content, something years of studying Plato’s dialogues has made me appreciate. I thought Lynch fearlessly took on his own classic motifs, syndicates that exist parallel to “normal life” (and are themselves normal in Lynch’s world, and maybe our own*), and which, in his films, have typically victimized women, and re-worked this theme more deeply. The way question of the fictionality/reality of the frame’s character and story becomes an account of authentic acting and—as you note—a problem of portraying the inner life of another person, expands the significance of “Inland Empire” from Lynch’s typical syndicates (already loaded with social commentary) to include syndicates of identity. So, instead of being like his older films, in which women are caught up in syndicates, and granted in some instances narrative redemption (Blue Velvet), because identity itself is at stake, the protagonist eludes all the operative syndicates when her identity dissolves. Nikki kills Bob (and Frank) on behalf of all the Lynch women characters, and solves her own mystery—her predicted, scripted death, and saves another woman/herself. No other character does this for her or her sister characters. The film isn’t so simplistic as to suggest that it isn’t also a narrative, a Lynchian Empire, and Lynch’s own repertoire is on the table clearly, but what it does seem to me to suggest is that Lynch was moved to reformulate the way his women characters navigate and resist within that Empire in a substantial way.
* I’m not all that given over to speaking of Lynch’s films as depicting the real world in a simple way. But here’s a “Lynchian” observation using your own blog. (Please, bear in mind that this is just that—an observation—and not an attack of any kind.) You posted “Overheard in Whole Foods” and got 16 comments. There was a lot people had to say about Whole Foods and the woman drinking wheatgrass juice that she thought tasted like “poo.” One of the comments brought up ATM (Does she do ATM?), and you had a really clever reply to that. Everyone posting here pretty much knows what ATM is, and most likely know what we know about it through the fact that it is a genre of porn. As a private practice without internet communication and its status as a porn genre, it wouldn’t be as well-known as it is, and also wouldn’t be likely to be a joke or causally mentioned. The very real health hazards involved are addressed substantially in the porn industry, and the amateur “dirty” films available followed upon the development of this porn genre—i.e. a push for more “authentic” ATM than offered by the porn industry. Symbolically, the genre (professional and amateur) trades deeply in the humiliation of women (and whether this is socially right, whether the women involved “want” or “enjoy” it or make a lot of money and don’t care, isn’t what I’m getting at). The basic point is that this genre, and our knowledge about it, arose from an industry and its effects, and the genre is specifically one that sets out to depict humiliating women for “entertainment” purposes. As Lynch would pose it, a certain sort of syndicate is operating, and erupts into everyday discourse. Of course, you state explicitly that vulgarity is to be expected on your blog, and that, ultimately it is a kind of “Doom-watch.” At the same time, there is really little we can do about this state of affairs—it is something we mention, something that “comes up,” and we can either ignore it (as I did), or move quickly past it (make a clever response to), while it is part of our “normal” world. Our “normalcy,” in a sense, depends on denying or glossing over the real normal state of affairs.
729:
Excellent. Write it up!
Maybe there's a way to legitimately do a *David Lynch and Philosophy* volume in one of those otherwise embarrassingly stupid series?
(Btw: the recent one on *Bruce Springsteen and Philosophy* is hilariously bad.)
Wow--Thanks!!! Maybe I will write that up and send it to Philosophy and Film. I don't think a _Philosophy and David Lynch_ volume is what the world needs. Please tell me you have read David Foster Wallace's essay on David Lynch, "David Lynch Keeps His Head." If you have not read this, just say so, and it will be in the mail asap. The essay is reprinted in his book, _A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again_, which you need to read starting with the title essay for the most fucking fun you have ever had reading, well, any social commentary. (Side Note: DFW is the son of philosophy professor James Wallace and English professor Sally Wallace--he actually understands philosophy, and actually writes brilliantly.) In any case, this DFW essay is the model essay/publication on Lynch. Let me know if you haven't read it...
729:
I have not read any of this stuff. Please send.
729: Your analysis on this movie makes me want to see it. I have not seen a Lynch movie since Mulholland Drive and Dune: The Final Director's Cut or whatever it was called.
Hope it is better than those.
A fabulous gift idea that any mom & grandma links of london sale would be glad to accept is a mother's ring. There are countless styles to pick from london links charms and every one permits each of a mother's children's birthstone to be placed in the ring so mom & grandma can remember her children wherever she goes.Jewelry links london bracelet that is personalized or engraved makes great jewelry gifts for mom. You can have a particular word or meaningful expression engraved inside a ring, necklace or bracelet links of london earrings to demonstrate to your mother the depths of your feelings.Stylish watches are an additional idea for great jewelry gifts for mom. Your mother sweetie bracelet needs a stylish watch to go with her favorite outfit and perhaps even a few to go with her entire wardrobe.Another example of mom's & grandma's jewelry that makes a great gift is mother's earrings.
New eBook reveals Lynch's INLAND EMPIRE. It's Old World Politics, New World Prophecy: Understanding David Lynch's INLAND EMPIRE available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk Here is the link:
http://www.amazon.com/World-Politics-Prophecy-Understanding-ebook/dp/B004LGS7I6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AZC9TZ4UC9CFC&s=books&qid=1299972782&sr=8-1
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