Screenhead

David Lynch has never been a man of conventions. In fact, even when we were all used to Lynch making odd films and shows, he went and made a Disney film. But for his latest film, INLAND EMPIRE, Lynch has taken his most drastic step, and ditched 35mm cameras, instead experimenting with consumer mini-DV cameras and writing each of the film’s scenes the day before shooting.

INLAND EMPIRE feels akin to Eraserhead in many ways. Unlike Lynch’s other movies, which usually start with a relatively normal narrative structure that gradually tears apart, Lynch’s first and latest both instantly delve into the weird, and barely pop up for air. From what I gathered from my first viewing, after an introduction involving a prostitute and a foreign woman watching a dead-pan sitcom of a trio of rabbits, we seem to kick in to a story of Sue, an actress (played by Laura Dern), who is making a comeback feature. A strange Polish woman enters her house with an ominous tale. Seemingly unphased, Sue starts work on the film with director Kingsley (Jeremey Irons) and co-star Devon (Justin Theroux), only to discover a supposed curse in the script. That equates to about 10 minutes of the film, the rest turns into a blur of creepy imagery and sounds, with Sue’s personality seemingly blending with her character, a prostitute, and god knows what else.

On a technical level, I can only applaud Lynch. It’s about time an established director has cast aside film and taken up digital cinema. Yes, Lucas did it years ago, but the Star Wars prequels still looked like film. Digital has a different and distinct feel, and this is the first time it has been utilised fully. Sure, it looks grainy, if not amateurish, at first, but soon Lynch’s trademark ubiquitous sense of threat takes over, and you’re sucked into the experience. And Lynch spends plenty of the movie showing off his knowledge of After Effects, with many scenes containing the kind of visual manipulation only your nightmares can conjure up.

I’m astounded by the mixed reaction to INLAND EMPIRE so far. While many critics are lauding the film, many of Lynch’s fans, including those of Mulholland Drive, are claiming that Lynch has lost it, disappeared up his own cherry-pie hole. I shouldn’t be too surprised, since Lynch’s fans have been switching sides since Lost Highway, each time claiming he has gone too far. But I personally felt that INLAND EMPIRE is similar in territory to Mulholland Drive. Both deal with the world of Hollywood as the perfect setting to bet on your ideals and lose your identity in the process. And both operate within an existence of frames, of stories within stories within stories. I won’t even hazard a guess as to which frame is within which (I.e. who is the person whose fantasies and feelings are being played out through these stories and sub-stories), but the film is imbued with meaning. And abstracting the meaning is what makes Lynch’s films so enjoyable, with an array of interpretations on offer, such as Empire’s movie-nerd’s understanding. The difference between the two films is that INLAND is even less linear than Mulholland Drive, and contains significantly less lesbianism.

One aspect of the film which may detract viewers and fans of Lynch is the unattractiveness of the film. It’s full of dark corridors with nasty figures lurking about. The film feels like the ugly sister of Mulholland Drive. And appropriately, unlike the yearning desire that permeated Mulholland Drive, the emotions associated with this film relate to infidelity, wife-beating, control, and terror. The only criticism I have of the film is that three hours is a little too long for a film of seemingly disjointed scenes, and my attention waned somewhere in the middle, until the film picked the pace up towards the final 30 minutes.

Overall, though, I found the film compelling. It’s deeply disturbing and visually dark, with sublime moments of terror. It’s a movie I’ll definitely revisit over and over in an effort to comprehend. And, it is certainly the way forward for someone like Lynch, whose films are not known to be profitable. Which means that we could see a new Golden Age of art house cinema, produced on minimal budgets but feeling as valid in the cinema as any million-dollar feature.

INLAND EMPIRE is touring the US city by city, as Lynch is distributing the film himself. Check out the film’s website for the release schedule.