[JohnFerrier]

US premiere of Island Empire October 8th and 9th. "Lynch’s first foray into high-definition video..."

Film Society of Lincoln Center
Wiki: Island Empire
CONFéRENCE DE PRESSE INLAND EMPIRE - 63èME FESTIVAL DE VENICE 2006

Tickets long sold out. Anyone plan to attend?

 

[Romanee]

I didn't get a ticket 'cause it was sold out early.

My wife saw it tonight and she said it was a waste of her time and money -- self-indulgent to point that the actors at the Q&A didn't seem to have any idea of what it was that they did, who they were playing, etc. She said David Lynch said he shot certain (odd) scenes just because he felt like it at the time, and in post production was surprised he was able to work them into the film.

She was more fed up with the film than that, and said that many people walked out throughout the film, but since I didn't see it I'll stop here.

Pity. I was kind of looking forward to it after having had fun seeing Mulholland Drive when it screened at the Festival.

 

[vibin247]

It's kind of strange that most of Inland Empire was shot in Europe, but I guess the economics over there are much more favorable for lower budget projects.

 

[chadbang]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Romanee I didn't get a ticket 'cause it was sold out early. My wife saw it tonight and she said it was a waste of her time and money -- self-indulgent to point that the actors at the Q&A didn't seem to have any idea of what it was that they did, who they were playing, etc. She said David Lynch said he shot certain (odd) scenes just because he felt like it at the time, and in post production was surprised he was able to work them into the film. She was more fed up with the film than that, and said that many people walked out throughout the film, but since I diidn't see it I'll stop here. Pity. I was kind of looking forwarding to it after having had fun seeing Mulholland Drive when it screened at the Festival.

I think Lynch can get way too self-indulgent. He's a great artist, but he sometimes forgets people are expecting a film at least within grasp of its storytelling conventions. Un Chien Andalou is great at 10 minutes, but you wouldn't want to sit through 2 hours of it. I began to suspect Lynch was becoming too lazy/indulgent with Mulholland drive which had moments of greatness, but also felt incompletely concieved. If he wants to be completely experimental, he should keep to making short films. Or he could team up with Lucas and shoot 40 to 50 at a time for the web.

 

[Superpredator]

**spoilers maybe**

So, I finally got to see Inland Empire over the weekend. Well, umm...

I am part of the Lynch camp that feels like Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Lost Highway, Straight Story and Mulholland Drive are the director's best work, with Mulholland Drive representing the culmination of everything good that is Lynch, perfectly conceived from start to finish, perfectly understandable, and one of the most engrossing and heartbreaking love stories ever to be put to celluloid. If it isn't my favorite film of all time, it would definitely be in the top three.

But Inland Empire. Well. Despite some fantastic scenes, including an opener between Laura Dern and Grace Zabriskie that blew me away, the film never seemed to go anywhere interesting. Or rather, it started going somewhere interesting until about halfway through, and then Lynch kind of abandoned Justin Theroux in favor of putting Laura Dern in one bizarre scene after another. Some of them worked. Many of them didn't.

It also seemed like Lynch couldn't decide between a mature heroine or his typical lusty girl from another era--so he went with both, tying them loosely together with some random scenes. The Laura Dern of the opening was far more compelling than the white trash wonder we get for the last half of the movie, and the Polish hottie sitting on the bed would have been a lot more fun to watch for three hours straight. Mulholland Drive worked because Lynch really took the time to flesh out Diane's fantasy of herself as Betty before revealing her actual persona. That didn't really happen here.

The movie they were working on in the film also lacked genuineness and wasn't really treated with the care Lynch typically shows for Americana. Instead he seemed to give all that attention to his bunny show, which, while interesting on the web, doesn't seem to add a whole lot to the film.

Oh, and MUSIC. A few great songs do not make up an entire score. Inland Empire lacked the PRAT of Mulholland Drive, and so many scenes were accompanied by a truly uninspiring score or what seemed like no sound at all.

All in all, the underutilization of Justin Theroux was painful, the overuse of Laura Dern's white trash character was off-putting, the absence of a rhythmic score made the scenes dreary, and the lack of an appealing character to follow down the rabbit hole made the rabbit hole sort of a dull place to be.

Now that Lynch has figured out he can get people to buy what was essentially, for many, a straight-to-DVD release, I think he should find that big-eyed Polish girl and try for another series.