1175 Inland Empire

[miless]

Apparently the film will be distributed in the U.S. by 518 Media. According to IMDb, their previous releases are all Herzog films: Nosferatu, Fitzcarraldo, Cobra Verde, Lessons of Darkness, Wheel of Time, and The Wild Blue Yonder. The release date given at Coming Soon is December 15.

huh? I wonder if it is just a coincidence, then, that Herzog is a big Lynch fan?

[gubbelsj]

huh? I wonder if it is just a coincidence, then, that Herzog is a big Lynch fan?

It's definitely a mutual-admiration thing. Herzog has repeatedly referred to Lynch as a "friend," and with Werner, it's never just lip service.

Incidentally, there was an online "Ask Werner Herzog" chat a year back or so, around the time of Grizzly Man, and some eager fellow mentioned that he had read David Lynch first saw Stroszek on British television in May of 1980 and was elated, and that it was the exact same broadcast Ian Curtis veiwed before hanging himself. I guess the question was something along the lines of, what do you think about two people having such different reactions to the same film? Herzog was kind enough to give some sort of answer, but finished by saying he didn't know about the Lynch angle, and would "have to ask him next time they saw each other." Oh, to be a fly on the wall during a Lynch-Herzog conversation....

[DrewReiber]

They are both good friends with Crispin Glover as well.

[rumz]

Inland Empire will screen at the Brattle Theater (Cambridge, Mass) on December 3rd. Lynch will be present to answer questions afterward.

[Barmy]

Which is the day after he appears at Walter Reade in NYC.

[Antoine Doinel]

Dave Poland had this to say very briefly after seeing the film recently:

I am too tired to really dig into this one, but the short form on it? Inland Empire is David Lynch's Eyes Wide Shut… which is to say, it is very much the same idea – a dream movie about a married person dealing with fear, interest, and decisions about infidelity – but done in a distinctly Lynchian way. Oddly, perhaps because Lynch is so odd to start, this 3 hour experimental epic is more accessible than EWS. Go figure.

The more accessible part is interesting only in that I didn't find EWS to be difficult/inaccessible at all. I thought it was pretty straightforward in terms of theme/narrative.

For those of you who have seen Inland Empire already -- in comparion with Lynch's previous work, is Inland Empire more indeed more straightforward?

[leo goldsmith]

For those of you who have seen Inland Empire already -- in comparion with Lynch's previous work, is Inland Empire more indeed more straightforward?

No. It seems to me, by far, the most challenging film he's ever made.

Perhaps by "accessible," this person means warm and/or comic, as the film certainly has its lighter, more approachable moments. But in terms of story and meaning, it will be confusing to even the most well-versed of Lynch fans.

[denti alligator]

I agree. This is Lynch's most radically experimental narrative.

[dadaistnun]

Without cows there would be no cheese in the Inland Empire



More photos here. Fair warning to those on slow connections: many are quite large.

[quote]Rhino to distribute David Lynch DVD

Inland Empire will be supplier's first theatrical film

Rhino Home Entertainment will be distributing its first theatrical feature film on DVD, David Lynch-directed Inland Empire.

Street dates and pricing have not been specified.

518 Media will oversee the film's theatrical run, which kicks off in major cities on Dec 6.

Although Rhino is best known for its TV and music DVD releases, Lynch was attracted to the supplier's willingness to let him have significant oversight of the film's disc distribution.

“David was looking for a distribution model where he would have total creative control, and we were fortunate enough to develop a model that afforded him that control,â€

[Fletch F. Fletch]

The Official Site is online.

Here is a clip (sort of) from the movie.

[dadaistnun]

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO AND MORE STARTING NOVEMBER 13TH, 2006

Sticking to dates just like davidlynch.com.

[blindside8zao]

can't criterion give him creative control, too? sigh.

[Antoine Doinel]

I'm sure Lynch also demands a bigger piece of the sales pie as well. Something that Rhino (a subsidiary of Warner) can afford more readily than Criterion.

[Fletch F. Fletch]

From Cinematical:

Now, it looks like we're finally getting some details and it appears they involve Lynch going on a 10-city tour in January. Joining Lynch on tour will be pianist Marek Zebrowski (who will play what's described as "Polish night music" from the film) and his good friend Mr. Cow -- ya know, the one that was standing next to him last week when he plopped himself down on Hollywood Boulevard with a sign promoting Laura Dern's performance in the pic.

The bizarre marketing technique was so effective (check out some video from the event) that he's now bringing it to a host of other cities which, I assume, will include New York. Just picturing Lynch in the middle of Times Square alongside a pianist and a cow is already conjuring up hilarious images inside my head. As far as the actual film goes, Inland Empire will debut next month in Los Angeles, Pasadena, New York and Boston.

[godardslave]

Favorite Lynch quote no. 473:

Lynch assured baffled critics "it's supposed to make perfect sense".

[chime_on]

The trailer has been released. It made me feel a little wave of exhilaration and nausea to hear the song and see some of the images again. The trailer also confirmed a little theory that I developed upon my second viewing of the film.

[Antoine Doinel]

Manola Darghis weighs in:

[quote]The Trippy Dream Factory of David Lynch

Article Tools Sponsored By
By MANOHLA DARGIS
Published: December 6, 2006

There are, in the movies, few places creepier to spend time than in David Lynch's head. It is a head where the wild things grow, twisting and spreading like vines, like fingers, and taking us in their captive embrace. Over the last three decades these wild things have laid siege to us even as they have mutated: the deformed baby of “Eraserheadâ€

[Fletch F. Fletch]

Entertainment Weekly interviews Lynch.

Another interview with Lynch. And Part two.

J. Hoberman digs Inland Empire. Calls it Lynch's most experimental film since Eraserhead.

[Floyd]

Is that Lynch himself singing in the trailer? I know he has a band.. the voice seems to sound a lot like him.

[J M Powell]

I don't have access to any definite confirmation, but I'm 99% sure that's his voice. And I'm a pretty reliable source, too, since Lynch himself once told me that I "HAVE GOOD EARS."

[chime_on]

I asked Lynch at the NYFF Q&A if I heard him singing, and he said that yes, he sang that song.

[Jeff]

J. Hoberman digs Inland Empire. Calls it Lynch's most experimental film since Eraserhead.

I read Hoberman's review too, but didn't come away with the impression that he "dug" the film at all. He does indeed call it Lynch's most experimental film since Eraserhead, but follows that statement thusly:

Inland Empire is Lynch's most experimental film since Eraserhead. But unlike that brilliant debut (or its two masterful successors, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Dr.), it lacks concentration. It's a miasma. Cheap DV technology has opened Lynch's mental floodgates. Inland Empire is suffused with dread of . . . what?

He goes on to say:

Lynch's notion of pure cinema is a matter of tawdry scenarios and disconcerting tonal shifts. Everything in Inland Empire is uncanny, unmoored, and out of joint. The major special effect is the creepy merging of spaces or times. Do the characters travel through wormholes from Los Angeles to Lodz and the sad, shabby rooms of the On High in Blue Tomorrows set? Are these memories or alternate worlds? Is Lynch looking for some sort of movie beneath the movie?...Inland Empire has no logic apart from its movie-ness.

I remember reading some speculation that people thought this was a possible New York Film Critics Circle winner. Doesn't seem likely though, as NYFCC members David Edelstein, Peter Rainer, Lou Lumenick, Mike D'Angelo, and Owen Gleiberman hated it. To me, Jim Hoberman seems nonplussed as well.

[obloquy]

Total confusion does appear to be the consensus, but David Edelstein, at least, while nonplussed, does not appear to have hated it.

[chime_on]

What I can't understand is why the confusion has to be focus of the review. The film operates on a level that has been exhibited in Lynch's past works-- he's been exploring this sort of Lacanian/Jungian consciousness with his characters for a while now.

I was actually kind of amused to see that Entertainment Weekly had reviewed it. It's really not the kind of thing that fits into their capsule-style reviews.

[brownbunny]

i'm salivating at the opportunity to hear that microcephalic roeper approach this thing. for some reason, perhaps mainly to put myself through an unenviable amount of personal suffering, i've been watching that sordid little show each week just so i can shout aloud off-color remarks as he stumbles all over himself to proclaim clint eastwood some kind of genius. ebert isn't much better, but frankly roeper's manner of articulation puts ebert in a much kinder light, making him appear (at least in the presence of dawdle-dim roeper) like rochefoucauld.

the trailer i've seen (which i'm supposing is the official trailer) seemed pitch-perfect to me. the first shot made me kind of trepidatious, but once the colors and hallways and mangled-ham faces began appearing, and that wonderful, scratchy song and shot of the spinning record graced the screen, i felt hypnotized.

i'm stymied, though, to explain why any publication is really even bothering to review this. most of what i've accumulated and read has been exceptionally negative and dismissive, that despicable "weird-for-the-sake-of-being-weird" argument beginning to rouse itself up and out again, and people like owen and that other dolt from ew seem almost predisposed to dislike it, with varying degrees of intensity.

if tarkovsky were contemporary they'd probably lacerate and impale him with quips such as "arduously long," "artsy" and "interminable." sigh.