Okay, I love horror movies. I like all movies really. I like to watch them and then add them to my ratings list here on IMDB. I have NO idea what to rate this movie. It was disgusting and disturbing...and yeah I think it was supposed to be. But what the hell? Seriously?
American Horror Story Season 6: Donald Trump
Everything you just described it as is exactly what it is and supposed to be lol. It's gotta be in the top 5 strangest films of all time but that's what a David Lynch movies are. Actually that top 5 strangest list could easily be comprised of purely Lynch movies, maybe 1 or 2 Kubrick movies as well lol
shareIt is definitely strange. I was trying to explain it to someone the next day and I had no idea how to even do that! Weird movie!
American Horror Story Season 6: Donald Trump
Yeah it's not the kind of movie you can really explain lol. Nice tag btw, that would make an excellent season 6. Hopefully it doesn't happen in real life
shareI'm 33 years old and just finally watched it for the first time. I'm glad I knew what a "David Lynch" movie was at least so I was prepared for weirdness... but I don't think anything can truly prepare you for this movie.
I'd say it was an influential piece of art that worked best when media wasn't so readily accessible. I don't think people have the attention spans or willingness to explore disturbing visuals like this anymore.
... but I don't think anything can truly prepare you for this movie. Well put lol. And yeah it's sad that if a movie doesn't have explosions or children or *beep* jump-scares then most people can't be bothered with it
sharehave you guys ever seen a film by Luis Bunuel? How about Alejandro Jodorowsky? Or even, to a lesser extent, Ingmar Bergman and Frederico Fellini.
There are many art films that deal with surrealism, using heavy symbolism and dreamlike sequences as the basis of a film in place of plot. Hell, even Terrence Malick makes films just as confounding as this one.
You could maybe make case for Eraserhead being top five weirdest films of all time, maybe. Certainly nothing from Stanley Kubrick or any other Lynch film would make the list. Not even close.
Nah, Inland Empire is more weird and confusing than this.
shareINLAND EMPIRE is very much like ERASERHEAD ...
Because "ERASERHEAD" is about the FACTORY INDUSTRY and how it POLLUTES and RUINS the ENVIRONMENT to the point where they eat MECHANICAL CHICKENS for dinner.
And "INLAND EMPIRE" is about the FILM INDUSTRY and how it also CORRUPTS the lives of other people.
And that's also demonstrated to us by the way the LEADING MAN has affairs with all of the girls who work on the film (from the LEADING LADY right down to the LOWEST girl who is only doing a BIT PART in it).
And he also takes them to the FAKE HOTEL ROOM (the MOVIE PROP that's located inside of the MOVIE LOT) to have sex with them there (because if he took them to another place located outside of the movie lot then the SPIES for the woman who HOSTS the CELEBRITY TALK SHOW would also reveal what the BIG BAD WOLF was doing (which would also keep him from being able to trick and seduce still more girls).
And that's also what makes if funny when the leading man tells the DIRECTOR he'd never do a REMAKE -- because he also keeps doing REMAKES each time that he seduces another girl again and uses the SAME PICK UP LINE on them (about how he's never KNOWN anyone else like them before).
But that's also a BIG FAT LIE, because he's known PLENTY of other victims just like them (which is also what they figure out in the scene where we see the DERN crying as the other girls reveal how they've also been fooled by "the WOLF in the DEN)."
And then comes that other DEATH SCENE where the actress is so OUT of her MIND that she STAYS in character after the director calls CUT, and we also feel the same way when the camera PULLS BACK to reveal how we're NOT really located on the WALK of FAME, because the scene was FILMED inside of the MOVIE LOT on a FAKE COPY (another PROP) that's been created of the WALK of FAME in HOLLYWOOD.
So YES it's CONFUSING, but it can also MAKE SENSE to you, if you watch it enough times and can manage to figure out WHAT'S a MOVIE PROP and what is not.
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Theyβre both on the more abstract end of Lynchβs portfolio, but Inland is more likely to frustrate newcomers with its three hour runtime and various moving parts, including those damn rabbits.
I think itβs great, personally, and it appears to fit thematically with the latter half of his career.
βThe dreamer who dreams and lives inside the dream. But who is the dreamer?β In the case of Inland Empire I believe the dreamer is the Polish prozzy. She dreams of being Nicki Grace and all that slowly unravels - Nicki βbecomesβ her character in the film, but the character is actually a step closer to the identity of the dreamer, then youβve got working class Sue - even closer, then youβve got Prostitute Sue - another level closer.
Eventually the Sue avatar defeats the inner demons and returns to the source, freeing the prostitute from the βwicked dreamβ, so while itβs a more difficult take on the same idea behind Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive, it actually has a happy ending. Thereβs a real sense of reunion and inner calm at the end as the βwoman in troubleβ resolves her inner conflict.
The guy playing Smithy seems to be her real husband. The phantom appears to be an abusive ex lover and appears demonic and able to hypnotise people - perhaps he gaslit her. Did the prostitute murder her husbandβs secret lover with a screwdriver and has this caused her trauma? Itβs very possible, Diane and Fred went through similar ordeals.
The rabbits were originally from a series of short vignettes Lynch made, and repurposed them for IE. They seem to echo the love triangle pattern that recurs through the film - two girls and a guy (voiced by Justin Theroux - one of his several roles in the film). Their dialogue seems to be responses to dialogue elsewhere in the film. They behave like Lodge spirits, not speaking backwards but with a jumbled script. The whole Rabbit sitcom is reminiscent of the Red Room.
[contβ¦]
[β¦cont]
The neighbour lady appears frightening because she punctures the cozy Nicki Grace fantasy and brings Lost Girl (the prostitute) closer to the painful truth.
I believe thatβs basically the central βideaβ governing the film, and itβs one that has preoccupied Lynch for decades now. Many of the other weird moments are really Lynch just giving himself βroom to dreamβ.
My impression is a DOCUMENTARY type of film is being made about the HISTORY of the "AXXON N STORY" that begins as a RADIO SHOW.
And that RADIO PLAY was also based upon the GYPSY POLISH FOLK TALE (about the RABBIT FAMILY).
And then a GERMAN VERSION of the story was made (the FILM called 47).
And then an AMERICAN VERSION of the story was made into another film (called On HIGH in BLUE TOMORROWS).
And the trippy scene where DERN goes through the WINDOW of SMITHY's house in SUNNY LA, and then ends up standing on the SNOWY WINTER STREET in Poland, is also a result of the girls PLAYING the AXXON N RECORD, while getting DERN HIGH on drugs (as a way to chase away the BLUES).
Because we also see DERN'S HEAD drop backwards, and she looks at the other TWIN COPY of herself looking down at herself as the other girls ask her if she "WANTS TO SEE."
Then they OPEN the WINDOW (which reveals the MOVIE PROP which is a PAINTING of the SNOWY STREET in POLAND), and in her ALTERED STATE (or her DRUG INDUCED STATE of MIND) DERN IMAGINES she's actually there in POLAND.
Because the MOVIE PROP (the PAINTING of the SNOWY STREET in POLAND) also gives the impression of actually BEING there (the same way as we also had the impression we were located on the WALK of FAME on HOLLYWOOD BLVD -- when we were actually still inside of STAGE 4 -- which is inside of the MOVIE LOT -- because LYNCH also created a FAKE COPY of that STREET in LA as well).
And that's also because LYNCH is also a PAINTER as well as a FILM MAKER, who was also using MOVIE PROPS that he painted as a way to MESS with our MINDS and make us feel as if we'd also taken some drugs.
Because that also enables us to know what it feels like to be an ACTOR who is still "STUCK in CHARACTER" after the DIRECTOR calls out CUT.
In other words, we also know what it feels like to be NORMA DESMOND from SUNSET BLVD (who also thought that she was making a FILM when she's ARRESTED for murder).
Or was she ACTING again in that scene as a way to try to get away with murder???
π¬
To be continued ....
So at the end of the story -- AFTER the DEATH SCENE on the FAKE WALK of FAME (which is a MOVIE PROP inside of STAGE 4) -- DERN walks out of STAGE 4 -- which also let's us know we're really still inside of the MOVIE LOT there in LA.
Then she looks at the MOVIE MONITOR and sees the GIRL from POLAND (who also KNOWS DERN is looking at her -- because she also has a MOVIE MONITOR there in the ROOM where she's sitting). And then DERN also ENTERS the other MOVIE PROP of the OLD HOTEL ROOM (which is also where the LEADING MAN has taken the LOST GIRL who doesn't know where she's at as a way to have SEX with her).
So at that point the LOST Polish girl (who also knows that she's not inside of a REAL HOTEL ROOM), runs out of that room, and ENTERS SMITHY'S HOUSE (still another MOVIE PROP) through the BACK WAY.
And at that point the ACTOR who plays SMITHY also enters the PROP with his young son from the FRONT part of it, and the girl who has been SEDUCED by the LEADING MAN is united again with her ACTOR HUSBAND (who also plays the parts of DERN'S HUSBAND Piotrek, and SMITHY, and the MUSTASHED MAN in POLAND).
But since his wife has also been SEDUCED by what the HOST of the CELEBRITY SHOW calls the "WOLF in the DEN," the AXXON N STORY is also about to start all over again. Because the AXXON N TALE is also a story about a WOMAN in TROUBLE (who gets pregnant by a man that's not her husband).
In other words, the AXXON N CURSE also finds a way to infect each actor that tries to portray a role in the story -- which is also what the NEIGHBOR tries to explain to DERN-- when she tells her about how there's a BRUTAL FKing MURDER -- when the LITTLE BOY and the LITTLE GIRL go out to PLAY (meaning play their parts in the story).
And she also explains how the LITTLE GIRL enters from the BACK WAY, whereas the LITTLE BOY enters from the FRONT (which is also what we see happening at the end of the AXXON N TALE when the actor who plays the SMITHY role ENTERS the FRONT DOOR and the LOST GIRL enters the PROP from the BACK part of it).
πππ
After DERN said she's played 3 parts in the story in an interview that she did with LYNCH, he also CORRECTED her and said that DERN had played 4 ROLES in "INLAND EMPIRE."
So you have the ACTRESS who gets the part (who's married to the POLISH MAN --who also warns the LEADING MAN not to full around with his wife).
And you have Sue who's married to SMITHY, and has an affair with BILLY (a part that's also played by the LEADING MAN).
And you have the MUSTASHED MAN in POLAND (also played by the same actor who plays SMITHY and Dern's Polish Husband).
And then you also have him enter SMITHY's house at the end -- where he's united again with the LOST POLISH GIRL -- who's had an affair with the LEADING MAN inside of the MOVIE PROP
of the OLD HOTEL ROOM (which is also a MOVIE PROP with a MOVIE MONITOR inside of it).
And we also know that it's a MOVIE MONITOR because we also see the other 2 girls (LANI and Lori) on that MONITOR as they run down the hallway and past the OPEN DOOR of the room where the LOST GIRL is sitting (which is also how the LOST GIRL is able to find her way out of that room and then into SMITHY'S HOUSE through the BACK WAY).
So Piotrek, Smithy, and the Mustashed Man are 3 characters portrayed by the POLISH MAN.
And Niki/Sue are the parts played by DERN (the actress who portrays those 2 roles). But there's also another TWIN COPY of her that's created after she uses the AXXON N DOOR in the back alley of STAGE 4. Because we also see it GRINNING that CLOWN GRIN back at her again from across the street in LA.
So there's NIKI, SUE, the ACTRESS who plays them, and her EVIL TWIN (which is created by the REFLECTION after she enters the AXXON N DOOR in the BACK ALLEY of STAGE 4).
May l help you?
00:10:01,983 --> 00:10:04,485
I am a new neighbor.
14
00:10:04,589 --> 00:10:08,239
I live just down the street.
I've, l've been going around
meeting new neighbors.
31
00:11:17,059 --> 00:11:20,187
I think that it is important
know one's neighbors.
You have a new role
to play, l hear.
49
00:13:19,266 --> 00:13:21,039
Up for a role
50
00:13:21,143 --> 00:13:25,313
But, l'm afraid,
far from getting it.
51
00:13:25,313 --> 00:13:29,381
No, no, l definitively heard
that you have it.
A little boy
went out to play.
61
00:14:26,313 --> 00:14:28,920
When he opened his door...
62
00:14:28,921 --> 00:14:32,258
... he saw...
the world.
63
00:14:33,404 --> 00:14:36,636
As he passed through the doorway...
64
00:14:37,470 --> 00:14:41,746
... he caused, a reflection.
65
00:14:42,163 --> 00:14:45,499
Evil was born
66
00:14:46,959 --> 00:14:52,902
Evil was born,
and followed the boy.
67
00:14:59,055 --> 00:15:01,974
I'm sorry...
what is that?
68
00:15:04,894 --> 00:15:08,127
An old tale.
69
00:15:08,544 --> 00:15:11,671
And a variation:
70
00:15:11,776 --> 00:15:13,757
A little girl...
71
00:15:13,758 --> 00:15:17,304
... went out to play.
72
00:15:18,970 --> 00:15:23,142
... Iost in the marketplace...
73
00:15:23,142 --> 00:15:26,686
... as if half born.
74
00:15:32,318 --> 00:15:37,739
Then, not through the marketplace,
you see that, don't you?
75
00:15:37,844 --> 00:15:42,328
But through the alley
behind the marketplace.
76
00:15:42,432 --> 00:15:47,854
This is the way
to the Palace.
77
00:15:51,504 --> 00:15:56,091
But it isn't something you remember.
78
00:15:57,760 --> 00:16:02,765
Forgetfulness, it happens to us all.
79
The neighbour lady appears frightening because she punctures the cozy Nicki Grace fantasy and brings Lost Girl (the prostitute) closer to the painful truth.
I believe thatβs basically the central βideaβ governing the film
Many of the other weird moments are really Lynch just giving himself βroom to dreamβ.
itβs a more difficult take on the same idea behind Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive, it actually has a happy ending.
She dreams of being Nicki Grace
The whole Rabbit sitcom is reminiscent of the Red Room.