Still don't know what to say about it. It all makes sense...or not.

About the unnerving aspect: maybe that would explain why I watched the end credits from near the exit, broke the key from my bike's lock, then the chain broke and I threw the bike altogether in the street in a strange fit of rage... 

Definitely in need of second viewing, it still haunts like a dream and even scares me sometimes when I think too much about it. Gotta love that.

The sound wind makes through the pines. The sentience of animals. What we fear and what lies beyond the darkness.

 I totally agree, especially with the first part. I keep thinking it's all about Laura getting really involved with the character she must play and not distinguishing  between what's real and what's not anymore. I think all these deep analyzing work better with a movie like "Mulholland Dr.", which is pretty much about detail and being precise about certain things.

Inland Empire is more about a general meaning and figuring how much strongly this whole universe of signs, symbols and multifaceted connections cannot be studied as something definite.

The star name seen in the killing scene is indeed Dorothy Lamour (which, I guess, stands for French meaning of Love "l'amour").  Strange what love does...

"Did they scoff the whole damn Smörgåsbord?" (Audrey) 

"Gimme a donut!" (Coop)

I generally hated the film. I felt cheated and terribly tired. Mu opinion was: Go to hell! Why Maetro? Why???

But when I left the theatre I started to understand some plots.

First of all I think the key is in the poem at the beginning, about a boy who went to the other side of the mirror and the evil was born and a boy who wanted to get to the palace, but she went the wrong way.

SO I think that the two Polich actors are the main charaters from who the story began - the oldest version of story: Gruszka leaves his huband and live on the street, he is devastated and begins to kill women. (he went to the other side, she got lost). Some kind of a curse has been put on them.

The other version is more recent, Majchrzak (the hypnotizer) is the second image of the lost boy, who now i doing evil things.

Gruszka is lost again and her husband leaves her with a circus.

She is sort of a ghost that is lost and not visible (and that i why she is sitting in the room watching TV and that is why she had sex with a man at the beginning - she repeats a pattern from her previous life). Majchrzak wants to follow her, that is why he is looking for the entrance. Her husband is looking foh her, but can't see her, and he is looking for the Phantom as well to end the curse.

Now Laura Dern, I believe is a ghost, an image of Gruszka - she lives only on screen (or becomes this kind of TV image) and performs different things that happened to Gruszka in her other lives.

The moment of change is the moment when she starts mixing her real life as Nikki with the life of Sue - Sue is a dream, a nonexistant.

She finds and kills the Phantom and she becomes the TV image again, giving the reality back to Gruszka.

The scenes where Dern is talking about different sotries to a man, may mean that she is telling all the stories of Gruszka's life. Then she realizes she is not real, when she sees herself on screen after she is not really dead, after finishing the film.

I can't only make out the story about killing her by the hyptnotized woman. Perhaps she is a sort of victim. Or she is Gruszka, who was supposed to be killed by the woman sent by Phantom?

And I don't know what the story of the Rabbits was doing there?

That is what I suppose this may be about.

On the other hand... I thinks that the form and the meaning do not equal and that making such a mess was unnecessary. I felt really exhausted leaving the cinema. 

Sorry but I didn't like the film AT ALL.

Now I saw it once only so I expect someone coming up with a "you can't assess this film after one time". However, I think that's not true - of course I did NOT understand the film, that I am pretty sure of. As a matter of fact I feel I haven't understood the slightest bit of it. But the problem is different.

The problem is that I found the film seriously boring and in that case I simply don't feel like watching it anymore.
Probably I will though - I've got a few Lynch-related friends and perhaps some of them will talk me into it. Perhaps that's going to work better. But if a film is boring... hmm... I can acknowledge the fact that there is a lot of interesting content in this film, which I didn't get. But that happened in case of quite a few Lynch films. However always I was tempted to go and see it again because they kind of took me in, even if I was confused. Here I was not fascinated or hypnotized to any extent. I even tried, the moment I saw I was getting lost - thought I'd just let it flow through me, take me on a ride. But it took me nowhere except that a couple of times I was considering leaving the cinema and a couple of times I was struggling with eyes closing.

Even though, I would like to discuss it and most of all - read your discussions which I have been omitting till today. But it's too long for now, I am leaving for a week in a few hours so... perhaps when I come back I will be ready for discussion.
But a bad sign, too, is that seeing the film last night it has done nothing like growing on me later, making me think back about it... I hadn't given it a single thought until I decided to take a look on the board :-(((

Bobi 1 Kenobi

B. Beware
O. Of
B. BOB 

Noticed the ballerina straight away, but I haven't seen Absurda. I'll have to check it out. The links with his other, lesser-known works are interesting - perhaps most notably the continuation of elements from A Darkened Room - the slip etc.

I certainly think you have a point about INLAND EMPIRE's "self-reflexive" nature, but I also think that every element can mean more than one thing at once.

Dern's character goes through a whole range of female archetypes in the movie: the demure, prudish high-achiever at the start, the ingenue, the actress, the whore, the ballerina. Almost impossible not to read it in feminist terms when you think about it that way....especially given the burlesque scene and the end credits. Keep an eye out for those archetypal signifiers of gender: shoes and make-up....

incidentally here are some shots of the DVD release :

http://www.dvdactive.com/news/releases/inland-empire.html

More info on the British release :

http://www.dvdmaniacs.net/Reviews/I-L/inland_empire.htm

This might just be the best film I ever saw.

I saw it 3 times in a local film-house and I was the last one sitting there everytime (all people leaving the small theater everytime).

I totally disliked the use of Poland, 'cause I hate everything that is Polish (yepz I am a racist in a non hip way).
Poland is like that place you can find in your shower .. you know, where all the hair sticks to that metal thingie.
It's disqusting and a place where a great big wall around it wouldn't look bad at all.
The place reminds me of sunday afternoon vomit with a rotten cherry on top.
Those Catholic homophobic idiots!
Woohoo, devil, I love free speech! :-)

Absolutely love the film though .. did I mention it was the best I saw in years ?

Hey Jazz, always good to see you pop up and I hope you are doing well.

Was glad you had the opportunity to see Inland Empire multiple times

and I took advantage of a similar opportunity.

You betcha! You got sit all the way through the end, love those end titles, great stuff!!

*Telegraph style post used to keep my post within the frame/

Thanks and come again.  

"Every day holds a new beginning and every hour holds the promise of an Invitation to Love." 

yeah, sure come whenever you like

but it doesn't look like a place for me anymore then

that's freedom of speech? you mean it?

Bobi 1 Kenobi

B. Beware
O. Of
B. BOB 

Either if you're serious or trying to be "funny", Jazz, that was......simply unnecessary...

And I'm not saying this because the main polish member of the board, BOB1, is IMO the coolest guy around here and the closest thing I have to a friend in the Gazette, change Poland to Andorra or Liechtenstein and I still would find that insulting...

Anything to add about Spain BTW?

Hey Smokey! idem dito. :-)

Gordon, yeah totally unnecessary indeed and no, nothing about Spain .. just Poland.

Keep your eye on the doughnut, not on the hole -- DL

Seriously?

Sounds like Im going to Best Buy tomorrow! 

Keep your eye on the doughnut, not on the hole -- DL

Well my Best Buy didnt have it...they said it came out the 14th like it was supposed to.

That sucks. 

Saw IE at the Brisbane film festival last night (Jeez I hope it gets a real release here), the house was packed and the audience seemed to be in the same mind for most of the duration.

Just spent an hour reading al the different theories and came up with a couple of different things that I don't think were addressed.

In relation to the Polish version, does anyone ever say how long ago that was made or could it have been recently attempted and then moved to the states after troubled production.  My original assumption was that Grace Z's character had something to do with the original YEARS ago but then I thought, unless anyone specifically said an original production date that that was not necessary at all.  The film being called 47 automatically makes us think of 1947 (or 1847 which the horse and carriage might indicate).  I certainly don't think that the horse and carriage were in any real-life behind the scenes of the making of the original film as that would really be out of place... even in 1947!

 Also, is the burning hole in the silk the portal for Nikki/et al to see into the rabbits' world or through it?  Is it just a sight gag for film students in the know? because I really got a heads-up from it as a clue that I should be getting but didn't.

 On a different note, I saw some posts about the nature of the tension in the movie and I just wanted to say that I found the tension in some points, and in no small way aided by the phenomenal soundtrack, almost unbearable.

I really hope that I can see this one again at the movies.

Thanks to all the previous posters who have helped us all out.

I am likely to miss the main event

If I stop to cry or complain again.

So I'll just keep a deliberate pace,

Let the damn breeze dry my face.

DVD day tomorrow!!!

Im surprised we havent heard any reviews of the extra footage by now! 

This review goes over the extras rather nicely...my copy arrives tomorrow, a day early even. Sweet! My friend Luis actually got his copy yesterday because Best Buy put there 20 copies out because they don't expect it to sell, but he looked at as a stroke of luck.

 http://www.dvdreview.com/reviews/pages/2664.shtml

"Every day holds a new beginning and every hour holds the promise of an Invitation to Love." 

Got mine yesterday and have watched most of the special features...they are all great with the excaption of Quinoa.

That was just odd. 

Wow. Quinoa was my favorite (note that I haven't watched "more things..." yet). Ballerina was the one I could have done without.