Okay, now it's time to get down to the nitty grit.

I know there are some of you who want to dicuss this film. Has anyone seen this film more than once? If I am lucky I'll be seeing it again on Tuesday night.

Things I will be exploring on the second viewing will be the two opening scenes. The one with the record player and the one where the characters faces are distorted and also all the scenes concerning The Phantom. At this point, the scene with the blurred faces might be either a scene from the original Polish film or something from Polish Girl's life (the one watching the screen the whole time in the hotel room) Could it be the person Polish Girl was unfaithful with that fathered her illegtimate son or is it just a manifestation of her fears of failure (see the paragraph concerning infedility and prostitution for more elucidation)  

It appears to me that Nikki and the Polish girl in Room 47 are connected and that their stories parallel each other. Was The Phantom the man responsible for cursing the film. He seems to be the boy that was born and brought evil into the world as described by Nikki's neighbor (Grace Zabriskie) And the girl that was born and brought light into the world would be Nikki. That's why it's her "duty" to destroy the Phantom near the end of the film. That part where she sees her distorted face in the face of Phantom is very chilling and very disturbing in a way only Lynch could do. The way Nikki disappears after the kiss, once she takes out the Phantom and goes in the room 47 (wasn't that the name of the original Polish film?) and frees the Polish girl from her enslavement so she can return to her family and have a happy ending, further supports their connections, beautifully filmed with that tender song performed by Chyrsta Bell

Infidelity and the threat of spousal abused (and illegitimate children) are the common threads that run thorugh the lives of both Nikki and The Polish Girl and when we see the scenes of Nikki experiencing another life with her husband (in which she tells him she's pregant) is really the life of The Polish Girl. Her child is illegitimate because he can't have children. Homelessness and prostitution are the greatest fears of both women (like Diane in Mulholland Drive). The prostitues appear both in the scenes where Nikki is experiencing the Polish Girl's story and also on Hollywood and Vine leading to Nikki's "death". Another thing is Nikki's husband is a powerful person in the Hollywood machinery, so maybe she feels she has whored herself out to get success. And therefore seeks love with Devon (Justin Theroux) in order to find romantic happiness. Did he father an illegitimate son too? The role of Susan is stated by Kingsley as being a star maker (intimating that Nikki needs this role to make her comeback). The prostitues constitute these fears of both women of living (and dying) on the streets and resorting to prostitution as a means of supporting themselves. So, when Nikki gives her "confession" and says she had a son that dies, it kind of threw me for a loop because it came out of nowhere, but then I thought about her "death" and being stabbed near her uterus by Julia Ormond's character. Was this Devon's jealous wife/girlfriend. Julia Ormond's character is Doris Side, which is Justin's character's wife or so it would seem. So, that left me a little confused, but then I went back to all the simiarities between Nikki's life and the life of Polish Girl. And how the film ends with their merging. And how it all goes back to the beginning where Nikki looks to her right and sees herself sitting on the sofa happy and content. Once Nikki (and The Polish Girl) make it through their personal hells, they find redemption and happiness.

The Phantom: I need to explore this dude more and how his character is developed throughout the story (he seems to be the man behind the scenes like The Mystery Man in Lost Highway). Going back to the "Evil" boy brought into the world it all makes sense. He is responsible for the curse on the film. This leads me to figuring out the part the Polish mobsters play, where do they come from? Were they sent to disrupt Polish Gir's life and drive her husband away, if her wife having a child with another man wasn;t enough. Probably not, the circus people he runs off with are his way of escaping his disrupted family structure. Or are they denizens of light? They give Polish Girl's husband a gun and he is contracted to kill someone (was it The Phantom? I can't remember). Either way, this gun is found by Nikki who I think after experiencing Polish Girl's existence and witnessing the parallels to her own life, realizes her "duty" kills the Phantom and frees both women from the bonds of the curse. And when she takes him out she has now returned to being Nikki. The final scene behind the credits is Nikki's Red Room sequence at the end of FWWM. 

One more thing. It appears to me that the Oriental girl's dialogue is crucial to someone's story (probably Nikki's, is this her life, is she Niko? Who knows, because we see Niko in the final scene and Nikki is on the sofa chilling out with Nayassja Kinski. The monlogue could be Nikki's story in part and the monlogue Nikki gives the bespecatcled dude is the life of The Polish girl.  And when the one chick says "Sweet" it mirrors the final "Silencio" of Mulholland Drive, so it appers that Inland Empire has a happy ending unlike Mulholland Drive.

Wow, I cant believe I came up wtih all this after just one viewing. Inland Empire has been burrowing deeper into my mind since I saw it two nights ago and going with some of Lynch's popular motifs, helped me come up with some of these theories. That is all for now/  

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

Nice thoughts, Eddie. I like the theory that Grace Z's character has something to do with the movie, because she knows so much about it and Nikki. And she tells the story of the "boy" so perhaps she witnessed everything that went wrong with the film in the old country and seems to know something about the Phantom and his "powers" (or perhaps she wrote both scripts...I will check out Kingsley's dialougue in the scene you mentioned for sure) The new role that Nikki is being cast for has multiple meanings. She is cast in the role of Susan, but it also seems she is also cast in the role to save the lost Polish Girl (because Nikki was the girl in the story? or was Room 47 Girl the girl from the story and wasn't up to the task?) which brings us to what I called "duty" in my first post. I agree that the woman in Room 47 is the "woman in trouble". That idea came to me the other day and I was questioning exactly who is in trouble here. The whole opening scene with Grace and how she tells her to turn to her right and Nikki sees herself on the couch with her two friends (before she gets the call that she has the part) definitely sets everything in motion.

I will have to explore the Rabbits thing a little more (and the woman I went with asked me about the Rabbits after I sent her a copy of my original post and I didn't have an answer...lol). When Jack Rabbit enters the "real world" it looks like he might be in the hotel where Lost Girl is trapped. Then there is the conversation between the Phantom and someone else (one of the "good" mobsters? I'll have to check). Nice Oz connection. Dorothy Lamour is the star in question from the Walk of Fame. I am going to go see it again tonight, no matter how f-ing cold it is outside and hopefully my buddy Luis will get his shift covered tonight, 'coz I would like to see it with him.

update: Boy is it f-ing cold outside. Quite a chilly ride back from the Music Box. I found out Lynch's Q & A was like 20 minutes and he didn't do a lot of glad handing with fans at all afterwards when he was there Saturday night. 

So, 2nd viewing: I still can't pin the tail on the Rabbits. It does seem that they are connected to the "good" mobsters, because of what occurs after the "seance". It looked like they were channeling Polish Girl in order to get her husband's help to kill the Phantom. Then, at one point it looked like the Jack Rabbit was the Iquisitor, although Nikki is frightened by his phone conversation and the mention of Crimp (The Phantom) I think he is trying to help her in some way.

I think the scene with the blurred faces is when The Phantom traps Polish Girl in Room 47. Not sure what the record player scene is yet. It does occur again and has something to do with Polish Girl. One series of scenes I missed part of because I made the mistake of getting coffee at the theater and had to relieve myself. I tried to find a good place to go in the film and I waited for the scene with the circus performers appearance, but I mistimed it and missed the murder. So, that is a sequence I am still not sure about. Nikki sees red (the ketchup) and has a flash back or flash forward of someone getting killed. I think it might have been the person Polish Girl had an affair with and who fathered her child, he might have been the one that was murdered "Is there a murder in this film?", maybe there was in the original Polish film, the only murder in the "second film" is Nikki's but she doesn't really die. Now what I want to know is "Who is she?" when the two girls pop up in front of the camera and ask this, we only see this person from the back. And she said something when she first appears about never having her or something like that. Polish Girl's Mom? who the f*** knows? I will have to see that breif series of scenes again.

Overall, I am sticking with my original theory in the first post. The only thing I am questioning is whether Polish Girl had anything to do with the original Polish film. the numder 47 is the main thing that connects the two films. I like that connection a lot and drawing parallels with Nikki's life, which can still be done either way, but in the second viewing, it looks like she was just victimized by The Phantom (because he lived nearby?) and because of his connections with her husband. So, as is the case with many of Lynch's films, there are many subtleties within the story and with each one of these subtleties there are numerous ways of interpreting it. I enjoyed it even more the second time (and discussing it with some Lynch fans after the film) and think it really is an exceptional piece of work and both "endings" (the second being the credits I suppose) are beautiful. Just as we picked through all the nuances of Diane's dream in Mulholland Drive after repeated viewings, we will be doing the same thing with Nikki's journey through the Inland Empire.                           

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

I will have to give that stuff some thought, but nothing is coming to mind right now, Erwin. So, glad you enjoyed IE. I agree that it is one of his best works. It is wiggling around beneath MD in the #3 spot at the moment. I have not yet dissected the Rabbits dialogue chosen for the Inland Empire script and their connections to the story. I think it is best to look at Inland Empire as a separate entity. Just as Mulholland Drive was reworked into a feature film from the original TV pilot, Inland Empire culled some stuff from Lynch's site and used in its grander scope but there is no connection per se.

I am happy with my overall interpretations of the film and I hadn't planned on going into an over-analytical digression about the various parts of the film. However, some things have been itching in my mind the last couple days. The meaning of the Rabbits is relevant to the story obviously and they are often connected to the "good" mobsters. This has made me reconsider my original position about who trapped Lost Girl in Room 47. The scene in the beginning with the blurred faces I thought was The Phantom and Lost Girl and this may still be the case (it will be handier when the DVD comes out)and that was when she was trapped in Room 47. See, what is happening now is looking more deeply into the underlying mythology beneath the main story.

What I was thinking now was the head Rabbit/"Good" mobster put Lost Girl in Room 47 to keep her safe from The Phantom, because right after the Rabbit enters the real world we have the scene where The Phantom is pissed off and talking to the "Good" Mobster and they are talking about an "opening" and the matter seems unresolved. Apparently, the Phantom is hunting Lost Girl for some reason (connections to her husband?) and he has some metaphysical feud going on with the Mobsters, so they put her under protective custody so to speak (and later they ask Lost Girl's husband to kill him). Now enter Nikki, who has a new role to play...thus the connection that could be made between the two films, but forgetting that for a second. ...her deeper role is to save the woman in trouble. So, once she crosses over into the parallel universe or whatever you want to call it, she begins to experience the life of Lost Girl and as all that unravels the only way to save her is to kill the Phantom (he must have found "the opening" eventually because they are near Room 47 when he is finally taken out of the picture). The Phantom is aware of Nikki's presence because he does take action to stop her using his special hypnotic superpowers. So, a showdown between the two seems inevitable if Lost Girl is to be freed from what now looks like safe bondage in Room 47. She is crying because she knows she can't escape as long as the Phantom is after her and she misses her family. That is all for now. 

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

The movie is about a woman, Nikki, who takes on the role of Susan.

We follow quite linearly her adventures in the making of Kingsley's film, but at one point the movie flips and we enter the personal and twisted reality of her acting process. Everything we experience in the center body of IE unravels as the way Nikki can elaborate its story internally and she inevitably relates to it staying true to her own experiences as well, which must deal with being unable to live happily her relationships with men, being a failed mother and ultimately an unsuccesful actress. Thus, her identity fades into Susie's world. She is bound to take the creepy stories she was told by Kingsley seriously and she sorts everything out becoming the woman she has to play in the film, sharing also the worst moments of that woman's life. She has to believe in it and accept it. That reality has to become the only one.

When the movie shooting finishes, she is not able to hold off of her role anymore and the ambiguity between what's real and what's fictional takes over her full throttle in the shining and pulsating finale where everyone dances in that house.

That's, briefly told, my overall theory on the film.

I will spend some other words sooner or later, especially on the way the center part of the movie can be related quite literally with the Wonderland Lewis Carrol's Alice steps into, ending up sort of unwilling to go back to the real world and accepting the true essence of every fragment in that incoherent and virtual world which she falls in love with, against her powers, inevitably.

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

"Gimme a donut!" (Coop)

That's a good theory, Silencio. I myself am studying acting, so could relate to alot of what you're saying. And seeing the film, I also felt it had a huge focus on the actor and the actor's perspective of being in a fictional realm.

It's nice to see you liked it too, with all your fears of DV early on this year ; ) 

This would look good on your wall.

-Noah- 

Look above, I edited my post right after adding a few things.

Concerning the DV issue, I must say most of the film left me aesthetically amused (maybe with the exception of one or two scenes and some spartan kind of editing style).

Plus, I listened to the soundtrack quite attentively and I can say some of the pieces were surely composed and directed by Angelo Badalamenti, even though he was not credited for them. But it could be that he was credited and I just didn't read it in the ending credits sequence because the scene in the background was just so funny and involving.

And what about that appearance of Laura Harring sending kisses to Laura Dern?

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

"Gimme a donut!" (Coop)

I kind of felt like that scene was a behind the scenes celebration of how cinema, though we've seen the horrors of it, is ultimately a beautiful thing. I think we should think of it as her sending kisses to DERN, not Nikki. They are two actresses celebrating and creating a bond. 

This would look good on your wall.

-Noah- 

Interesting.

Though I still think that final scene is still taking place inside the movie's universe.

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

"Gimme a donut!" (Coop)

This would look good on your wall.

-Noah- 

This would look good on your wall.

-Noah- 

Thank you Erwin, I really appreciate that post. Lost Highway is on most days my favorite Lynch movie, and I am a fan of Mulholland Drive ! You hit the points, questions most on my mind. Just one more. Knowing that you have not seen the DVD, do you think much of the 'experience" will be lost by not seeing it at the cinema ? Anyone ?

I know to date that I like seeing Lynch both at the theatre and on DVD. 

I mentioned before that at first it seemed like a lot of Stedicam especially in the outdoors shot but since Peter Deming used this method quite a bit in LH and MD, it had a similar feel, but when the thrill ride really kicked in it seemed like an ordinary filmed to me with the way it was shot and it was very true to the way he has filmed earlier works. The sound design is awesome, by the way!!

I am interested to see how the transfer works on the DVD release and what aspect ratio will be used. I really enjoyed seeing it in the theater but there are a couple Lynch films I haven't seen in the theater but having to watch them on DVD didn't take away from my enjoyment of it.

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

I was thinking about a few things on IE.

The feelings I have been through during the vision of it were so different. In the beginning I felt so much thrilled, then the more we were going towards its core I was feeling weird (as it always happens with a Lynch movie), then I felt like my stomach was emptied and my head was aching also at some points, like the film itself was trying to get all my mental and physical attention. When I walked out of the theatre, I felt like every tension was finally released - I think the ending dance scene has this specific purpose - and I eventually felt the need to take a long piss. Sorry, that's one of my usual ways of releasing tension.

Anyway, tonight I've been thinking about it constantly and I got the sense of it. The fact is that inside our mind - in our inland empire - there are so many connections and directions to follow, but they are not coherent. That's a fact. We become obsessed with it anyway, even though we are often prone to make it work coherently. The same thing happens with IE, we don't go into that theatre to see something that makes sense for the common audience. We go there to get pleasure out of something new. And what do we do when we try to get pleasure out of something in the other actions of our life? We try to go fishing for things that do not belong to the common sense, we try to pick something from the depths of our mind and try to transform it materially into something. The act of sex is not coherent. It may look coherent and conventional for some of you, but for me it is not.

Therefore, our relationship with the film has that same erotic behavior. We want to fish in that black and nomothetic sea of our inconscious. I think when Lynch says "the film makes perfect sense to me", we should analyze those words and get that 'sense' for David does not mean 'logic', but 'sensation', which is a prerogative of our continous chase for strong feelings.

As already told, IMO it's useless to try giving a univocal explanation and analysis of the film because objectively it's almost impossible. We have lots of limit for such a huge enterprise. The goal of the film is not that. The goal is to bring a dream-like, restraintless and mysterious journey to life with no need to see, in it, more than it actually is!

Inland Empire is a new work of art by David Lynch, where dreams, real life and fiction are not distinguished separately. Actually they compenetrate themselves into a unique and elastic matter.

Cinema becomes the only way of expressing this continous stream of pulsating ideas.  Real life has an effect on cinema, but also cinema has an effect on real life. This concept is expressed in an excellent manner through the plot: a cinematographic script (and the creepy legends following it) finds with actress Nikki its application to reality so much that she takes everything for granted and loses the ability to tell the two universes apart.

The scene of Laura getting lost in the set and entering that fake house quotes Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz at the same time. The house is the hole in which Alice falls into before getting disoriented in Wonderland - it is an entrance to a different illusory universe, it's MD's blue box,  the core of the movie is basically a darker and scarier Wonderland, the Wizard of Oz is quoted through the shots of the window revealing a different world outside the house. We witness a mental illusion only to get awakened at the end of it, realizing that all we have witnessed till that moment was Nikki's inner work as an actress to make her role live inside Kingsley's movie.

But our movie doesn't end there. I won't repeat myself, 'cause I already told you what I think of the following events that occur after that final shooting of The dark skies of tomorrow (is that the correct title?).

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

"Gimme a donut!" (Coop)

On High In Blue Tomorrows...or something like that Silencio.

When I first read your initial theory, naturally, I went kind of crooked-eyed, because I have my own. However, and I was telling my roommate this when we got home from work last night. It's cool though, because that's the beauty of Lynch's films, the multivarious theories I hear come from fans regarding them. I said, Silencio's theory really works and this is clear with what you are witnessing as it unravels on the screen and how it makes you feel and the places it takes you, but it doesn't mesh in my mind when it comes to the say final half hour. Then I said, I would never tell someone on the Gazette there opinion was wrong, in fact, I looked at it through Silencio's viewpoint and thought it was pretty darn cool way to view the film.

Take the final scene during the credits. It could be part of the film's universe. I thought it was at first and referred to it as Nikki's Red Room sequence (like the end of FWWM) mainly because of the woman with the strange prosthetic (that's mentioned in the film)Niko, her friend and her monkey. Nikki made it to the end of her journey, played her role beautifully and now she's being rewarded. On the other hand, it can just be a bonus for Lynch fans, I mean, when we see the Monkey we all think of FWWM, the guy sawing the log, reminds us of Michael Anderson in Industrial Symphony No. 1 and Laura Harring was in Mulholland Drive. The strobe lights, he used so many times in other films,

I really enjoyed your thoughts in your last post, Silencio, about Lynch and the way the movie strikes at the very core of you. I remember how I felt walking out of the theater after I saw it the first time, that feeling of disorientation, that one often feels but with Inland Empire it much more intense, because after that inital off-kilter feeling you mind starts racing again trying to process it all. The second time I saw it, it was pure joy. I was armed with some theories and things I wanted to check out specifically then found there was a few things I forgot, but the way it made me feel at the end and those closing credits make for a wonderful experience.   

p.s. I forgot to answer Mrs. Tremond's question...the same actor does play Nikki's and Lost Girl's husband and yes, he is contracted to kill the Phantom but when that happens he is Lost Girl's husband, because they seem to be channeling her because she is sitting at the table and they ask him if he can hear or see her (which come to think of it kinda supports the new way I have been looking at their role in placing Lost Girl in Room 47).   

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

I loved the way Grace Zabriskie says her house "Is just down the way!" and the way she hurries towards Nikki's house. Marvelous. I will never forget those images... and Graze Z is a monstruously good actress. God I wish I could see her more!

Anyway, Niko is probably a variation of Nikki.

Harry Dean Stanton's gag when he asks everybody on the set for money is hilarious and the thing with animals that he talks about I think it sort of comes back in one of Nikki's monologues in front of the Inquisitor (I like this nickname, don't remember who gave it though) or maybe it is just remembered by the asian homeless woman at the end when she talks about her blond-gwigged friend that owns a monkey that likes to shit all over the place but with no anger from her. That is for sure a connection with what Stanton says about the animals.

Anyway, one of the things that struck me most of IE were the dialogues, truly. I think they're maybe Lynch's best.

Here comes my complaint. The polish parallel plot didn't quite pick my interest even though some actors were extremely good and expressive. On the other hand, there is that wonderful incipit where those two polish men meet in Nikki's living room - after the rabbit vanishes - talking about an entrance. And the crying girl reminded me of both Laura Elena Harring (the resemblance of features) and Naomi Watts' final scene in Mulholland drive (close-up of her eyes, her being motionless and distraught, and crying).

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

"Gimme a donut!" (Coop)

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

"Gimme a donut!" (Coop)

I immediately recognized the music from The Shining in the final walk of fame death scene. Do you think Lynch wanted to pay back a homage to Kubrick after he received good reviews on Eraserhead? I believe it's very unusual that Lynch could be quoting other directors in his films. It's very rare because he's got a very personal style and I also read one time that he never goes to the movies. He probably does the same thing Kubrick did (The man had a personal theatre at his house and made the companies send him the films he was interested into).

With IE, Lynch homages a lot of things. Himself of course, 8 1/2 and City of Women by Fellini, Kubrick and I think there is a little nod to Bunuel's Belle De Jour. When there is that scene in Poland, at night, with the hookers, there is a buggy with horses that reminds me a lot of the first scene from Bunuel's film.

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

"Gimme a donut!" (Coop)

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

"Gimme a donut!" (Coop)

Great theories, Silencio - I'm still building my own theories on the film, but you said one thing that had also occurred to me: I absolutely agree that part of this movie is concerned with showing us something about an actor's internal process in making a character their own. I have so much more to say, but I only saw the movie (and David) a couple of days ago, and I am still in a kind of trance.

I think you're absolutely right about the Kubrick references too - did you spot the Lolita poster on the wall of the Axxon N. nightclub scene? There were other posters on the wall too - I hope to spot more next time I see the film.

I'm also coming to believe that in this movie, David evokes aspects of every movie he has made so far, or certainly all the more prominent ones. It's like he's swallowed his output to date, and puked it back out as an entirely new movie, the glorious INLAND EMPIRE.

I'll try and shape my ideas into something more coherent. I'll be back!

Edit: as for the various male characters - I agree, it got kind of confusing on the first viewing - at one point I thought Nikki's husband, Lost Girl's husband, and The Phantom were all being played by the same actor!

Anyway, I was lucky enough to get some screen notes at the screening I attended, and the full cast and crew are listed. After Theroux, Irons and Abercrombie, the next three male roles are listed as:

Jan Hench (Janek)

Krzysztof Majchrzak (phantom)

Peter J. Lucas (Piotrek Krol)

Hope this helps!

I checked IMDB to see what Nikki's husband's name is and it wasn't listed...I think they mention his name but I can't remember...I know someone tells Devon that is he is a powerful man etc. etc but not sure if they say his name at the point. Another thing, The Music Box Theater has beautiful red curtains over the movie screen (and it has a sort of Club Silencio feel) and I thought to myself that Lynch must have loved those and mentioned to my date to look for red curtains in Inland Empire and sure enough there they were...the mention of Lynch's use of previous motifs reminded me of that.   

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

One thing's for sure: Nikki's husband is of polish origins because there is a scene where there are two elder guests at their house and they speak Polish to Nikki (it sort of reminded me of Irene and her husband in Mulholland Dr).

 The husband tells her that she can actually understand something when they speak, even though she seems reluctant. Though, I should conclude that her husband is polish and can speak Polish. That is one more connection with the character involved in the story of the film she is shooting.

I didn't recognize the Lolita poster though.

I'm still uncertain on the issue if I am willing or not to see the movie again in the theatre before it gets released on DVD.

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

"Gimme a donut!" (Coop)