I have decided to start a new thread for Inland Empire discussion. Feel free to backtrack and continue discussing things we have already been going over, but I wanted to get your thoughts on a few things. I watched Inland Empire again yesterday in the late afternoon and there was an aspect of the film my brain got stuck on and distracted me a little from the main story. I pretty much have a solid idea of the overall story anyway so it was no big deal. 

Anyway, the murders, who commits them, who gets killed and why. It is explained that the two leads were murdered in the original Polish film, although even this fact is hazy because we are told two versions of this "truth". So, were the murdered people the leads in the original Polish film? It is clear that the Phantom is involved and hypnotized whoever the murderer is. While I was watching it last night, I thought maybe the Phantom hypnotized Lost Girl to kill her lover and her husband's lover (someone had mentioned that her husband was unfaithful too so I am throwing this out here too). I think the mystery woman who we only see the back of is Lost Girl's lover's wife or at least I do right now. The reason I think Lost Girl might be the killer is when she runs into The Phantom on the street, she doesn't recognize him and it looks she might think he is her husband (as part of the hypnosis) because he says "I'm used to seeing you at our house". She is hauling ass down the street before she runs into him and the murder has just taken place or so the Phantom says. If one wanted a "scene" that might indicate this, the scene after the neighbor (both of whom mention the unpaid bill)visits Nikki when she is in the "parallel universe" is when she meets the Phantom and what does she do as she runs away...she picks up a screwdriver. 

Why the Phantom needs this kind of control over their lives I am not quite sure unless it has something to do with something that happened in the circus. Or if there is a running fued between the Phantom and the older Polish gentleman that brings Lost Girl's husband to the seance and who is also in the opening scene with the Phantom. If the Polish story is supposed to parallel the story of the remake then one would imagine that the mystery woman is the person responsible for the murders (The Polish Doris Side if you will). Doris is the hypnotized one in the Ameican story, the wife of the lover of Nikki Grace and one could draw the conclusion that the Polish woman was hypnotized and is exacting similar revenge.

Connecting this to the main story. (As if this would explain the "why" behind the murders). The Rabbits are the Polish dudes who are intervening for some reason and are protecting Lost Girl from The Phantom. They have put her in a safe place for the time being. She contacts them later (the seance) and tell them that the Phantom is getting close. He has been looking for an opening since the "beginning" of the film and he has just about found it. That is when they employ the husband to go after The Phantom, whom he knows from the circus, and stop him before he finds the opening. Now, do the Polish dudes know that Nikki is wandering around out there in these multiple worlds and by giving the husband the gun, she will eventually make the connection (which she does) and get to the Phantom before he finds the opening? We see Nikki having "visions" or noticing the dresser that the gun is in several times, but she can't remember or doesn't understand its siginifcance.

That is enough for now. Two other things I noticed. One. Nikki is "getting closer" when she crosses over to Hollywood Boulevard because right after the transition she says "I'm a whore. Where am I? I'm afraid". Lost Girl (in the blurred scene at the beginning of the film) says "where am I. I'm afraid" right before the black and white changes to color. Two. The bedroom. It's supposed to be in the Polish/Inland Empire house, right? The "love scene" between Nikki/Sue and Devon/Billy takes place in the same bedroom. I am not sure if this where things "change" but right after this scene is where Nikki first sees Axxon N. and crosses over to the other side. This was just something that came to mind as I was watching the film yesterday. That is all for now.                                      

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

 I'm not so sure - the bedroom which LG is in seems much bigger, and has some rather lavish furniture in it. The one where Nikki and Devon do it is a lot more modest.

Be very wary of saying that certain things in IE are "clear" - because they are only really clear in your mind, so they are unliklely to be objectively clear. That is part of the beauty of the film, it forces you to acknowledge your subjectivity.

Well, today I received my INLAND EMPIRE DVD from amazon.com, everything is fine except I had to hack my region 2 player in order to be able to play this masterpiece. Another thing bothers me, I tested the opening sequence and, there seems to be a difference between what was shown in theatres and the DVD, or it is my dvd player ? The opening sequence is black and white, ok ; but... just after this one, there's some shots of prostitutes and people speaking polish, their heads being blurred. I saw IE three times in theatre and I remember this sequence to be one of my favorite, regarding the calibration, the colors. But here it is black and white (!). And yet, the following are colored.

Indeed, that was the scene I was talking about, featuring two polish characters, a hooker and her pander. In fact, I'm pretty sure, now that I remember, that this scene was not only in greenish tones, but also longer. I live in France and I'll have to check out the french DVD when it comes out on 09/03. I'll get back to you. In the meantime, if someone remember anything about it, please let me know, 'cause it's strange, I'd never heard about differences between the French and North America theatrical versions.

 Also on that very scene, doesn't the blurred halo surrounding the characters seems pixellized to you ?

It could well be pixellated, but isn't that just a side-effect of using DV?

I really think you may have just seen a slightly warped print of the movie first time around, because those hallway scenes are always in B & W. I think we'd have heard if there were alternate cuts in other countries -

The hotel scene was in black and white in UK theatres too.