Close watchers of Inland Empire, I have an assignment for you:

Please give me a bio of Susan Blue, based on what is seen in IE.

And also, are we correct to assume that what we see of her existence is a sort of delusion of Nikki's? 

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

Sue Blue is one woman and all women in trouble. She is the embodiment of the suffering that women endure as a consequence of modern male inaction, indifference, and impotence. She is a damaged woman but a strong woman. 'You gotta admit though, she's got a great ass!'

I actually received the impression that what we see of Nikki Grace are delusions of Sue Blue, and that Sue Blue, for having committed a crime, "acts" as an alternate personality (Nikki Grace, who becomes an actress) in defending herself from law enforcement and ultimately "becomes" this identity, completely disconnecting herself from the former personality ("Sue Blue", the criminal).

I only saw it once. But as best I could wrap my mind around it...

Sue Blue the dying prostitute -> Nikki the actress (fugue personality assumed by Sue) -> Sue Blue the fictional movie character (played by Nikki) = one and the same (and dead)

In her final moments of a dreary life, Sue the hooker entered a fugue state in which she becomes Nikki the actress. It's not so much a split personality anymore than anybody assumes a split personality when they dream at night that they are somebody else, or dreams that their lives are different. The fugue state is a way to avoid the horrible realities of life, but unfortunately Hooker Sue's subconscious seems to let her real life bubble to the surface via the role Nikki is attempting to perform. Kinda like the way your life starts to flash before your eyes when you are about to die.

And when Sue the prostitute does in fact die on the street, she is then met again by the movie crew with great warmth and appreciation, not unlike the way we may meet loved ones in a near death experience. But they welcome her as Nikki, which Sue views with skepticism. This skepticism seems to allow Sue to confront her mortality a little more directly, for as she leaves the film set, Lynch's well-known red curtains can be seen briefly (her transition into the underworld?) and she enters a theater where she can be seen on the screen (again, life flashing before one's eye's...but no longer from the immersed 1st person perspective).

Despite this departure from life, elements from her life still seem to intermingle with her afterlife; as can be seen in the final seen with the Japanese girl with the blond wig & monkey are present in the same room as a lumberjack (an out-of-place character, unless he's the same archetype as can be seen briefly amongst other Lodge inhabitants in FWWM). That is, presuming the Japanese girl is not also dead.

It's been awhile since I've seen it, so I could be wrong.

12 rainbow, couldnt we just keep the IE thread going here?

as for sue blue, im not sure a biography is possible. to me she is a fictional character in the film that acts as a conduit for lost girl to nikki grace, and has qualities of both, as well as a third(LB monologue) that seems the result of the whole intertwining conscioussness of lost girl and nikki. they share the stongest arcs in the film, and that fact alone, inclines me to think this is the main story of IE. the salvation of not just lost girl, but nikki as well(hence the end credits party in the ballroom in her mansion)(and by salvation i would say joining or at least making a ripple in the unified consciousness, to which lynch ascribes, and making the necessary ripple, neither good or bad, but necessary)
also:
she has doppelgangers!
this makes her somewhat empherial, i think, if taken into account how doppelgangers were used in TP(i assume most here are familar with it)
which also leads to the idea that IE has similarities of fire walking, i.e. confronting your reflection(or fear). which caused evil as vistor 1 i believe said.
just throwing out ideas here!
anyone?anyone? 

That god damn trailer's more popular than Uncle's Day in a whorehouse!

Yes, that bio is perfect. But wasn't Sue the character of the movie different from this bio's Sue? Oh, I've gotta see IE again.

That god damn trailer's more popular than Uncle's Day in a whorehouse!

That god damn trailer's more popular than Uncle's Day in a whorehouse!

Admittedly, I haven't had time to pick up IE since I started this thread, but I was coming to a similar conclusion.

Nikki is a method actor, which is a kind of insanity- or at least a dangerous way of opening up your psyche to bad things. She screws Devon to get closer to her role and willingly enters her world. What pushes her over the edge is whatever evil killed the cast of the original cast, that is, The Phantom. 

The Phantom is the "evil" in the folk tale The Visitor tells (this is a point I think everyone agrees on.)  Maybe he was an earlier first victim of a greater evil, and he's just the conduit, like Leland in Twin Peaks. I dunno, maybe the greater evil is infidelity, prostitution, spousal abuse and murder and he's a metaphor for that. (In Twin Peaks, Killer BOB is often seen as a metaphor for incest and murder.) It's significant that The Phantom hawks magic jewelry like fake Rolexes and works in a circus with animals.  Carnies and street peddlers are notorious con-men. Killer BOB is also associated with animals.

Nikki is able to shake out of it in the theater and kills the Phantom; thus freeing the Lost Girl.  I don't think she was the actress in 47, just another victim of the Phantom, like the Rabbits are.  Maybe the street whores and the girls in Susan's house are, too...

When Nikki/Susan first grabs the screwdriver, it is Nikki flashing through. When she calls through the set house window, she is trying to come through again. Nikki reasserts control again when she runs into the nightclub- she knows she has a mission to fulfill. (You stay too long in the other world, you forget yourself completely. This is DL bringing in Dorothy and Oz again, I think.)  

You're forgetting that the Phantom is Nikki, or rather, the evil inside her, and by extension stands for the evil inside LG. Remember when she suddenly sees a twisted version of her face over his?

IMO:

I would say the Lost Girl isn't actually freed from an actual magical curse, but rather the "curse" of leading an empty and unhappy life; the whole film is her journey to reach enlightenment. Once she can recognize the evil inside herself, and fight it, can she achieve enlightenment. The film just makes a lot more sense this way to me... if you go with the elaborate, magical theory, then the film essentially becomes about nothing other than an obscure and confusing plot.

That god damn trailer's more popular than Uncle's Day in a whorehouse!

firstly, i like all the ideas in this thread. im glad to be a part of some much need IE gossip.
so back again to TP. cooper could not confront his doppelganger without trepidation. because of this he remained trapped in the black lodge. Nikki( tho i disagree that she is the phantom. the phantom contains parts of her, as she contains parts of him) is able to meet her 'other' without fear, and with the proper weapon, from piotrek, not smithy, mind you(the green jacket was worn by piotrek in the first axxon n scene, then was taken to smithy's house, the point being piotrek enables the phantom and the curse or whatever to be lifted)(im sorry if its annoying by my use of many parentheses, i work off tangents) which to me makes me believe piotrek is moving through each layer of the onion, in different guises, trying to right the wrong that happened in poland so long ago. so to correct my previous post, he too, with nikki and LG have the strongest arcs of the story, and should be included as one the three main protagonists(a subjective view i know).
it occurs to me that rabbits was two women and a man.
what if rabbits is an abstraction of the unfinished german production 4-7, as it takes place in room 47?
tho obsurce at times, it does not seem to me to deviate far from the dynamics of the triangle of LG-Nikki-piotrek. which is all initiated by the story OHIBT, which could be what LG is expieriencing in the hotel room. by the way, does Lawerence Aston ring anyones bells? hes listed as the author of OHIBT and i havent a clue about him and havent seen any discussion.
 

I think the only significance of "Lawrence Ashton" is his initials: L.A.

As for Sue and Billy having Southern accents... I suppose one of the things that attracted them to each other is that they are both displaced Southerners. People raised in the South do move to California sometimes. 

the pleasure is ours