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THE LATEST FROM
DAVID LYNCH
OPENS AT CINE
D escribed as a "free-fall plunge into David Lynch's imagina
tion..." by the San Francisco Chronicle, the long-simmering
vibe of mystery on Inland Empire was amped up by state
ments like that of Laura Dern, who despite starring in the picture,
went to its premiere at last year's Venice Film Festival to find out
what the film was about.
Then there was the cow.
Lynch, so enamored of Dern's performance, hired out a cow and
plopped himself down on a L.A. street corner to try and garner
Academy consideration for her performance. Sitting alongside a
placard that read "Without cheese there wouldn't be an Inland
Empire," Lynch's explanation was that "Cheese is made from milk."
How all these dots connect, of course, is for Lynch to know and
for the rest of us to muse over. Lynch shot each scene of the film
supposedly without knowing where he was going with the project.
As he told www.Rottentomatoes.com: "I didn't know anything. I
got an idea for a scene with Laura Dern, and I shot it, and that
was it. But I couldn't stop thinking about this thing... I got five
or seven unrelated scents when it happened that... oh my golly...
this thing is coming out that unifies these things. A story [was]
emerging that holds them."
In an NPR interview about her performance, Laura Dern recalled
the stricken look on the face of one of the film's producers when
Lynch, on location in Poland, requested a one-legged woman, a
monkey and a lumberjack by 3:15 p.m. to be ready for filming 45
minutes later. According to Lynch, who received a lifetime achieve
ment award at the Venice Film Festival in addition to the National
Film Critics' Award for best Experimental film in this country, the
shoot took place over two and a half years entirely without a de
fined script. The resulting almost entirely plotless concatenation of
surreal imagery and raw psychological snippets has divided critical
opinion with many calling it a fitfully brilliant masterpiece and
some emerging feeling only a deep damage to the comforting con
cepts of time. Dern's portrayal of an increasingly fragmented young
actress has been called by most who've seen the film her best ever.
Eastern European sexual slavery, collaborations with Pole Circus
Zalewski, and a cameo by Naomi Watts as a talking rabbit headed
person are but a few of the disjunctive, hallucinatory scenes Lynch
has woven together to create a truly awe-inspiring interrogation of
the collective unconscious.
To top it off, the film was shot completely with a Sony digital
video camera that Lynch felt allowed him to reach new height of
expression. From the riveting trailer released online, it's tricky to
.tell what impact this has actually had on his epic, but that's prob
ably because of the flickering nightmarish cuts of Dern screaming,
the haunting soundtrack, or the scenes of pantomime bunnies go
ing through the motions of being a normal human family.
Equally praised and trashed by critics high and low, this three-
hour stroll through Lynch's vaguely tethered id may be too much
for some. Considering how the film was pieced together, the idea
of Dern portraying an actress in a movie that's having trouble get
ting made might be sort of telling (along the lines of Fellini's S%).
But the hardcore Lynch fans (you know who you are) will have
little choice. They will have to answer the clarion call of the little
man in Twin Peaks who clapped his hands and said, "Let's rock."
JoE Silva and Brandon Waddell
Inland Empire opens at Cin6 on Friday, Apr. 6. See Movie Dope for screening
schedule.
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BARCAFECINiMA
ATHENS
CINI: opens April 2nd, screening
a select variety of the latest
Independent and foreign rams,
documentaries, festival discoveries,
retrospectives, and classics
More than a movie theater,
CIN^ is a modern movie center,
where contemporary design
meets histone preservation
in a creative space for film,
gathering, and conversation
ENJOY A DIFFERENT
MOVIE DOWNTOWN
OPENING WEEK BEGINS APRIL 2ND:
MONDAY, APRIL 2 - ARMY OF SHADOWS
[ France 1969. 36mm. 140mm. Dr Jean-Piewe Melville )
TUESDAY, APRIL 3 - SUITE HABANA
[ Cuba/Spain. 2003. 35mm. 80min. Dir Fernando Perez ]
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4 - THE PLAYER
[ USA 1992, 35mm. 124mm. Or Robert Altman ]
THURSDAY, APRIL 5 - IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS
( USA 2006. 35mm. 94m»n. Dir: James Longley 1
WEEKLY RUN BEGINS APRIL 6TH:
OUR DAILY BREAD [ Germany/Austria 2006. 35mm, 92rrvn.
Dir Nikolaus Geyrholter)
INLAND EMPIRE ( USA 2006. 35mm 164min Dir. David Lynch )
LOST HIGHWAY l USA 1997. 35mm I35min. Or David Lynch ]
?ULASKT 5T
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