When Lost Highway was released it was only a commercial success in Belgium. Furthermore, the critics made it movie of the year. David Lynch is big in Belgium, which means that his latest movie, INLAND EMPIRE, was announced on posters in the streets weeks before it opened.
When I saw it earlier this week, the (commercial) theatre was 3/4 filled (and it wasn’t the smallest room in the building) and, even more surprising, only 9 people left during the movie. (Including two who ran out after 20 seconds as the opening sequence is filmed in black and white.

Nine is a surprisingly low number, as INLAND EMPIRE takes no prisoners. It lasts almost three hours, Lynch filmed it on digital video and it is perhaps his most difficult feature to understand. The director himself refuses to give information about his films, informing us that it is up to the viewer to understand the film: as long as you can wrap your head around it in any which way you fancy, you’re on the right track.

I waited two weeks before I went to the theatre… countless hours of overwork and a general feeling of being too tired hadn’t made me fit to see this movie, I thought. But then my week-long holidays started, a weekend of much needed rest had passed and it was Monday night. Fit enough to see a hermetically constructed film of 170 minutes… but would I get it? And would I be able to review it later?

A flashlight highlights the black letters INLAND EMPIRE in a black background, a man and a woman with obfuscated heads walk into a hotel room, a crying woman in a hotel room is watching television, three people who look like rabbits sit in a room with an invisible audience who laugh at the sitcom without comedy… welcome to INLAND EMPIRE, seatbelts on?

While you can correctly say this is the first David Lynch in five years, you may or may not be aware that the director also has a webspace where (paying) members get to see web-only short movies. I knew David Lynch had made a series of shorts for his website www.davidlynch.com about rabbits (with people dressed as rabbits) and I’d seen – with thanks to a friend who’s a Lynch fan – The Darkend Room, which contains a crying woman in a room. This gave me the feeling that Lynch was making slight nods to his earlier movies.
More than ever before – and up to the very last scene (don’t worry, this is not a spoiler) where a bunch of people are dancing as the credits role. You’ll see allusions to Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (apart from the dancing itself, the log and “Sweeeeett”), to Mulholland Dr. (look everyone, it’s Laura Harring sitting there – by the way, co-star Naomi Watts also appears in INLAND EMPIRE as one of the rabbits), the movie’s lead (Laura Dern) is sitting in the dress she wore in Blue Velvet, next to Nastassja Kinski (appearing for the very first time in a Lynch movie – well, almost…).
William H. Macy also has a cameo in the movie: at one point he announces the next scene, which to me was a clear reference to On The Air, the wacky but not so very successful sitcom Lynch made for tv.

Lynch plays with confusion in INLAND EMPIRE, which is why the final scene (the party with characters from the movie and other people dancing) is a wonderful trick: the audience, already baffled with being bombarded for almost three hours, is not sure whether it’s okay to leave the theatre or not. The end credits are rolling, yes, but the background isn’t black, there’s people dancing… are we allowed to leave? Please, Mr. Lynch, give us a clue… But Lynch remains silent.

Laura Dern plays Nikki, an actress who gets a role in a film (which will be directed by Jeremy Irons) and who gradually finds out more about the film (now, telling more would be a spoiler) and is confused by time (she knows what is happening, but not what happened first chronologically). Is she losing herself? Is the secret life of the movie the actress is playing in making her lose her identity? The movie mirrors lines, stories, ideas and other Lynch films. Themes you’ve seen before in this movie are alluded later, just like scenes from other Lynch movies.

Nikki’s confusion in INLAND EMPIRE is perfectly shown in the way the movie is filmed. One critic lamented that David Lynch who’d made such beautifully colourful compositions in earlier movies chose the rough look of digital video for this movie.
He couldn’t be more wrong: the uncomprising look of digital video and its occasional imperfections add to INLAND EMPIRE, more than traditional celluloid would.

However, you’ve been reading this for quite a while and I still haven’t told you whether I liked this movie or not.
It is a good movie and I’m not one those people who thinks that Lynch demanded too much of his audience here (e.g. it’s nice to get the nods to On The Air or Rabbits, but they’re not vital to your understanding of the movie), but it is true that nearly 3 hours of movie make it impossible for a viewer to stay fully concentrated. Again, that is not too bad as this means that you’ll be fully concentrated during other moments, when the person next to you may not be fully aware of what’s happening and will miss a detail you’ll notice immediately. In the end this will help Lynch’s dream: of every audience member having a slightly different experience (and understanding) of his movie.

Which brings me to the worst part of my cinema experience: in the row before me, two French yuppies didn’t like the film and continued to use their sophisticated mobile phones. A slight noise every time they got another sms, the screen lighting up when they were writing another message (and the sound of them tapping)… highly irritating. The girl next to them and I made a couple of remarks and if they wouldn’t have left the theatre (after one hour of occasional annoyance) I would’ve left myself to find some security who’d kick them out.
The vital issue here is that with other Lynch movies you occasionally see on tv whilst channelhopping, most of them look so amazing you’re instantly drawn into the Lynchian world. INLAND EMPIRE didn’t have that: every time I was disturbed, it took me a few moments to adjust again.
But Lynch definitely knew what he was doing: take the scene with the tea pouring. The camera focuses on the cups and the direction throws you off your senses, but Lynch never made a directing mistake in this scene and all was carefully thought of before it was shot. Everything that is somewhat normal is shown in this movie in such an odd light that even the normal becomes abnormal in INLAND EMPIRE.

I could’ve offered you my ideas on how the movie is constructed here, but I’ll leave such discussions to the forum. I’ll honour David Lynch leaving you to have your own experience. Especially since I found that INLAND EMPIRE to be Lynch’s most difficult movie to understand: I found Mulholland Dr. relatively easy to understand, I could make sense of Lost Highway when I saw the film, but INLAND EMPIRE is a hard nut to crack – not in the least because there’s so much more film and therefore more loose scenes you’ll have to reckon with.

INLAND EMPIRE is a good movie, which definitely deserves my 8/10. It’s one of the better movies of 2007, but I would not mention this in my favourite Lynch movies. People who have never seen a Lynch movie (or those who have only seen The Straight Story and/or The Elephant Man) should stay away from INLAND EMPIRE. This is a movie David Lynch made for fans (and especially die-hard) fans of David Lynch. The non-seasoned moviegoer will only waste his money on three hours of head-scratching, something that David Lynch probably won’t mind either…

As you know, I’ve become sort of a resident reviewer at Delirium Vault and every now and again I’ll use the front page to tell you about my views of recent movies (just before my views will be trashed to pieces by the resident DV members).
Reviews I’ve got lined up are The Prestige, INLAND EMPIRE, The Illusionist and Das Leben der Anderen: 4 of the 5 movies I’ve seen so far in 2007 (and, wouldn’t you know it, all in one and a half week – who doesn’t love a week of holidays?).

The fourth movie I’ve seen this year is Notes on a Scandal and I’m putting it here because I don’t think it’s worthy of a place on the front page. This picture is a pompous pile of pretentious pulp and what’s worse is that it isn’t badly acted and the director is skillful.
Which means there’s no way I can give this movie less than 3 out of 10.

In fact, I gave it 3.5/10 because there’s an occasional glimpse of brilliance. Sadly, you’ll have to sit through 90 minutes of shite.

The story in short: Judi Dench is an old nagging hard teacher who has denied she’s a lesbian. Cate Blanchett is going to teach art: she’s nice to look at and married. (Apart from the fact that I didn’t think the school life was adaquately described in the first scenes I already encountered the first in this film: ART teacher. If an arthouse movie is pompous and bad and needs to have a teacher: it’s an art teacher.)

Other major problems encountered in the first five minutes: a pompous soundtrack by Philip Glass that loudly informs you this is a work of art you’re watching and a condescending voice-over.

But let us not abandon this story, for you will not be able to foretell what’ll happen next… yes, exactly as you could guess from my little synopsis: the old hag falls in love with the art teacher, the art teacher has an affair with a young boy.
Not ramming the point home good enough? Aha, but you see, the art teacher is also married to her former professor (which she met when she was still his student) and she has two children: one is a boy with Down syndrome (so cute, so arthouse) and one is a slightly rebellious girl who has the same age as the boy the art teacher is fucking.

The old teacher learns of the art teacher’s secret and wants to blackmail her, so that the art teacher will become the secret lover of the old lesbian teacher.
If you’re expecting a decent dose of you’ll be deeply disappointed, because as perverted as the character(s) are is how boring and bourgeois the movie itself is.

Oh, and pompous… at one point, when the art teacher breaks down and regresses in her adolescent (i.e. she dresses up like a punk girl) she finds out about the old teacher’s schemes and runs into the street, mascara all over her face, shouting to the paparazzi who have heard about the art teacher that fucked a 15-year-old boy, “Here I am! Here I am!”
My only thoughts at that point were: Cate Blanchett does not deserve a scene as bad as this. Which means that by that time I’d lost complete faith in Judi Dench already.
Hoping someone would jump up and shout ? Sorry. The story continues, but I will not tell any more. You see, I’m not as clever as the narrator of this movie (Dench’s character) and there’s no music of Glass telling you you’re reading grand literature here. Suffice to say that it’s a damn shame that talent like Cate Blanchett (and Judi Dench) is wasted on this sort of movie. Sadly, there is a room for this sort of movie: the arthouse crowd that doesn’t dare to challenge itself and has a thing for weepy melodrama that pretends to be grand cinema but is actually wannabe Hollywood.

If you’re a clever wanker that likes his/her movies only when steamy topics are covered in a dull grey sauce, go and see Notes on a Scandal now. It’s the best movie in theatres since La Vita e Bella.

3.5/10

Released just when Delirium Vault was going on hiatus, the Cinema 16 DVD releases never got that much attention. Now with DV’s grand re-opening (please, tell me you’re reading this dressed in your tuxedo!?) it seems as good a time as any to refresh your minds about these releases.

Cinema 16 is a collection of short movies, made by known to very famous directors. There are three Cinema 16 releases: one for British, one for European and one for American directors. This does beg the question as to whether the British directors are so great they need a whole DVD for themselves, whereas Europe and America have to be content with just one DVD per continent.
Mind you, the British DVD has names like Mike Leigh, Peter Greenaway, Lynne Ramsey, Ridley Scott and Christopher Nolan, so there’s isn’t too much reason to complain as you’ll still get good value for your money. However, of the three releases thr British DVD is not the best. Mind you, Peter Mullan (who’s Scottish) and the English Chris Morris are featured on the European disc. Which is just confusing to me. Unless I missed the news and England and Scotland have just left Great Britain and joined Europe. In which case: welcome!

The DVDs feature names like Lars von Trier, Jean-Luc Godard, Lukas Moodysson, D.A. Pennebaker, George Lucas, Andy Warhol and Alexander Payne. Enough for any movie fan to get water in his/her mouth? Let’s check out which movies are featured.

Another great idea was to feature audio commentaries on certan movies. Sadly (here we go again), the UK release has to do without commentaries, but there are some commentaries on the American release (I’ve marked them with *) and all the European releases feature a commentary track. (I didn’t get the British release myself and sources vary on whether there commentares on some or all the movies on that release.)

Cinema 16: US Directors
1.The Lunch Date (Dir. Adam Davidson, 1990, 11 mins)
2. Carmen (Dir. Alexander Payne, 1985, 18 mins)
3. The Discipline Of D.E. (Dir. Gus Van Sant, 1982, 13 mins)
4. Daybreaker Express (Dir. D.A. Pennebaker, 1953, 5 mins)*
5. Vincent (Dir. Tim Burton, 1982, 6 mins)
6. Terry Tate: Office Linebacker (Dir. Rawson Marshall Thurber, 2003, 4 mins)*
7. The Wrath of Cobble Hill (Dir. Adam Parrish King, 2005, 15 mins)*
8. Freiheit (Dir. George Lucas, 1966, 3 mins)*
9. Feelings (Dir. Todd Solondz, 1984, 4 mins)*
10. Terminal Bar (Dir. Stefan Nadelman, 2002, 22 mins)*
11. Necrology: Roll Call of the Dead (Dir. Standish Lawder, 1969-70, 12 mins)*
12. George Lucas in Love (Dir. Joe Nussbaum, 1999, 8 mins)*
13. Meshes of the Afternoon (Dir. Maya Deren, 1943,15 mins)
14. Five Feet High and Rising (Dir. Peter Sollett, 1999, 29 min)*
15. Paperboys (Dir. Mike Mills, 2001, 41 mins)
16. Screen Test: Helmut (Dir. Andy Warhol, 1964, 5 mins)

Cinema 16: UK Directors
1. About A Girl – Brian Percival
2. Dear Phone – Peter Greenaway
3. Doodlebug – Christopher Nolan
4. Eight – Stephen Daldry
5. Gasman – Lynne Ramsay
6. Girl Chewing Gum – John Smith
7. Home – Morag McKinnon
8. Joyride – Jim Gillespie
9. Inside Out – Tom and Charles Guard
10. Je T’aime John Wayne – Toby McDonald
11. The Sheep Thief – Asif Kapadia
12. The Short And Curlies – Mike Leigh
13.  Boy And Bicycle – Ridley Scott
14. Telling Lies – Simon Ellis
15 .UK Images – Martin Parrand
16. Who’s My Favourite Girl? – Adrian McDowall

Cinema 16: European Directors
1. Bara Prata Lite (Talk) – Lukas Moodysson (Sweden)
2. Le Batteur Due Bolero – Patrice Leconte (France)
3. Charlotte Et Veronique (Ou Tous Les Garcons S’Appellent Patrick) – Jean-Luc Godard (France)
4. Copy Shop – Virgil Widrich (Austria)
5. Epilog – Tom Tykwer (Germany)
6. Fridge – Peter Mullan (Scotland)
7. Il Giorno Della Prima Di Close-Up (The Opening Night Of The Close Up) – Nanni Moretti (Italy)
8. Gisele Kerozene – Jan Kounen (Holland)
9. Harlig Ar Jorden (World Of Glory) – Roy Andersson (Sweden)
10. L’Homme Sans Tete (The Man Wihtout A Head) – Juan Solanas
11. Koncert Zyczen (Concert Of Wishes) – Krzysztof Kieslowski (Poland)
12. My Wrongs #8245-8249 & 117 – Chris Morris (England)
13. Nocturne – Lars Von Trier (Denmark)
14. El Secdleto De La Tlompeta – Javier Fesser (Spain)
15. Valgaften (Election Night) – Anders Thomas Jensen (Denmark)
16. Bonus film [Jabberwocky - Jan Svankmajer]

A BIT OF CRITICISM
All three releases feature a lot of bonafide names and Cinema 16 (if you still don’t know why they chose that name: look again, each DVD contains 16 movies) started with the idea of a British release, followed by the American release and then the European release. This is somehow reflected in the output: the European release is the most interesting as it combines lots of styles (there’s a mile of difference between the tastes of horror trash king Jan Kounen and the deadly serious Nanni Moretti) and all shorts are accompanied by a commentary.
The American DVD is also a nice release as it contains both the older and the younger names: new directors like Solondz and Payne are found hand in hand with household names like Warhol and Lucas. The Pennebaker short is a nice find and, for those who still didn’t own it, Tim Burton’s Vincent (featuring the voice of Vincent Price) is a must. All this doesn’t mean the British release is not good, it’s just it’s harder to compare it to the other ones. It’s a nice release, but slightly outshined by the other two.

You can find out more about the releases and the movies featured on the Cinema 16 site. The releases are available at Xploited Cinema (US) and Play.com (UK/Europe).