From his final feature film, 2006's Inland Empire. More on the actual film below, but suffice it to say now that, after rewatching this on Sunday, this song definitely felt like the way to end this year's Seven Days of David Lynch.
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I've talked about this in these pages before, so I'll be brief in summing up my first viewing of Inland Empire, back in 2006 at Laemmle Sunset 5.
I'd just moved to L.A. earlier that year, and I remember Chief of Police Bill Bratton had given a very firm order for police to not arrest anyone for smoking weed (Bratton was a fantastic chief of police and would have probably made a pretty good politician, had he the patience for the bullshit tied to that role. Alas, one of the things that made him a fantastic Chief was that he had no patience for any bullshit, least of all people harassing unlicensed street vendors or people smoking weed).
My friend Chris and I smoked a hog leg standing pretty much in front of the theatre on Sunset, then went inside. When the film began, I became instantly immersed and did not regain lucidity until the unlikely use of a Beck song broke the spell. I'll never forget that moment; suddenly aware, I could not have told you whether I was forty minutes or four hours into the film, and the realization blew me away. I liken the experience to a complete cinematic freefall, and I've never been able to repeat that at home.
I bought the Inland Empire DVD the day it came out in 2007, yet I've only logged maybe three successful complete viewings since. Part of this is because, for years, I could not accept that my stringent standards for viewing films had become compromised by aging and an early work schedule - I'd literally get high and turn this on repeatedly at like 11:00 PM or 12:00 AM and then wonder why I kept falling asleep.
My most recent rewatch was back in January 2023, and it was probably my first successful attempt to sit through the entire film since that theatrical experience. I was left lukewarm; I loved the first forty or so minutes, but felt as though the "we shot without a full script" element really muddied the waters on the last, oh, two hours or so. This past Sunday, though, I really felt like I followed this film more than ever before. There are still some scenes that stretch both the narrative's cohesion and my patience, but that's my fault for applying preconceived notions about narrative to a film and filmmaker whose staunch refusal to settle for formulaic creation is what I love about him.
I will say, I also watched the Disc 2 Bonus Features for the first time, and in the More Things That Happened feature - one hour fifteen minutes of deleted scenes that would have brought the film's run time up to over four hours - there are some scenes that I thought would have worked better in Inland Empire than some of Lynch went with for final cut.
But who am I to tell David Lynch that?
Yet, now I feel slightly obsessed. My viewing was Sunday, but I've been reading articles about the film online every day since. Here's where I'm at.
I can hold onto the narrative begun in Nikki and Derek's part of the film, but as Nikki begins to slip into Sue, I too begin to lose my ability to hold onto where her character's extremly frightening descent takes her.
I'm going to take this opportunity to try and write a summary of Inland Empire, just to prove to myself I can.
Nikki Grace is an actress looking to make a comeback with an Oscar-worthy role. She lands one in Director Kingsley Stewart's film On High In Blue Tomorrows with hot young costar Devon Berk. Devon has a reputation as a lady killer, and upon meeting his new costar, begins to work his magic. As they settle into initial rehearsals, Kingsley reveals that the film's Producers have hidden something from them. On High is a remake of another, earlier film that was never finished because the two leads were murdered. This incident has lent the project the reputation of a "cursed" film.
Nikki and Devon dismiss this story, just as they dismiss Nikki's powerful, Polish crimelord husband Piotrek's warnings that, should an affair occur between the two stars, the consequences would be "Dark and inescapable." Complicating matters is the plot of Blue Tomorrows - basically an affair between the two that would likewise trigger similar consequences from Nikki's character's husband. As Nikki begins to lose herself in her role, eventually becoming Sue, there's a deeper level to beware - has she become the girl from the Polish folktale?
Not bad. I think I'm at the tip of an iceberg with this one, so I may post more as I go along. I've always hoped one day I might suddenly become enraptured with this film that previously just left me scratching my head. Not that there's not more head scratching coming, but at least now it will be a dedicated scratching. The itch of a mystery, not soon resolved...
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