Cinematical

Poor David.

I was just starting to feel guilty for posting my piece (which is a LOT longer than the quote above) so I popped the DVD in one more time, to double-check myself, and was apalled all over again...

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I haven't seen the scene (ahem) in question, and I just read Brendon's blog entry in its entirety. His claims of being a fan of David Lynch's work were completely unnecessary, much like saying something un-politically correct, but prefacing it with, "Some of my best friends are gay!"

What I do question is why he so eagerly abandons his faith in Lynch after watching a short snippet whose provenance is completely dubious?

There have been rumours that Inland Empire won't be ready for Cannes (despite cynical retorts that it's just hype to build mystery around the project). Undoubtedly, Digidesign got this scene some time ago in order to include it on their cd-rom, meaning a lot of the final effects probably weren't in place.

But most importantly, Digidesign is the company that produces ProTools, which is audio mixing software. I would think they are more interested in discussing the aural aspects of Inland Empire as opposed to the visual (granted, Digidesign is owned by Avid, which makes editing software).

I just think this is such a premature conclusion to draw from what little is out there. Especially with Lynch's work, how can you take anything out of context and expect it to make sense, whether aesthetically or narratively?

Don't turn on your heroes just yet. We don't have very many of them left, and the new crop leaves much to be desired...

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I received my copy of this dvd just last week and was so happy to see that free deliveries to Australia were allowed. Yes, I watched the scene in question and straight away thought that regardless of whether or not it was taken from "Inland Empire" it was still a pretty ordinary way to "sell" the artistic benefits of Avid, Digidesign etc. There was nothing compelling about the whole shebang. Lets just hope that Mr Lynch is not heading down the Lars von Trier shakey-cam digi-path. Maybe if the offending scene does turn up in "Inland Empire" it will be playing on a tv sitting in the background. We will just have to wait and see.

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I love Lars von Trier. The aesthetics of Dogville or The Idiots, for two examples, are so tightly woven into the meaning of the film, how the film operates, while never selling the film (entirely) down the river as a piece of narrative.

This excerpt from Inland Empire is not comparable. There are certain choices a filmmaker has to be clear about and with this film, Lynch seems to have either disregarded them, been fuzzy about how to handle them, or simply made bad choices.

Anybody who has the DVD can check this one example out: there's a POV shot from one of the girls onto the man that appears fairly early. The shot is ill-composed, and the edit into it is awkward. In no way does it feel like anything other than a dodgy cut in a home movie. The shot breeaks any sense of immersion, so, therefore, when Lynch starts bending the rules of his universe - as he very soon does - the whole thing is staged, and fake, not like the sense of uncanny he normally acheives. Compare to, say, Lost Highway, in which a very real, atmospheric, palpable screen world is created. Pullman is at the party, all is natural enough for us to invest into it, then the scene with the telephone, the starnge bi-located man, takes place.

That's what it feels like to go nuts, I swear. Lynch nailed it.

Inland Empire doesn't have the technical requirements correct to acheive this.

Another shot later that skids horizontally in frame is even more displacing than a zoom would be (and I'm with Wim Wenders on zooms: they have no place).

Lynch has made a mistake.

I think having other people be his camera op was possibly an important safety net for David.

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Hang on, nobody knows if this is even a scene from Inland Empire. He's been shooting lots of digital footage for his website, so for all we know this was just something like a rehearsal, a way of testing out ideas.

To jump to conclusions about the way Lynch has changed as a director, or about the quality of Inland Empire, just by looking at this DVD is ridiculous.

Wait until the film is released, then judge it. And I'd bet that just like all his previous work, it will be brilliant.

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