David Lynch explains why he won’t reveal the meaning of ‘Inland Empire’
In 2006, David Lynch released a film that many critics believed to be his most Lynchian piece of work to date. Inland Empire, starring Laura Dern as the movie’s main character, came five years after Mulholland Drive, often considered Lynch’s finest hour.
For some viewers, Inland Empire was a continuation of Lynch’s excellence, the ultimate execution of his cinematic ideals, which he had been formulating for decades. The independently made low-budget movie, often filmed using a cheap handheld camcorder, was Lynch at his most Lynch, with absolutely nothing stopping the filmmaker from bringing his vision to life.
Meanwhile, many others found it confusing – incomprehensible even – a project that surely only the filmmaker understood. After releasing perplexing projects such as Eraserhead and Mulholland Drive, Lynch somehow outdid himself, making something even more challenging to decipher.
The film follows Dern’s character, an actor named Nikki Grace, whose reality begins to dissolve into fantasy (and nightmare) as she begins to embody the character she is portraying. Bizarre dance routines, jump scares, and monologues make for a thrilling, albeit bizarre, viewing experience. Coming in at three hours, the movie forces us to sit with these strange sequences for an extended period, and whether you love it or hate it, Inland Empire will surely stick with you.
If you had a hard time understanding the film, you’re not alone. Even Dern and co-star Justin Theroux have admitted to not knowing what the movie is about. The latter once told Village Voice that he “couldn’t possibly tell you what the film’s about, and at this point I don’t know that David Lynch could. It’s become sort of a pastime — Laura and I sit around on set trying to figure out what’s going on.”
If you think Lynch is willing to explain his movie, you’re out of luck. In an interview with David Stratton, the filmmaker revealed that he will never explain what Inland Empire means. He said, “A film is sort of like a book, and books get written and the author maybe passes away, so you can’t go talk to them and say, ‘what did you mean?’”
The director added that his audience possesses the right to discover their own interpretation of the film “and to criticise it one way or another.” Lynch explained how he believes “that a film should stand on its own, and there should be nothing added, nothing subtracted, and you work a long time to make it just so, and it’s a very precious thing.”
Watch the interview below.
