Inland Empire

OK, here we go, the big one, Inland Empire. This was the first film I ever remember bailing on mid-watch. It was many years ago, before I had a blog, and it was probably my first David Lynch film, watched purely based on a 5-star review in Empire magazine. All I can remember is a rabbit sitcom. I called it quits after about an hour of utter incoherence, but this time I’m trapped on a train, and the next episode of Alien: Earth is refusing to play so I’m watching this instead. I think the best way of me trying to keep track of everything going on is, like with my Twin Peaks re-caps, to keep a stream of consciousness style document going whilst I write, which I present to you now (slightly edited and tidied up after watching). Let’s get going!

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Lost Highway

Fred (Bill Pullman) plays saxophone by night, and sleeps in his soundproof saxophone-practice bedroom by day. One morning a voice over his intercom tells him “Dick Larante is dead”, and a videotape of his house is delivered to him. Soon, Fred’s partner Renee (Patricia Arquette) is murdered, and Fred is arrested, because there’s a video of him doing it, much to his surprise, but don’t worry, this is a David Lynch film, so there’s a creepy pale guy cropping up all over the place too.

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Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and The Missing Pieces

The Twin Peaks hiatus is over! Apologies for the delay, but as this film was rated 18 and the IMDB Parental Guidance section is somewhat graphic I deemed this would be unsuitable for my usual Twin Peaks viewing environment of my laptop on a public train, and it’s taken me several months to find an evening devoid of other more pressing activities in order to actually watch this film. But watch it I now have, and my thoughts I will soon distribute.

As with the first two seasons of Twin Peaks I went in knowing precious little of Fire Walk With Me, other than it was a prequel to the original show. My assumption was that this might follow Agent Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) on the Theresa case, and whilst that was partially correct, this is far more about Laura Palmer’s week leading up to her washing up on the river bank encased in clingfilm, and my what a horrendous week she had. We’ll get there, though. For now, here’s my regular stream of consciousness from watching the film, albeit more edited this time due to the film’s length, otherwise we’d be here all day.

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Wild at Heart

Sailor Ripley and Lula Fortune (Nicolas Cage & Laura Dern) are young, spirited, and very much in love. When a man (Gregg Dandridge) approaches Sailor at a classy function and accuses him of trying to sleep with Lula’s mother Marietta (Diane Ladd) and tries to kill him, Sailor defends himself and brutally kills the guy, and is sentenced to two years in prison for his trouble. Upon his release, he and Lula set out on a road trip, much to the chagrin of Marietta, who sends a selection of assailants out to put a stop to their escapades.

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Twin Peaks Series 2 Episode 22 – Beyond Life and Death

This is it, the final episode of that initial Twin Peaks run! I’m concerned by quite how many mysteries were still left at the end of the previous episode, but let’s see how many we can cross off today. I’m certain there can’t possibly be any new one added, surely? I understand this was essentially the last slice of Twin Peaks, other than a prequel film and a bunch of deleted scenes, for like 25 years, so I can only assume absolutely everything is going to be neatly wrapped up and didn’t leave anyone curious as to what was going on here.

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Twin Peaks Series 2 Episode 18 – On the Wings of Love

Harry (Michael Ontkean) is in bed in a drunken stupor, is Jones (Brenda Strong) coming onto him in his sleep? She gently caresses a bottle at her hip, dabs some of the contents on his lips and hers, then they kiss. He sees her as Josie (Joan Chen)! Then she pulls out the wristwatch wire and chokes him! He manages to overpower and punch her out, then cut to the waterfall – did he have sex with her unconscious body? (I think at this point the cut-to-a-waterfall-symbolising-sex thing might just be in my head.)

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Twin Peaks Series 2 Episode 17 – Wounds and Scars

Harry (Michael Ontkean) is dreaming of Josie (Joan Chen), drinking through an artfully-lit glass silhouette, in darkness. I just need to take a moment to dwell on the fact that the last time he saw Josie she spontaneously died in front of him, and the last time we saw Josie she was screaming from inside the knob on the drawer of a bedside cabinet, and if this is never fully explained I will remain furious forever. Hawk (Michael Horse) delivers Harry breakfast from Norma. “It’s a pretty simple town; least it used to be. The world’s caught up with us.”

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Twin Peaks Series 2 Episode 16 – The Condemned Woman

Special Guest BILLY ZANE, woo-boy, who is he gonna play?! Dick Tremayne Designer Menswear’s younger even more rakish brother?

Voicemail from Windom Earle (Kenneth Welsh) accusing Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) of being distracted, not putting his all into the game, give him until tomorrow to post his move “or I’ll do it for you.” Harry (Michael Ontkean) asks Lucy (Kimmy Robertson) to get hold of Pete (Jack Nance) for his chess advice, and find out the latest time they can contact the paper to post tomorrow, “Paper, Pete, I’ll do it alphabetically.” Lucy is a delight.

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