INLAND EMPIRE Reflections in INLAND EMPIRE

[Mr. Reindeer]

Something that struck me while watching IE in the new remaster: Lost Girl's hotel room is obviously the same room from the opening B&W Axxon N. sequence, except with the TV in place of the old-timey floor lamp that was seen in the B&W sequence. And yet, that lamp is repeatedly reflected on the TV when Lost Girl is watching it...however, this lamp doesn't appear to actually be in the room at any point in the Lost Girl's "present"! The lamp appears only in the B&W sequence, and seems to be a reflection from the past, or perhaps from another reality entirely.

Similarly, in one scene, we see a reflection in the Rabbits' window that looks like it might be the red lampshade from Sue's lamp. This is the scene immediately following the Polish seance. One of the old Polish guys says, "It was red..." and then he turns into Suzie Rabbit and she again repeats this line. The scene even ends with a closeup on this odd reflection, indicating that we are meant to think about it.

All of this makes me think about Grace Zabriskie's story about a boy causing a reflection, leading to the birth of evil. I guess all of this probably functions more on the level of dream logic and intuition, but I figured I'd throw it out there to see if anyone had any thoughts on it.

 

[MasterMastermnd]

I've seen this movie so many times but it's infinitely rich to where every time someone has a new insight I feel I need to watch the film again to get it back into my mind. I'll finally be getting around to picking up the Blu-ray soon and I'll watch for that.

 

[AXX°N N.]

If I had to describe the dominating technique of IE, it would be layering. Not just in the obvious, like how characters overlap and there are different "dimensions" to the plot, but also the technical palette. The lamp reflection would be an example of visual layering and overlapping--things that shouldn't be there bleeding in anyway--and a good example of audio layering is when Nikki is on the phone with Devon, and yet the Phantom's disembodied voice is responding as if he's on the line. EDIT: or for something in the movie proper, Lynch's remix of Beck on top of Penderecki.

In a way, the very remaster itself is a further layering. That graph of all the steps involved is wonderfully convoluted, but if you take a certain tack, you could even say the inclusion of AI means that the visual look of the film is a result of a layering of man and machine cross-pollination.

 

[Mr. Reindeer]

If I had to describe the dominating technique of IE, it would be layering. Not just in the obvious, like how characters overlap and there are different "dimensions" to the plot, but also the technical palette. The lamp reflection would be an example of visual layering and overlapping--things that shouldn't be there bleeding in anyway--and a good example of audio layering is when Nikki is on the phone with Devon, and yet the Phantom's disembodied voice is responding as if he's on the line. EDIT: or for something in the movie proper, Lynch's remix of Beck on top of Penderecki.

In a way, the very remaster itself is a further layering. That graph of all the steps involved is wonderfully convoluted, but if you take a certain tack, you could even say the inclusion of AI means that the visual look of the film is a result of a layering of man and machine cross-pollination.

Great points, and an apt description. Going back to that scene of Nikki lying on the hotel floor next to the phone...I'd mentioned a few weeks ago that if I were to include any deleted scene in the film, it would be that one (although I'm not sure where it would fit). One intriguing thing about that scene is that it's the most prolonged interaction between Nikki/Sue and the Phantom. In the film, she only meets him briefly as "Crimp," without exchanging any words, and then shoots him at the end. It's a very unusual relationship between protagonist and antagonist (and probably one reason so many first-time viewers miss that the Phantom is even a character!). It's a very subliminal conflict, and that's by design, but it is sort of fun seeing the Phantom torment Nikki in a more traditional genre-movie fashion in that one scene. And it's very cool how many of Nikki's responses function as replies to both Devon and the Phantom at the same time, so both conversations overlap from her point of view (or as you put it, they layer). ("I'm not gonna listen if you don't tell me where you are," "Please I wanna see you," and especially, "I didn't mean to meet you...I didn't mean to meet anybody like you"...as well as, "Will you stop fucking with me?" which is arguably directed at the OTHER Nikki lurking outside in addition to both Devon and the Phantom!)

 

[fatecolossal]

Something that struck me while watching IE in the new remaster: Lost Girl's hotel room is obviously the same room from the opening B&W Axxon N. sequence, except with the TV in place of the old-timey floor lamp that was seen in the B&W sequence. And yet, that lamp is repeatedly reflected on the TV when Lost Girl is watching it...however, this lamp doesn't appear to actually be in the room at any point in the Lost Girl's "present"! The lamp appears only in the B&W sequence, and seems to be a reflection from the past, or perhaps from another reality entirely.

About the lamp and TV in Lost Girl's room, I posted a thread about this last year, fwiw - in case it's of any interest:

I tie it in that thread more to the creative (create-ive in the dreamy sense) functions of light for Lynch than to anything involving reflections (though I do think it's good to connect the reflection there up with Visitor 1's tale).

(In a QT I also note that "A2K", the name for his Wisteria production company, can be tied, at least as one connection, to a lighting fixture Lynch's cameo-character discusses in Inland Empire: )

 

[Mr. Reindeer]

About the lamp and TV in Lost Girl's room, I posted a thread about this last year, fwiw - in case it's of any interest:

I tie it in that thread more to the creative (create-ive in the dreamy sense) functions of light for Lynch than to anything involving reflections (though I do think it's good to connect the reflection there up with Visitor 1's tale).

(In a QT I also note that "A2K", the name for his Wisteria production company, can be tied, at least as one connection, to a lighting fixture Lynch's cameo-character discusses in Inland Empire: )

BTW, do you (or anyone else) have any thoughts on what’s going on outside the window in that second screenshot you included (top right)? That’s another thing I wonder about. There are lots of wires, maybe some kind of scaffolding, and what sort of looks like a fake paper moon?

 

[fatecolossal]

do you (or anyone else) have any thoughts on what’s going on outside the window in that second screenshot you included (top right)?

No, sorry. Unclear if it's something Lynch arranged or if the location just was like that (of course, even if that were the case, the fact that it's on screen would mean Lynch was happy for it to look like that). The thing you identify as a "fake paper moon" I'd guess might be a spherical lighting fixture that's turned off (or even possibly a CCTV camera fixture?), but really I just don't know.



The other thing I'd add about the reflection of the lamp on the TV screen is that when the Rabbits are on screen (as seen above), the lamp reflection is directly over Jane (Laura Harring's rabbit, who herself is also seated next to a lamp). Make of that what you will, but if you realllly want to get into the weeds with me, I'll note for comparison, fwiw, these shots of Laura Harring's Rita in Mulholland Dr.:

Clockwise from top left, that's Rita bathed in the glow of headlights in the second prior to the crash at the beginning; Rita's POV view of the lights in the city immediately after the crash; Rita again bathed in the glow of headlights, shortly thereafter; and finally, immediately prior to the beginning of the film's final act, Rita retrieving the blue key from a box obscured behind the closet light.

Anyway, always interesting to consider such things (IMHO, at least!)...

 

[AXX°N N.]

Maybe some opposite view of the weird window thing exists in the copious BTS footage? I'm sort of fascinated by it now. I think I'm leaning toward light fixture of some kind. I've been meaning to return to IE now that I have the Criterion and do a deep-dive, so I might eagle eye for it...

 

[Mr. Reindeer]

Maybe some opposite view of the weird window thing exists in the copious BTS footage? I'm sort of fascinated by it now. I think I'm leaning toward light fixture of some kind. I've been meaning to return to IE now that I have the Criterion and do a deep-dive, so I might eagle eye for it...

There is a little bit of BTS footage in Lynch (the longer one) of him telling crew members how to rearrange the furniture in the room, but the curtains are pulled over the window (the way they are in the Axxon N. scene in the film), so you can't make out much detail outside. For what it's worth, this website says that room is the Rubinstein Suite at the Grand Hotel in Łódź: Hollywood Film Locations in Poland: The Pianist, Inland Empire & More!

I did some playing around with Google Street View, but I couldn't get back past 2011, and couldn't see anything that corresponded to what we see in the film, although I wasn't really sure where I was supposed to be looking anyway.

 

[AXX°N N.]

I assumed it was a set if there was weird technical-looking stuff out the window. Strange... I recall from Room to Dream how far Lynch will go to get a look right, like installing street lights on a street where there were none. There's a lot of interesting lighting going on in IE, so it could be that it's a rig to produce a certain lighting effect, perhaps even one that was meant to light the street a certain way and so we're seeing the backside ... perhaps he mounted stuff to the hotel exterior for something else, then it happened to show up in the window. Given how prone Lynch is to run with happy accidents, as well as the phenomenon of technical equipment intruding into the filmic world, it'd be a perfect marriage of theme and coincidence. Just spitballin'.

 

[Mr. Reindeer]

I assumed it was a set if there was weird technical-looking stuff out the window. Strange... I recall from Room to Dream how far Lynch will go to get a look right, like installing street lights on a street where there were none. There's a lot of interesting lighting going on in IE, so it could be that it's a rig to produce a certain lighting effect, perhaps even one that was meant to light the street a certain way and so we're seeing the backside ... perhaps he mounted stuff to the hotel exterior for something else, then it happened to show up in the window. Given how prone Lynch is to run with happy accidents, as well as the phenomenon of technical equipment intruding into the filmic world, it'd be a perfect marriage of theme and coincidence. Just spitballin'.

Interesting thoughts! In the documentary you can see him entering the room through the hallway and then an anteroom. I think the hallway is the same one that’s used in the film for the hotel. For instance, when the girls are running near the end.