A note about Inland Empire / Music OTW
2008-11-08 / 01:00 / dave
Continuing my David Lynch firehose draught, I watched Inland Empire. I was going to write a review but manythings711 already did. Agree: Lynch makes vivid dream scenes based on simple themes. Disagree: I thought the rawness of digital video was great.
I’ve never understood what “art” means. My best guess is that it’s a medium for emotional transfer: art makes you feel something (unlike craft). Lynch’s work always succeeds at that level; I’m shocked at the efficacy of even the lo-fi cheese of Twin Peaks. I took a nap (intentionally, paused the DVD and everything) halfway through Inland Empire and had dreams that were shot like the movie: close crops & a hesitancy to reveal what others could see. I woke up panicked and sad.
Unlike Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire has a “happy” ending. In large part, that’s due to the last two songs (& the accompanying credit scene).
Chrysta Bell and David Lynch – Polish Poem (buy)
Nina Simone – Sinnerman (Inland Empire Edit) (buy)
Despite the downer middle (“I cry… I cry… / I cannot feel the warmth of the sun…”) Polish Poem ends uplifting (“something is coming true– / the dream of an innocent child // something is happening– / something is happening…”). It reminds me of Laura Palmer’s theme from Twin Peaks (though inverted: Laura Palmer’s theme has a dark beginning and end and a hopeful middle) and anything by deathprod, the best Norwegian producer ever.
Angelo Badalamenti – Laura Palmer’s Theme (Instrumental) (buy)
deathprod – treetop drive 3 (buy)
I highly recommend deathprod’s boxed set as well as his other projects: supersilent (especially the supersilent 7 DVD) featuring deathprod on “audiovirus” and Susanna and the Magical Orchestra where-in deathprod is the magical orchestra.
As for Sinnerman, it’s Nina Simone in an uptempo edit. I don’t know who did the edit but it reminds me of a more polished Moodyman.
Moodymann – KDJ16 Track 1 (buy)
And just since we’re already having a music party, I might as well add that I’ve been rocking out to the Fleet Foxes.
I absolutely hate the aesthetics of digital noise – I found it crude, cheap-looking, and distracting in Inland Empire. (I’m fully aware that a portion of this feeling might just be Ludditism and that this statement might seem silly in 20 years)
One thing I can’t criticize about *any* Lynch film is the music. It’s always the perfect combination of Angelo Badalamenti and some well selected existing tracks.
Sinnerman was the perfect track to end Inland with. Actually, I think it might be what I enjoyed most about the whole film. I especially like how the first 3 minutes of the original recording off Pastel Blues are cut out – helps with the buildup.
You should get a plugin for the mp3s on your site. I have [http://www.1pixelout.net/code/audio-player-wordpress-plugin/] and it seems to do the job nicely.
I suppose I should correct myself and say “I loved the way Inland Empire was shot, I didn’t even realize it was digital until I started reading reviews.” More movie-ish folks would probably know better. An acquaintance of an old co-worker (read: urban legend) did video compression work and as a consequence couldn’t watch digital cable without focusing on the artifacts.
Thanks for the link to the plug-in, I’ll take a look. I tend not to use any of the myself, since I just download. I’m strictly a time-shifted sort of guy.
[...] patience. Songs that don’t go anywhere are tolerable; some of them (like the mighty mighty deathprod) are even awesome. So it is with Gas’ complete discography (strangely cheapest when bought as [...]