Well, I finally got my copy of Inland Empire on Tuesday.
Box is kinda plain, although the little card inside the case advertising David Lynch Gourmet Coffee made me smile like it was my birthday, and the DVD menus and extras are pure Lynch. Haven’t seen the extras because I don’t want to know anything about this movie as I watch it in my sleep.
Have tried the experiment twice now. Letting it play in totality on low volume throughout the night, and it is having some effect on my dreams. Last night I dreamth that I was walking through a department store that sold “Faces”. Didn’t have a name as far as I could tell. It had a definite 50’s/60’s vibe to it. You know, lots of pastels and that weird plastic futuristic neon style. Outside it was snowing. It was night too. The customers all seemed to have walked out of Mayberry. Dad had a tie, mom had those horrible pink or blue dresses. Boys had jeans and those short sleeved shirt. Girls had pigtails and mini-mom dresses.
But nobody had any face. No eyes, no mouth, no nose, no chin. Where the face would be it was as smooth as an egg, like the back of someone’s shaved head.
These people would go up to the counter and buy a face. Picking out someone they wanted to be. Girls would pick out freckles, smiles and big cheeks, dads would pick out strong chins and steely blue eyes, boys would take the one with a missing front tooth, moms would pick out the one that had the most elegant and understated makeup. Good for the kitchen or the bedroom.
As I stood there watching all of this, one of the store employees came up to me. He was wearing a strong mustached face with kind eyes. The sort of face someone could trust you know? The sort of face that sold things whether they needed to be sold or not.
“What sort of face would you like Sir?” He asked.
I kinda laughed “But, I already have a face.” I said.
He smiled and shook his head. “No you don’t.”
And just before I could turn my head to look in a mirror, I woke up. Empire had finished and it was back on the menu screen.
Usually I don’t dream at all. So this is totally due to the film. Is anything like this in Empire? Or is this all me?
Fascinating stuff. Keep at it.
That’s what dreaming Lynch will do to you. Albeit, I have to be totally honest, by the time I had that dream the film was long over. I started it at 11:30 and woke up because of a thunderstorm outside around 4am. Also, the ending of the dream wasn’t quite as abrupt as I wrote it. There’s a lot of meandering in the human subconscious, but I thought I’d stay focused and not mention the starship Enterprise or drooling on my pillow. Still, I blame Lynch for all the weirdness and at the first sight of a dancing dwarf I’m getting the heck outta there.
Your post reads like lyrics to a Pink Floyd song.
Wow!
Actually, the film’s two scariest moments (i.e. not “boo!”-scary but “goosebumps-for-10-minutes-afterwards”-scary) actually involve distorted faces…
You’re definitely on to something!