I rented Inland Empire yesterday, never seen it before. I’m a big Lynch fan since the Twin Peaks days. Not as big of a fan of his surreal stuff like Eraserhead, but I can appreciate it. He’s a genius, no if/ands/buts.
However, as usual, one thing led to another and I had NO time at all during the day to watch movies. So I ended up starting the damn thing at around 11:30 last night. Well Jeremy doesn’t do too good with staying up late so basically I was falling asleep after less than 30 minutes.
That’s when I got the most brilliant idea. The type of s**t David Lynch would love. Hell, the type of s**t that only people in David Lynch movies think of.
Bear with me, cuz this is one of my weird ideas. You see, last night instead of turning Inland Empire off and going to sleep, I let the film play and fell asleep on it. Now, I don’t know about you, but it is IMPOSSIBLE for me to have something playing in the same room without me paying some sort of subconscious attention to it. That’s why I can never sleep with a radio or a TV playing. Halfway through the night and I’m having dreams about the Burger King jingle. BUT! What better film to watch in my dreams than Inland Empire??? So I let it play and dammit if I didn’t dream about the freakin’ thing. Can’t remember a single thing, but I dreamed about the film. That much I know.
So here’s what I’ll do:
I won’t watch it. Not awake at least. I’ve seen about 20-30 minutes, but that’s it. The furthest I’ve gone is Laura Dern’s weird script reading.
Instead, I’ll start it up, fall asleep and let my subconscious watch it. I’ll do this every day for a month. Then at the end of the month I’ll watch the film properly and do a review of it and of my thoughts and ideas. Did I actually dream some scenes? Where the dreams better than Lynch’s film? Did I dream scenes that weren’t in the film. Did I understand the story better because of my dreams. Stuff like that.
What do you think? I already ordered it on Amazon. If it turns out to be nothing and I don’t think or dream anything of interest, I’ll just do a short recap on my blog, but if does bear fruit I might be writing one of the best reviews I’ve ever done. I’m kinda excited to see what’s gonna happen.
EDIT: I have to give credit to Graham Rae for getting me to write about this. I was gonna try it on my own, as a weird experiment for my own sense of self-satisfaction, but he suggested that this would make a kickass article. So… here it is. I gotta say, I dig that crazy Scotsman. He’s a good bloke. – J.K.
Jeremy, please don’t try to drag my good unsullied name into your weird filmic experiments…I will call my lawyer…
(Chuckle)
Good stuff.
interesting idea that i’m sure david lynch would totally dig. be sure to treat yourself, though, at some point to the sheer jaw-dropping performance that laura dern gives in IE. the academy should be ashamed that they overlooked her. it is one of the greatest feats i’ve ever seen.
Excellent – go one better. Try writing a script based on your subconscious observations; write down any old thing that pops up in your mind.
That’s an excellent idea! I’ll do that. Thanks Stina!
Interesting experiment. Before you watch the entire film properly, though. You should write down your impressions of the film. That way, after you’ve watched it properly, you’ll already have a record of what you had thought.