Inland Empire is a experimental psychological thriller film written, directed and co produced by David Lynch. The film was premiered in Italy at the Venice Film Festival on September 6, 2006. As of 2023, it is the last feature film Lynch has directed, marking his longest hiatus between film projects. The film’s cinematography, editing, score and sound design were also by Lynch, with pieces by a variety of other musicians also featured. Lynch’s longtime collaborator and then-wife Mary Sweeney co-produced the film. The cast includes such Lynch regulars as Laura Dern, Justin Theroux, Harry Dean Stanton, and Grace Zabriskie, as well as Jeremy Irons, Karolina Gruszka, Peter J. Lucas, Krzysztof Majchrzak, and Julia Ormond. There are also brief appearances by a host of additional actors, including Nastassja Kinski, Laura Harring, Terry Crews, Mary Steenburgen, and William H. Macy. The voices of Harring, Naomi Watts, and Scott Coffey are included in excerpts from Lynch’s 2002 Rabbits online project. The title borrows its name from a metropolitan area in Southern California.
Released with the tagline “A Woman in Trouble”, the film follows the fragmented and nightmarish events surrounding a Hollywood actress (Laura Dern) who begins to take on the personality of a character she plays in a supposedly cursed film production. An international co-production between the United States, France, and Poland, the film was completed over a three-year period and shot primarily in Los Angeles and Poland. The process marked several firsts for Lynch: the film was shot without a finished screenplay, instead being largely developed on a scene-by-scene basis; and it was shot entirely in low-resolution digital video by Lynch himself using a handheld Sony camcorder rather than traditional film stock.
The film received generally positive but polarized reviews from critics, with attention centering on its challenging and surrealist elements. It was named the second-best film of 2007 (tied with two others) by Cahiers du cinéma, and listed among Sight & Sound’s “thirty best films of the 2000s”, as well as The Guardian’s “10 most underrated movies of the decade”. The film was remastered by Lynch and Janus Films in 2022.
David Lynch contributed a number of his own compositions to the film’s soundtrack, marking a departure from his frequent collaborations with composer Angelo Badalamenti. His pieces range from minimalist ambient music to more pop-oriented tracks such as Ghost of Love. Polish composer Marek Zebrowski wrote music for the film, and acted as music consultant.
Tracklist:
- David Lynch (Ghost of Love)
- David Lynch (Rabbits Theme)
- Mantovani (Colors of My Life)
- David Lynch (Woods Variation)
- Dave Brubeck (Three to Get Ready)
- Boguslaw Schaeffer (Klavier Konzert)
- Kroke (The Secrets of the Life Tree)
- Little Eva (The Locomotion)
- Etta James (At Last)
- David Lynch (Call from the Past)
- Krzysztof Penderecki (Als Jakob erwachte)
- Witold Lutoslawski (Novelette Conclusion Joey Altruda – (Lisa)
- Beck (Black Tambourine) (film version)
- David Lynch (Mansion Theme)
- David Lynch (Walkin’ on the Sky)
- David Lynch (Marek Zebrowski) Polish Night Music No. 1
- David Lynch (Chrysta Bell) Polish Poem
- Nina Simone (Sinnerman)
