Director:
David Lynch
Writer:
David Lynch
David Lynch
Writer:
David Lynch
I loved "LOST HIGHWAY" and "MULHOLLAND DRIVE". This film, however, is stranger than both of those films combined. Pieced together from random scenes Lynch would shoot here and there, the film is essentially two movies. Much like "MULLHOLLAND", the first half of the film is easy to follow and the latter half is incomprehensible.
The first problem with "EMPIRE" is the staggering fact that film is 3 hours long and in Lynch's hands we don't get substance, we get weird, seemingly uneccessary scene after bizarre, unexplainable scene. Upon first viewing, the last half hour of the film is almost pointless, but I revisited the film recently and made up my own story to explain the disparate images, and you know what? Maybe that's just what Lynch wanted us to do in the first place.
Laura Dern appears in front of Lynch's dream camera once again after the wonderfully eccentric "WILD AT HEART". Here she playes Nikki Grace, an actress that has just been cast in a film called "ON HIGH IN BLUE TOMORROWS". The problem is there appears to be some kind of curse on the film because the first time they tried to make they film, the leads were killed. Now, it appears, she finds herself in they very same predicament, among other things that I'd like to let you discover on your own.
This is such an unruly beast of a picture that no film critic would be able to give you an accurate description of the plot. Lynch himself says he doesn't really know what the film is about and abhors people that try to find explanation in things that just are. This film just is. That is the best way to explain it, and that's a good thing. A major proponent of Trancendental Meditation (his book "CATCHING THE BIG FISH" was great and focused mainly on this subject...I read it in a day), Lynch provides a slice of his subconcious on consumer-grade DV.
The film was shot apparently over a 4 year span, and that definitely adds to the disjointed atmosphere, but let's face it, that would have been there anyway. The film begins with a plot and then devolves into what can only (to me) be explained as Dern's fears and anxieties made real. That's the only way I could see the film making any sense. Dern weaves in and out of rooms with dancing prostitues, imagines a rabbit-family sitcom, and has the strangest conversations imaginable. But in that last conversation on the streets of Hollywood blvd with that chinese girl, the most discerning film lover will definitely be able to grasp some sort of meaning, which is not for me to say, but for you to find out if you wish to follow Mister Lynch yet again down his twisted rabbit hole of cinema.
The first problem with "EMPIRE" is the staggering fact that film is 3 hours long and in Lynch's hands we don't get substance, we get weird, seemingly uneccessary scene after bizarre, unexplainable scene. Upon first viewing, the last half hour of the film is almost pointless, but I revisited the film recently and made up my own story to explain the disparate images, and you know what? Maybe that's just what Lynch wanted us to do in the first place.
Laura Dern appears in front of Lynch's dream camera once again after the wonderfully eccentric "WILD AT HEART". Here she playes Nikki Grace, an actress that has just been cast in a film called "ON HIGH IN BLUE TOMORROWS". The problem is there appears to be some kind of curse on the film because the first time they tried to make they film, the leads were killed. Now, it appears, she finds herself in they very same predicament, among other things that I'd like to let you discover on your own.
This is such an unruly beast of a picture that no film critic would be able to give you an accurate description of the plot. Lynch himself says he doesn't really know what the film is about and abhors people that try to find explanation in things that just are. This film just is. That is the best way to explain it, and that's a good thing. A major proponent of Trancendental Meditation (his book "CATCHING THE BIG FISH" was great and focused mainly on this subject...I read it in a day), Lynch provides a slice of his subconcious on consumer-grade DV.
The film was shot apparently over a 4 year span, and that definitely adds to the disjointed atmosphere, but let's face it, that would have been there anyway. The film begins with a plot and then devolves into what can only (to me) be explained as Dern's fears and anxieties made real. That's the only way I could see the film making any sense. Dern weaves in and out of rooms with dancing prostitues, imagines a rabbit-family sitcom, and has the strangest conversations imaginable. But in that last conversation on the streets of Hollywood blvd with that chinese girl, the most discerning film lover will definitely be able to grasp some sort of meaning, which is not for me to say, but for you to find out if you wish to follow Mister Lynch yet again down his twisted rabbit hole of cinema.
VERDICT:
The weirdest of Lynch's films by far, and probably the most agonizing to sit through thanks to the running time. But the film holds a hypnotic power that lulls the viewer and draws them deeper into a semi-dream world worth exploring at least a couple of times.
The weirdest of Lynch's films by far, and probably the most agonizing to sit through thanks to the running time. But the film holds a hypnotic power that lulls the viewer and draws them deeper into a semi-dream world worth exploring at least a couple of times.
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