David Lynch on remastering Inland Empire, revisiting his earlier work and the chances of a Dune do-over
The cheerfully enigmatic filmmaker talks about using new technology to breathe life into old projects (like his infamous Frank Herbert adaptation)
Film Features David Lynch
A phantasmagoric psychological epic that could be broadly described as an exploration of fracturing identity, 2006’s Inland Empire is arguably filmmaker David Lynch’s most labyrinthine and challenging work, which is of course saying something.
Starring Laura Dern as an actress landing a highly coveted role opposite a ladies-man movie star (Justin Theroux) in On High In Blue Tomorrows, a remake of a supposedly cursed gypsy folktale, Lynch’s movie dips in and out of scenes involving their onscreen identities, depicting a deadpan sitcom about anthropomorphized rabbits, a group of Polish prostitutes, an abusive hypnotist named the Phantom, and more. Lynch is as always doggedly and good-naturedly opaque about narrative “meaning,” but his film’s associative logic proved years ahead of its time, and its free-form, heavy-lidded mood still packs a heavy punch.
After originally shooting Inland Empire on standard definition video, Lynch supervised a complicated process with distributor Janus Films to upscale and re-release the film in UHD/4K resolution. He gave it a new color pass, added a layer of grain and remastered the audio with the film’s original mixers, Ron Eng and Dean Hurley.
The A.V. Club recently spoke with Lynch about revisiting the film and whether that awakened a desire to do it with more of his movies.
The A.V. Club: With Inland Empire, I understand there wasn’t a full script before production. Were you writing scenes as you went along?
David Lynch: Let’s clear this up. When you write a script, at least what my experience has been, you don’t suddenly see the whole script and spit it out and type it out with no typos, just perfect, in one sitting. That never happens, never will happen. You get an idea, and you write that one out, then you’re going along, you don’t have any script, you had an idea and you wrote it out. Then you go along, you get another idea and you write it out. Now you have two ideas, but you don’t have a script. You go along a little bit more and you get a third idea, you write it out. And you look and you say, “Wait a minute, I have three ideas, and none of them relate to one another.” Fine! No problem. There’s no script, just three ideas that don’t relate. You go along and you get a fourth idea, and this fourth idea relates to the first three, and you say, “Oh, something’s happening.” And then, when something starts happening, more ideas flood in, quicker! Quicker they come, like schools of fish, schools of fish! And the thing starts to emerge, and a script appears. That’s exactly the way it happens. And that’s exactly the way it happened on Inland Empire.
The only difference was that I happened to shoot each of those first three ideas. Not only did I write them down, but I shot them. I built a set, or I went to a location and I shot them, and they didn’t relate. And then I got the fourth idea, which related to them, and now I’m stuck with the [technical format], because I’ve already shot these three. But now the whole thing has come together and I’m starting to write and I’ve got the whole thing now coming. That’s the way it happened. So it wasn’t that I had no script. I had a script all along the way. It just wasn’t complete until it was complete, the way every other script is.
AVC: Had you revisited Inland Empire at all prior to the remastering experience?
DL: One time, but I became so depressed because I was watching a DVD and some scenes were so dark I couldn’t see them. And I thought, “Well, this is a catastrophe that this is out in the world.” And I got very depressed. But then I got a chance to fix it.
AVC: Inland Empire was made around the time that your eponymous website was still a big passion project, and I know you had a lot of passion as well for the Sony PD-150 camera on which the film was shot. Was that miniDV format as big a creative component as any particular single narrative inspiration or thematic ingredient you were seeking to explore?
DL: In a way. You know, sometimes if you see a Polaroid picture for the first time, as opposed to, I don’t know, an image from a regular film camera, you say, “Oh, I have some ideas that maybe could work with the Polaroid.” And so every time you see something new, some kind of ideas start coming, and some of those ideas can lead even more out there, and a whole other world can open up. So the Sony PD-150, number one it gave me some ideas maybe that way, because of its freedom—freedom. Long, long takes, lightweight, hold it yourself, automatic focus, it was a brand new ballgame.
AVC: Inland Empire connects to associative logic in a way that is completely intuitive for a younger generation raised on hyperlinks and ping-ponging all around the web. At the time it was made, that was all still new and fresh. Does Inland Empire feel in that way like a snapshot of an era at all, or is that irrelevant?
DL: Irrelevant, you know, because it’s a world. I think of films as a chance for people to go into another world. That film makes a world for people to go into and have experiences; every film does that. They can take you back in time to something long, long, long ago. You can have a film about cavemen, and a whole situation with them looking for firewood and stuff like this. Every film is different in that way.
AVC: What most inspired this revisitation and restoration of Inland Empire?
DL: I hear that there’s new technologies. So I started with Sony PD-150 quality, and that was up-resed, and in those days that was the most you could do. And then it came out. And the way you make a DVD and all these things, every time you do something with a film there can be some people that know how to do it the very best, and some people who don’t do it so well. And so anyway, time passes and now there’s this thing with AI, where the computer looks at it with a new kind of intelligence, and it can make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. It is incredible. And it’s just the beginning, it’s just the beginning. So it doesn’t really matter in a strange way what you start with. In the future, the manipulation you can do will be incredible.
AVC: In the initial restoration comparisons, what did you see that was most surprising to you?
DL: I saw what Inland Empire used to be, and I see what it is now. And to me there’s a huge jump in quality. I saw more focus, deeper colors. And it’s not like it became film, but we added grain. The things you can do, it brought it into its own thing. It’s really nice-looking now; it’s really beautiful to me.
AVC: The decision to add that fine layer of grain—was that a simple or intuitive one?
DL: Well, everybody knows that certain video skin looks plastic. And when you put a little grain in there, it starts looking really sweet, really fantastic. So it’s all about using your tools to get it to look and feel the way you want it. And now you have a lot more tools. With Inland Empire, it’s like, Here’s the film that you made, and it used to look this way. And there was a little bit of sadness in your heart, because [long pause] in a way, the look of it took away from going into the world. It blocked a little bit of it, it had a tendency to kind of keep calling attention to itself. Now I think it’s easier to go into that world.
AVC: Was there one element of the restoration that was most time-consuming for you?
DL: The time-consuming part was looking at the different techniques used to see which one was the best. They sent me split-screens. So I’ve got this one on this side, and this one on this side, and then there was a different combo with different things. And seeing all those different things, some jumped out. The two newest ones, thank goodness, jumped out as being the best. And of those two, one was better than the other. So there it was, after all these different tests and comparing: one jumped out. But it just took a long time to check everything. And then video is ridiculous sometimes in color, so you desaturate things, and they start looking way, way, way more like cinema. And then you add a little bit of grain, and then things start looking pretty beautiful, especially when the new quality comes and you’re in a very good place.
AVC: Some notable filmmakers have returned to their works years later with re-edits, because just as a viewer’s relationship to a piece of art can change over time, so too can a creator’s. Was a new narrative cut something you ever considered with Inland Empire?
DL: No. But Dune—people have said, “Don’t you want to go back and fiddle with Dune?” And I was so depressed and sickened by it, you know? I want to say, I loved everybody that I worked with; they were so fantastic. I loved all the actors; I loved the crew; I loved working in Mexico; I loved everything except that I didn’t have final cut. And I even loved Dino [De Laurentiis], who wouldn’t give me what I wanted [laughs]. And Raffaella, the producer, who was his daughter—I loved her. But the thing was a horrible sadness and failure to me, and if I could go back in I’ve thought, well, maybe I would on that one go back in.
AVC: Really?
DL: Yeah, but I mean, nobody’s…it’s not going to happen.
AVC: Well that’s interesting, because in the past you were always much less open to it.
David Lynch: Yeah, I wanted to walk away. I always say, and it’s true, that with Dune, I sold out before I finished. It’s not like there’s a bunch of gold in the vaults waiting to be cut and put back together. It’s like, early on I knew what Dino wanted and what I could get away with and what I couldn’t. And so I started selling out, and it’s a sad, sad, pathetic, ridiculous story. But I would like to see what is there. I can’t remember, that’s the weird thing [laughs]. I can’t remember. And so it might be interesting—there could be something there. But I don’t think it’s a silk purse. I know it’s a sow’s ear.
AVC: Everyone assumes that Inland Empire will be your next film to make its way to Criterion. Are there any new supplemental features planned for that release?
David Lynch: For Inland Empire? No, I don’t know anything at all. Those are the things I call bells and whistles. And, you know, bells and whistles, there are novelty stores on Hollywood Boulevard that sell those. It’s the film, that’s what’s important—the film. And the rest is like, you know, golly day, if people say, “Okay, I can get the thing but if there’s no bells and whistles then I’m not going to buy it,” that’s fine. But for me the bells and whistles are almost ridiculous or absurd, sorry. You work so hard to get the film to be the film, and a certain way, and its quality and all that. That’s the thing you go for.
57 Comments
Wow, this might be the most Lynch has spoken about Dune since 1984. Honestly after listening to Mel Brooks audiobook I’d like to here more about Lynch’s time making the Elephant Man. Brooks has his fair share of stories about executives and such so I wonder how hands off he was with Lynch? Guessing more so then Dino. It’s actually really cool to realize that Mel Brooks had his hand in the rising careers of both David Lynch and David Cronenberg.
I was reading a review of Dune ‘84 and apparently this isn’t the ending of the novel? No spoilers!
I actually think it’s kinda great, spaceman Jesus superpowers brings rain to Arrakis, end movie.
Yeah it’s not. I won’t go into spoiler country but having Paul bring rain to Arrakis with his “super powers” really goes against what the story the book was trying to tell.
Two seconds after that ending (which wasn’t in the book): Cheers turn to frowns and horror when people realize the rains will have killed the sandworms meaning the end to spice, the economy of Arrakis collapses, and interstellar travel becomes impossible because navigators are all spice addicts who need their fixes to navigate.
You need to see the SpiceDiver edit of the film. It includes removed scenes, does some reordering, eliminates rain on Arrakis, and makes far more sense
I can’t recommend the SpiceDiver Redux version enough. It’s so damned good.
The thing that I love about the end of Lynch’s Dune and its deviation from the book is that there is no franchise setup. He totally wipes away the whole galactic jihad angle which would have been absolutely required to keep going with the story, and very neatly ties it off with, as you said, Spaceman Jesus superpowers, which the entire movie was building up to. Every movie anywhere near this genre these days ends with WE’RE GONNA MAKE ANOTHER, STICK AROUND! (especially ones that have multiple books in the series). This one didn’t and I am so glad. Dune (and Blade Runner) was 11-year-old me’s entrance into sci-fi/fantasy (try to guess what my favorite part was, hint, it’s something they have in common).
All that said, I loved Villenueve’s version and am looking forward to the sequel(s).
Yah, no slam on Villenueve’s version which is amazing but I legit thought that was the point for Paul to go full superpowered Spaceman Jesus at the end as there’s “not a drop of rain on Arrakis”. (Although yah now I get the point that it’d wipe out the sandworms and spice which would be really bad) Great visual anyway though and the music score is fantastic which is probably why I like it so much. I really wish Zimmer had sampled some of it, the Dune theme for Lynch’s version is also freakin’ gold.
But, also great, Zimmer’s version too.Something can be two things!
Yeah, Villenueve should definitely had a band like Muse do the score like Lynch had Toto. Really go for that space prog sound.
Not a lot of “popular band does film soundtrack” anymore. That shit was all over the 80s. Dune, Blade Runner, Highlander, etc…
Flash…. ah ah.
I listen to the Toto soundtrack every so often. Its really great and emotive and I wish it got more attention. So many talents in that production and its such a shame Lynch never was allowed to make the 3 hour version he envisioned which I think would have been more loyal and a far better film than this version. Halfway through you can tell it all falls apart and becomes this rough and rushed piece and it didn’t have to be this way. I bet he regrets this a great deal. I think he understood he was making something very special with a lot of special people and studio insistance that this be a shorter movie that was more commercial just killed everything.
If you really want to read more on the shoot from Lynch’s point of view, I highly recommend the biography/autobiography he did with Kristine McKenna, Room to Dream. It goes through it in a lot of detail.
Brooks knew how to run interference between the director and studio. The studio wanted to cut some of the dream sequences in Elephant Man after seeing an early cut, and Brooks wrote to them saying “We are involved in a business venture. We screened the film for you, to bring you up to date as to the status of that venture. Do not misconstrue that as our soliciting the input of primitives.”
#ReleaseTheLynchCut
Inland Empire was the ugliest, least watchable and most incomprehensible move I’ve ever seen by a venerable directeor.
But now it’s less ugly! Maybe.
Hope we get a rejiggered version of More Things That Happened, at least
This is the most lucid and on the rails interviews I have seen or read with Lynch since the mid 90s. Kudos.
He’s never come across to me as off the rails or not lucid
He’s just on his own rails!
Dave, Dune is awesome and you shouldn’t feel bad about it!
Yeah, it’s its own thing. Like Kubrick’s Shining. Non-faithful adaptations aren’t necessarily bad. Plus Kyle MacLachlan was a way better Paul than Chalamet.
Exactly. I LOVE the Dune books, especially God Emperor and later, but I also love Lynch’s movie. It does a good job of showing the sheer weirdness of a culture 10k years advanced from ours.And yeah MacLachlan Paul is best Paul, though I did like Chalamet better than I expected to.
It’s actually more like 25 years from now, 10k years A.G.(After Guild).
I love Lynch’s Dune (and just Lynch, period). A glorious mess, in the best possible sense. By contrast, Villeneuve’s Dune is … a Villeneuve movie. Sober and drab and Cinematic. Aside from the hyucka-hyucka Momoa performance. Give me the festering, puss-squirting, hamming-it-up Baron Harkonnen any day!
Yeah the new one isn’t bad, there’s a lot that’s good about it, but it doesn’t have the same lived in texture as Lynch’s.
Lynch’s Dune feels more like a truly alien environment than any sci-fi movie ever- it’s a culture and a world with its own logic and rhythm. If nothing else he managed a unique atmosphere.
I agree! Particularly with regards to the costuming and production design. Lynch’s various factions feel uniquely realized, with distinct cultures. There’s a same-y-ness to the Villeneuve version (which I like fine); the battle sequences are almost Marvel-esque in their anonymous brownish guys vs. anonymous grayish guys shooting beams at each other. Everyone whispers, everyone dresses in black COS. All the edges have been sanded off (heh) in the interest of being Adult Science-Fiction. Lynch shows us new things. Does it go camp? Sometimes! But at least he dares to dream.
What was the famous rule during star wars produciton? Like make sure everything looks well used? I wish they did that for the new Dune movie. It really just looked like a sci-fi videogame circa 2010. Ugh, so much lost potential due to the clean and drab aesthetic the director thinks is appropriate for every movie of his.Just the fashions and the sets from the original! The two movies are like night and day and they didn’t need to be.
Put another way, the new movie is boring as fuck, and literally the only moment that seems to have any humanity is when Aquaman shows up for 30 seconds.
The best parts of Dune are the weird Lynchian shit. As the new movie shows, the actual story is a fucking snooze on screen, Lynch is what made it interesting. I’ll take Lynch’s insane “whispered thoughts” over Villeneuve’s incessant “smell the fart” moments any day of the week.
Lynch Dune being a crazy rock opera feels closer in spirit to the book than the new movie.
Yeah Patrick Stewart with a pug just fits, right?
It also, despite being labelled as confusing, has more exposition in it than Villeneuve’s version.
I think a lot more people know the general story today than they did ~40 years ago…
I sense a Making Dune docudrama in the works.
A Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, but for Dune?
I love Lynch and I love his willingness to admit now that shooting a feature film on DV was a stupid fucking idea. I think Inland Empire is a phenomenal movie, but christ, is it ugly.
I didn’t really notice how ugly it was until the second time I saw it, which was on the big screen. It was painful.
Yeah, that digital technology will never catch on!
Inland Empire is the only Lynch movie I haven’t seen yet. I bought the DVD though, and tried to get it started sometime last year, but shelved it not too far in, partly because I was turned off by the cheap video look. Now I’m just going to wait for this 4K release, particularly because the film grain being added should go a long way in fixing that.
I’ve tried watching it a couple of times and ran into that issue. Reassuring myself that the movie was supposed to look like that kind of distracted from whatever Grace Zabrisky was doing.
I agree that it’s ugly, but also, the digital affectation serves the film tremendously in how unnerving and disorienting the look and atmosphere is. Plus, I love how Lynch—along with Michael Mann, Spike Lee, and others—really played with the language of film with early digital cinematography. There’s a reason movies generally have balanced compositions and sculpted lighting, but I’m glad Inland Empire exists as it does and throws all of that out the window. Nothing is gonna get as much of out of it as Lynch does.
It’s absolutely ugly as hell, but given the movie’s general vibe I think it enhances the mood rather than detracting from it. All the smearing colors and plastic skin fit right in with everything else the movie’s doing, especially in the final third.
Surely someone would have run it through some AI/ML upscaling algo by now. (Probably what Criterion will be doing with their upcoming release)
I want to see the new version and how it works but the video aesthetic worked perfect for a nighmare ready to collapse.
I was a friend of Gilbert. When the money was thin, he’d do a Cameo anyway. Also this is better than Lynch’s original.
Lynch was asked at a Q&A if, had he been shooting on film, would Inland Empire have been a shorter movie? He replied, “No, it would just have taken longer to shoot”
I’ve come to terms with the idea that we’ll never see the version of Dune that Lynch would have made without interference, and I love the weird condensed version we got anyway. It’s so alien. And Lynch has more or less taken what he needed from it and moved on.
I secretly want a collaboration film by David Lynch and Hidetaka Miyazaki.
I liked Lynch’s Dune much better than Villeneuve’s, at least as far as the characters were concerned. They popped in Lynch’s film and pooped in V’s. The problem with Lynch’s Dune was the last third seemed extremely truncated, as though the producers said, “No more money — wrap this up — now!” If Lynch has more footage that would tell a fuller story in the last third — that would DEFINITELY be something to see…
“Wait a minute, I have three ideas, and none of them relate to one another.”Yep. That sounds like a David Lynch movie.
This site may be much of a way through a death spiral, but damn it, Brent, this is a great interview.
Dune is perfect and exactly the movie it needs to be.
This is a good interview and Lynch is charming and edifying, great work.
WAKE UP! The new Thor teaser is out!
Intriguing! I wonder what he’d do with Dune if he was given the time and money now… I think he’s right that’s what there hasn’t aged too well because (as he put it) he sold out before the edit anyway. Still, the production design on Dune 84 was so much more interesting and beautiful than the recent Dune (which I also loved). There’s a lot of wonderful stuff in Lynch’s Dune… it might just be better as an illustration to the novel than a film.