A letter published in the October 2007 edition of Sight & Sound:
Sunset Stripped
With the DVD edition of David Lynch's Inland Empire looming, it seems appropriate to point out one of its film connections that has remained (at least to my knowledge) unmentioned.
At one point the character played by Karolina Gruszka is shown praying, wearing a black veil and looking towards the right of the frame, saying the words: "Cast out that wicked dream which has seized my heart." This is an exact quotation not only from Erich Von Stroheim's Queen Kelly (1931) but also from the film Lynch named as one of his major influences, Billy Wilder's Sunset Blvd. (1950), in which the same scene from Stroheim's movie is watched by Norma Desmond. Just think how rich a point Lynch is making here!
Norma Desmond is Gloria Swanson, who watches herself as a young woman and - according to Sunset Blvd.'s narrator - is "excited about that actress up there on the screen." Add to that the extraordinary scene from Inland Empire in which Laura Dern sees herself on the movie-theatre screen and feels something entirely different from excitement: repulsion, fear, anxiety.
We end up with yet another complex existential conundrum of the kind that Lynch crafts like no other director. Indeed, he knows (more than any other film-maker) one's "wicked dreams" and "seizures of the heart".
Michal Oleszczyk
Krakow, Poland
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8 comments:
Mr. Oleszczyk is a little late to the partee since the IE/KQ/SB linkage has been commented on for a while now, on IMDB too, of all places.
Me thinks, "Marilyn, if you're looking for shock value I suggest you take a look in the mirror" (Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up) is as much about Norma Desmond as the aforementioned, only in a more subtle and witty way.
To be fair, he does start his piece: "With the DVD edition of David Lynch's Inland Empire looming" which means it's only the publication that's late.
I haven't even watched my DVD of it yet; to be honest, never found myself one of those Lynchians who tried to make all the connections like I do with other films. Twin Peaks: Season 2 still hasn't been touched either!
Lynch's shout-outs to Sunset Blvd have been a given since Blue Velvet (probably minus The Straight Story), it's one of his favourite films...so it's kinda funny that Mr. O thinks he stumbled upon something nobody else had noticed before. People no longer wonder and discover SB within Lynch's work, they know it's always going to be there. Apparently, there's even a Queen Kelly poster hanging on the wall in the backroom of the club with the exotic dancer Laura Dern's character wobbles into towards the end of IE.
Haven't had the opportunity to watch my DVD either....three darn hours.
Laura Dern's character wobbles into the club *not* into the exotic dancer...heh. Poor syntax there.
I know what you're saying and I think every man and Jack Nance's dog knows the SB references throughout Lynch's career; however, he was pointing it out with regards to IE. I've seen SB only once but I didn't recognise that quote whilst watching INLAND (even second time around), so I found it a useful tidbit.
"You told Brandt on the phone, he told me. I know what happened, yes, yes..."
The SB reference Lynch makes in IE is probably the most undisguised one he has made to date...so yeah, Mr. O's observation is funny to me. I'll give him Queen Kelly, though, that one I didn't see myself, and the mise-en-abîme becomes all the more innaeresting because it goes back to Gloria Swanson over and over and over... ad infinitum.
"I'm sorry I wasn't paying attention"
>The SB reference Lynch makes in IE is probably the most undisguised one he has made to date...so yeah, Mr. O's observation is funny to me.
"Yessum, Miss Hazey!"
~Morgan Freeman, DRIVING MISS HAZEY
Shouldn't you be writing your mini-essays? How's that going, btw? (I'm proud to be an abstraction.)
Mini essays...going alright but it's been put off for a while now 'cause the first two weeks of October are, you know, my "occasional acid flashbacks" days. As you can see, I'm still of relatively sound mind at the moment, but can't sleep for shit. :-/
DRIVING MISS HAZEY
Come on, man...I had a rough night and I hate the fucking Franz Ferdinand.
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