Inland Empire

David Lynch is my favorite movie director; and INLAND EMPIRE is the only movie I've watched for a good dozen of times, always finding something that my consciousness had previously missed, always constructing new meanings, always challenging my own mind to attend to perfection of this and every moment.

This is the rare masterpiece that engages you as a spectator in the process of intersubjective co-creation of meaning and meaningfullness with a Rorschach blot test of seemingly chaotic kaleidoscope of primordial consciousness in background. It is an art of finding the ever-present Witness in the labyrinths of the individual soul, a kind of dialectical art that is worth silencing your ego for three hours. This movie dialogues with you; and you had better be its equal in the dialogue.

If you consider yourself aesthetically gifted, use this movie as a test; and the result of it will tell what's the actual worth of your aesthetics. Out of the dozen times of watching INLAND EMPIRE, I have watched it in a cinema for 4 times. Every time a half of the audience left the cinema after the first hour; and the other half stayed till the end, enthralled by irrational visions and joyfully crying because of the genuine hope and liberation the story unfolds.

I dare you to watch INLAND EMPIRE. If you're among those who prefer to keep boundaries between your ego and the art you observe, you will probably not make it to the end of the movie. You won't have an intimate encounter with the beauty, and you will miss one of the profoundest experiences you can ever enjoy in life. It is not a simple walk, it is a challenge (just as life is not all joy and pleasure), but successfully confronting this challenge bears fruits of self-liberation.

Chrysta Bell – Polish Poem

from the INLAND EMPIRE Original Soundtrack

I sing this poem to you...

On the other side, I see…

Shall you wait, glowing?

It’s far away, far away from me,

I can see that —

I can see that —

the wind blows outside and I have no breath,

I breathe again and know I’ll have to live

To forget my world is ending.

I have to live…

I hear my heart beat,

Fluttering in pain, saying something,

Tears are coming to my eyes —

I cry… I cry…

I cannot feel the warmth of the sun

I cannot hear the laughter

Choking with every thought,

I see the faces,

My hands are tied as I wish —

But no one comes,

No one comes,

Where are you?

Where are you?

What will make me want to live?

What will make me want to love?

Tell me… tell me…

I sing this poem to you… to you…

Is this mystery unfolding

As a wind floating?

Something is coming true —

The dream of an innocent child…

Something is happening —

Something is happening…