Inland Empire, Kinda

"Inland Empire" was not a film that inspired me to be a filmmaker because it told me something. No, the film had me guessing and confused about its basic plot. However, the film inspired me to make films like it because it deconstructs the traditional film narrative and, instead, creates a completely different way to make, view, and discuss films.

There are only two ways films are told. One is from the reliable narrator, where the images shown on the screen are completely trusted and go together to construct a cohesive storyline. The film goes in chronological order, save flashbacks. In that type of narrative, people interact, life goes from A to B, and in the end, themes are obvious. This is most common, probably 95% of all films are told this way.

The second type of film is an unreliable narrator (I borrowed this term, but I don't remember where from). This story shows images and scenes, but they do not necessarily go in chronological order, or have the same significance. What I mean by that is shown in "Mulholland Dr.," a later Lynch film. In it, one story is told, then later another story is told with similar characters. The audience isn't told the distinction, or which one is real, if both are real, or what. Since David Lynch is basically the only director who tells stories in this way (excluding Christopher Nolan with "Memento")I would like to give credit to him by naming this narrative the Lychian narrative.

This Lynchian narrative is when the filmmaker hands you scenes like puzzle pieces and allows you, the audience, to construct the bigger picture. I love this way of telling stories, because the audience has to mentally participate in order to understand the story (or at least, partly understand). The traditional method merely lets audiences absorb their story because it comes already assembled. With Lynchian narratives, the audience must accept the labor of constructing the full picture with the scenes that they receive. This way, the audience remembers the film long after it is over. If you have to concentrate and focus on what a film is trying to say, you will think about it more than if the film is just told to you.

That is why I want to make Lynchian narrative films. When I begin, most likely I will be compared to Lynch, many saying I'm just ripping him off. But I think he has discovered a way of telling stories that no one else has tapped into yet. He's definitely ahead of his time, and he's been doing it for 40 years.