Vanilla Sky voted 'Most Confusing Movie Eva!1"

[Big Jack McBastard]

Trying to analyse all of the significances in Mulholland Drive is nigh on impossible due to the whole 'it was a pilot turned movie'-thing', yes lots of the symbolism and psychological rifts can be explained or reasonably guessed at and some of the larger arcs of the story become apparent on subsequent viewings and having a chat about it, but there are a lot of mid sized things that simply don't get enough explanation as to the significance of their significance, it's not a bad thing in fact it's one of the things about Lynch which makes his stuff so compelling. It's very much set in it's own world which I crave like a junkie and which Lynch is great at, you need look no further than Twin Peaks to see it. Also it dodged leaving me with a 'phantom series' feeling, though I'm sure it would have been f'kin awesome and now I've typed that, want to see happen.

Inland Empire, I need to watch again, I was riveted through my first viewing it kept me on my toes and threw plenty of curveballs, hard as fuck to penetrate but all the better for it. I always enjoy a flick when you feel the need to go beyond what is presented, too many films require nothing of the audience but a working set of eyes, ears and an arse.

Vanilla Sky touches neither of them in the confusion stakes.

[Queneau]

I never understand why people don't like not being able to understand a film, being utterly confused by a film is a fun emotion for me, knowing exactly what's going on is boring.

I agree with that. The first time I came out of the cinema having just watched Vanilla Sky I was actually buzzing. It's a feeling I hadn't experienced before that or since. The comments here that it ties itself up doesn't explain it at all. There are so many things left open and to question. And to anyone that has seen the original but not Vanilla Sky I would truly recommend it; a great film made slightly better, in my opinion. The Spanish version comes across as more of a horror film; it's a lot more brutal and dark. I'm not saying those things are bad, it's just a different film in that way.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Speaking of Mulholland Dr, the original unaired pilot is up on the usual sites if anyone wants to check it out and see how it compares with the film

[Santa's Boyfriend]

I don't really want to see it to be honest, as I love the film and I'm worried it'd ruin it for me.  Can anyone tell us what it's like?

[Artemis]

It's 26 minutes of relentless lesbian action at the end of which Rebekah del Rio squirts into a blue box.

[Ja'moke]

Speaking of Mulholland Dr, the original unaired pilot is up on the usual sites if anyone wants to check it out and see how it compares with the film

I've been searching the usual sites but can't seem to find it...?

[El Unicornio, mang]

Oh wait, it looks like it's only on demonoid. PM me if you need an invite. There's also clips of it on youtube. The quality isn't very good as it was taken from a VHS copy but it's interesting to see characters who were just in the background in the film actually have proper parts in the pilot.

[Dark Sky]

Inland Empire didn't work for me at all. It's an overlong mess. Lynch's films need to be shot well and look good for their ideas to have any impact. This was ugly, ugly, ugly, shot on digital video and unpleasant to watch, and it went on for ages. The story kept meandering on when much less would have worked much better.

Certainly what I love about Lynch's films is the beauty of the cinematography and a gorgeous Badalamenti score.  So when I heard that INLAND EMPIRE was three hours long, shot on videotape, and that he used either stock music or soundscapes he'd created himself (no Angelo) I thought "oh my god this is going to be torturous".

But no!  For me, anyway...  I think it's BEAUTIFULLY shot.  I've never seen digital video look so gorgeous.  Sure there's some scenes which are very deliberately "handheld cam home movie" sort of look, but so much of the film looks so atmospheric and beautiful and colourful and all the more strange and disjointed by it being on videotape.  I think Lynch took the medium and just ran with it, I am gobsmacked every time I rewatch INLAND EMPIRE at just how great it looks.  And sounds, as well. 

I'm not sure about it being "a mess"...  It's certainly meandering, sure.  And I'm positive he stuck stuff in which doesn't have any bearing on anything else just to mess with people who try and piece his films together.  But it's so epic so absolutely mindblowingly epic that I love it.  I honestly thought he'd never EVER be able to create a film which beat Mulholland Drive in terms of strangeness and surreal complexity and scope, and INLAND EMPIRE makes Mullholland Drive look like a simple three-words a page children's story.

I fully expected to hate it so much but INLAND EMPIRE just thrills me to the core.  It gets a bit droopy in the middle during all the stuff set in contemporary Poland, but then everyone starts doing the Locomotive which is my absolute favourite part of the film. 

I've only seen it three or four times so far so I couldn't possibly start commenting on what any of it means, but come back to me in ten years' time and maybe, like Mulholland Drive, it'll have started slotting into place, if just through familiarity.

[The Roofdog]

If you want a confusing Tom Cruise film look no further than the first Mission: Impossible. I still have no idea how he gets from working out that "Job 314" is a reference to a bible passage and not a job code (fair 'nuff) to using that bible passage to guess super-secret arms dealer Vanessa Redgrave's email address.

[Cerys]

Oh, come on, that was simple.  All he had to do was

Spoiler alert

read the script

[close]

.

[Ja'moke]

Certainly what I love about Lynch's films is the beauty of the cinematography and a gorgeous Badalamenti score.  So when I heard that INLAND EMPIRE was three hours long, shot on videotape, and that he used either stock music or soundscapes he'd created himself (no Angelo) I thought "oh my god this is going to be torturous".

But no!  For me, anyway...  I think it's BEAUTIFULLY shot.  I've never seen digital video look so gorgeous.  Sure there's some scenes which are very deliberately "handheld cam home movie" sort of look, but so much of the film looks so atmospheric and beautiful and colourful and all the more strange and disjointed by it being on videotape.  I think Lynch took the medium and just ran with it, I am gobsmacked every time I rewatch INLAND EMPIRE at just how great it looks.  And sounds, as well. 

I'm not sure about it being "a mess"...  It's certainly meandering, sure.  And I'm positive he stuck stuff in which doesn't have any bearing on anything else just to mess with people who try and piece his films together.  But it's so epic so absolutely mindblowingly epic that I love it.  I honestly thought he'd never EVER be able to create a film which beat Mulholland Drive in terms of strangeness and surreal complexity and scope, and INLAND EMPIRE makes Mullholland Drive look like a simple three-words a page children's story.

I fully expected to hate it so much but INLAND EMPIRE just thrills me to the core.  It gets a bit droopy in the middle during all the stuff set in contemporary Poland, but then everyone starts doing the Locomotive which is my absolute favourite part of the film. 

I've only seen it three or four times so far so I couldn't possibly start commenting on what any of it means, but come back to me in ten years' time and maybe, like Mulholland Drive, it'll have started slotting into place, if just through familiarity.

I agree with all of this, especially that bit in bold, although it's the Loco-Motion, not locomotive. ;)

I love INLAND EMPIRE, and like you, was cautious of the digital camera at first, but I think it just adds to the strangeness, all the close-up shots for example, it shoves you right in to the scene, and in to the mind of that character. That bit where one of the prostitutes suddenly appears, turns directly to camera and whispers "Who is she?", seriously shit me up the first time I saw it. Laura Dern is fantastic too, the way she contorts her face is pretty special (and weird), and the range she displays in the film is amazing.

[mcbpete]

Yeah INLAND EMPIRE is probably my favourite Lynch. So many things that make my brain do a little dance, and parts that freak me out just thinking about it like

Spoiler alert

the bit with the really big face that comes seemingly out of nowhere down the corridor

[close]

. But the moment for me that gets me almost every time is

Spoiler alert

when you think she's actually just a nutty prostitute and then gets stabbed, and is left to die listening to the disturbing story by that asian woman. Then just as she dies, the director says 'Cut' and you see the crane of the camera coming in. Suddenly she's had to shift from the emotion of dying to realising she's still stuck in the 'cinema' level and you can sense her entire identity has crumbled away

[close]

. I've probably interpreted that entire section wrong but that's what I get from that scene anyway.

[El Unicornio, mang]

That big face bit makes me jump probably more than any other bit in a film (there's also another bit in the film that makes me jump but I can't remember it now). See also: the loud baby scream in Eraserhead, Mystery Man's face in the bed in Lost Highway and the tramp in Mulholland Dr.

[mcbpete]

Mystery Man's face in the bed in Lost Highway

Holy crap that bit shit me up good and proper the first time I saw it.

[Big Jack McBastard]

That big face bit makes me jump probably more than any other bit in a film

Seconded... no thirded.

The wrongness of it makes my spine tingle, same (sort of) sensation to a lesser extent in Mulholland Drive when Betty/Diane/Rita meld and Naomi Watts is literally looking back at herself with disdain in the kitchen, both scenes rub my senses the wrong way on some fundamental level I'd not experienced until I'd seen those films, for that alone they rocketed up my favourite films list when I first saw them.

[lipsink]

That big face bit makes me jump probably more than any other bit in a film

There's 2 big face moments:

Spoiler alert

One about half way through where she's running up to the camera in slow motion and after a while the camera just zooms in and the music goes mental. Then towards the end there's  another one.

[close]

Both are horrifying and scared the shit out of me when I saw them in the cinema.

The conversation between the homeless people is incredibly bizarre too, particularly because of the point at which it arrives in the film.

[trotsky assortment]

It came before Mulholland Drive. I'm not even joking.

Did anyone else find Vanilla Sky especially complicated? I think it explained itself very well and by the end there wasn't much confusion in my brain. I love VS, I think it's genuinely wonderful, but it's not difficult to follow, surely.

If you love VS, what'd you make of 'Abre Los Ojos'?

[El Unicornio, mang]

Watched Vanilla Sky the other night, really enjoyed it. Not sure why it got so many bad reviews. Also, I think it was voted "most confusing" because up until the last 15 minutes, it is. It gets all neatly explained in the end though, and is an interesting concept (and seemed very similar to Inception)

[sirhenry]

A confusing films thread with no mention of Primer yet? That can't be right.[nb] Maybe I've got the timeline wrong.[/nb]

[mcbpete]

Try the second post in this topic !

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Yeah. Open your eyes.

[small_world]

A confusing films thread with no mention of Primer yet? That can't be right.[nb] Maybe I've got the timeline wrong.[/nb]

Surely a time travel joke?

[sirhenry]

I went back and you're right - it's mentioned on pages 1,2,3,4,5,7,and 12.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

A confusing films thread with no mention of Primer yet? That can't be right.[nb] Maybe I've got the timeline wrong.[/nb]