Inland Empire Wiki

Discussion of INLAND EMPIRE

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Mr. Reindeer
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Inland Empire Wiki

Post by Mr. Reindeer »

Over the last few nights, I've thrown together a wiki for the film. Certainly a notion that Lynch would bristle at, but I felt that for this film in particular, some would find it a valuable resource to catalogue the various characters and motifs. I've always loved the "Lost on Mulholland Drive" site (which sadly seems to have recently vanished from the Internet); I thought a wiki might be a practical way to create a similar resource for IE. If anyone is interested, this is the page I put together for the main film: http://inland-empire.wikia.com/wiki/INL ... IRE_(film). The synopsis acts as a jumping-off point to most of the other articles I have put together.

I'm not entirely certain how wikis work - I assume editing is open to the public. (I see options to restrict editing of certain pages, but not the wiki as a whole). While I obviously put a lot of hard work into what is there and would like to see that not undone, I would be thrilled if other fans jumped in, particularly on the "analysis" end, which is the one element I think is fairly lacking at the moment. There are so many wonderful theories regarding the film's characters, occurrences, themes and worlds. It would be lovely to see them all pulled together in one place (or, many places, but on the same wiki).

If anyone has thoughts/suggestions, please let me know (especially if I'm wrong and editing isn't publicly available - if that's the case, I would love to "deputize" those of you who wish to contribute).
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Saturn's child
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Re: Inland Empire Wiki

Post by Saturn's child »

Hi Reindeer, I just had a browse through your wiki: excellent work!! :D Looks like you've put in a lot of effort, & I'm glad to see something like this exists for the film now. I'd love to contribute some different ideas/analyses at some point, but I'm pressed for time at the moment (on a writing job too), so will have to put off any significant contributions for awhile. That being said, if I have some spare time/idea-power...
I'll give you a holler if I run into any admin difficulties, & will probably run anything by you first anyway to see where you think it will best fit. Once again, great work!
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Mr. Reindeer
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Re: Inland Empire Wiki

Post by Mr. Reindeer »

SC, that's terrific news! Hope we get more people pitching in. I think IE is severely underrated, even in Lynch-fan circles.
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JackwithOneEye
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Re: Inland Empire Wiki

Post by JackwithOneEye »

Just looked at this IE wiki page, nice work Reindeer.
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Mr. Reindeer
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Re: Inland Empire Wiki

Post by Mr. Reindeer »

JackwithOneEye wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 5:49 pm Just looked at this IE wiki page, nice work Reindeer.
Thanks! Haven’t looked at it in a few years, but would love if others contributed thoughts/theories.
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JackwithOneEye
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Re: Inland Empire Wiki

Post by JackwithOneEye »

there's a lot of interesting observations you have, the rabbits trying to free the lost girl and defeat the phantom (though appearing as his allies and trying to manipulate him), that hadn't occurred to me. + the polish man who gives the gun to Smithy, being a manifestation of a jack rabbit.

the last time I watched IE, I was thinking maybe Nikky doesn't exist, all the hollywood stuff is imaginary world / projection/ dream of Sue imagining herself as a movie star, when in reality she some sort of runaway prostitute, her pimp, the phantom is from poland, i thought maybe his backstory was partially her imaginings. I thought maybe the lost girl was the inner self of Sue or something, the way she watching the TV, thought maybe she was representing the mind/ inner layer of Sue's consciousness.

but i havent watched it nearly as many times as LH, MD, Eraserhead, so I'm sure I've missed lots of things. I'll have to re visit it.
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Mr. Reindeer
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Re: Inland Empire Wiki

Post by Mr. Reindeer »

There’s so much going on. Your interpretation makes as much sense as anything. This is one character who I’ve never figured out, who arguably could be seen to support your take: https://inland-empire.fandom.com/wiki/Carolina

It doesn’t help that the film is so dark, sometimes you can’t tell who is who without extrapolating from the credits!
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Ickles
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Re: Inland Empire Wiki

Post by Ickles »

Late to the party here but excellent work, Mr. Reindeer. IE is one of my favorite films, Lynch or otherwise, and it's great to see a resource like this.
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