"Inland Empire" Preview

"A Woman in trouble"

Director David Lynch to Canal Plus (the French studio that made "Inland Empire" financially possible): "I don’t know what I’m doing, and I’m shooting on D.V."

A famous actress working on a script that may have been cursed. A jealous husband and a Don Juan lead actor. Coming (we think) for the first time to a big screen in Charlottesville is David Lynch's monumental, semi-narrative meditation on the psyche and the act of recording, "Inland Empire."

Lynch controversially used a midrange DV camera during filming. The finished product retains the raw look of early digital, but the size and cheapness of the cameras allowed the director new creative opportunities. Critics fell into the predictable camps of "What is this?" and "This guy is a genius...I think." OFFscreen invites you to enter the labyrinth for yourself and enjoy Lynch's most recent film.

This showing will conclude our Spring 2009 series, so come out to enjoy "Inland Empire" as it was meant to be seen. As Lynch himself said in a brief NYT interview, "There’s nothing like the big screen. The cinema is really built for the big screen and big sound, so that a person can go into another world and have an experience. As an example, there’s Stanley Kubrick’s “2001:A Space Odyssey” — this would be kind of a pathetic joke on a little screen." Don't be a pathetic joke.

"Inland Empire" will be playing at the Newcomb Theater on Sunday, April 19. Due to its running time of 180 minutes, there will be only one showing at 7 PM.

Thanks for a great season. Trailer and interview after the jump.