David Lynch's most recent theatrical feature, 2006's Inland Empire, was recently given a new 4K restoration and is playing in theaters now. Originally shot with no script by Lynch using handheld Sony DSR-PD150, Inland Empire stars Laura Dern in an unforgettable performance, and the rest of the cast includes Laura's mother, Diane Ladd, along with Justin Theroux, Laura Harring, and Twin Peak's Grace Zabriskie. Given the video format, Inland Empire is a notoriously grainy-looking film that was equally fuzzy when it came to what was going on, even for one of his films.
It turned out to be too murky for the famously obtuse director, as he told AV Club recently: "I was watching a DVD and some scenes were so dark I couldn’t see them. And I thought, 'Well, this is a catastrophe that this is out in the world.' And I got very depressed. But then I got a chance to fix it."
In celebration of new restoration, David Lynch is also giving his 2007 single "Ghost of Love" -- which is featured in Inland Empire and has him playing around with Autotune just a little -- its first-ever vinyl pressing (It was originally released as a CD single) via Sacred Bones. The 7" is out Friday, April 29 via Sacred Bones and features the original b-side, "Imaginary Girl," on the flip. You can pre-order the "Ghost of Love" 7" on limited edition silver vinyl in our shop.
For more on the film and the new restoration, here's the official blurb:
David Lynch’s labyrinthine Hollyweird freakout—his last feature to date—is his most uncompromising creation: a fugue-state trawl through the darkest realms of the subconscious that pushes his straight-from-the-id imagery and sinister dream logic to their extremes. When she accepts a role in a supposedly cursed production, a movie actor on the verge of a comeback (Laura Dern, in a fearless performance) finds herself tumbling down a series of increasingly disturbing rabbit holes (complete with literal rabbits) that lead her from the glittering heights of Tinseltown to the depths of human depravity. In his first feature shot on digital video, Lynch makes visionary use of the medium’s smudged textures and murky chiaroscuro to enhance the hallucinatory, nightmarish quality of what may be his magnum opus.
In NYC you can see Inland Empire at the IFC Center (tickets). Watch the trailer, which is soundtracked to "Ghost of Love," below.
In other news, the rumors that David Lynch would be surprise premiering a new movie at Cannes this year turned out to be false, and his Netflix series Wisteria may or may not be still happening.
Lynch is, however, still doing his weather reports on YouTube, and you can watch today's, where he shouts out Portishead's "Roads," below.
