"Cast out this wicked dream which has seized my heart."<br /><br />First let me say that I think this film is a major achievement in the history of cinema. Hopefully to be considered thus in due time. Lynch moves on in his exploration of the "Real", where linear Time collapses and moves both ways (forward and backwards), the coherence of identities is abandoned, and "Place" is just an opening into a different one, never a constant in itself. If Lost Highway and Mullholand Dr. violated and experimented with Time's linearity and the coherence of identities, this movie is confident in its use of "slippery time" and "reflected selves". And, for the first time, accomplishes the same for "Place" as well. We are dealing with reflections here, some mirror-like or upside-down, others - a deeper version of the surface. Lynch entirely abandons the basic grid of "modern" narrative, yet manages to tell a story. I will try to retrace some of the reflections. <br /><br />There is a woman; she has agency, she acts freely. She pursues Love, Sweetness, a Palace. She finds death, becomes a prostitute, she has to fight against some "Phantom", she will see the end of her world. There is yet another woman, she is "bound", just like a circus animal, someone controls her. She has a Screw-Drive-er (in her stomach), she bears a child, she is lost. She wants to kill the free woman. She is instructed to annihilate that freedom (When she will manage to do it, they will merge for a moment in a kiss. It is exactly midnight - both hands of the clock have finally met). There is this Phantom, this "something", he controls the woman like a puppet on a string. Once she'll find him, she will try to kill him. Which will only make him happy, maybe even give him an orgasm. She'll be able to catch a glimpse of herself as the stupid clown she really is, and go backwards into room #47, her blind spot (the second half of an AK47, the first half of which is echoed backwards in the letters written on her fist). But in order to do that, she'll have to try and go against the current, to get deeper "Inland". Because there is always some "Crimp", some blind spot, someone's hiding just in front of you. She'll unfold that crimp, but if she'll push too hard, the light she shines on it might go out, like an overcharged Light Bulb. Then there is a deeper version, in polish, in the past. Once again: a prostitute, a violent man, a cheating woman. And at the heart of it all - the barest version (reality? humanity?). Tamed rabbits (implicitly sexual, like PlayBoy's logo) living in a place where everything is completely uncanny, made up, dreamed up, some weird sitcom (who watches it?). Perhaps there is some way out still, into Sweetness, to The Palace, to Pomona (a city named after the Roman goddess of abundance). Perhaps not: the bright future will only reveal a past of violence ("Ah, but there has to be a murder in it," says the visitor and smiles). In Pomona the girls will sing about a sinner-man and dance. Then there is also the director, King-sley, shouting "Action!" ("Axxonn", "Axe On"), he directs her to her death, then applauds her (you might say the horse has been brought to the well, but drank of its own volition). It doesn't stop here, everything is reflected on the male side as well. An excellent and in depth exploration of these themes could be found on the message board in the official site.<br /><br />Lynch offers us a glimpse of the empire that rules the In-Land, where the Screwdriver meets the Crimp (to produce Truth as an offspring), and a woman gets in trouble for having the American Dream hardwired as her personality.<br /><br />Finally, I'd like to point out that this is Laura's Best as well (perhaps that is what is written on her fist?). Her acting is breathtaking. She even betters her confessed roll model - Deneuve in Repulsion.<br /><br />My only caveat would be that Lynch seems to have dreamed up his own private Pomona in the shape of Eastern mysticism, which seems a bit naive. Had he researched it, the amount of violence hidden beneath these scriptures (the Gita, Upanishads, etc.) would have been easily uncovered (Brahminism, State Vaishnavism, Militarism, not to mention the English translations/interpertations originating as a tool for colonial rule). But all this should not distract from the fact that this movie is a masterpiece. A genuine and timely expansion of the limits of Cinema and Narrative.<br /><br />In a way, I keep imagining Lynch as constantly watching Sunset Boulevard (as the gaffer, offering a Light Bulb), asking himself, "how could this come to be?"