Maximilliano Brito

CINE 240
Claudia Consolati
June 30, 2013

Lynch and Fellini, Film Within a Film

Inland Empire is often described as David Lynchs 8 , and indeed the film is analogous to
Fellinis both stylistically and thematically. The postmodernist self-reflexivity that highlights the
constructed nature of Lynch's Inland Empire finds precedent in Fellinis 8 . Lynchs
film-within-film construction and fragmented, dream-like fantastic imagery, intertwining narratives
are similarly present in Fellini. In 8 , Guido's (Marcello Mastroianni) progressive dissolution of
subjectivity in the film is akin to Nikki's (Laura Dern); like Guido's, Nikki's identity undergoes a
disintegration. She wanders lost in between reality, character, and the film within the film only to be
found again in the final scene upon her characters symbolic death, the point at which she transcends
the dichotomous Susan Blue and Nikki Grace personas and becomes whole. I intend to present the
similarities between Guidos and Nikkis individuation, and the similarities between the films stylistic
and formal elements that are used to convey this journey through multiple personas and splittings of
identity.
Inland Empire initially seems too chaotic to offer any chance for comprehension, so as a
background to my argument I will provide a brief synopsis and explanation of the film as I have come
to interpret it. Three major storylines are taking place. The film begins with Nikki Graces where she, a
glamorous Hollywood actress living in a huge empty mansion is married to a dangerously jealous
Polish husband. She is visited by an almost threateningly mysterious Polish neighbor that tells her
shes already received the role she is to audition for tomorrow, and that the film involves murder and
marriage. Nikki accepts the role of Susan Blue in a film called On High in Blue Tomorrows alongside
Devon Berk, who is known for having affairs with his co-stars (and indeed begins an affair with Nikki).
The role of Susan, closely mirroring Nikkis life, is of a woman having an extramarital affair with Billy,
Devons character. Susan Blue evolves into her own narrative, beginning to diverge and becoming
almost indistinguishable with Nikkis. On High in Blue Tomorrows is revealed to be based on a Polish
folk-tale, and is in fact a remake of another Polish adaptation of the same folk-tale. This version makes
up the third narrative: a love drama in which, again mirroring Nikkis life, two lovers affair leads to
their murder at the hands of their jealous partners. This first Polish adaptation was never finished
because the two leads were murdered, and so it seems that Nikkis fate is predetermined according to
the events of the folktale. The rest of the film focuses on Nikkis trouble with differentiating her life
from her role. Only until the end, after Susans death, is she able to find her real self and inner peace.
Inland Empires narrative is marked by an almost incomprehensible nonlinearity. Though
the beginnings of nonlinear narrative coincide with those of film, that which Lynch has developed is
indebted to Fellinis own unique and, for Fellinis time, radical nonlinearity. One can see it developing
in La Dolce Vita, but it is most prominent in 8 . La Dolce Vita's narrative is characterized by its
episodic structure, seven narrative fragments, through which Mastroianni drifts surrounded by
Fellini's whimsicality. 8 by comparison is characterized by a much less structured mixture of
Guido's dreams, memories, and hallucinations. Interspersed are surreal, dreamlike peeps into his
memories and subconscious that constantly interrupt the narrative. Guido is bouncing back and
forth from the reality of his life to the life depicted in his film. There is a similar confusion of reality
for Nikki. The three main storylines of Inland Empire coexist in different realities and
temporal/geographical locations, yet they overlap through shared motifs, characters, themes, and
the overarching Polish folk-tale. As Nikki's storyline as the glamorous actress progressively
intertwines with that if the rough and violent Susan, and as both begin to mirror with the original
Polish version, any one of the three narratives becomes increasingly difficult to not only follow but
distinguish from the others. Adding to the chaos of Inland Empire are the hallucinatory appearances
of Nikki/Susan's prostitute-companions, the uncannily-anthropomorphized rabbit sitcom, the Polish
gangsters that have an unexplained connection with Susan's husband, and other nightmarish,
Lynchian motifs.
Lynchian imagery, like its Felliniesque counterpart, has a signature inclination towards
fantasy and the oneiric. It is interspersed alongside bits of reality to create a chaotic narrative
structure and dream-like cinematic experience. Fellinis unique language of dreams has a visible
influence in Lynchs imagery. The opening sequence of 8 1/2 exemplifies the dream-like fantasy
aspect of Fellinis films. Guido is in a car from which he is having noticeable difficulty getting out of.
He is surrounded by other cars and buses filled people with people staring at him. In this way Fellini
creates this uncanny feeling that Lynch often uses in his films too. Lynch likes to add this sort of
uncanniness to things that are initially quite ordinary, but by lingering on them unnecessarily he
gives everything a feeling of mystery and almost ominous eeriness. In all of Lynch's films the reality
is permeated with uncanny and surreal images that makes it hard to tell what is real and what is
fantasy. Inland Empires digital format emphasizes the sense of ambiguity. Lynchs affinity for low-fi
digital filmmaking comes from the fact that it is not as clear as the hi-def format and that it is
reminiscent of older 35mm film. The aesthetic does not give as much information, and so more can
be left for interpretation.
The mirror construction of Inland Empire is a key stylistic link to 8 . 8 is one of the most
famous examples of meta-cinema, a technique that makes the viewer aware of the constructed nature
of the film. Lynch is noted for his unique way of revealing the artifice in his films through
paradoxically creating and often even overdoing the magical quality of filmmaking. Fellini references
the film as a medium and himself as a filmmaker with Guidos character. Guidos film and Guidos
anxieties about the creative process reflected Fellinis life and anxieties. This reflexive construction
is doubled by the fact that Guidos film becomes an autobiography within the already
autobiographical 8 . In films before 8 this mirror construction was only a marginal or
picturesque device, ...at times a simple trick of the scriptwriter's...lending perspective to only part
of the film's substance, the rest being presented directly, and not through reflection. It is important
to note that in 8 we see the first instance in which the content of the entire film, and its deepest
thematic structure, are inseparable from its reflecting construction. (Metz, 1974) This technique is
what made 8 such an influential film. The film-within-a-film framework continues to influence even
American mainstream films like Inception (2010) and Scream 4 (2011). Inland Empire uses the same
technique. Through Nikki Lynch [exposes] the circumstances of an actor's work as she rehearses
or builds her role, performing her character in fragments, and creates a film about the actor's
struggle to rehearse her character amidst multiple possible incarnations and performance
styles. (Paraskeva, 2012) It is Nikkis acting process that gives birth to the multiple mirroring
narratives and it is her confusion in these characters that is the essence of the film, just as Guidos
multiple narratives is the essence of 8 .
Both Lynch and Fellini use mirror construction to delve deeper into the characters psyche
and their use of it is crucial to the development of their films theme. Susan Blue is an incarnation
Nikki's idea of the character, of her role. Susan is something of Nikki's invention, born out of the
rehearsal process, and indeed her first appearance is during the first rehearsal when Susan/Nikki
walks in on Nikki and Devon reading lines. As Nikki's identity becomes enmeshed into Susan's beyond
distinction we are given a view into her subconscious. Susan's abusive husband is then of course
identical to Nikki's possessive husband (both are played by the same actor). And just as Nikki's
husband is Polish, Susan's is Polish and is in an unexplained involvement with a mysterious Polish
circus act. In 8 mise-en-abyme similarly gives insight into Guido's personal problems as well as his
creative problems as a director. He has issues with women, and we see the problems with his
relationships with women in his life (his mistress, his wife, Saraghina, etc), his Oedipal fantasies, his
harem fantasies, his memories, and all these again mirrored in the film within the film.
The creative process as a means to achieve wholeness in Inland Empire is a key thematic link
to 8 . The general mise-en-abyme lends itself to articulating the struggles of Nikki, of the actress (if
one allows for the feminist readings of the film): as Schaffner writes Inland Empire is essentially
about a womans struggle to liberate herself from the cultural roles and fantasmatic projections
imposed upon her. Nikki is liberating herself from impositions of two different dimensions. She frees
herself from Susan Blue and the film within the film. She frees the actress from splitting male gaze
and transcends both the femme fatale (Susan) and wholesome woman (Nikki Grace). (Schaffner,
2009) Guido's inability to create a film reflects Fellini's creative block at the time. As Bondanella
rightly points out, 8 1/2 is Fellini's own analysis of cinematic creativity, one which is articulated
through the self-reflexive nature of the film. (Bondanella, 1992)
Nikkis triumph in a way recalls Guidos, and the ending scene of Inland Empire recalls that of
8 . Nikki, as I said before, shed both Susan as a role and Nikki Grace the glamorous actress. In a way
she said goodbye to Hollywood. I agree with Schaffners parallel between the anecdote in the
beginning, of the girl behind the marketplace, and Nikkis journey towards individuation, finding her
true self. Nikki Grace, before immersing herself in Susan, is half-born. The marketplace is
Hollywood, and the palace is her wholeness. She overcomes the creative process, just as Guido
overcomes his creative block. Guido cant make a film for the sake of creating or meeting deadlines,
and his triumph is in that he becomes a director upon the spontaneous appearance and integration of
his memories, dreams, and subconscious:
What do we mean by inspiration? The capacity for making direct contact between your
unconscious and your rational mind. When an artist is happy and spontaneous, he is
successful because he reaches the unconscious and translates it with a minimum of
interference... (Bondanella, 1990)
1
Inland Empire ends with Susan dying on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, spitting blood on a star. The
view moves backward and reveals the set, cut, and move to prepare for the next scene. Nikki, still in a
haze, is unresponsive to the praise of her acting and for the last time confronts the labyrinthine
corridors and phantoms from throughout the film. We last see Nikki in her home, just as we saw her in
the beginning of the film, though her empty house is now filled with women dancing to Nina Simones
Sinnerman. In 8 he dies, just as Susan dies. All the characters from Guidos life and his film
suddenly appear, regardless of whether this can be possible, real, or not. They all join hands in a
circle and dance away to circus music, leaving the boy in white, Guido as a child. The child is the
triumph of the subconscious as the source of creativity, and Nikki, as we last see her, is her triumph
of wholeness.
1
Fellini
Inland Empires mirror construction and discontinuities in narrative, derive, at least in part,
from Fellinis experiments in narrative form and film structure. Fellinis immensely influential,
self-referential film has had a great impact on films after it, and this influence is certainly present in
David Lynch, whose films are constantly calling attention to artifice of filmmaking.

Works Cited

Bondanella, Peter E. Italian Cinema: From Neorealism to the Present. New York: Continuum, 1990.
Print.
Bondanella, Peter E. The Cinema of Federico Fellini. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press,
1992. Print.
Metz, Christian. Film Language: A Semiotics of the Cinema. New York: Oxford University Press,
1974. Print.
Nochimson, Martha P. "Inland Empire." Film Quarterly. 60.4 (2007): 10-14. Print.
Paraskeva, A. "Digital Modernism and the Unfinished Performance in David Lynch's Inland Empire."
Film Criticism. 37.1 (2012): 2-18. Print.
Schaffner, Anna K. "Fantasmatic Splittings and Destructive Desires: Lynch's Lost Highway,
Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire." Forum for Modern Language Studies. 45.3 (2009): 270-291.
Print.