Inland Empire

‘Inland Empire’ is a film by David Lynch about a once-feted Hollywood actress who is cast in a movie that is rumoured to be cursed. From a queer, feminist perspective, film critic Melissa Anderson examines how Lynch’s late masterpiece is not only a brilliant evocation of how images work on the mind, but how powerful “acteurs” are in the creation of dreamlike cinema. Laura Dern’s astonishing performance, as the film’s realities splinter and identities multiply, is elucidated by Anderson through her deep affection and respect for Lynch. The book is part of the Decadent Editions series, which examines one film for every year of the 2000s, each a milestone of contemporary cinema.

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The Decadent Editions is a series of ten books about ten films, one for every year of the 2000s.

Each a deep dive into a single film, the ten book-length essays shift attention away from entrenched classics and the churn of mainstream releases, spotlighting milestones of contemporary cinema. These idiosyncratic studies, by some of today’s most compelling cultural critics, are ambitious and insightful, yet playful and inviting.

Together they offer an eclectic view of cinema in the first ten years of the new millennium – a decade now ripe for reappraisal.

Author Melissa Anderson
Cover and book design James Geoffrey Nunn
First edition 2021
Pp. 128
ISBN 9783981918694
Language EN