You already know what we think about David Lynch's incredible new film INLAND EMPIRE, so when Lynch himself showed up in London yesterday to promote his latest three-hour mind-bending mystery, we went to have a cup of tea with the 61-year-old director who's made at least two of your favourite ever films (admit it).Vice: There seems to be a lot of cryptic messages in your movies. Can you, for instance, explain the significance of the rabbits that pop up in INLAND EMPIRE?
Lynch: It's like, er, no. It's the weirdest thing, and it could sound like a cop-out. Number one, I don't like to talk about a meaning – it's my understanding and it shouldn't be anybody else's. So with the rabbits, well, there are things that are like openings, and they feel correct and cause wonderings and openings and that's what the rabbits are. It's a wordless thing. It's a wordless thing. Heheheh. I have a tough time on my meanings. But I think I should know my meanings for myself but others may get different meanings and those different ones are valid.Why did you use a live cow to promote INLAND EMPIRE recently in Los Angeles?
Well, I got this idea, and I didn't have the money to support Laura Dern [the film's lead] in the traditional way, and I thought: Oh, I'll go see what happens at the corner of Hollywood and La Brea because we found a place we could go to there, it was very nicely situated there. And I'll take a cow and this placard and promote Laura this way. Within one hour Channel 4 News was there and Channel 5 News was there, and a good-sized crowd was there, really nice people. And I didn't realise the love people have for cows. Tremendous love – and curiosity. And it worked to a point getting the word out on her behalf, but it didn't get her a (Oscar) nomination.You've got a major exhibition of your art opening at the Fondation Cartier in Paris on March 3. What can we expect from that?
Yeah, it's a big exhibition. I've shown some of my work before in much smaller venues. This is quite a range in years, going back to high school, and drawings, photographs, paintings, big paintings, a lot of things. Some sound design. We haven't even started that, we're just gathering raw materials, but we put that together around the middle of the month.How's your music coming along?
It's coming along really good, thanks for asking. I don't know what's going to happen but you need time and I want to do some music when I get back home and then we're gonna release some albums. I'm working with this girl Christobel, she sings in INLAND EMPIRE, and do an album with her. Then I was involved in producing a group called Foxbat Strategy. The lead guitar player and singer died suddenly. So it will be a tribute album to him, there's only six or seven tracks, that's all we have. And Angelo Badalamenti and I have this thing called Thought Gang, that's almost finished. A lot of things are almost finished but not quite.You're really into Transcendental Meditation (TM) and set up the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace to promote the practice. To what extent did your use of TM inform INLAND EMPIRE?
Wow, we'll get into that. OK. Trancendental Meditation is a mental technique which allows any human being to dive within. And diving within one experiences subtler levels of mind and intellect and then at the border, one transcends and experiences this ocean, unbounded, infinite, eternal, pure consciousness, modern science's unified field, the kingdom of heaven, the absolute, totality, absolute intelligence, creativity, bliss, energy, dynamic peace: all these qualities exist in this unmanifest field at the base of mind and the base of matter. The experiencing of this deepest level enlivens it and one grows in those qualities, and they say it's a holistic experience. It's the only experience – transcending, experiencing this deepest level – that lights the full brain on the EEG machine. And we've been told we only use 5 to 10 per cent of our whole brain and here's the whole brain engaged with this experience. And so what happens is consciousness starts expanding, bliss starts expanding, intelligence in understanding, wakefulness, awareness, appreciation, all avenues of life get better, creativity flows and the side effect of this is negativity begins to recede. Things like anger, anxiety, stress, fear, depression, sorrow, they start to go, clearing the way for, woah, enjoyment of the doing, appreciation magnified, energy to do the things, without that heavy weight that kills creative flow, and things get very, very, very good. Intuition grows, it's an ocean of knowingness, pure knowingness, unbelievable bliss, physical, emotional, spiritual happiness – boom, giant, unique experiences, but so familiar. It's a beautiful thing. Regular diving in, diving in, it's like going to the treasury every day and getting more and more and more and you carry this with you more. So it feeds the creative process, feeds the enjoyment of the doing, and people like coming to sit next to you and give you money.Wow, thanks, David.
Thank you.* INLAND EMPIRE opens nationwide in selected cinemas on March 12.
Lynch: It's like, er, no. It's the weirdest thing, and it could sound like a cop-out. Number one, I don't like to talk about a meaning – it's my understanding and it shouldn't be anybody else's. So with the rabbits, well, there are things that are like openings, and they feel correct and cause wonderings and openings and that's what the rabbits are. It's a wordless thing. It's a wordless thing. Heheheh. I have a tough time on my meanings. But I think I should know my meanings for myself but others may get different meanings and those different ones are valid.
Annons
Well, I got this idea, and I didn't have the money to support Laura Dern [the film's lead] in the traditional way, and I thought: Oh, I'll go see what happens at the corner of Hollywood and La Brea because we found a place we could go to there, it was very nicely situated there. And I'll take a cow and this placard and promote Laura this way. Within one hour Channel 4 News was there and Channel 5 News was there, and a good-sized crowd was there, really nice people. And I didn't realise the love people have for cows. Tremendous love – and curiosity. And it worked to a point getting the word out on her behalf, but it didn't get her a (Oscar) nomination.You've got a major exhibition of your art opening at the Fondation Cartier in Paris on March 3. What can we expect from that?
Yeah, it's a big exhibition. I've shown some of my work before in much smaller venues. This is quite a range in years, going back to high school, and drawings, photographs, paintings, big paintings, a lot of things. Some sound design. We haven't even started that, we're just gathering raw materials, but we put that together around the middle of the month.How's your music coming along?
It's coming along really good, thanks for asking. I don't know what's going to happen but you need time and I want to do some music when I get back home and then we're gonna release some albums. I'm working with this girl Christobel, she sings in INLAND EMPIRE, and do an album with her. Then I was involved in producing a group called Foxbat Strategy. The lead guitar player and singer died suddenly. So it will be a tribute album to him, there's only six or seven tracks, that's all we have. And Angelo Badalamenti and I have this thing called Thought Gang, that's almost finished. A lot of things are almost finished but not quite.You're really into Transcendental Meditation (TM) and set up the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace to promote the practice. To what extent did your use of TM inform INLAND EMPIRE?
Wow, we'll get into that. OK. Trancendental Meditation is a mental technique which allows any human being to dive within. And diving within one experiences subtler levels of mind and intellect and then at the border, one transcends and experiences this ocean, unbounded, infinite, eternal, pure consciousness, modern science's unified field, the kingdom of heaven, the absolute, totality, absolute intelligence, creativity, bliss, energy, dynamic peace: all these qualities exist in this unmanifest field at the base of mind and the base of matter. The experiencing of this deepest level enlivens it and one grows in those qualities, and they say it's a holistic experience. It's the only experience – transcending, experiencing this deepest level – that lights the full brain on the EEG machine. And we've been told we only use 5 to 10 per cent of our whole brain and here's the whole brain engaged with this experience. And so what happens is consciousness starts expanding, bliss starts expanding, intelligence in understanding, wakefulness, awareness, appreciation, all avenues of life get better, creativity flows and the side effect of this is negativity begins to recede. Things like anger, anxiety, stress, fear, depression, sorrow, they start to go, clearing the way for, woah, enjoyment of the doing, appreciation magnified, energy to do the things, without that heavy weight that kills creative flow, and things get very, very, very good. Intuition grows, it's an ocean of knowingness, pure knowingness, unbelievable bliss, physical, emotional, spiritual happiness – boom, giant, unique experiences, but so familiar. It's a beautiful thing. Regular diving in, diving in, it's like going to the treasury every day and getting more and more and more and you carry this with you more. So it feeds the creative process, feeds the enjoyment of the doing, and people like coming to sit next to you and give you money.Wow, thanks, David.
Thank you.* INLAND EMPIRE opens nationwide in selected cinemas on March 12.