David Lynch's "Ghost of Love"

Let's talk about Inland Empire, because I think if we start the discussion there over several blog posts, I will find myself posting here with some frequency.

I watched Inland Empire last week, after having missed its trip to theaters and anxiously awaiting the arrival of a DVD. As expected, it's complex, perpllexing, disturbing, frustrating, and thought-provoking. A mysterious, yet brilliant eight minute intro gives way to a tension-building, yet reasonably straightforward first hour, before the movie takes an entirely new direction. Lynch breaks free from the confines of film, getting hands-on with digital video - it's almost too fun of a playground for him, but with it, he almost establishes a new language for cinema. But I am not going to talk about cinema here, I am going to talk about music.


Lynch is one of the only directors making films who actually knows and understands how to use music effectively, without any overkill. Maybe it's from watching The Wire - whose use of music I will have to explain in another post - but I've become increasingly frustrated with the use of music not as a supplement, but as an actual emotional storytelling device. Even watching Juno - which I quite liked - I grew annoyed with the use of a song every five minutes to convey the emotions of the characters.

Lynch has a great understanding of music, and it always plays a key role in his films - whether in Angelo Badalamenti's classic scores, or the use of out-of-place fifties pop songs. Music is almost always a device for building tension, and seeing as how his films seem edited with a musical structure in mind, songs never quite seem out of place. Late in the film, Lynch layers Beck's "Black Tambourine" over the score to almost dizzying effect. Earlier, we watch as a group of prostitutes break into a dance routine choreographed to "The Locomotion" before abruptly vanishing.

But the most striking musical experience of Inland Empire is the song you hear in the trailer above. "Ghost of Love" is a classic Lynch tune - a darker, fifties bar band vibe with lyrics like, "So strange/ what love does." "Ghost of Love" becomes the album's anthem - it never leads us in any one particular direction, or expresses how a character should be feeling (or how we should be feeling). It does tell us that something is happening, or more specifically, the something isn't right. But it does not clue us in what is actually happening. Furthermore, since the tempo remains consistent, it provides no resolution whatsoever.

It is a fitting song for the trailer - adding tension to something which is already confusing. At each moment it pops up in the film, it only lets us know that answers are not lurking behind the corner. But like any good Lynch film, the song is great and the experience of listening to it is ultimately a greater payoff than any resolution could provide.

Fittingly enough, the track is actually performed by Lynch himself, adding another layer of frightening intimacy.