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Press Release Criterion Press Release: Inland Empire (2006) (Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

Ronald Epstein

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Strange, what love does.” The role of a lifetime, a Hollywood mystery, a woman in trouble . . . David Lynch’s first digitally shot feature makes visionary use of the medium to weave a vast meditation on the enigmas of time, identity, and cinema itself. Featuring a tour de force performance from Laura Dern as an actor on the edge, this labyrinthine Dream Factory nightmare tumbles down an endless series of unfathomably interconnected rabbit holes as it takes viewers on a hallucinatory odyssey into the deepest realms of the unconscious mind.

FILM INFO​

  • United States
  • 2006
  • 180 minutes
  • Black and White/Color
  • 1.85:1
  • English, Polish
  • Spine #1175

    DIRECTOR-APPROVED TWO-BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES​

    • New HD digital master, made from the 4K restoration supervised by director David Lynch, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio and uncompressed stereo soundtracks, newly remastered by Lynch and original rerecording mixers Dean Hurley and Ron Eng
    • Two films from 2007, LYNCH (one) and LYNCH2, by blackANDwhite, the makers of David Lynch: The Art Life
    • New conversation between actors Laura Dern and Kyle MacLachlan
    • More Things That Happened, seventy-five minutes of extra scenes
    • Ballerina, a 2007 short film by Lynch
    • Reading by Lynch of excerpts from Room to Dream, his 2018 book with critic Kristine McKenna
    • Trailer
    • New English subtitle translation and English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
    • PLUS: Excerpts from Richard A. Barney’s book David Lynch: Interviews

      New cover based on an original theatrical poster

      March 21, 2023
 

Ronald Epstein

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Thank you for supporting HTF when you preorder using the link below. As an Amazon Associate, HTF earns from qualifying purchases. If you are using an adblocker you will not see link.

 
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titch

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After having just seen the 4K restoration of Wings Of Desire, I wonder what a "4K restoration" of Inland Empire is going to look like. The film was shot in standard definition with en early digital camera and looked abysmal when I saw it theatrically (Helsinki, March 2007) and looks absolutely horrendous on the blu-ray I have. Silk purse, sows ear etc. The only film by David Lynch I actively dislike and can't watch again - mostly because the visual experience is so awful.
 

JoshZ

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After having just seen the 4K restoration of Wings Of Desire, I wonder what a "4K restoration" of Inland Empire is going to look like. The film was shot in standard definition with en early digital camera and looked abysmal when I saw it theatrically (Helsinki, March 2007) and looks absolutely horrendous on the blu-ray I have. Silk purse, sows ear etc. The only film by David Lynch I actively dislike and can't watch again - mostly because the visual experience is so awful.

Oh, there's a lot more wrong with this movie than just the visual experience. It's far and away the worst thing Lynch has made... and I've actually seen The Cowboy and the Frenchman!

I knew this announcement was inevitable. As a Lynch completist, I'll have to buy it, but I really just hate this movie start to finish.

Inland Empire looked bad even for standard-def due to the decisions Lynch made in making it. He actually wanted it to look terrible, and went out of his way to ensure that happened.

Apparently, he regrets that now. This new so-called "restoration" supposedly uses some fancy new form of A.I. upconversion to make the movie look somewhat presentable. I've only seen screenshots, and there's a significant difference. It's kind of like deepfaking a decent-looking picture on top of a terrible one. It's weird. What it will look like in motion, I have no idea.
 

Thomas T

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Well, I loved Inland Empire but agree that it looked terrible though obviously intentionally so. I'll wait on reviews about the quality of the transfer before (and if) I upgrade. It's actually the only title in this Criterion slate of titles announced today that I'm interested in.
 

Kyle_D

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At least Criterion isn't wasting a UHD on this, despite the "4K" restoration.

I don't hate the film, but it has always played more like an artist's sketchbook to me than a completed work. If nothing else, it gave us this:

david-lynch-cow-laura-dern-oscar-inland-empire-785x428.jpg
 

JoshZ

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I don't know how accurate this is, but I saw someone comment the following on Criterion's Facebook post:

"It was shot in 525x480 and postproduced in HD. For the restoration, it was scanned in 4K, then actually downscaled back to SD and then upscaled again to 4K through IA."

:blink:

(I presume they mean "AI" there at the end.)

Since the movie was shot on DV, saying it's been "scanned in 4K" implies that this whole project is working from a film-out of that, not even the original video footage itself. I just can't even comprehend any of this.
 

SD_Brian

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I don't know how accurate this is, but I saw someone comment the following on Criterion's Facebook post:

"It was shot in 525x480 and postproduced in HD. For the restoration, it was scanned in 4K, then actually downscaled back to SD and then upscaled again to 4K through IA."

:blink:

(I presume they mean "AI" there at the end.)

Since the movie was shot on DV, saying it's been "scanned in 4K" implies that this whole project is working from a film-out of that, not even the original video footage itself. I just can't even comprehend any of this.
My understanding was they went back to the original SD digital files and upscaled those. I can't imagine they would start with the film-out.
 

JoshZ

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My understanding was they went back to the original SD digital files and upscaled those. I can't imagine they would start with the film-out.

Even so, if any of this is correct, they'd have to start with SD, then upscale, downscale, and upscale again. Good heavens, why?!
 

SD_Brian

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Even so, if any of this is correct, they'd have to start with SD, then upscale, downscale, and upscale again. Good heavens, why?!
Upscale from SD to 4K for the "restoration," downscale the 4K to 1080p for the Blu-ray. I don't understand where the "upscale again" is happening?
 

Worth

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Upscale from SD to 4K for the "restoration," downscale the 4K to 1080p for the Blu-ray. I don't understand where the "upscale again" is happening?
If you’re watching on a 4K display, it’s upscaling the 1080p.
 

SD_Brian

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If you’re watching on a 4K display, it’s upscaling the 1080p.
Got it. I'd have to see a side-by-side comparison, but my hunch would be that Inland Empire is one of those cases where the visible difference between a well-authored Blu-ray and a UHD would be negligible, at best.

Criterion released Lost Highway as a UHD right out of the gate, so if there was some benefit to going UHD for Inland Empire, I suspect they would have done it.
 

Lord Dalek

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Upscale from SD to 4K for the "restoration," downscale the 4K to 1080p for the Blu-ray. I don't understand where the "upscale again" is happening?

The master was upscaled to 2160p from the original DV Master, then Lynch decided to downscale that master back to 480p, then they used artifiical intelligence to upscale the downscaled upscale back to 2160. The blu-ray is a downscale of the upscaled downscaled upscale.


understand season 7 GIF by NBC
 

SD_Brian

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The master was upscaled to 2160p from the original DV Master, then Lynch decided to downscale that master back to 480p, then they used artifiical intelligence to upscale the downscaled upscale back to 2160. The blu-ray is a downscale of the upscaled downscaled upscale.


understand season 7 GIF by NBC
That makes at least as much sense as anything else in the movie, so I'm good with it.
 

JoshZ

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"From these tests, director David Lynch chose the upscale made using the GaiaHD algorithm and footage that had first been downscaled back to SD in order to throw away false detail introduced during the original HD conversion and allow the most effective use of the AI upscale (footage upscaled directly from the HD was less noticeably “4K-looking”)."

My head is positively reeling trying to make sense of that paragraph! :blink:
 

B-ROLL

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"From these tests, director David Lynch chose the upscale made using the GaiaHD algorithm and footage that had first been downscaled back to SD in order to throw away false detail introduced during the original HD conversion and allow the most effective use of the AI upscale (footage upscaled directly from the HD was less noticeably “4K-looking”)."

My head is positively reeling trying to make sense of that paragraph! :blink:
Let's hear Mr. Van Winkle explain:
;) ...
 

Winston T. Boogie

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"From these tests, director David Lynch chose the upscale made using the GaiaHD algorithm and footage that had first been downscaled back to SD in order to throw away false detail introduced during the original HD conversion and allow the most effective use of the AI upscale (footage upscaled directly from the HD was less noticeably “4K-looking”)."

My head is positively reeling trying to make sense of that paragraph! :blink:

And the award for Best Word Salad describing a video transfer goes to...
 

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