Digital Modernism and the Unfinished Performance in David Lynch's Inland Empire

Inland Empire’s digital modernism derives from a cross-pollination of cutting-edge digital production methods with the tradition of European modernism. By unmasking Laura Dern’s performance as an ongoing series of Stanislavskian rehearsals in progress, and foregrounding production methods and medium specificity in a manner recalling the radical experiments of the sixties, the film privileges the open-endedness of the unfinished performance. By emphasizing the actor’s work in building a role and experimenting with possible scenarios, Inland Empire militates against the artificially constructed Hollywood persona regularly imposed upon actors.