Mulholland Drive (movie)
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Mulholland Dr. is a motion picture, released in 2001 and directed by David Lynch. The project initially was intended to be the two-hour pilot for ABC and subsequent television series, hoping to recreate Lynch's success with Twin Peaks. When Lynch finally gave them the finished pilot, however, they wanted numerous cuts made for the sake of time and content. Lynch grudgingly made them, but then the network decided that it simply didn't work.
Lynch kept control of the footage he had already shot, and with the help of Canal Plus, a French distributor, managed to finish the film. It premiered at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, to much praise. He was co-awarded the Best Director prize at the festival (sharing it with Joel Coen for The Man Who Wasn't There).
It received critical praise, being named Best Picture of the Year by the New York Film Critics Association, and even more notably was given an enthusiastic thumbs-up by critic Roger Ebert, who had previously expressed mixed feelings about Lynch's work. Lynch was also nominated for a Best Directing Oscar for the third time, (though A Beautiful Mind director Ron Howard won out). Nevertheless, the film had little commercial success, grossing just over $7 million at the American box office and a further $13 million globally.
However, the film has gained cult status in recent times with many interpretations floating on the internet about the film's meaning and symbolism. Lynch, as usual for his works, has not given any explanations about the film's "true meaning". The US and UK DVD release does contain 10 clues from the director on the inner sleeve, but this has only promoted further speculation about the mysteries of the film.
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Synopsis
While driving down Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles, California late at night, a dark-haired woman (played by Laura Elena Harring) has a car accident and afterwards suffers amnesia. She wanders down the hill into L.A., and sleeps in a vacant apartment. The next day, a young woman (played by Naomi Watts), who has just come to L.A. to try to become a movie star, moves in and finds her. Together, the two of them try to piece together exactly who the dark-haired woman is and what happened that night.
Other strange things, at first seemingly unrelated, are happening as well. A man tells a friend about a recurring nightmare, only to have it come true; a film director finds his latest project (and later, his life) being controlled by shadowy mobsters; and an incompetent hit man steals a "black book".
All these pieces eventually come together, though many viewers have required several viewings to grasp Lynch's unorthodox dreamlike approach.
Lynch has maintained his refusal to comment on the film's "meaning" or symbolism, leading to much discussion and multiple interpretations.
Whatever its interpretation, the essential structure of the plot is as follows. The first hour and fifty-six minutes of the film tell several interweaving stories. The main thread is the story of Betty Elms (played by Naomi Watts), a young (and cloyingly perky) aspiring actress who has just moved to Hollywood from Deep River, Ontario. While staying in the apartment of her Aunt Ruth, Betty meets the dark-haired woman from the accident and, in Nancy Drew-like fashion, attempts to help her discover her identity and regain her memory. The woman from the accident calls herself 'Rita' (from a movie poster advertising Rita Hayworth in Gilda) and eventually remembers a connection with the name 'Diane Selwyn'.
A second thread follows director Adam Kesher (played by Justin Theroux), who is being pressured to hire a specific actress named Camilla Rhodes to star in the film he is currently making. Other subplots involve a bumbling hit man and a man who dreams that he sees a 'monster' behind a Winkie's Diner.
The plot developments become more and more oneiric (i.e. relating to dreams) and bizarre, until finally the film leaves these storylines behind altogether and shifts gears entirely. The entire film so far has been a dream or fantasy of the real Diane Selwyn (now played by Naomi Watts), who in her dream has cast herself as 'Betty Elms' and reconstructed her life, history, and persona into something like a Hollywood movie. A sequence of flashbacks reveals that Diane moved from Ontario to Hollywood upon receiving an inheritance from her deceased Aunt Ruth and became involved with up-and-coming actress Camilla Rhodes (the dream 'Rita', now played by Laura Elena Harring); after Camilla broke off their romance, Diane hired a hit man to kill her. At the end of the film, the tormented Diane kills herself as well.
David Lynch's 10 clues
The US and UK DVD release of the film contains 10 clues from the director on the inner sleeve:
- Pay particular attention in the beginning of the film: at least two clues are revealed before the credits.
- Notice appearances of the red lampshade.
- Can you hear the title of the film that Adam Kesher is auditioning actresses for? Is it mentioned again?
- An accident is a terrible event...notice the location of the accident.
- Who gives a key, and why?
- Notice the robe, the ashtray, the coffee cup.
- What is felt, realized and gathered at the club Silencio?
- Did talent alone help Camilla?
- Notice the occurrences surrounding the man behind Winkies.
- Where is Aunt Ruth?
Analysis
The symbolic texture of the film is extremely rich. In particular, Diane's dream is filled with recombinations and revisions of people and things from her waking life, as seen in the final half-hour of the film. (Indeed, one primary reason the film bears up under repeated viewings is that the intricate structure of Diane's dream tantalizes the viewer to unravel and comprehend it.)
Nor, for that matter, is it clear that even her later flashbacks are entirely free of dreamlike/fantastic elements. For example, she recalls that Camilla Rhodes really did beat her out for a role in the film The Sylvia North Story (though in 'real' life it was not directed by Kesher) — and possibly for the romantic attention of Adam Kesher (though it is never quite made clear whether Diane is attracted to him rather than only to Camilla). But 'Sylvia North' could easily be a symbolic stand-in for 'Diane Selwyn from Canada' ('Selwyn' and 'Sylvia' both being derived from the Latin sylvanus — 'woods' — and 'Diana' being the Roman goddess of the hunt; note also that Diane's 'dream' last name is 'Elms'). Similarly, the (Hebrew) name 'Adam Kesher' could be understood to mean 'human community' or 'human connection'; perhaps Diane's unrequited love for this director (or at least her envy of his relationship with Camilla) symbolizes her yearning to connect with other people and she is still, in this portion of the film, lost inside her own personal hell. On the other hand, 'Diane Selwyn' could be a professional name this actress has adopted, perhaps even in a deliberate attempt to match herself to the role of 'Sylvia North'; if so, we never learn her 'real' name. As in Lynch's other works, 'reality' is slippery and it is arguable that we never actually reach a level uncolored by 'Diane's' interpretation even if her flashbacks are essentially veridical. (And of course — as the viewer is subtly reminded several times — the entire thing is, after all, a movie itself.)
As noted above, the interpretation of the film has not been clearly settled. It is certainly some sort of commentary on Hollywood and motion pictures — there are several references, direct and oblique, to Billy Wilder's classic Sunset Boulevard as well as to other motion pictures also broadly classifiable as films noirs. However, the precise nature and content of this commentary are matters Lynch has apparently left for the viewer to consider.
Production notes
- Mulholland Drive is an actual road that twists its way through the Hollywood Hills outside of Los Angeles. It also appeared in Lynch's film Lost Highway as the road Mr Eddy takes Pete Dayton for a drive on.
- Laura Elena Harring ("Rita/Camilla", the dark-haired woman) is a former Miss USA and star of Aaron Spelling's ill-fated daytime soap-opera Sunset Beach.
- Naomi Watts (Betty Elms/Diane Selwyn) also appeared in a soap-opera in Australian called Home and Away. Coincidentally, the actress who plays the blonde starlet "Camilla Rhodes" in the dream (Melissa George) also had a part in Home and Away
- Latina singer Rebekah Del Rio plays herself at a nightclub, "lip-synching" an a cappella version of "Llorando," Roy Orbison's song "Crying" in Spanish translation (much as Dean Stockwell lip-synchs Orbison's "In Dreams" in Lynch's earlier film Blue Velvet, except that Del Rio actually sings the song.)
- Michael J. Anderson, the dancing dwarf from Twin Peaks, has a small but odd role as Mr. Roque, a film studio executive. In order to make the diminutive actor appear normal-sized, Lynch outfitted him with a complete prosthetic body.
- Lynch's longtime music composer and collaborator Angelo Badalamenti appears as a mobster with very exacting taste in espresso, which may be a joking reference to the Agent Cooper's coffee obsession in Twin Peaks.
- The movie features one of the final film appearances by MGM musical legend Ann Miller.
- The DVD release of the film proved controversial when Lynch edited it to remove the full-frontal nudity of one of the actresses, allegedly at her request, leading to accusations of censorship against the director (and a proliferation of unaltered versions of the scene on the Internet). The decision to release the movie without chapter stops also annoyed fans.
Possible influences and references
- Ingmar Bergman's 1966 movie Persona has a story suspiciously close to parts of Mulholland Drive, where two women exchange personalities while discussing personalities, roles and casting. The blurring of the faces of the two women into one occur in shots in each movie.
- Mulholland Drive has several similarities with Krzysztof Kieslowski's 1993 movie Blue. Both films begin with a tragic car accident, but most importantly, the protagonist in each film attempts to deal with this accident by denying identity and connection with the outside world. Whereas in Blue, Julie severs all ties to her previous life in an attempt to shield herself from the pain of losing her daughter and husband, in Mulholland Drive, Diane completely represses her own identity in an attempt to shield herself from the loss of Camilla. In each movie, a major theme is that of rediscovery of the self and reconnection to other human beings. The most important difference under this interpretation, of course, is that Julie is able to reconnect to the world in a positive fashion, whereas Diane is overtaken by her personal demons.
- There are several possible indirect references to Quentin Tarantino's 1994 movie Pulp Fiction. The diner where Diane contracts the hit man resembles the diner where the hold-up takes place in Pulp Fiction. The driver who aims a gun at Rita resembles Vincent when he accidently shoots Marvin in Pulp Fiction. Perhaps most notably, the darkly-comedic assassination scene has strong Tarantino simiarities; the assassin's plea for "help" resembles Vincent's plea for "help" when Mia overdoses.
- Countless references to Sunset Boulevard abound, beyond the name/street association. Each movie involves an aspiring Hollywood talent, a love triangle, and a death resulting from that love triangle. Also, each movie explores the darker side of Hollywood, as well as the way in which movies are cognitively experienced and perceived.
- There are also some slight similarities with two other films about filmmaking: Federico Fellini's 8½ and Jean-Luc Godard's Le Mepris. With the former, it shares a dream-like structure to show the processes of filmmaking and particularly commercial filmmaking. With the latter, it also has an unusual structure but also looking at sexuality in film, the power of producers or the similarities between Hollywood producers and mobsters and the parallels between a contempt with the industry and a contempt within a couple. Adam Kesher also shares some resemblance with Jean-Luc Godard.
- There are several possible Hitchcock references. The opening dance sequence is reminiscent of the opening credit sequence of Shadow of a Doubt, because each is an opening dream or fantasy sequence involving dance, which holds the key to part of a mystery. Also, Betty's "makeover" of Rita into a blonde is similar to Scotty's attempt to "makeover" Judy in Vertigo. Finally, the movie's emphasis on the interpretation of dreams to solve a mystery of identity appears to be influenced by Spellbound.
- The opening scene, which follows a limousine from behind, closely resembles the beginning of film by Todd Haynes called Safe (1995). The haunting score of Safe and fade-out credits were also echoed in Mulholland Drive's visuals and score by Angelo Badalamenti. Curiously, Lynch and Badalamenti have not referenced Safe as a major influence, which it so obviously is.
- Lynch continues his trend of including The Wizard of Oz allusions in his films by making part of the film take the form of an idealized dream that incorporates aspects of the real world.
- Lynch's narrative, seemingly non-sequential and dreamlike, mimicks Maya Deren's own Meshes of the Afternoon through its repetition and spatio-temporal (space and time) logic.
External links
- Official site (http://www.mulhollanddrive.com/), with trailer (http://www.mulhollanddrive.com/trailer.html)
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- Rotten Tomatoes.com (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/vine/forumdisplay.php?f=101110157), movie discussion forum
- Lost on Mulholland Dr. (http://www.mulholland-drive.net), comprehensive analysis and resource centre based on the Rotten Tomatoes discussions (above)
- Salon.com (http://dir.salon.com/ent/movies/feature/2001/10/23/mulholland_drive_analysis/index.html), analysis and explanation (warning: contains spoilers)
- 'No hay banda': A Long, Strange Trip Down David Lynch's Mulholland Drive (http://www.themodernword.com/mulholland_drive.html), (warning: contains spoilers)
- Deciphering David Lynch's 10 Clues (http://www.awardspeculation.com/mulhollanddrive.html), found within the DVD (warning: contains spoilers)
- Mulholland Drive / davidlynch.de (http://www.davidlynch.de/mullholland.html), includes interviews, reviews, audio press kit, deleted scene
- Lesbian Scenes (http://www.clublez.com/movies/lesbian_movie_scenes/m/mulholland_drive/), comments on and pictures of these scenes
- Review of the movie (http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20011012/REVIEWS/110120304/1023), by Roger Ebert
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