Mulholland Drive

"It'll be just like in the movies. Pretending to be somebody else."

"Mulholland Drive" is a masterful film that unflinchingly embraces the subconscious and explores the need for fantasy as a coping mechanism in life. David Lynch is unlike any other director in the history of film; he has the ability to enthrall audiences with stories that follow dream logic rather than rationality. Linear plot is not terribly important to Lynch, as it would just get in the way of the emotional narratives, fantasies, and desires of the characters. Lynch is a true original, someone who takes the mundane, sends it to be broken down by a blender in his mind and then reconstitute it according to his way of viewing the world. While he has many amazing films like "Blue Velvet," "Inland Empire," and "Eraserhead," I think "Mulholland Drive" is his masterpiece. The best attribute of all Lynch's movies is their ability to inhabit your mind as you try to put the pieces of the plot and characters together. His films can't help but be memorable because your mind continues to work out their vague, seductive meanings. Below, I will offer my interpretation of "Mulholland Drive" keeping in mind that the film is open to an infinite amount of personal meaning. Warning: there are spoilers galore.   

One other note: to increase the curiosity of fans and moviegoers, Lynch released a list of clues to help decipher the film. While I think it is possible to interpret the movie without these clues, I have reproduced them below:

1. Pay attention in the beginning of the film; at least two clues are revealed before the credits.

2. Notice appearances of the red lampshade.

3. Can you hear the title of the film that Adam Kesher is auditioning actresses for?

4. An accident is a terrible event...notice the location of the accident.

5. Who gives a key, and why?

6. Notice the robe, the ashtray, the coffee cup.

7. What is felt, realized and gathered at the club Silencio?

8. Did talent alone help Camilla?

9. Note the occurrences surrounding the man behind Winkles?

10. Where is Aunt Ruth? 

To understand this film, I think it is necessary to divide it into two non-linear thematic sections, each of which collide throughout the film. The first part, most of which takes place near the end of the film, represents the reality of the story, that is, what happens in a factual sense as opposed to any sort of fantasy. Diane Selwyn, played by Naomi Watts, moves to Los Angeles from a small town with the dream of becoming a Hollywood actress. The opening scene of the film shows Diane winning a jitterbug contest which builds her confidence and drives her to Hollywood. She represents the small town American girl, beloved and praised in her hometown for her beauty, seeking a career in show business.

Diane gets to L.A. and meets another actress named Camilla Rhodes, played by Laura Harring, with whom she begins a torrid love affair. The relationship is short-lived, however, and Camilla meets a famous male director named Adam and begins seeing him instead. Diane is infatuated with Camilla and begs her to return. She is lost without her, a weakling who follows her around and does her bidding in the hope that Camilla will lover her again. Unfortunately, Camilla stays with her boyfriend and begins seeing great success as an actress because of her new connections. Diane is left alone and depressed, a failure in love and her life's dream. 

The second part of the movie, most of which takes place in the beginning, represents Diane's dream-like fantasy, one that both justifies her career failures and retroactively changes the power dynamic between her and Camilla. This section of the film is chock full of symbolism about the underlying corruption and injustice prevalent in Hollywood. Unlike in reality, where Diane implodes and fails because of her emotional lability and lack of talent, her fantasy attributes her failure to dark forces conspiring against her that are out of her control. She is simply a pawn in the larger game of executives, directors, producers and other monied interests. 

In her fantasy, Diane (now called Betty---a throwback to the sweet midwestern girl moving to Hollywood) arrives in L.A. with an affable, elderly couple. This scene is bright and full of confidence, happiness, and ebullience, the kind of emotion Diane had when she first arrived in Hollywood. Lynch carries this good natured optimism over the top by staying with the elderly couple as they quietly smile for no reason until the scene becomes creepy. Betty finds her way to her rich aunt's house where she will be staying while she pursues acting. The manager of the complex, an odd looking woman named Coco, quickly begins fulfilling a motherly role for her. Contrast this situation to Diane's real apartment later in the film which is old, dingy, and uninspiring.    

   

Meanwhile, Camilla is shown riding in a limousine to presumably a Hollywood engagement. The limo crashes, leaving Camilla with amnesia. She wanders around aimlessly until she comes upon Betty's accommodations. Take notice that she was traveling to an affluent community on Mulholland Drive and instead wanders back to Sunset Boulevard, the center of Hollywood for all classes. It's as if she regresses from fame back to helpless beginnings. Because she has amnesia, she gives herself the name, Rita, when she meets Betty. This setup is a key component to Diane's fantasy: the power dynamic between the two has shifted. Instead of Diane being the emotionally frail, dependent one in the relationship, Camilla now takes on that weakened role, presumably to make Diane feel better about herself. Because Camilla has amnesia and, thus, no memory of her identity or of what happened to her, she is now totally dependent on Diane. This new relationship between the two continues through the rest of the fantasy. 

The film abruptly switches gears to a scene with two men at a diner called Winkie's. One of the men, a weird looking fellow named Dan, relays a nightmare (deja vu really) about their meeting, in which he encounters a monstrous creature behind the nearby dumpster. Both men investigate the dumpster until they find a hideous homeless man who terrifies them. Notice the camera angles and the slow shaking of the camera, which helps to create a feeling of trepidation. Also, the lighting is key and even discussed in the movie itself; the scenes involving fantasy are more dimly lit while reality has harsh overhead light, showing all imperfections. This scene begins the other major theme of Diane's fantasy, which is the evil that underlies the entire city and film industry. Even more, this scene foreshadows the evil that lives within Diane, a trait that we will discover by the end of the film. Just as Dan discovers his nightmare in the real world, we will discover the nightmare within the real Diane.

Leaving Rita at home, Betty goes on her auditions. In one of them, she totally blows the producers and fellow actors away, so much so that they want to cast her immediately. In Diane's fantasy, she has the talent to take her to the highest level. The movie continues with a series of surreal scenes, all depicting the dark forces who will prevent Diane from getting the part. These forces run the gamut from a mysterious man in a wheelchair, two foreign investors that are so picky that they spit out "one of the finest espressos in the world," a hapless assassin who tries to help shut down production and, finally, a kingpin called "the cowboy." They clearly dictate that the actress of the film will be "Camilla Rhodes." In Diane's fantasy, Camilla's rise to stardom is based on questionable reasons while her own lack of success is out of her hands. 

During the onslaught of surreal events, we follow Adam, the director of the film for which Betty auditioned. This is the same director that Camilla is dating in reality. He finds out as the audience does that the film and its casting is being taken away from him by higher-ups for reasons that are extremely suspicious and unknown. Adam's puzzled reaction to the events mirrors that of the audience as both are trying to make sense of it all. Soon after his clash with executives, Adam comes home to his wife cheating on him with the pool man. In Diane's fantasy, the director is powerless, emasculated and out of his element, somewhat undeserving of his recognition. 

It is worth noting that in the scene with the cowboy, he tells Adam that "if things go well, you will see me one more time. If it goes bad, you will see me two more times." On close inspection, the cowboy does appear two more times in the film (once conspicuously to Diane and once inconspicuously at a party), conveying by the end of the movie, that things have taken a turn for the worse. In addition to his role as dark orchestrator, the cowboy represents self-reliance, a person who states that "a man's attitude goes some way....the way how his life will be." The cowboy is a creation of Diane's subconscious, an entity that advises her to stop blaming others for her failures and to take control of her own life.   

Spurred by her recollection of Mulholland Drive and the name Diane Selwyn, both Rita and Betty go in search of Rita's identity. After finding Diane Selwyn (Betty's actual identity) in a phonebook, they proceed to her address and find a corpse decaying inside the dwelling. Notice that the inside of the apartment matches the decor of Diane's real one later in the film. This scene marks the first time that Diane's fantasy world collides with reality. The corpse is, of course, Diane, which foreshadows her eventual demise both physically and morally.

The film then takes one final stepping stone to reality when Betty and Rita go to Club Silencio. They sit in the audience and listen to a performer exclaim that there is no real band playing, just recordings. Diane is coming to terms with her illusion and the fantasy begins to collapse, a prospect that makes her shutter. The singer on stage then performs a song entitled "Llorando," a song about the heartache of unrequited love. Betty then pulls out a small blue box from her purse. Rita then finds a blue key and opens the box, giving rise to the reality behind the story. Indeed, Camilla had the power to open up Diane's innermost secrets, insecurities, and capacity for evil, all of which lie dormant and silent, eventually leading to their deaths. In some ways, Club Silencio is the penultimate moment of Diane's fantasy; Rita understands the depth of her longing.      

The movie then takes a drastic turn back into reality, in which the characters appear in their true identities and power dynamics. Much of the first part of the film had a "Wizard of Oz" transformation in which real characters were repurposed into fictional ones depending on their true personas and symbolic value. In reality, Camilla is a rising movie star engaged to Adam, a famous, capable director. Coco is actually the director's mother as well as Camilla's future mother-in-law, a reason why Betty covets Coco's motherly role in her fantasy. The girl who replaced Betty in the movie actually replaced Diane as Camilla's lover on the side. Worst of all, Diane is a struggling actress at best, falling through the cracks of her career and doomed affair with Camilla. Her best solace is fantasizing of a better life while masturbating. 

Realizing that she will never have Camilla back, Diane grows increasingly depressed and rejected until she finally decides to have Camilla killed by an assassin. It is fitting that the discussion about the murder takes place at Winkie's. Like Dan before, Diane is finding that the evil stirring inside of her mind is now manifest. The assassin informs her that she will receive a blue key once the murder has been committed. "What does it open?" she asks. The key is the final realization of her actions, her final descent into maddening guilt, the first moment beyond her redemption.         

The end of the film sees Diane's revisionist fantasy collide with the reality of what she has done. It is one of the weirdest, most disturbing horror scenes that I have ever seen. A miniature version of the elderly couple who represented her optimism and innocence appear out of a paper bag held by the evil creature behind the dumpster. That same passionate optimism that brought Diane to Hollywood morphed into a monstrous emotional mess, capable of intense jealousy and murder. Diane is tortured by her guilt and life failures, symbolized by the couple chasing her in her home, until she is driven to commit suicide with a pistol.    

"Mulholland Drive" easily makes my pantheon of great films. It is interesting, imaginative and courageous in its unyielding artistic vision. It is David Lynch's view of Hollywood, a place where the brave make pilgrimage, give their life and soul to their work, and then find themselves callously thrown aside. Feelings of failure and injustice replace notions of artistic merit and stardom. It is a place of shining dreams and dark, horrific nightmares.