Mulholland Drive (2001) (1 Viewer)

[Eric Walsh]

Ike,
I was thinking that too, but possibly the clue is referring to the second set of credits that begin with the Mulholland Drive sign.

And on another topic, I have been trying to figure out the two covers of the DVD and my girlfriend is convinced that the faces on the covers are combinations of the two actresses, Naomi Watts and Laura Harring (Diane and Camilla). Does anyone else see this or believe this? If that is the case that would throw a whole new twist into the movie. I just do not want to believe that the two covers were made to attempt to make more money, but maybe that is the case.

-Eric

 

[Mark-W]

Well, it has been several days, and I watched this film
with a bunch of newbies last night...still, I am cluess
about many of the clues, but will take a shot with some:

David Lynch's clues to Unlocking this Thriller:

1) Pay attention to the beginning of the film:
at least two clues are revealed before the credits.
Clearly, Diane (or some one) is falling asleep, also the Jitterbug thing is Diane before her "attitude" shaped her life badly."


2) Notice appearences of the red lampshade.

Did keep that good of track of it. Maybe next time.

3) Can you hear the title of the film that Adam
Kesher is auditioning actresses for? Is it mentioned
again?

I paid attention, but missed it (if it is there).
I heard Diane mention The Silvia ___ Story, at
that dinner, but that was it...no indication that that
was Adam's film.

Can anyone else name the title of Adam's film?

4) An accident is a terrible event...notice the
location of the accident.
Same location where Diane meets Camilla to
take the secret path to the top...nice symbolism
Secret path and car crash both lead to "going up."

5) Who gives a key, and why?
the hit man after Camilla is dead.
Why I don't think the lesbian-looking neighbor
who switched in Camilla, is because she is there the
same time the key is when she picks up the ashtray.

6) Notice the robe, the ashtray, the coffee cup.
I saw several of both, but frankly, I just love watching
this film without "paying attention" that I did not keep
track...another excuse to watch again.

7) What is felt, realized and gathered at the club
Silencio?
Diane is crying over Camilla, and the fact that
it is all recorded seems to me that Diane already knows
that Camilla as a living person doesn't exist anymore;
only on celluloid...I think the box represents the reality
that Diane is going to have to accept that he choose by
using the key. Camilla has be silenced.

8) Did talent alone help Camilla?
Not according to Diane.

9) Note the occurences surrounding the man behind
Winkies.
The existence of evil at moments of evil doing.
When Diane pays for the hit on Camilla, at least in part,
with the money her Aunt Ruth left her in her will.


10) Where is Aunt Ruth?
Aunt Ruth is dead, but in the film Rita sees her,
then both Betty and Rita see her at Diane's appartments,
leaving in much the same manner Rita saw her leaving
(so maybe she, in reality, used to live in Diane's appartment, and not in the idealized one of Betty's aunt.)
and then she shows up just as Rita opens up the blue box,
opening up the real world...since the supernatural cowboy
next comes in Diane's room and says, "Time to wake up."


I'll have to watch it again.

As a side note, without trying to bait a controversial
subject, but of the many guests I had last night for my
showing, one friend brough a gal pal who happens to be
lesbian.
When locking up the theater, she said,
"Another film showing lesbians cannot get along
with each other and are some how incomplete!

I asked her how much she knew about David Lynch, since I
would seriously doubt he has a homophobic bone in his body,
and that, this film is "neo-noir" and people, gay or
straight, don't end up happily coupled in these kinds of
films.

She didn't know anything about him. She also thought
that maybe Betty was a reference to Betty and Veronica
of The Archies, so I have a hard time taking her
criticisms sersiously anyway. Oh, yeah, David Lynch has
been inspired the The Archies..never mind that
there was not Veronica in the film...merely a brunette.

How many films show straights fighting and not getting along.
How many films show straights feeling incomplete without
a partner. I guess, I am tired of the "we were represented
unfairly" argument, especially since I am gay myself, and
get "card blanche" from being seen as the "straight opressor" which I find rediculous in 2002 anyway...

Any thoughts that WILL NOT get this thread closed?

Mark

 

[Ike]

That was my original thought also, but I think it's just a joke. There are 2 logos before the credits, thus 2 "clues". I don't believe the clues are supposed to actually help you solve the film.

 

[Doug R]

After watching Mulholland Drive about 5+ times, here's my opinion on its "solution"


The first 2/3 of the movie (until the "Cowboy" says 'Hey pretty girl, time to wake up') is the fantasy/dream of Diane Selwyn, a possible drug-addict/wanna-be Hollywood actress that has just recently commited a horrible crime - she ordered a hit on her former girlfriend, another Hollywood actress Camilla Rhodes.

The timeline is as follows:

Diane Selwyn comes to Hollywood after winning a jitterbug contest; she hopes to become an actress. She meets Camilla on the set of the Sylvia North story. Camilla gets the lead role; Diane wanted the lead role but claims the director didn't like her (there's implication that Camilla sleeps her way to the top). All of these facts are from Diane's dialogue at Adam's dinner party.

Camilla and Diane have an affair though it's much more serious for Diana than it is for Camilla. At some point Camilla meets Adam Kesher, the director of a movie she's working on. As implied before, she starts sleeping with him to Diane's fury. Diane becomes insanely jealous; Camilla breaks it off. Diane is humilated at a dinner party where Adam and Camilla announce their engagement. Diane orders a hitman (with money given to her by her Aunt -- again dialogue from the dinner party) to kill Camilla. The deed is done -- the blue key is on the table at the end of the movie. Unable to deal with the guilt of what she's done and become, Diane kills herself.

But before she kills herself, on that last day, she has one final dream. This dream comprises the majority of the movie.

There is a clue before the credits as David Lynch says... it's of the point-of-view shot of someone putting their head on a pillow. Look carefully at the sheets and blanket -- it's obviously Diane's sheet and blanket as you see later in the movie. She's falling asleep -- it's her dream.

Now let's analyze the dream:

1) Camilla/Rita - In real life, Camilla shunned her for a man and is now dead. In the dream, Camilla/Rita has no memory and loves Diane/Betty. She's like a clean slate. She's just a robot built to love. Diane now has her all to herself.

2) Adam Kesher - In real life he stole Camilla. In Diane's dream, she makes Adam lose everything. First he loses control of his movie. Second, he loses his house and wife. Next he loses his money. He has lost it all. Diane has tore him down in revenge. Listen to the dialogue of the Cowboy talking to Adam in Diane's dream: "A man's attitude plays a large role in how that man's life turns out to be" or something to that extent. How is his life in the dream? Complete crap. So his attitude must be crap. Again, Diane's revenge.

3) Coco - In real life, Coco is Adam's mother and is extremely condescending at the dinner party. She thinks Diane is just a coattail rider. Coco in real life is the landlord at her apartment and is ever so nice and helpful. Definitely the opposite.

4) Diane - We've already discussed what she's like in real life but in the dream Diane has created thus alter ego "Betty". She just got to hollywood and isn't tainted by drugs and other vices. Betty is a KICKASS actress (witness the audition scene) and doesn't ride the coattails of anyone. She's innocent, a bit naive, and stunning. Again, opposite.

Then there are many, many smaller elements that come into play in the dream. Many are small snippets of Diane's life. You know how something you saw ever so briefly during the day manages to manifest itself in your dreams?

a) The hitman - You see the hitman at the end of the movie with his little black book sitting in front of him at Winkies. In the dream, the hitman is a bumbling fool searching for that black book. Why is he a bumbling fool? To convince Diane he'd never be able to complete the task she really asked him to do.

b) The expresso guy - In the dream, there's the weird guy who has to have his expresso perfect. At the dinner party Diane takes a sip of expresso and sees this man. Thus, the connection that later manifests itself in her dream.

c) The cowboy - Just a guy she saw at the party. In the dream he manifests himself as some spectral type figure but listen to his dialogue to Adam -- it's obviously Diane speaking through him to further tear Adam down.

d) The homeless man behind Winkies - I believe this is a representation of Diane's evil. Listen to the dialogue of the man in the resturant inside Diane's dream. "He's doing it" he says about that homeless man. Regarding that man, once again I think that's just someone she saw at Winkies (see the end of the movie) and he manifests himself in the dream as another one of Diane's voices. Listen to his dialogue -- once again it sounds like what Diane would say. I don't think it's a coincidence this man is named "Dan" which sounds awfully close.

There are many other elements but all can be explained. The scene at Club Silencio is reality popping into Diane's dream (and a big clue to the audience). There is no band. It's all a recording. It's an illusion. What you (and Diane) are watching isn't real.

Fantastic movie. I love how every scene plays an important role to the psychology of Diane. Everything can be explained if you just think hard enough.

 

[Eric Walsh]

Ike
Hey we can make a conversation out of something small it seems, because I think the clues are intended to help you though in a superficial and in many times obvious way. They try to help people understand that there are flashbacks in the film and I believe that the two clues that the insert is referring to are that someone is sleeping in the bed in the apartment #17 and that those old people were there (possibly judging) Diane at her jitterbug contest.

As a side note......does any think that it is possible that the character played by Laura Harring does not exist in reality but only in the dream dreamt by Diane. Maybe that in reality Rita is who Diane wishes she could be so she could succeed in hollywood. These are thoughts coming from my girlfriend that we fine tuned together. What started this line of thinking was the scene were Diane is in her apartment kitchen before she makes coffee. There is a shot of her in front of the sink looking out the window, she thinks she sees Camilla (Rita) and then we see that the person that was Camilla (Rita) turns into Diane.

-Eric

 

[Eric Walsh]

Doug
That is a long and thought out post, parts of it I agree with but I feel as if you are still just getting down to a few layers into the film. I think that there is also social statements being made (I think that is what they would be called) about society and what Hollywood and films mean to us. The homeless man, shoved behind everything completely out of sight, may represent evil but this evil is the parts of life/the world that we do not like to admit exist, especially in places like Hollywood. This part of hollywood is the part that really depresses Diane as it does not fit with the dreamlike image she had of it before she decided to come visit it. So that may fit with what the guy says about the homeless man controlling everything. I think there is in addition to the great psychological plot also smaller statements such as this that exist througout the film that should be given mention to.

As an example Diane does create an alter ego like you said, but surrounding this alter ego is a scenario where Hollywood is corrupt and hires actresses not because they are good but because they are forced to for other reasons. Betty does not get the job even though the director keeps looking at her with great interest. I think not only does Diane create an alter ego, she creates scenarios that justify why she does not get the big parts in films and other things like this throughout.

-Eric

 

[Seth Paxton]

I still go with a death dream and think the 2 clues before the credits are the jitterbug dance and the sheets/pillow/breathing, which I think is her dying as the film begins. The rest of the long film takes place in the few moments before she dies...a process of coming to accept that oncoming moment.

Another film that discusses this (characters discuss it) is Waking Life.

A WL spoiler too that whole film is about a kid who has already been hit by a car and is dying trying to come to that understanding. So while the film goes on long and we think of death as instant, the concept (as discussed in WL) is that the amount of time that passes in a dream can seem a lifetime, therefore death dreams can cover a lot of time in the few seconds/minutes before final death.

The way stories get pitched around Hollywood and end up coming out 2 or 3 at a time, I can see the "death dream" concept getting explored by 2 directors at the same time. The 2 films are amazingly similar in story layout and flow as well, both basically being semi-disconnected scenes that have a stream of consciousness flow between scenes, thus amplying the dreaming aspect at least. And both end with the character finally realizing they are dead/dying.

 

[Seth Paxton]

Obviously I haven't read the film this way before (based on my opinions already posted), but this and something else we just mentioned add some strength to the idea.

People talking about the 2 covers and WHY? that would be, even suggesting that they might be a mix of the faces slightly.

Clearly in the film Betty ends up making Camilla look like her, or Camilla chooses to have it done that way.

What if Diane has hired the killer to kill HERSELF? What if she is splitting personalities and flipping out, thinking of herself being both Rita and Diane at the same time?

Maybe even dressing differently and "being" a different person. The killer might not even realize this and would just kill the person that lived in that apartment. If she was in a wig or something it might be even more possible to have done.

Ida know, just kicking it around. I think there could be flaws with that idea.

 

[Ike]

My main question is this, forgive if this has been answered (I read the Salon article, but don't think it mentions it):

How is it that Betty/Rita stumble upon a dead corpse of what would later be Dianne? Is this just Dianne dreaming of what she'd look like dead, or is this odd time traveling, ala Lost Highway?

 

[Eric Walsh]

Betty and Rita stumble across the corpse of what we find out to be Diane in a dream created by Diane. This is plausible because Diane is sleeping and imagines herself to be Betty in the dream, allowing for a the body of Diane to be a stranger to her. That and it is just a good stylistic addition to the film.

On the same note what about the part where the cowboy tells her to wake up. There is a shot of her living sleeping body and then another flash to a shot of her dead body before she does wake up. Does this mean something?

-Eric

 

[Jeremiah]

Ike, when they find the dead body it is still in her dream so Diane might be having suicidal tendencies as she draws closer to her mental colapse.

 

[Joseph Young]

Doug R,

I'm completely in sync with your views on the film. While one can spend long periods of time mulling over the broader symbolism of every single artifact and character in Mulholland Drive, I think that the basic visual clues that Lynch provides us with are enough to develop a concise assesssment of what MD is about.

All this is my opinion and not meant to reflect what I think or feel other people should see. This is just what I see, and my opinion. I often state things directly what 'summing up stuff,' it's all my years of essay writing and being asked to 'get to the point.' Again, just my opinion.

Story about love and dreams, essentially. These are the main themes that permeate the entire film.

It is a treat to see the various objects, items and characters that imprint themselves upon Diane Selwyn in the moments of crisis (the blurring of reality and unreality) which are represented by the screen literally 'going blurry.' During the last 1/3 of the movie, we see (among other things): Winky's eyebrow man (Dan), a blue key, a mention of two detectives, a limo ride up mulholland drive, a cup of espresso (and espresso man), a Cowboy, a phone call being picked up next to a red lampshade ('the car's waiting outside'), a purse full of money, a polite, perky waitress named Betty, etc etc

There is a commonly discussed notion in pop psychology about associations we make while enduring emotional crisis. If you have an intense experience while a particular song plays, for instance, the subsequent times you hear the song will also be accompanied by a 'tape playback' of the emotional experience. Not simply sound, but sight and (most strongly) smell. Where dreams are concerned, the ways in which our dreams 'imprint' these sensory impression made during intense emotional or spiritual transgression/transcendence is even more fascinating to me.

My admiration for Lynch lies primarily in the way he is able to convey that feeling of walking through a dream or nightmare, not quite lucid but peppered with striking reminders of reality that our so common in all of our dreams. In his earlier films, I was sometimes frustrated because he seemed unwilling to cross that line, or to make a marked distinction between waking life and dreaming life. With Mulholland Drive he has bridged this gulf and given an origin story to the strange, bizarre symbols throughout the film. After years of confounding and hypnotizing viewers, he finally reveals to us - in a haunting love story, no less - where these dreams come from.

Just my .02


Joseph

 

[Jeff Behlendorf]

Doug R -
Thank you for your detailed treatment. You have seen it almost exactly the way I have. The only thing I can't figure out is why was there a "new face" playing the part of Camilla at the screen test singing "I've Told Every Little Star"? It definately wasn't either Diane/Betty or Camilla/Rita although we are told by Adam's assistant the next one up (after "Sixteen Reasons") is Camilla Rhodes.
Also I wonder if the Silencio has anything to do with the finality of death. Shakespeare on the death of Hamlet comments "And the rest was silence". Maybe Lynch's off handed way of paying homage to a master storyteller.

 

[Seth Paxton]

I always thought Lynch was telling the audience that there was no "life" no reality with the Silenco part.

Just as we hear a band but there is no band, we see Betty's life but there really is no life.

It's a lip synch of her "life", a pretend version. Or better said as not just a pretend Betty life, but a pretend reality for all that we see in the film.

Silenco is the brain telling her "this is fake, come back to reality".

IMO.

 

[Eric Walsh]

This IS Camilla Rhodes in Diane's dream and the Camilla/Rita character is Rita in the dream. We see the Dream Camilla Rhodes later in the film during the scene in the director's house, (she kisses Rita/Camilla) but we are never told her true name or if she exists at all. I am led to believe that one of the two girls kissing does not exist like I have said before because of this exact scene. It seems someone would make a face at them for kissing like that in front of everyone as it is apparent that Rita/Camilla is dating the director. I am led to believe that Rita acts as a pass through unreal person. When the director clinks glasses with her by the pool he says "to love" Rita says nothing. Rita clinks glasses with Diane and Diane says "to love" as if speaking to the unanswered question coming from the director. Maybe the blond Camilla in the dinner scene is actually kissing the director but we see if happening through Rita form the perspective of Diane. This is my current take on the film and it grows stronger the more I talk about it. (sorry for rambling)

-Eric

 

[Doug R]

Thanks for the kind words guys. I agree that there's a whole other layer to this movie (ie: Hollywood and what it does to people) but there's also this rather simple tale of love gone wrong.. essentially.

In response to a few queries:



As for the "dream" Camilla, I believe the main point of this is to show that Camilla (both real and dream) didn't get parts on her own. It wasn't talent that got Camilla (both) parts, in real life it was her sexuality and her ability to sleep with directors. In the dream world it was the gang of mobsters that strong armed Adam into getting her the part.

Silencio is definitely the end of Diane's life as well as reality pushing into the dream and silencing it.

I do disagree with Seth that I don't think Diane's dream is just moments before she dies. I think the dream occurs just before she wakes up to the knocking on the door (her neighbor asking for her stuff).



Doug

 

[Richard Kim]

I agree with Doug.


The old couple wishing Betty luck at the beginning is a good example of this. This probably did happen to Diane when she first arrived in Hollywood, symbolizing her lofty hopes and aspiriations. At the end, her professional and love life is in shambles, and the old couple returns in a frightening manner, reminding her of what Hollywood has made her, a broken, defeated woman.

 

[JonZ]

I think the 10 clues dont mean much-just Lynch having fun with us.This film isnt that hard to figure out really and the 10 clues just confuse everything.

 

[Ike]

But they are creppy and frightening at the beginning. Remember the crazy stares and laughing in the cab?

Either way, Roger Ebert has an essay on this film. He chose to watch it for his annual shot-by-shot college analysis.

 

[ShawnCoghill]

Is it just me or when Camilla takes her clothes off,while Diane is laying on the bed,Camilla's lower area is fuzzed out. Then she gets into bed and they go at it,,later on When Camilla starts saying silencio,and wakes up,they go to the No Band place,and you see a blue hair woman in the balcony,at the end you can see her up close and its a Drag Queen,and she says Silencio, I Think its possible that Diane imagined having sex with Camilla but it was actually this Drag Queen,Why The Fuzz out over Camillas lower half,unless there was something Manly there and Diane just didnt want to see it that way, It just hits me that way,,I Could Be way off though,,I have only seen it once so far.