Getting lost on _Mulholland Dr._ (1 Viewer)

[Seth Paxton]

I will repeat something I already mentioned in the discussion threads regarding the Club Silencio and the message to the film.
"We hear a band, but there is no band."
I have always taken the metaphorical meaning then to be that we see a narrative, but there is no narrative. It is a dream-imitation, a lip synching fake performence based upon the very real, scattered images of her life during her "death dream". The real images and characters are the recorded band, but the performance her brain/dream gives with those bits of reality is fake. Thus we watch the imitation, yet are fooled into thinking it is the actual thing.
Note also that the moment the singer faints the illusion is shockingly broken (any halted "good" lip synching has this effect), and it is also the moment when Lynch is about to break the "lip synching" of the film with us. Here we are, following a narrative. An odd set of characters, no doubt, yet still a storyline that seems solid. The sequence that follows the club (the blue box sequence) is as jarring to us as the lip syncher passing out is to the imitation of her singing.
Both things confuse your brain for a second as it must suddenly adapt to the fact that everything it took as "real" is possibly/probably fake.
I know some like to say that the action is occuring during masturbation (like Salon) but Lynch seems to tell us that the dreaming never ends in the film, as the final scene is 2 tiny old people climbing under the door and chasing her back to the bedroom. That's not reality, period.
Therefore, she is still in the dream state.
The blue box/Silencio seem to represent her mind regaining some control over her lucid death-dream and starts trying to guide her thoughts back to the reality of the situation. We can see a narrative (almost physical) vector (after Silencio) pointing her right back to the realization that she has already pulled the trigger and is dying, with the old people being the last, forceful effort to push her back into awareness of her reality. They physically drive her back into the bedroom and her dying body (IMO).
I would be open to the option that she has not yet pulled the trigger but is on the verge of doing so (and flipping out) except that the early parts of the film feel to lucid to me, moreso that just someone losing their grip.
Companion films for Muholland Drive (if you want to give your brain a spin) would be Waking Life and Vanilla Sky. Of course, Total Recall could be thrown in as well.

 

[Greg_C_T]

Companion films for Muholland Drive (if you want to give your brain a spin) would be Waking Life and Vanilla Sky. Of course, Total Recall could be thrown in as well

As a side note, people who were confused by The Matrix need not bother.

 

[Mike Broadman]

Seth, I agree completely. That's the impression I got.

When I first started watching the movie for the first time, I was jarred at how over-the-top and pretty and perfect everything was, especially the main character. She was so happy, so talented, so smart, so sweet, and LA was so beautiful and everyone was happy and nice. I gave Lynch the benefit of the doubt- this all had to be on purpose. By the time they got to Silencio and the host said "There is no band!," I know what he was talking about.

At the risk of sounding like a prick, I was surprised at how some people were so confused by the movie. Yes, there are some details that are questionable, but the overall story structure seemed basically clear by the end of the film and any remaining doubts were answered by a second viewing.

I am still a little unclear about the monster-thing behind the diner. Is it a physical representation of her "demons," and therefore why it had the blue box? Also, why did she dream about the detectives and the assassin's scene about how he got the black book?

 

[Rain]

I was quite dissapointed in Blue Velvet after MD.

I agree...to a point.
I recently screened Blue Velvet for the first time in years. While I still enjoyed it, it struck me how far Lynch has come since then.
In particular, I was thinking about a flashback to an earlier point in the film, which clearly exists solely to help make sure the viewer is following the story. You don't see anything like that in Mulholland Dr., at least not in the same literal way.
I've screened Mulholland Dr. three times now and I like it more and more each time.

 

[Vickie_M]

the only sequence that left me very uncomfortable (not anxiety - the whole film left me with feeling anxious, but dissatisfied) was the 'Silencio' scene. Whatever symbolic meaning it might have, I felt it didn't sit right in the film, and its the one scene I always skip whenever I watch it again.

I'm the opposite. This is a scene I could watch over and over again. Beyond the importance it has in the narrative, I can't get enough of the amazing performance of Rebekah Del Rio. I never thought I'd hear a better version of Roy Orbison's "Crying," until I heard kd lang's cover. I never thought I'd hear a better version than kd lang's, until I heard Rebekah Del Rio's sublime and emotional "Llorando."

 

[Paul_D]

I'm the opposite. This is a scene I could watch over and over again. Beyond the importance it has in the narrative...

The first thing we've disagreed on, eh Vickie. Though I do agree its an important scene, I just find it uncomfortable to watch. But perhaps thats the point.

 

[Dome Vongvises]

I just got done watching Mulholland Dr.. I liked it, I liked it a lot. But once again, Jack Briggs sums it up best.

Mulholland Dr. is a daring exercise in intellectual play. In the end, one is not quite sure what exactly has played out, but he or she knows something significant truly has transpired. But what was it?

Sorry for sounding like a simpleton when I say this, but picture the Grinch, if you will, when he has that manical grin forming on his face. That's pretty much my reaction when I got to see the lovely dynamic duo of Laura Harring and Naomi Watts.

 

[Julian Reville]

I just watched this film for the first time last night.

Best $3 I ever spent. But I will be dazed and confused for a while.

 

[Stevan Lay]

This is a scene I could watch over and over again. Beyond the importance it has in the narrative, I can't get enough of the amazing performance of Rebekah Del Rio.

I loved it too. IMO, this was the most defining scene/act of the film. Not since Aimee Man's haunting song of "Wise Up" in Magnolia had a piece of music been so hypnotic and such a spellbounding experience.

 

[Chuck Bogie]

Am I the only one that's hacked that it isn't split into chapters?

 

[Michael Reuben]

Am I the only one that's hacked that it isn't split into chapters?

No, there's a six-page thread in the Software forum discussing this and other aspects of the DVD presentation.
MULHOLLAND DRIVE DVD (including chapter stop discussion)
Discussion in the Movies forum focuses on the film itself (see the forum descriptions on the main page).
M.

 

[Holadem]

I watched it in a theater perfectly suited for this movie: Dark red chairs, velvety feel feel to the whole room, eerily similar to the silencio sequence it self, with just as many people in the room. I often find I need to be in a certain mood to enjoy this movie.

--
Holadem - is velvety a word?

 

[Aaron Whitaker]

I love just skipping to Rebecca Del Rio in CLub Silencio when I want to turn my HT up. It's beautiful, moving, mysterious, and down-right scary. It sends chills up my back and no movie scene has ever done that to me. I love the script writing during the cowboy scene. He delivers it perfectly.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

What's so great about this movie is that it's a puzzle with the hints, clues, and secrets thrown right in your face. You just need to catch them.