Mulholland Drive
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the movie is about a group of alien life forms disguised in human bodies who try desperately to act like us but certain habits are impossilble to supress.actually, every movie made by lynch maybe apart from Dune(he he) concentrates on the same topic: aliens among us are the greatest outcasts.
>>By genocider (Monday, 30 Jun 2003 12:52)
This is a movie to remember, because the logicall of the other Lynch's movies are very strange. In this almost Lynch in the DVD put some clues, but the clues not very specificly. You must see 3 or 4 times to understand minimium one half of the movie, the moment that the dream transformed in reality. This movie changed my vision to watch other movies. Here in Mexico, this movie is not knowed, only that Lynch is nominated for the oscar, i saw itin my english class and change my life for everything. The clues is not outside of the movie, is inside and very hidded, you codified and then you have to enjoyed to see.
The other clue is in the cowboy, see again and find the cowboy, this is one of the most important clue in the movie.
>>By ivanmexican (Thursday, 3 Jul 2003 18:51)
As to the bizarre ending, here's another angle, just for Lynch-style fun....The blue box is like a type of "Pandora's box" that subverts reality and mixes things up. Opening the box is the pivotal point in the movie, and the "key" is definitely symbolic.
In the beginning of the film, Betty is the "good girl," the rescuer and girl next door. The old people she meets at the airport approve of her and praise her. She rescues Rita and goes out of her way to help. It is kind of a "Hollywood happy ending" type of beginning for her. In a way, it is also artificial in its sweetness. After opening the blue box, the fake Hollywood veneer is blasted apart, and her character is another extreme - the "bad girl," bent on revenge and destruction. It's like the tape is run back and replayed with the underside of life in control instead. The old people are now her tormenting conscience, and she is cast aside by everyone and experiences all the dirty side of Hollywood's underbelly. Which version is reality? I guess that would be the eternal question in this case, and you get to choose.
In some ways, the film reminds me of Altman's The Player in reverse (a commentary on Hollywood that starts with a gritty murder and ends fake-as-can-be happy). As for the strange archetypal characters so common to Lynch - the menacing dwarf, corporate/mafia types, and the devilish homeless person, these could be seen in both parts of the movie as symbols of the shadow side of humanity - all the boogey men we are afraid of. They always threaten the "good" stuff and help bring about the "bad." (I saw the cowboy in this context as more of a "messenger" or odd fixture to help the offbeat tone along and give the audience a feeling of foreshadowing.)
This is a much looser interpretation than some others - I think Hazy's in particular makes perfect sense - but this just gives you something else to think about and shows how this film works on so many different levels. Definitely not a film for anyone wanting a mental break and emotional uplift. It is compelling in its opaqueness, and yet nagging at the same time - I still want to solve it and understand it!
>>By Sleepy (Sunday, 6 Jul 2003 10:32)
Its been a while since I've seen this film, and I won't go into great depths, but the movie is basically two dream sequences, in my opinion. Both parts are dreamed by Diane and the only "real" part of the movie is when she is awakened by her ex-lover to pick up some of her belongings. You know that the dream ends when the cowboy comes into the apartment and says "time to wake up little girl." She then goes back to sleep and dreams the second part of the movie. The Betty character is Diane, and in the dreams she is going through many of the emotions experienced in a break up. In the first dream she is remembering much of the good aspects of love and her old lover, while in the second the more negative aspects of relationships. There are of course many more levels and comentary on society, Hollywood, etc. Many which are pretty confusing and tough to understand. I don't proclaim to get all of it, but I think what I have layed out may help in seeing what is real life and what is dream. And just like our dreams, those sequences are disjointed and confusing. I think everyone wakes up after dreaming and can't make sense of everything, and Lynch tries to get that feeling across, which he does admirably.
An amazing film, and if you like confusing thought-provoking films check out Memento. The movie is told in reverse from the point of view of a character that has no memory. Very cool flick.
>>By mytwocents (Thursday, 10 Jul 2003 06:26)
To address anyone who might think the cowboy showed up twice, and therefore the director made the wrong decision:
The cowboy showed up twice more in the move, one right after the dimensional portal I talk about later. He tries to wake Diane (played by Betty at this point), and I have no idea what the hell it could possible mean. More acid-inspired freakiness if you ask me. He shows up once more at the party where Adam (the director) asks Camilla to marry him. Thus, you see, although we, the viewer, saw the cowboy twice more, Adam only saw him once. That means he must've "done right" by the cowboy. Would you agree?
A couple of questions that may shed some light on how confused I am about Mulholland Drive:
Why does the blue key look different when Rita/Camilla pulls it out of her purse for the first time? When it's pulled back out later, it's a regular looking blue key, the same one shown thereafter. The original key (assuming the movie is chronological from start to finish, which probably isn't a safe assumption) was triangular, with some kind of crest on it.
Where the hell did the box come from? It seems to have just magically appeared in Betty's purse.
Are these just intentional acid-inspired stream-of-consciousness elements of randomness to add some more mystique to the movie (as if there weren't enough already?)
To me, the blue box was a dimensional portal, where a living version of Diane Sullivan's soul was magically shot into Betty's body. The Betty and Rita characters are no longer there, Diane is no longer dead, and when the neighbor knocks on the door, she answers and lets her get her things. Notice that the neighbor is dressed in an open blue dress shirt and black pants, the same thing she was wearing on the day that Betty and Rita found Diane dead earlier in the movie (in the original dimension).
Maybe if I watch this movie on acid, it will finally make sense. I doubt it. It would probably somehow make less sense. Still, I think if we all tried hard enough, we could put the pieces together. I think anyone who was as intrigued by the film as I was (especially after the 2nd viewing, when I was paying a lot more attention) would agree with me that there's no one single answer to Rita's identity. If she was simply Camilla, why had the director not even been introduced to Camilla Rhodes at the beginning of the movie, when she was about to be murdered? You could chalk it up to chronological chaos, I guess, but let's face it, people get amnesia AFTER car wrecks, not before. Unless there was a hidden scene where Camilla magically went back in time after leaving the wreck (to before when she was given the lead role, which happens after the dimensional portal), I'm baffled. David Lynch could tell us what he was thinking if he wanted to, but that would ruin it. I'm sure he has a theory he was going by when he wrote it, but that can't be the only possibility.
You CAN'T watch this movie just once and fully understand it, unless you have some seriously awesome attentiveness and intelligence. I've watched it twice now, and I'm still baffled. I plan to watch it again to see what more I can piece together.
>>By Brent (Friday, 11 Jul 2003 14:30)
So Rita, Betty, Dianne and Camilla are all sides of the same prism, or am I just doing my own head in?
>>By Kel (Friday, 11 Jul 2003 15:17)
You're probably bound to do your own head in analyzing this movie. Do you feel like all of them are sides of the same prism? I feel like Betty and Dianne are sides of the same prism, opposite sides. One is the caring, nurturing type, and one is the jealous type. I definitely think, though, that Rita/Camilla is separate from Betty/Dianne. I'm still confused by whether the girl with amnesia is truly Camilla from later in the movie. Since she escapes being murdered with a bag of money, we can almost assume that it's the money Dianne gave the hitman near the end of the movie, meaning the girl with amnesia is, in fact, the actress Camilla. The less and less chronologically I think about this movie, the more and more sense it makes. Check out the interpretation at salon.com. Lynch himself also gave these 10 clues:
1) Pay particular attention to 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? Is it mentioned again?
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, realised and gathered at the club Silencio?
8) Did talent alone help Camilla?
9) Note the occurrences surrounding the man behind 'Winkies'
10) Where is Aunt Ruth?
>>By Brent (Saturday, 12 Jul 2003 03:07)
This movies intense, made me into a lynch fan, it's amazing, i actually sat down and read everysingle review everyone had to write and seems like everyone makes a little sense. Sept for the people who took the time to read these and then say they didn't like the film, seems like a waste of time. Lynch is brilliant and untapped, can't tap that if you wanted to. A part of the beauty i see in his work is the mystery. Something you don't nessesarily understand, but something you can say, Wow that was unlike any ever before. I don't think me depicts lesbians in a bad way at all. He kind of just brings us into that kind of world. Maybe not everyone's like that but who's to say their have been stranger things in life. I feel I understand the movie at the same time as being totally baffled. Thats exactly what I love about the movie. The fact that I saw it a week ago and haven't stopped thinking about it since. Once i thopught requiem for a dream was one of the best movies ever. Lynch has mashed that movie into dust for me. I kind of felt that the old people were mearly insanity which Betty was very close with, then the insanity was released on her and it was to much for her. The man behind Winkies I thought was supbost to be kind of a temptation. We are warned that the man already believes a beast hides behind there. But He needs to verify that it truly is there. By going behind Winkies he went where he was warned not to go. Betty and Rita seem to fear and want to find out the mystery to Rita's amnesia. No matter the concequences, Rita had alot of bad feelings about things. They continue in there search for answers, And then the box, an unopened mystery the key was temptation that i feel they couldn't help but have that opened the box which reveals the horrible truth. Somethings are better left unknown. Kind of like this movie. It briliant like I already said. Im talking out my ass about a movie that can only be verified by one man who won't be telling any one of us any day. Rent lost highway and anything done by lynch. Im very impressed with his story telling. I thank everyone who wants to help solve this and can't end there obsession with this movie.
>>By Ricmeister (Saturday, 12 Jul 2003 05:25)
Camilla and Dianne are both dead. So is aunt Ruth.
Camilla and Dianne meet again in the world of silence
where hay no banda but still you can hear music.
They gradually recover the memories of their life. By opening
the blue box Camilla sees the movie of what happened to Dianne.
In his last minute Dan saw the ugly face of DEATH...
>>By mario (Monday, 14 Jul 2003 14:03)
I was clueless, even Eraserhead made more sense. But I found a plausible explantion here:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/watw/02-05/mulholland-drive.shtml
I think having it start out as a series but then turned into a movie added to the loose ends and inexpliquable plot lines.
>>By JayRay (Friday, 12 Sep 2003 16:52)
I think the movie is about a Death Dream. The dream you have of memorable moments in your life just as you are dying.
>>By Gerritv (Saturday, 4 Oct 2003 20:11)
thank god it never ended up as a tv series.
>>By kosmos (Saturday, 1 Nov 2003 12:09)
I'm a pretty big Lynch fan and the first time I saw this I wasnt all that impressed. Even lost highway made more sense. I didn't think much of it but didn't hate it. I then bought it on video for really cheap and decided I would watch it again. This time it totally made sense to me and I loved it. Basically it's just the story of a girl who constructs her own reality because she is unhappy with the way things are really going in her life. It's really that simple! theres a lot of neat symbolic parts and you do need to pay attention to detail. But once you realize who everyone really is it all makes sense. Another work of beautiful dark art by David Lynch in my opinion.
>>By Le_Tigre (Wednesday, 21 Jan 2004 05:41)
It's a big fat SMOKING TURD.
movies shouldn't require supplemental reading to make sense.
>>By Fat-Tony (Wednesday, 28 Jan 2004 17:57)
hang on; I think that this movie is alot less complecated than one might initially think. Trying to find a linear story in this is about as easy as finding a needle in a haystack. I think the key is to take it basically on the same level as say a jackson pollock or Rothko painting. Lynch has painted us a picture critiscising hollywood. Within it he has left a trail of compositional colour - for example, the blue box, the blue key and the woman with the blue hair. Along with this we have the recurring theme of the capapbility of film and stage to build up a totally believeable reality or illusory world of which the director or maker has total control - has the power to shatter this illusion if they so will. For exmaple in the "Silencio" scene and in fact as Lynch has done throughout the movie completely subverting our expectations.
>>By mebaroo (Friday, 30 Jan 2004 15:55)
I'm never watching another Lynch flick EVER!!!!!!!!!!!
>>By Spazzmania (Wednesday, 4 Feb 2004 05:42)
guyz ...........guyz.................... ur not makin` any sense......................... i mean instead of debating over how the story went ....................ju st think about what is hidden behind each scene............... i really don`t think lynch waz trying to telll a story ..............he simply was statingh a peice of mind about life and its absurdity ............ it`s an abstract work and not a story of a guy that goes to the circus and feeed the animalz ,hahahaha.......... look beyond ......... Jesus ......... i`m really sorrry that Lynch had to go through all the trouble of making a movie like Mullholland drive and all hhis othert movies to be debated as: " betty was camilla.... and she had a nightmatre.... then she woke up..........." u guyz r playin` story detectives ................. think abstraction........ABSTRACTION.... can`t u seee that Lynch`s movies are alwayz symbolic?>???? SHIT......
>>By komosovoski (Sunday, 29 Feb 2004 23:42)
If I wanted cymbyls I'd buy drums. Anybody want to buy a copy of "Blue Velvet"? I'll sell it to you CHEAP! At least that movie had a plot.
>>By Spazzmania (Monday, 1 Mar 2004 03:55)
Just watched it, to quote David Byrne, "I'll tell you later."
>>By flamencoprof (Monday, 15 Nov 2004 15:07)
This is one of my favourite movies of all time.
I've got my own explanation for the story, but I think that this is the trick of it. The movie hasn't an explanation of its own. You must find your own explanation.
Anyway... I loved the scene wich begins with "NO HAY BANDA!"... that's one of the most incredible scenes that I've ever watched. And the killing sequence is hillarious. :P
>>By The Ass Owl (Saturday, 4 Dec 2004 17:06)
Much more hillarious is the atmosphere of the Silencio Club, and the song that continues to be played while the singer faints, well, in the end "all is recorded"... OK, the film is good, one little intelligent lighthouse among the dark endless sea of stupidity that affects the recent american film industry...but we have already seen that before, didn't we? He draws a lot (very often) from Fellini's aesthetics, though in a low-pitched tone, a cold one.
>>By nandocax (Sunday, 5 Dec 2004 01:28)
Ok here's what we worked out in film club at school and i have no idea if it's right but any way.... The first hour and a half is a dream sequence where Diane (Betty in the Dream) is fantasising about how her relationship with Camilla (Rita? in the dream) should have gone. In the dream Diane has the power and is the alpha woman... And Adam (who stole Camilla from Diane in real life) got all these bad thing happen to him during her dream. Then it crosses back to reality. The dream occurs just before Diane kills herself. There is also a theme of bagging out hollywood.... In the movie we are even told everything is an illusion by that crazy theatre company.
The first hour and a half was filmed as a pilot for a tv series. the stations rejected it so it got turned into a movie (FUN FACT!)
Courtsey mostly of my teacher who may be insane....but it does seem to fit fairly well....
Who else thinks that a dream is too easy and a copout... anyone who uses dreams as an explanation is weak!
>>By tortallan-chic (Saturday, 14 May 2005 10:01)
I like the film, I think it's very good, but WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED THERE???
>>By Miss Krux (Monday, 17 Sep 2007 12:05)
The first point: It's a David Lynch movie!!!! This movie is all about Hollywood. What it does to you. How it does it, but not exactly WHY. It just does it. If you've ever lived there then you get it. Totally and immediately. The key to the movie: watch how the innocent Midwesterner gets totally seduced into that sleazy world we know as "Hollywood".
>>By crazyhorse (Thursday, 3 Jan 2008 17:16)
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