Mulholland Drive (film)

Mulholland Drive (often abbreviated Mulholland Dr.) is a psychological thriller released in 2001 and directed by David Lynch.

Project development

The project was initially intended to be a two-hour pilot for an ABC television series, with ABC hoping to repeat the success of Lynch's Twin Peaks. When Lynch finally gave them the finished pilot, ABC requested numerous cuts for the sake of time and content. Although Lynch made the requested cuts, the network was not happy with the resulting piece and declined further involvement.

Lynch kept control of the footage he had already shot, and with the help of Canal Plus, a French distributor, finished the pilot and reworked it as a film.

Release

Mulholland Drive premiered at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, to much praise. Lynch was co-awarded the Best Director prize at the festival (sharing it with Joel Coen for The Man Who Wasn't There). It was named Best Picture by the New York Film Critics Circle, and even more notably was given a 4 star review by critic Roger Ebert, who is known as one of Lynch's biggest detractors (he and Gene Siskel famously gave Lost Highway "two thumbs down"). 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 since its release, 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.

The DVD release of the movie in France was the cause of a landmark case on the right for users of DVDs and other media to make private copies (see DADVSI); the ruling is known as the arrêt Mulholland Drive.

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, Betty Elms (played by Naomi Watts), a young (and cloyingly perky) aspiring actress who has just moved to Hollywood from Deep River, Ontario, moves in and finds her. The dark haired woman decides to call herself "Rita" (from a movie poster advertising Rita Hayworth in Gilda). Together, the two of them try to piece together exactly who she 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 Adam Kesher (played by Justin Theroux) finds his latest project (and later, his life) being turned upside down by shadowy mobsters, who force him to hire an unknown girl named "Camilla" to play a lead role in his new film; and an incompetent hit man steals a "black book".

The plot developments become more and more bizarre, until finally the film leaves these storylines behind altogether and shifts gears entirely. After a sexual encounter between Betty and Rita, who then attend a strange and eerie performance in a mysterious midnight theatre, an entirely new reality suddenly emerges. As Roger Ebert comments, "...characters start to fracture and recombine like flesh caught in a kaleidoscope." Now Watts plays a failed actress Diane Selwyn trapped in an unhappy life. Her one time girlfriend Camilla, now played by Harring, has abandoned her to pursue a life of riches and glamour by marrying a successful director, the very same Adam Kesher. In anger and desperation, Diane hires a hit man to kill her. At the end of the film, the tormented Diane kills herself as well.

Interpretation and allusions

Lynch has maintained his refusal to comment on the film's "meaning" or symbolism, leading to much discussion and multiple interpretations. However, one common interpretation is based on a Freudian desire-gratification/wish-fulfillment interpretation. For references to accounts of this interpretation, see Classical Interpretation, Salon.com essay, Modern Word Analysis, (warning: each contains spoilers)

According to Freudian theory, the mind consists of three parts, the Id, the Ego, and the Superego, and the wishes and desires of the Id are made real in our dreams, at least to the extent that our Superego denies us when awake. Asleep, the Superego (represented by the woman in blue hair at the end of the movie) transforms these dreams from that which is denied to that which is permissible. Furthermore, bits and pieces of information from the waking life are taken, in a disorganized manner, to construct such a dream reality.

Under the Freudian interpretation, the first part of the film is a dream of the real Diane Selwyn, who in her dream has cast herself as the innocent and hopeful 'Betty Elms' and reconstructed her life, history, and persona into something like a Hollywood movie. This includes her ultimate "seduction" by the dark allure and hollow promises of stardom by Hollywood — a metaphoric seduction that is turned into a physical one in her dream. The second half of the film is then the bleak reality of Diane's actual life, a life where so many wishes and desires, both personal and professional, have fallen tragically short.

The pre-credit sequence is, in this scenario, Diane Selwyn lying in bed before committing suicide. The opening credits are the dream-like setup of Diane's alter ego Betty winning a dance competition (possibly Diane's own means for reaching Hollywood) but leading a more idyllic career than Diane. Betty and Rita encounter the deceased Diane late in the film, leading to the Club Silencio dream-like sequence to return the film to the real life of Diane, involving the blue keys. The core movie, beginning with the opening credits (the dance competition) and ending with The Cowboy saying "Wake up", is the dream that the real Diane sees just before dying of a self-inflicted gunwound, as reinforced by the man explaining his dream to his friend and dying after going to the back of the diner to see if "this" is all a dream.

It is also possible, however, that the entirety of the film is a non-linear account of the platonic tale of the `small town girl` coming to Hollywood and being corrupted by it, told through the form of several intertwining narratives involving multiple incarnations of the same personae. According to this interpretation, all of the film is equally `real` because it all ultimately tells one story, with the different narratives combining into a coherent whole. Added into the mix are several `unreal` or symbolic characters, who symbolize themes such as remote, behind-the-scenes power and perhaps even the Devil, as well as a healthy dose of aestheticization of the Los Angeles area and the southwestern U.S. in general. This interpretation would make Mulholland Drive very similar to another Lynch movie, Lost Highway.

The film contains structural and conceptual similarities to other films, including Jean-Luc Godard's Le Mépris (Contempt), in which the word Silencio is also uttered by the director at the film's end, Sunset Boulevard, Persona, Vertigo, and The Wizard of Oz, as well as the life and death of actor Bob Crane.

David Lynch's 10 clues

The US, Australian and UK DVD release of the film contains 10 clues from the director on the inner sleeve:

Pay particular attention to 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?

It is perhaps worth noting the public speculation that this list is merely a joke on the part of the director. Given Lynch's general reluctance to explain "the answer" to his works, it is understandable why some might doubt his sudden decision to point his audience towards a concrete conclusion.

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 Australia called Home and Away. Coincidentally, the actress who plays the blonde starlet "Camilla Rhodes" in the dream (Melissa George) and the actress who plays the audition singer, Carol, (Elizabeth Lackey aka Lisa Lackey) both had roles 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 obscure the full-frontal nudity of actress Laura Harring, 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.
Billy Ray Cyrus has a cameo as the pool attendant.

External links

Official site, with trailer
Mulholland Dr. at Rotten Tomatoes
Lost on Mulholland Dr., comprehensive analysis and resource centre based on the Rotten Tomatoes discussions (above)
Salon.com, analysis and explanation (warning: contains spoilers)
'No hay banda': A Long, Strange Trip Down David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, (warning: contains spoilers)
Deciphering David Lynch's 10 Clues, found within the DVD (warning: contains spoilers)
Mulholland Drive / davidlynch.de, includes interviews, reviews, audio press kit, deleted scene