Add "Mulholland Drive"! I'd like to discuss that one :) [Archive] - FilmLeaf

Ilker81x

02-28-2003, 12:42 PM

NOBODY will ever REALLY know what happened in "Mulholland Dr." Remember it IS a David Lynch movie, and he is a true artist, creating films as he would any other work of art. His films have many personal touches (I'm not just talking about his style of surrealism, but his sense of values are awlays explored in his films), and like all art, it should be interpreted by the viewers...sure Lynch has something in mind when he makes a film, but he never explains it or feels the need to justify it. That is partially because if he did it would take away from the appeal of the film and people wouldn't want to see it anymore. I also think it is also partially because he is leaving it up to the audience to draw their own conclusions. Sure it's confusing and not easy to think about, but I've never met anyone who watched a David Lynch movie and then said, "I didn't get it, it's crap." They always had to watch it again, feeling that there was something they missed...and usually there is. Most of the time it doesn't help them understand it any better, but it keeps them interested. Of course, most people I know are a little more into thinking about movies too, so that has to do with the crowd I hang out with. Anyway..."Mulholland Dr." IS open to interpretation, and no one view will be correct.

Ilker81x

02-28-2003, 01:01 PM

MY VIEW (for those interested):
Diane was an aspiring actress who won a jitterbug dance contest, for which her parents were very proud of...then they died. She then moved from Canada to live with her Aunt...who then died. She auditioned for a part, which she lost to Camilla. She then began an affair with Camilla, falling in love with her, but Camilla did not love Diane back. Camilla was not only having an affair with another woman, but she also became engaged to film director Adam Kesher. So Diane then calls a hitman to have her killed...saying that he will leave a blue key when the job is done. Out of guilt and despair, Diane goes crazy and kills herself...

That is reality. Diane also formulates a fantasy world for herself, a "dream place" as she called it, composed of various elements of her real life.

Betty: This is Diane as she once was, young, starry-eyed, aspiring actrss, looking to the future, optimistic. She has a successful audition "like that brunette." Betty is how Diane wishes she could've been, how Camilla was. Betty is fictitious, a fantasy version of herself, who ultimately disappears before the blue box is opened...because the fantasy is ending.

Rita: This is both Camilla AND Diane. Obviously Camilla in the face, as the woman Betty (Diane) ends up sleeping with and falling in love with, but not returning that love (she never says "I love you" back when Betty says it). She's Diane NOW, a wreck. Every attempt they make to find out about who she is, Rita is hesitant and even adverse to finding out the truth. This to me shows that Diane does not want to admit reality. This I think is also why she ends up wearing the blond wig as a disguise. It's a sense of vanity, but more so to me the idea that it is a clue that Betty and Rita are two parts of the same person, Diane.
Also notice that the movie starts with Rita in the limo saying, "We don't stop here." Diane in reality says this when going to Kesher's place for the party...it's association, that's the point where reality crashes for her and she formulates a fantasy for herself. It was at that point where reality crashed for Rita (losing her memory) and for Diane (when she finds out Camilla is marrying Kesher).

Adam Kesher: Obviously the man Camilla is marrying in reality, so things go wrong in his life. This is Diane's fantasy, a sense of retribution for him stealing the woman she loves. BUT, he TOO is Diane. He wants to cast someone else, but the Castigliane brothers tell her "This is the girl," showing a photograph of Camilla Rhodes (in reality, the girl Camilla was having another affair with...an indication of reality creeping into the fantasy, as well as Diane's placement of blame...the name Camilla being the woman who cheated her, and the picture of the girl she's also having an affair with). Kesher wants to cast someone else, but they don't allow it...similar to what happened to Diane in reality...she wanted it, but they went with Camilla. Kesher goes home and finds his wife cheating on him (like Diane finds out about Camilla). They empty his account and force him into poverty and hiding (an allusion to Diane losing everything and her life going downhill after she didn't get the part). Plus, Cookie tells Kesher, "Whoever's looking for you...they know where you are." This is Diane's subconscious warning her that she can't escape reality.

The Hitman: He's a hitman, and Diane hired him to kill Camilla...he said he'd leave a blue key when he finishes the job. Rita (Camilla) did indeed have a blue key in her purse...an indication that the job was done...except she's not dead. The scene where he keeps screwing up at the apartment of his friend he just killed...this is meant to indicate that Diane thinks that he's a screwup.

The Mobsters: Diane's view of the forces amassing against her. It's because of them that Kesher has to cast Camilla Rhodes, it's because of them that his account is emptied. In Diane's fantasy, they represent fate, those things that are working against her and causing her pain.

The Bum: Death. Dan, the man telling the story at Winkie's, says he never wants to see the bum outside of a dream. When he does see the bum, he dies. The only other time we see the bum is holding the blue box after Diane has shot herself...HE now has the box, HE now has Diane now that she's dead. The bum is death.

Dan and Herb: Two faces Diane associates into her dream...she sees Dan at the same place Dan says he saw Herb in his dream (within Diane's dream). In Dan's story, he's scared and notices Herb was also scared, and he realizes it was the bum who was frightening him. Since the bum is death, I think the scene where Diane sees Dan shows that she was already thinking about death...not just Camilla's death (since she was paying the hitman to kill her), but her own death...she was already contemplating suicide. Beyond simple association, I don't see them as having any other significance.

The Cowboy: Never really figured his part out beyond him being another face at Kesher's party who Diane associates with the mobsters...a force trying to force her back into reality.

The Cops: Diane's ex-roommate tells her about two cops looking for her, so she associates them into her dream as quintessential policemen investigating Rita's crash. No further significance as far as I can tell.

The Blue Box: The truth, the end of the fantasy, Diane in reality.

Club Silencio: The final wake up call. Throughout the fantasy everybody is trying to wake Diane up. The goon shows up at Kesher's house looking for him. The crazy lady shows up at Betty's place saying something is wrong. The mob boss says, "The girl is still missing," and somebody makes a phonecall...we see the phone and red lamp in Diane's room. The hitman asks a streetwalker where the "brunette" is, and remember the brunette is both Camilla AND Diane in the fantasy. The club is that final place in Diane's subconscious telling her that EVERYTHING has been a fantasy. Then the cowboy shows up one more time, saying, "Time to wake up, beautiful."

That's my view anyway...confusing eh? Hehe...I had to watch the movie about fifteen times and I talked to various friends in my philosophy classes. But...that's how I think "Mulholland Dr." plays out. Rebuttal? I'd love to hear some different views on this.