View Full Version : Mulholland Drive (SPOILERS)
Not a review as such, but I say this yesterday and was stunned. Lynch is on top form with all his trademark motifs. I found it to be more Lost Highway than Blue Velvet.
BUT!!!! I've spent all last night trying to figure out the ending. Any potential theory I have seems invalidated by what has gone before. Any ideas?
theblairwitch
05-01-2002, 19:24
My thoughts as I left the cinema ?
What the bloody HELL was that all about. Laughs of derision from some areas of the audience. "Was that it ?" etc.
3 hours down the line and I think its up there with some of his best, however this has been greatly helped by the guide in November's Sight & Sound to the shenanigans that pass for a plot :D
Got it about half an hour ago after that Betty's entrance into Hollywood was not as easy as all that and she therefore had to become a waitress and hooker to make ends meet - the cowboy is her pimp and its her body on the bed - but you had figured all that already hadn't you Ronan ? :D
Obviously far more Lost Highway with the whole dual identity moniker
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Yeah I realised that it was her on the bed, but I initially thought that when 'Rita' opened the box, we were taken back to the beginning of the story, leading up to the attempted assasination and that Betty was a manifestation of Rita's psyche due to the trauma of the car crash.
This, however, does not explain who the person who took Rita in was, if Diane had shot herself, and why didn't Diane's neighbour recognise her? And who the hell was the tramp with the burned face?
Aside from this though, Naomi Watts was sensational and I can see why she has been promoted to Best Actress from Supporting Actress in the pre-Oscar push. Justin Theroux's was similarly impressive, his facial reactions to the Cowboy's demands simply priceless.
5 people out of approx. 20 walked out 30 mins before the end which is always a great sign at Lynch's movies (at a screening of Blue Velvet last Sunday a similar percentage walked out during Frank Booth's trip to see Dorothy's son!)
theblairwitch
05-01-2002, 22:04
As ever with the Eagle Scout Lynch - at least it keeps you questioning a good day after seeing it :D
Naomi Watts was great - although I think she (and the film) will unfortunately get over-looked Oscar time. Never know...
Jazzatola
06-01-2002, 17:35
I posted this in a thread in the Movie forum on Friday but it's more suited here I suppose:
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Just got back from a sold out showing at the Covent Garden Odeon and I can certainly recommend Mulholland Drive. But then again, I'm a huge fan of Lynch's work so I kind of knew what I was in for.
My only gripe was that the film didn't have enough menace unlike a lot of his previous work and contained too many 'comedy' moments. It reminded me of Tarantino in places. But it would be a shame if all his films were the same. It still pays off in spades if you allow yourself to be carried along and just like his other movies all the pieces seem to fit except one - now matter how you arrange them. I can't wait to see it again just to pick up on the details I missed.
So definitely catch this one if it's playing near you. I was very shocked to see that it's hardly showing at all across London considering it has received four Golden Globe nominations and has gained almost exclusively positive reviews. Maybe with 20 showings a day for LOTR it's hard to find space for something like this!
All in all 8/10 from me.
There's a good 'explanation' of this film at http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/feature/2001/10/23/mulholland_drive_analysis/ which I would mostly concur with, although I dont think its a good idea to try and pin down too much of the meaning of a Lynch film. Dont read it if you havent seen the film though.
ps. I loved the film...
any ideas where is a good place to get a really detailed view of the elements of this film?
I fall into the category of "irratated because it doesn't quite make sense to me yet" and I can't put it down to "these things are sent to try us" ;-)
Does lynch ever go on record to explain any of his films? or does he just leave us to worm in our misery?
So far reading the imdb discussion is pretty depressing with the "its all a load of rubbish" views closed matched by the "i have a superego and realised its all a dream" neither of which is much use for trying to work it out ;-)
don't u just hate it when someone answers the question before you even get to ask ;-) thanks ian, that was exactly the sensible sort of text i was looking for ;-)
still don't have a b/w answer for the blue box, but in reality i guess there is more joy to be had trying to make your own mind up about these odds and ends rather than having an answer anyways!
theblairwitch
07-01-2002, 08:54
don't u just hate it when someone answers the question before you even get to ask ;-)
Very Lynchian :D :clap: :nuts:
Michael Brooke
07-01-2002, 15:15
The biggest mistake you can make with Lynch’s films is “trying to work it all out” – that’s not how he works (which is why you’ll never hear a Lynch commentary track), and it’s not how an audience should approach his films either.
In fact, from <I>Fire Walk With Me</I> onwards he seems to have got in the habit of deliberately throwing in elements that contradict each other, just to confuse people who are determined to make sense of it – and this technique seems well to the fore in <I>Mulholland Drive</I>.
Probably the best advice I can offer is that which Luis Buñuel gave to people who kept badgering him about what was in the Chinaman’s box in <I>Belle de Jour</I> - “whatever you want there to be”. In other words, find an interpretation of <I>Mulholland Drive</I> that you’re happy with, and stick with it – and don’t worry about what anyone else thinks!
(I’m writing the <I>DVD Times</I> review now, and at the moment it’s probably going to be a qualified rave – “qualified” in the sense that I absolutely loved it but would be the first to acknowledge that it’s Not For Everyone!)
Cap'n Al
07-01-2002, 16:34
Simple question: Is it like Lost Highway, which I think is a masterpiece, or is it like Wild at Heart, which I think's tiresome and overblown??
Michael Brooke
07-01-2002, 16:41
It's <U>much</U> more like <I>Lost Highway</I> in all sorts of ways, and I suspect you'll love it.
(I completely agree with you, btw).
Arch Stanton
07-01-2002, 20:27
I'd love to enlighten you all with Mr Stanton's opinion of Mullholland Drive but no cinema's around Yorkshire seem to be showing it.
:mad:
jon smith
08-01-2002, 10:54
Originally posted by Arch Stanton
I'd love to enlighten you all with Mr Stanton's opinion of Mullholland Drive but no cinema's around Yorkshire seem to be showing it.
:mad:
It's shocking how hard it is to find this film. Even in London it's on hardly anywhere. Like Jazzatola, I saw it at Coven Garden Odeon (last night though) and again it was sold out.
Michael Brooke
08-01-2002, 13:53
I think once you see it you'll realise why it wasn't exactly given a <I>Harry Potter</I>-scale release!
(The Duke of York's in Brighton sold out the last show on Sunday, but going from the reaction afterwards I can't see it being a huge word of mouth hit)
Arch Stanton
08-01-2002, 14:47
I'm not after a Harry Potter style release nor would i expect one. I just would have imagined it'd be on at least one of the 50+ screens within 10 miles of my house!
Been doing well recently with such un blockbuster fair as Amelie, The Man who wasn't there and Brotherhood of the Wolf getting shown.
Fingers crossed it'll get hear eventually on a late night showing.
douglasb
08-01-2002, 17:20
Lynch fans, should of course, be reading Wrapped In Plastic for the latest news, reviews, analysis, etc. You can get information at www.wrappedinplastic.com but copies direct from the States are expensive. In the UK, you can pick it up at Tower Records and your local comic shop can get it via Diamond Distribution.
The latest issue (#56) has a 15,000 (!) word essay on Mulholland Drive. Should give you enough to think about.
D.
It's a great ride - although, as I'd read the pilot script a few years back, its patchwork progress shone through.
Lynch stated that the 'answer' just came to him when it looked like his pilot was dead and buried. That 'answer' was to basically give it the EXACT same underlying concept as Lost Highway, just shifting the 'reality' section from the first 30 mins to the last 30.
It gets a thumbs up from me, but maybe not right up there with Lost Highway due to its nature. It really was supposed to be much longer and different than it is - but the individual scenes are so strong that it doesn't matter too much. The scene in the theatre was classic Lynch!
It felt to me like Lost Highway was like (Wayne Wang's) Smoke and Mulholland Drive felt like Blue In The Face - if that comparison makes any sense (not an exact comparison to the Wang films themselves!)
Michael Brooke
09-01-2002, 08:55
I initially, and horribly uncharitably, thought it was Lynch's <I>Cherry, Harry and Raquel</I> - to cite the legendary Russ Meyer film where the lab wrecked a fair amount of footage that couldn't be reshot, so Meyer simply took a naked large-breasted woman into the desert, shot her in a variety of strange poses (as a receptionist in the middle of some railway tracks, running through the sand with a saxophone on her head) and cutting this material into the rest of the feature - the editing being so dazzlingly effective that you initially don't realise that the film doesn't make any coherent sense whatsoever.
But, to be fair, <I>Mulholland Drive</I> is a lot better than that - though I wouldn't trust anyone's snap judgement when it comes to this particular film: you need to let the last 30 minutes thoroughly percolate into your brain first of all, and that takes hours rather than seconds!
kerbcrawler
11-01-2002, 11:08
Thanks IanM for that link. As much as I love Lynch movies and as familiar as I am with the genius of Lost Highway, it's still just a few fresh hours since I saw this and I needed some other opinions. Back later.
Saw Mulholland Drive today. It's a wonderful film even though I'm still baffled by the last half hour (but I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one!). There were a few unhappy people in the audience though - when the credits began to roll, a woman a few rows behind me said to her friend, "So that's the work of a genius? (quoting David Thomson) It was *****! *****!" before storming out.
All 50 or 60 others in Manchester's Filmworks last night hated it. Brilliant. One couple actually arrived 20 minutes in. And as the credits rolled, there was a communal groan and embarrassed laughter. "That was crap." "We just paid good money for that." And most memorably - "That was worse than that rubbish where they were all running around the sodding woods." (which, though desperately inane, is one of the most amusing pieces of film criticism I've ever heard !) As the cinema emptied, and I watched the credits, I felt like I'd got a big red neon arrow above me. He liked it ! He's the one !
Go in with expectations revolving around conventional plot resolution and typical character motivation and you'll hate it. Prepare yourself for a sensual cinematic feast (and ignore the mainstream's obsession with narrative 'flow' and 'sense') and an assault on most of your senses, and you may love it as much as most of us here seem to have. But try to 'work it out' and you might as well go and look for haystacks and water lillies in a Kandinsky. Glorious, unsettling film-making. Makes Amelie look like Rita, Sue and Bob Too.
theblairwitch
18-01-2002, 17:45
"That was worse than that rubbish where they were all running around the sodding woods." (which, though desperately inane, is one of the most amusing pieces of film criticism I've ever heard !)
What film was that one then ? :D :eek: :nuts:
Has anybody yet joined www.davidlynch.com, is there anything of interest or just his company cashing in?
Top Film
Cheers
chet
Just got back from seeing it and I loved it. Didn't make much sense but I loved it all the same. I think I need some more time to think about it though. I would also agree that it's much closer to Lost Highway (which I also love) than Wild at Heart (which did nothing for me). Definitely needs to be seen at least twice though!
What can I say, I was blown away!! I had a massive smile on my face for the last 30 minutes - outstanding. It started a little slow, and the pacing of it did belie it's t.v. show origins. However, once it started to churn up steam, it really never let go. Certainly the best film I have seen this year - not hard admittedly.
Classic Lynch in every sense, and for the non-Lynchian (which my girlfriend is), perhaps one of his most inaccessible films. She hated it, she slept for a good hour after getting bored for the first 50 minutes. Is this film going to convert any Lynch detractors - probably not, but for fans it's manna from heaven.
Cap'n Al
24-01-2002, 22:39
I'd expected the film to be odd- given that I watched it back to back with <i>From Hell</i> and <i>Vanilla Sky</i>, I was hardly in a mood for conventional and soothing cinema- but I hadn't expected it to be as blackly funny as it was. One scene in particular, the botched assassination of the fat woman and janitor is so uproarious that the entire audience was laughing hysterically, whether with amusement or bewilderment I know not. As a film, it may or may not make sense, but it's probably best viewed on a scene by scene basis, where there's as much great stuff as in any other Lynch film.
Well saw this tonight or last nite if you want to get technical. It's the first Lynch film I've seen and I was really impressed, so now I'm going to have to look through all of his other films and twin peaks. Anyway one question I have is what did everyone think the significance was of the nerdy guy who was with a psychiatrist and was scared of a "monster"
one thought I do have is that
maybe it's a manifestation of Diane's conscious and the monster is reality and she's scared to come to face that reality, but who is the pshychiatrist type character. I agree with the salon.com explanation that the last 30 mins is just the reality and the first bit is the dream. However what is the significance of then in the dream finding yourself dead (Betty finding Diane)? As it's been pointed out though it may be an impossible riddle to solve
anyways glad I caught it, certainly gonna be pondering over it for a while as well as :argue: with friends
I finally saw this yesterday at Odeon Covent Garden.
Fantastic! I cannot stop thinking about it! In the same way as "Lost Highway" went around my head fro weeks after seeing it I think this will too. It was a frustrating experience watching it but at the same time I didn't want it to end! And I thought the cinematography was some of the most gorgeous I've seen in recent years.
Overall I'd say that "Lost Highway" freaked me out more (I've never been SO afraid of a dark corner in all my life!) but this film has a certain tenderness to the central characters that I found really quite moving. I really want to see it again, NOW!
Dan is Fat
02-02-2002, 13:13
I saw this last night and thought it was amazing. It is constantly on my mind, and i keep thinking about it. It is amazing how the twist happens and you are not really aware of its significance, or even that there was a twist until later.
Spoiler
was the significance of the gangster mafia kind of people who had controll over the movie, simply Diane making a reason why she didnt get the part, she couldnt face that she did not get it, so made a reason in her fantasy that would make it never possible for her to get the part?
end
what are your views on the twists and stuff?
omega man
04-02-2002, 16:41
i caught this the other night and thought it was amazing
spoilers ahead
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when they started to get a bit close the two main characters and became lesbians i thought oh no what a cop out i though he run out of ideas
and started to doze off.
then i woke up about half way into rita dream at the theater
(if this makes sense)
then it all started to fall into place and released that there lesbian relationship played an important part in the key to the film
Originally posted by omega man
when they started to get a bit close the two main characters and became lesbians i thought oh no what a cop out i though he run out of ideas
and started to doze off.
then i woke up about half way into rita dream at the theater
(if this makes sense)
then it all started to fall into place and released that there lesbian relationship played an important part in the key to the film
That is exactly what I thought. Initially I thought Lynch put this plot strand in just for the sake of being 'controversial' or to pull in the male punters, but it soon became clear that, as you say, the lesbian relationship is integral to the story.
wong fei hong
06-02-2002, 08:12
I saw it last night and I loved it. I can't stop thinking about how great it was - even better than Lost Highway, maybe.
But I don't think it's as complicated as all that, and certainly a lot less bewildering than Highway - much more accessible, too. Naomi Watts, Laura Harring and Justin Theroux were really superb (anyone think Theroux looks like Johnny Knoxville? ...just me then), with the weird, robotic dialogue and performances of the first half generating a palpably oppressive atmosphere. How Lynch manages to pull this trick off, film after film, is beyond me. Remember when Twin Peaks first appeared, and the acting and script seemed like the oddest thing you'd ever seen? Well Mulholland Dr makes Peaks look like a particularly gritty piece of realist drama. :)
Maybe the film seems confusing in places, but it's not meant to be taken either literally or linearly. Like a painter (in fact, he is a painter) Lynch invests the whole film with meaning. Just as you wouldn't try to glean meaning from one quarter of a painting by, say, Dali, neither can Mulholland Dr be understood by any singular element. Lynch givees us the composite elements - mood, event, character and environment - and lets the audience draw their own connecting lines. This cannot be an easy way for a director to present a story, but through it Lynch allows himself a level of free expression which is rare in cinema. Emotion and instinct are personified or objectified, externalising the turmoil of the characters. Lynch truly shows us the life of the mind.
For what it's worth, here's my spoilered up take on it.
Diane (Naomi Watts) leaves a quiet family life for Hollywood - where unfortunately she falls into a seedy life of prostitution as she tries to make it big. She is beaten to the lead role in a movie by Camille (Laura Harring), with whom she begins an affair. Camille gets her work in other movies, but they drift apart as Camille becomes involved with her director (Theroux). When Diane realises Camille has a new mistress (Angel from Home and Away ) it is the final straw, and she arranges Camille's murder.
Driven to the point of insanity through guilt, Diane retreats into a fantasy world where Camille is Rita, amnesiac and helpless, and relies upon her. Diane becomes Betty, an idealised vesion of herself - talented, comfortable. Their relationship is consumated tenderly and gently, in stark contrast to the rougher, seedier truth. The mobsters are blamed for Betty's failure to get a role in a film, and a 'family' (by implication fatherly) influence is suggested in the first audition she attends. This means that Diane cannot face up to her failings... Rita has money, and a key. This is literally the key to a box of secrets, and it is the opening of the box after it is found in Club Silencio which reveals a 'real world' to the audience. Club Silencio is a place of contemplative sorrow, where Betty cannot escape her deeds as Diane. The woman there sings a Spanish version of the Roy Orbison song, Crying, which is about the loss of love.
The cowboy warns the director that he will appear once more if he is good, and twice if he is bad. We, and Diane/Betty, see him twice.
The hitman, whom Diane is very frightened of (not only because of her guilt, but because of what he does) becomes a comical figure to Betty, buffoonishly bungling a hit. She is convincing herself that he isn't dangerous.
A man who, in the 'real world', saw Diane organising Camille's murder, is haunted by a shadowy figure behind a diner - it is Diane's dirty secret, personified, who eventually holds the box revealing the truth, and Diane's conscience. This is represented by the old people, a reminder of Diane's life before Hollywood. They come back to claim her when her mind can no longer support the horror of what she has done, and she commits suicide.
And that's gross over-simplification. It isn't really intended to be dissected in this way, and I fully concede that my interpretation may be miles away from anyone else's... but that's what Lynch wants. I think.
In the spirit of the piece (as I'm certain that others will see your interpretation as 'right' or 'wrong') I'm thrilled by this, WFH. It's a measure of how deeply Mulholland Drive has drilled into my (sub)conscious thoughts that any insight I find appealing simply adds another level to my enjoyment. (Like no film in years, I can't stop thinking about Mulholland Drive, replaying it over and over in my head.) You're quite right - it is critical to define Lynch as an artist, if only to highlight how tied to traditional film narrative we've become. Mulholland Drive and Shaolin Soccer are the two most recent examples I recall of being forced to suddenly remember just how many different languages of cinema exist. And how innapropriate expectations are as naive as travelling to Borneo and expecting everyone to speak English. God knows what the tittering bores in my showing expected from the new David Lynch film. I can only guess that asking them to watch something from a totally different culture would lead to even more frustration ("That's not what you do in football ! Cantona got banned for that. This is just silly.")
Furthermore, I should actually add that I've given very little thought to the 'plot' of Mulholland Drive (despite the addition of 4 tempting 'clues' onto the ads in last Friday's broadsheets ...) Up against the beautiful cinematography, Angelo's unshakeable score, the screwball comedy, a quite rightly hailed cast and a real emotional depth that the madness just shouldn't allow, it seems a minor concern. I liked Chris Roberts' summary in his Uncut review last month - "See it. Drive yourself mad."
wong fei hong
06-02-2002, 11:49
Originally posted by GK
God knows what the tittering bores in my showing expected from the new David Lynch film.
If they are anything like the denizens of Milton Keynes (at whose Cineworld I saw it), then they obviously only went because Shallow Hal was sold out. I don't want to get on a snob horse about it, because - as M Brooke posted earlier in this thread - it isn't for everyone. But the last film I saw in MK (Ghost World) and the one before that (Amelie) elicited the same responses. And some oafs mobile rang twice during the film. Don't people understand! TURN IT OFF AFTER THE FIRST TIME!
Well just finished watching this on DVD - just utterly insane!
This was my first ever David Lynch movie and I think I need to see more of his work ;)
davey1970
20-04-2002, 15:32
finally got round to watching this last night.
absolutely totally *********** amazing.
possibly his best film i think with hints of FWWM and Lost Highway thrown in for good measure.
Finally got round to seeing this today and another total thumbs up from me. Wow. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it all day and to be honest that's the first time time I've been able to say that about a Lynch film since Wild at Heart.
I don't subscribe to the 'dream' theory as an explanation. I think that's a cop out. It's way deeper than that.
I'm sure it's been mentioned before but I think that from the over stylised shooting and the forced acting of Betty's introduction and her journey with the elderly couple that this is showing the beginning of her journey into the afterlife. The first 2/3 of the movie then deal with her trying to make amends and come to peace with herself before showing us why she is there in the first place in the last 1/3. i.e. it's about spirits and ghosts or Angels if you will. A theme not uncommon in Lynch's work. Diane/Betty's journey to the afterlife is therefore delayed by her imagining a better life for herself, a life she maybe wished that she had had. Why had she come to Hollywood in the first place? What is her home story? Is Lynch's recuring theme of child abuse (FWWM) coming into play again - the Audition scene? There is so much to think about.
Of course I have only just seen it so I am going to watch it again with this in mind, to see if it makes sense.
I do think though, that the genius of MD is that practically everyone who sees it will have their own interpretation that will make sense and that there is no, one explanation.
On a more traditional note, the cinematography is stunning, the score will have you in tears, the comedy (The Hitman sequence especially) laughing out loud and the atmosphere created will linger with you for quite some time. And how Naomi Watts was over looked for oscar recognition is beyond me (maybe not quite good enough to win but was ZellWeiger's performance in BJD really better than this?).
Please see it if you haven't already.
Just watched Mulholland Drive and was a little confused but after reading some comments, ive managed to make more sense of it. Must rewatch Eraserhead again and see if I can make some sense of that too. (haven't seen it since i was 18)
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