Mulholland Dr.
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Movie Reviews of Mulholland Dr.
Movie Review: Paranoia, desire, crushed ambition, realizations of self...
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie was not intended to be shown in one sitting. Originally conceived as a television drama (much like Twin Peaks), it only became a film when it was not picked up for a television market. David Lynch then re-imagined what he had already created and worked to fashion a film, seeking foreign producers and a distributor that trusted him. While this short history of the genesis of the film does not explain its intricacies, perhaps it will help to soothe the frustrations of someone watching the film for the first time. Can you imagine trying to piece together the entire history of the X-Files in one 3 hour sitting? It would be difficult at best.In my opinion, one big clue to the movie is in the opening shot (not the beginning credits, but the first "film" frame). It is of a pillow and a sheet...that quickly dissolves into a rather nostalgic ride down Mulholland Drive (the road that runs behind the famous HOLLYWOOD sign). The movie does not return the viewer to that shot ... of the pillow again until Diane wakes up nearly 5/8's of the way through the film. It can be assumed that this whole portion of the film has been one long dream, a dream that gives us a great deal of insight into the personal desires and fantasies of Diane. The rest of the film is a mish-mash of (in my opinion) drug-induced daydreams and paranoia, seen through the beer-bottle goggles of Diane. She over-emphasizes the importance of things she is suspicious of, and sees things that are not really there--ultimately leading to her making some bad decisions that she cannot deal with.
Several characters appear in both worlds (the dream, and the warped/drug altered reality of the end). These characters, we assume, have had some kind of impact on Diane's life. Her fantasy/inner vision of the characters is seen in her dream, the somewhat-subjective reality of them revealed only in the latter part of the film. There are really only two characters that are enigmas: the person behind the diner, and the cowboy. In my opinion, the person behind the diner represents a drug dealer (making things happen) whom Diane buys from (who controls Pandora's box). The cowboy, to me, represents the simple, logical, American person that Diane hopes is out there, striving to right the wrongs of LA.
The dream sequence is Diane's subconscious exploring her feelings for the people and places in her life, and rewriting her experiences in a version she likes better (she is an amazing actress, who is only deterred from certain stardom because of a conspiracy, and who loves someone that would love her fully too, if only she really knew who she was). When she wakes up, she must then come to terms with her life, and muddle through the confusing haze of people and relationships in her life within LA culture...confusing matters incredibly with her drug/fantasy/day dream visions.
The movie is a masterpiece of writing, direction, cinematography, and ultimately conviction to telling an unconventional story...Lynch, Herring, Watts and others never waver in their commitment to the story...even when it gets scary, erotic, or convoluted. The result is an incredibly entertaining and though-provoking experience that will leave you wanting to see it again and talk to others about it. The casting is largely from television actors and recognizable faces (no doubt attributed to the fact that the film was originally going to be a television series), revealing and introducing some amazingly talented actors and actresses (Naomi Watts--clearly stretching beyond the matronly parts she has previously played, Laura Elena Harring, Justin Theroux, and Dan Hedaya in the most obvious occurrences).
The DVD is an interesting example of the mind of David Lynch. It was his express directive that there be no chapter breaks in the movie. It was also his express directive to disallow additional information beyond a cast list and the trailer. His reasoning is that the additional material detracts from the experience of the film. And in this case, he is right. The additional material would allow the viewer to remove him or herself from the film, reminding them that it all was make-believe and without meaning. In his own way, by starving the viewer of these extra tidbits, Lynch has created even more of an enigma for viewers to question well into the future.
Movie Review: One of the best of All-time! 10 NOT 5 stars !!
Summary: 5 Stars
This should be recognized as one of the greatest works of Art ever to be committed to celluloid. Lynch is able to plumb deeply into the sub-conscious of all of us and construct a story which resonates on a primal, visceral, instinctive, and altogether natural level. Lynch shows how ultimate truth is revealed in dreams despite our feeble attempts to relegate our fears, insecurities and guilt to our subconscious during our waking hours. In dreams, all of our emotions and thoughts are fleshed out for better or for worse. Our dreams can amuse us when we do good, and terrify us when we do evil! Perhaps good and evil are absolute concepts after all, and are non-negotiable!?
While the film is highly structured and self-explanatory (for those who view it repeatedly and carefully), like most of Lynch's work, and particularly "Inland Empire," this film is so beautifully crafted that it can be appreciated solely on an aesthetic level, but ideally on an intellectual one as well.
MD is haunting, brilliant, and the work of a genius. Just when I was losing interest in superficial and banal modern film-making, David has given us a real diamond in the rough!
P.S - If you don't like challenging films which make you think and concentrate, or if your idea of a great film is about sub-woofers and explosions, avoid this at all costs. If you are amazed at human psychology and drama, don't miss this!
Want to know who the scary, dirty homeless man in the alley may be?
Well, here is my take at least:
Most obviously, he is an element of her dream. All of the characters that inhabit her dream are people Diane has met or seen briefly during her waking state. Some are significant characters and some are not. Ever dream about the most absurd or trivial things yourself? For instance, notice the mafioso type at the party at the end of the movie who Diane only briefly notices as she is wiping away tears? He may have been a significant part of her life, or he may have just been someone who caused her momentary embarrassment. Here is the genius of Lynch. He is demonstrating that nothing is too trivial or absurd that cannot be dreamt about. This is why Dianne constructs the pool man farce in her dream after only a brief mention of him by Camilla's fiancé.
The dirty and horrifying homeless man, who is able to scare us with his abrupt appearance may represent the subconscious guilt that Diane is suffering through. He is retribution personified, of having to pay for her crimes, through mental anguish. This is possibly how he is manifested in her dream: When Diane is negotiating with the hit man in Winkies to kill Camilla, there is a tall, dark guy who Diane only briefly glimpses at the other end of the room. He gives her a brief but intense stare. This same character, now present in her dream, gives the suspenseful anecdote of "the guy who is always there," walks to the alley, is startled by the homeless man, and falls to the ground petrified. At the brief moment when Diane sees him staring at her in Winkies, she no doubt felt fear and anxiety about planning Camilla's death, or being discovered, and therefore even seemingly innocent glances take on a more suspicious nature. It is no accident that the unnamed guy standing at the bar morphs into a character in her dream that is obsessed and overcome with fear. Diane is afraid of every bogeyman now, because of guilt, she is even pursued in her dreams. Our dreams are often comprised of metaphors, and usually bizarre, but reveal general truths, in this case, in a very emotional (terrifying way). She will not have peace until she has dealt with her sins and cleansed her conscience. Then her nightmares will go away.
The dirty/scary homeless man can also be an archetype of the devil who metaphorically at least, dwells in places such as "sin city" or "Tinseltown," where men lose their souls for wanting it all at any cost. These are the places where men sell their souls. Where they are promised the world, but are deceived by the great serpent and deceiver of old; the arch-nemesis of humanity.
Like any true art, Lynch allows multiple interpretations..
Movie Review: The illusion of self-identity...
Summary: 5 Stars
I like this film very much, I'm not sure if it really makes sense but I don't think it is necessarily supposed to - its making appears to have been an organic process that is more or less open to cohesive interpretation.
I don't think clarity or coherence is necessarily a weakness however, adult viewers, generally, don't want to be spoon-fed the plot details - it is much more satisfying to work out what is going on and be able to offer various different assessments of what that is. Ultimately such a film is liable to tell us something of our own fears and stage of development in life as we attempt to apprehend a thread.
The central themes revolve around identity, self-delusion, lack of control. We aspire to become something better and beyond what we are and often delude ourselves into thinking that we can become more than we in reality can be. The character(s) of Betty/Diane is in an amalgam of a dream, hallucination or delusional state but it might also be seen that all the characters are figments of a dream/illusion that is not being dreamt by anyone in particular - in this film the unreality particularly pertains to the Hollywood dream factory, but it could equally apply, albeit in generally less strong measure, to all walks of life.
People change and exchange roles all the time, we move to different places, different work environments, different situations and we attempt to fit in or to impose ourselves on our new situations. A measure of how successful we are in fitting in relates to the extent to which we identify to a bigger perspective at the expense of individuality. Constraints on such success are often beyond our control, we rationalize our existence and lie a little to ourselves in order to fit in to the new 'objectified' world that we perceive that is ultimately illusory...the 'wahn' - an emergent higher order perception that exists only within the confounds of the particular environment.
Sometimes things happen that break us out of this 'wahn', this illusion, and we become self-aware - that is we perceive how different we are and in what ways we do not fit in... our perception of the illusory world becomes internalized and we thus have, and simultaneously question, our individual identity.
The characters in Mulholland Drive, at different stages in the film, exhibit loss of such individual identity. 'Rita' does not know who she is but aptly labels herself with the first name of a famous actress, her confident character Camilla Rhodes in the latter third of the film is really just a product manufactured by Hollywood, she has found her place at the expense of her sense of self. Betty is a confident and independent character aspiring to be a part of the Hollywood dream. When, in the latter third, she becomes Diane, it is not clear if her life as Betty was a dream or perhaps a somewhat glossed sense of herself as confident newby apt to fit into Hollywood but whose ultimate frustration at not being accepted by Hollywood led to pained internalized perception of the world - Diane possibly being a new name that she chooses in order to fit in but without success. Adam Kescher fits in by accepting his lack of identity in the film project over which he thought he originally had some control - he becomes another product of Hollywood who loses interest in artistic integrity as an expression of individual identity. His sense of self becomes occluded in the 'wahn', individual reality drowned by an externalized bigger re-presentation of the world imposed by the Hollywood dream factory and commercial interests.
Essentially we see dreams and aspirations of fitting into some bigger picture soaking up individual identity and control.
This is how I identify with the film. I think it is one thread but I don't pretend to offer a definitive interpretation of a film which probably does not yield this. The use of music and cinematography speaks to us at the level of the subconscious: the strangely spooky black monster, the clairvoyant woman, the club silencio - all evocative and seemingly demonstrative of our fears relating to lack of both self-knowledge and 'external reality'.
Movie Review: Mullholand Drive: A guide to understanding it.
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm not going to write about the plot of this movie because that would be pointless. To start of, there is no real plot to the story, there isn't an order, but it does not by any circumstance lack cohesion. If you have already seen this movie, read on you might mind an answer. If you haven't don't, unless you become too baffled by it and you need a clue.
To explain this i'll have to use the actresses's names instead of the characters since I can't possible find another way to do it.
Bear with me:
1. There is no order in space or time. The whole movie (except for a few moments at the end when Naomi Watt's character hires an assasin, which is the key to understanding this) happens entirely in her head. What triggers everything is the the Laura Harring character leaving Naomi's for the cowboy director. Naomi's personality becomes fragmented, hence, the first part of the movie, including the credits, are part of a dream, of an idealized reality. This is the reason why at the first hour and a half or so of the movie there is a sense that everything being fake: from the way people act, to certain situation's that seem to have no connection with main "plot". That was something that i found really breakthrough, these amazing actresses willingly act like they're on days of our lives just to give you a clue. The horrible acting at the beguinning is COMPLETLY INTENTIONAL.
2. There are two deaths in the movie. One is Naomi's suicide (because her lover left her, and since she wouldn't come back she decides to kill her) and two, laura's death which we never get to see.
3. The blue box is the cathalicyst. She's supposed to get the blue key after Laura is dead, which she sees on her table in the second bizarro part of the movie which is the only thing real. In the dream world (1st part) Laura open it: the reason for this is that Naomi feels that Laura brought this upon herself.
4. The "Silencio" Theater part is the biggest clue, and it mean (to me anyway) that sadness (note the lighting) and confusion are really self induced. Hence the "No hay banda". There is no band. It doesn't mean that nothing is real, it mean that everything is fake, it doesn't exist (think about it).
The purpose of this scene is not to confuse you, but to warn you.
5. Naomi is replaying and rearranging the whole thing. Whether they really did have an affair or not is kind of a mystery. She was obsessed, that much I can say, but I'm not sure if it was real.
6. She probably kills herself, not just out of repent (note the old people, representing good christian values, tormenting her) but out of misery: She realices after she wakes up that that particular relationship wouldn't have worked, ever. didn't work in a dream of hers, it wasn't going to work in real life, but by that time it's already late, she has already killed her.
7. The Director, lossing his grip. The only reason she dreams of him the way she does is because she wishes he had no power, she feels that's the main reason Laura preffers him over her, who in turn, has absolutely no power. She has lost all control.
With this explained I hope you can figure out the rest because it would be just to long to explain. The main thing is this: Think of the movie backwards. It's not about what happens, it's about how she feels and about how she thinks Laura's character feel, and about how she wishes things would have turned out. The grimmest parts are the real ones.
I really congratulate David Lynch for having loosened and tied the stings in new and amazing ways, this is what he is a master at. It's not that hard to understand, it's just that audiences have no interest in understanding it.
Give the movie another chance and once you get you'll really thank Mr. Lynch for making you dust off your brain.
Remember that something you may not be able to explain since this was originally a pilot for a tv series (just like lost highway) that also, never got made, so some pieces might be missing, or maybe I still just haven't found them.
Movie Review: A great and rewarding movie...if you pay close attention...
Summary: 5 Stars
I must admit that I didn't really understand this movie the first time I saw it. I am sure I still miss some nuances after many viewings. It was still quite enjoyable on a visual level that first time with very vivid colors and great cinematography. However, once you understand the basic storyline, those previously difficult details start falling into place, and you start feeling like a much smarter person for getting it. At least I did.Okay, if you're interested, here is the basic storyline. If you notice at the beginning of the movie, Naomi Watts falls asleep and you get a visual of a pillow blurring as she falls into it. From that point in the movie to the point at which the cowboy comes into her room to wake her up, it is a dream. Here's the reality. Naomi Watts is Diane Selwyn, a former dance champion who wanted to make it big as an actress. Her aunt had left her some money when she died, so Diane headed to Hollywood. But she didn't do very well. For example, she wanted to win the lead in a movie called The Sylvia North Story, but the director didn't think much of her audition. Another woman, Camilla Rhodes (Laura Elena Harring) got the part instead. This is how they met, Diane and Camilla. And as Camilla progressed as an actress and Diane ended up doing bit parts in Camilla's movies, they had a sexual relationship. The relationship didn't mean to Camilla, though, what it meant to Diane. Camilla eventually dumped her for the director of one of her movies, Adam (Justin Theroux), announcing it at the party shown near the end of the movie. Diane couldn't deal with it, and she hired a hitman to kill Camilla. When she realized Camilla was dead (the hitman left the blue key for her), she couldn't live with what she had done and what she had become. She was depressed and hallucinating and shot herself in her bedroom.
Now here's the dream. Diane's dream is everything she wanted to happen in reality. She creates it from reality, adding characters that passed marginally through her life (such as the cowboy at the party who becomes a figure to menace the director) and reworking events that actually happened (such as the limousine ride, no longer her way to the party but the way in which Camilla comes to depend on her). In her dream, she is not Diane but Betty, the name of a waitress who served her once. Camilla has amnesia brought on by a car crash, after which she finds her way to Betty's amazing apartment. Camilla calls herself Rita after seeing a Rita Hayworth poster in Betty's apartment. In the dream, Betty and Rita are together. The director is cuckolded in a hilarious scene and harrassed by the aforementioned cowboy. Betty is an incredibly good actress. The hitman is a bumbling idiot. All is well with the world. That is, all is well until reality starts creeping in. The director seems to recognize Betty, though in her dream world, he doesn't know her. Betty and Rita discover the dead body of Diane Selwyn, a name which seems unsettlingly familiar. A couple of men in a diner discuss an evil presence which lives behind the place, actually a homeless man who possesses a blue box. (I think that the evil presence/homeless guy is the manifestation of Diane's inner turmoil at what she has done in reality. She has locked it up in this sort of Pandora's box.) At a performance at Club Silencio at which the emcee announces that everything is an illusion, Betty freaks out, because in reality, all of this is an illusion. She finds a key in her purse which is blue like the one the hitman had in reality. When Rita opens the Pandora's box with the key, Betty is gone, the illusion is gone, and the cowboy appears to wake Diane up.
A couple of comments about this DVD--the American version is really not that hot. You get the movie which runs straight through without chapters (i.e. you can't stop the DVD and skip back to whatever part you were on). The only special features are some production notes and the trailer. I got a region 0 Korean version online which has more features and most importantly has chapter stops. Because I needed those to review those parts which just didn't want to jell in my mind.