Mary Sands
Drawings are copyrighted by Nancy Victoria Davis
Mulholland Drive ReviewLate last summer I was walking around a shopping plaza near UCI and saw the most amazing thing: a
poster of a new movie by David Lynch "coming this fall". Wow, I was excited. I had to wait another couple months before Mulholland Drive began to show around the country, and even then the movie had a limited run in a select few of theaters. I was lucky to see it at a small movie house in Santa Ana, and bugged a long-time, Lynch-lover friend of mine to go see the film with me the day it came out.
We both were big fans of some of David Lynch's other major films such as Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Lost Highway, and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. Having seen all these films numerous times, and being rather shaken (in a good way) by them, we were very anxious to see Lynch's new masterpiece. Of course we figured we would like the movie, judging on our reactions to his past movies.
Set the scene here: a hot October day in a crowded area of Santa Ana, not too different from Los Angeles (and only an hour away), where the movie takes place. Keep that scene in mind, for it was later, after the movie, that the weirdest vibes hit the air.
You really have to not have expectations of Mulholland Drive. Sitting in the dark theater is like sitting in a roller coaster car. The film is an experience, a sort of ride. I'd suggest that if you haven't seen this movie yet, just open your mind and let it be. Lynch has a way of pulling it together for you, or rather I'd like to suggest that he opens the opportunities for you to take from the movie what you will. Despite the confusion, and it will be there unless you've already read the tons of analyses out there (try not to read these before seeing the movie), there is a multi-layered collage of things happening in this movie that are tangential to each other, but only in a way that might be clear if you take into consideration the tools that Lynch uses: a dreamscape, time warps, symbolism, musical fugue, character change, dream vs. reality, good vs. evil, Hollywood legends and history, and so on. Lynch himself said that this movie asks more questions than it answers. So, there are multiple interpretations of what's really happening in the movie. I will try not to spoil them for you, but do hope that you come away with some of your own if you get a chance to see the film.
This movie has been described as a love story set in the city of dreams. Two women, Betty and Rita, fall in love and have to solve a mystery. The mystery involves a blue box, a purse full of cash, and the true identity of Rita. Meanwhile, Betty, having just arrived in Los Angeles, and with big hopes of becoming a starlet, has some identity issues of her own.
The narratives circling around the women's mystery involve an older couple who accompany Betty on her flight to Los Angeles, Betty's disappearing and appearing Aunt Ruth, a director named Adam whose wife is sleeping with the pool man; Adam is being manipulated by a midget, a cowboy, and a couple mob-type Hollywood characters to cast a certain lady for a movie he's making. Also, Betty has an outstanding audition for a movie and hopes to become a successful actress. There are also two men in a diner who see a frightening bum behind a dumpster, a hilarious attempt by another mystery man to retain a black book of names, a landlady named Coco (played by legend Anne Miller), a seedy concoction of people planning something, and a very shadowy nightclub called Club Silencio.
This is typical Lynch stuff: cowboys, midgets, strange colors, odd sounds, mystery, confusion, and clashes. From what might be described as the "history of Hollywood," we're wooed by music from the 1950s, casting problems, clandestine affairs, dirty sidewalks, taxis, art deco, dinner parties, starlets, money, and pay telephones.
At Club Silencio, where Betty and Rita are at a turning point in solving their mystery, we're silenced into a scene that is both metaphysical and surreal. After this scene, everything changes and Betty is no longer Betty. Rita is no longer Rita. Adam is still Adam, but Coco is no longer Coco. Other people and places from the first half or so of the film, including the older couple, reappear in different roles. This is where things get stranger and stranger, and the WTF factor increases exponentially.
The movie's characters implode, morph, and switch places. The cowboy reappears and says it's time to wake up.
From there on out is what appears to be a congested view of reality, and we're not sure what actually happened in the first part of the film. This is where Lynch starts playing a trick on you, and where you really begin to scratch your head even more. Suffice it to say that if you think about dreams, you're on the right track. Also, there are some things to pay attention to, but if you're like me and want to enjoy this movie fresh-faced, don't try to pick up on detail the first time around.
The end of the film is a total mind-blower. Things happen that would only happen in a real dream. There's a flash of strange music, people, and realities that we never guessed could coincide together in real life. We want to hope that these things are not existing, but they are--thus, the emotional unsettling that is bound to happen by the time you walk out of the theater.
Flash back to the time my friend and I walked out of the theater. He told me later that the movie made him want to cry, and I had felt that way as well. The day was mint golden, soft, not slumbering, pitched with what now seems like a haze of strange people and places: different now than what they had been a few years before, and maybe even two hours prior. We decided to go across the street and eat at a Cocos (which was sort of like a diner called Twinkies in the film). Once in there, it appeared that David Lynch had cast the scene. Behind our booth were two people: a lady and another person who looked like a lady, but spoke with a man's voice. In another booth was a lady with a 1950s bouffant hairstyle. Trying to get a grip on things, I went to the restroom and shivered as the light flickered on and off just as it did during the main cowboy scene in the movie. The rest of the day we spent in some kind of drug-induced aftermath, even though we were completely sober. This is, I think, the marking of a Lynch masterpiece, to affect you so profoundly.
I saw the movie again in the theater by myself, and thrice more on DVD (Mulholland Drive came out in April on both video and DVD), but I never was quite as blown as I was the first time seeing the movie. That is why I strongly suggest that if you have not seen this film yet, try to find it in a theater first (as far as I know, it's not showing much any where, or possibly at all); if not, just rent or buy the movie--especially if you enjoy the crazy concoction that is David Lynch.
Finally, we still talk about this movie over a year later and still revel in its many surprises, twists, and possibilities. We have bought the soundtrack to the movie as well, and I still listen to Angelo Badalmenti's wonderful compositions in wee midnight hours.
I give this film five stars and dream of the day I see another poster announcing yet another David Lynch movie.
Notes: The DVD comes with some a guide by David Lynch, and he asks you to pay attention to the following things: two clues before the credits finish rolling; appearances of a red lampshade; the title of the film that Adam is directing; the location of the accident; who gives a key--and why; the robe, ashtray, and coffee cup; certain details about Club Silencio; whether Camilla had talent that helped her; the occurrences of the man behind Winkies, and where is Aunt Ruth. Mark Beers, a Lynch enthusiast I found at Rotten Tomatoes, wrote an analysis of the last question about Aunt Ruth. Also, if you're all into discovering new things, pay attention to colors, phones, nametags, paintings, and statements made that echo other statements at other places in the film, whether or not they're said by the same people. Also, if you're a movie buff, see if you can find how this movie is similar to others. At Rotten Tomatoes' Mulholland Drive forum, I've seen this film compared to The Wizard of Oz as well as an older French movie, whose last line is also Silencio. Again, I suggest you further research the movie only after you've seen it at least once.
