Mulholland drive represents the path you must take on that journey, physically and metaphorically in the movie. The road is featured in a significant number of movies, songs, and novels. Lynchs favourite film is sunset boulevard, but this road tells a different story, one set at the edge. Suddenly, the driver stops and orders her out of the car at gunpoint. The film presents a puzzle, and far be it from me or any dusty old theory to offer one pat solution. There are two women at the heart of both mulholland drive and persona, one of whom is an actress, who seem to fall in love with each other and to merge their identities slowly. Sigmund freuds structural model of the psyche this is the general idea of mulholland drive. Everything you were afraid to ask about mulholland drive. Mulholland drive can be a really confusing movie if you arent sure whats going on. The cowboy, the monster, and opening the blue box in. It has an extraordinary atmosphere, a loopy, spacey persuasiveness, a lush visual invention, and a yearning score. The dvd of mulholland drive had no chapter stops at his insistence, and neither does the criterion bluray. What are theories that help explain mulholland drive.
Curtains pop up in virtually every single david lynch movie or tv programme. Why has mulholland drive topped bbc cultures poll of the greatest films of the 21st. Is mulholland drive the greatest film of the 21st century. Of all the unexplained phenomena and dramatis personae of mulholland drive including the bluehaired theatre patron, mr roque in his glass basement, and the black book, for example, there have been three caesurae which have provoked the most discussion and. There are a few questions about this film, all basically asking what its about. Is there a logical explanation of the plot of mulholland.
While some of it is meant to be open to interpretation, i made an imgur album to. We are such stuff as dreams are made of, and our little life is rounded with a sleep. Starring naomi watts and laura harring, the film features two lynchian trademarks. Before she can exit, a car driven by joyriding teenagers plows into the limo. Betty and rita go the theatre, where a makeup streaked, exhausted woman sings an acapella spanish version of roy. In mulholland drive, what happened at club silencio. Endlessly complex and capturing the surreal in a way that few films can. One of the films possible films meaning explained follow me on twitter to hear my thoughts on current films. In the dream we see the duel, the fight, the cat and mouse game between the superego and the id. Everything you were afraid to ask about mulholland drive salon. Posted on october 21, 2016 october 21, 2016 by richard gallagher. Bbc culture why mulholland drive is the greatest film.
Enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing mulholland drive near you. Mulholland drive is a movie along those lines, though its filmic palette is broader, its setting hollywood and the film industry more portentous, and its themes plainer. The point of no return, a limit beyond which the authors aestethics cant go any further. Its all an illusion, i see mulholland drive as a film about how corrupt peoples minds are because of their failed dreams and aspirations. Yes, theres actually a legit explanation for mulholland. Diane selwyn, a young blonde women with dreams of becoming a major movie star, flies out to. Mulholland drive is an actual labyrinth, a film that appeals to dreamlike factors and that you could even associate with a dreams structure. Mulholland drive the story is hardly straight in mulholland drive, the compelling but intentionally inscrutable return of the weird david lynch that will please his hardcore fans even if it. It was a hot july night and we had just moved into our new apartment lovely and spacious, in a brick building on a treelined street called old fort road because it used to lead directly down the riverbank to the ferry that took settlers to the original trading fort on.
With naomi watts, laura harring, justin theroux, jeanne bates. While some of it is meant to be open to interpretation, i made an imgur album to help nail down the timeline of events in the movie. David lynch is one of my favourite directors and mulholland drive is one. Mulholland drive is a film that lends itself to different readings. The one part of mulholland drive that really gives credence to this theory is the famous theatre scene. Explanation of the story line of mulholland drive and a detailed description of what the movie is about. Mulholland drive 2001 rotten tomatoes movie trailers. Mulholland drive 2001 is a neonoir mysterycrime film starring naomi watts, laura harring, and justin theroux. If you want an explanation for the last half hour of the film, think of it as the dreamer rising slowly to consciousness, as threads from the dream fight. Mulholland drive is a twisting, turning road that tells a story of the history of hollywood. We explain mulholland drive ew dares to explicate david lynchs latest pretzellogic thriller. The true synopsis of mulholland drive can really only be explained by different theories.
If you want an explanation for the last half hour of the film, think of it as the. David lynch has been working toward mulholland drive all of his. Its an art film, which means everything in it is meant to be taken metaphorically, including characters but every character in the film does have a purpose, no matter how random they may be. Mulholland drive has come to be regarded as perhaps the most important film of the century so far. Among other things, vertigo shares a scene with mulholland drive, where a traumatic event triggers a change in a main characters hair color. I dont think even the actors of this movie ever understood what their. Symbols in mulholland drive as with all david lynch films, mulholland drive has plenty of symbols throughout, which can help with interpretation. Lynch has declined to offer an explanation of his intentions for the narrative, leaving audiences, critics, and cast members to speculate on what. This explanation is one of many but has been adopted by many viewers as the correct one, or at least one that could potentially have been in david lynchs mind. Why mulholland drive is the greatest film since 2000 bbc culture. We challenged six top cinema critics to explain the plot. I watched this movie just a few days ago, and i was stumped. Mulholland drive is a film about dissociation, but in spite of scorseses main interest into assembling a great human drama within his movies, lynch prefers to be exclusively focused on the oneiric dimension. But first lets have a look at the actual time line 1.
Why mulholland drive is the greatest film since 2000 bbc. The closest character mulholland drive has to a protagonist is betty elms naomi watts, a cheerful, aspiring actress who arrives in town looking for work. Film is a medium meant to be interpreted by the viewer, and any analyses of mulholland drive or any other film that differ from the norm are perfectly acceptable. Mulholland drive is a street and road in the eastern santa monica mountains of southern california. Mulholland drive is a brilliant commentary on hollywoods machinations mulholland drives own troubled history, and the studio politics and power plays depicted by lynch in the film itself. Mulholland drive powered by reelgood its almost unfair that david lynch could produce the scariest scene of at least the last 25 years, if not longer, in a movie that isnt even a horror movie.
Here, david thomson explores david lynchs strange, disturbing allure of this contemporary. It is impossible to produce a consistent precis of the film that accounts for everything. This is a bit of a jolt after the first twothirds of the movie, a nancy drew goes to. We explain the ending of one of the most confusing movies of all time. Mulholland drive resists, defies and finally defeats logical explanation. The first and second halves of the movie feel like parallel universes, with the same actors playing similar but different characters with the names all. Why david lynchs mulholland drive is a great horror film. The power of it does not just emanate from its eerie and mysterious atmosphere, its taste for conspiracy and intrigue, and its poignant love story which ends tragically in betrayal, murder and suicide. David lynchs mulholland drive may be a brilliant movie but do even its biggest fans. Mulholland drive was the first lynch film i watched after my first time getting through twin peaks nearly ten years ago. Also sign me up for fanmail to get updates on all things movies. After surviving a terrible car accident along mulholland drive, a woman loses her memory completely. You can experience nonlinear narrative style during this movie.
Watts is the woman asleep in her room, having a bizarre dream about all of the things that went wrong. The halfpilot, halffeature result, along with lynchs characteristic style, has left the general meaning of the films events open to interpretation. Mulholland drive isnt like memento, where if you watch it closely enough, you can hope to explain the mystery. Its not a slasher movie, its not a monster flick, and theres no haunted house. In this article, we try to explain the major questions that you might have had and its various interpretations. So, to make the explanation of mulholland drive easier, i will break it down into three partsthe reality, the dream and the reality again. He then, without explanation, turns into the 20something balthazar getty and is released from prison, and the movie goes off on a new story. Rita s car accident was actually a dream the accident at the beginning at mulholland drive that leads a perplexed and stunned rita to wonder to betty is actually a. In other parts of the world, the rights to mulholland drive are held by studio canal, which previously released it on bluray through several distributors in europe, australia and asia. Like so many others, i thought the movie mulholland drive was an inspired work. Mulholland drive isnt like memento, where if you watch it closely enough you can hope to explain the mystery.