By Ermioni Pavlidou,
One of the most complicated, discussed, and — not enough — explained movies of the 21st century is Mulholland Drive (2001). Written and directed by David Lynch, who is a very much-admired figure of the industry, usually choosing to be obscure by making both surreal films and his YouTube series of weather reports and lucky number lotteries, starring himself. The film is categorized as a neo-noir mystery with allegoric elements. It was not even conceived as a movie at first, but some bits were filmed in 1999 to become a pilot for a TV series that did not air due to producing disagreements. The content of this movie is so condensed, and there are meticulously placed details everywhere. What is very interesting is the duality of the narration and the fragments through which it is given. If we are talking with literary terms, the film is a post-modernist driven illustration of a dream-like course of narration, perturbed by vivid imagery in a story presented as a set of vignettes on two levels, all through a peculiar open interpretation ending.
The film’s main axis follows the story of two women that met under strange circumstances. Other arcs are presented as if they are happening approximately at the same time frame. A dark-haired woman (Laura Harring) that survived a car crash in the prestigious street of Hollywood, Mulholland Drive is now an amnesiac, due to the crash, and wanders lost in Los Angeles giving herself the name “Rita” after seeing a poster for the movie Gilda (1946) starring Rita Hayworth, until she finds shelter in a luxury apartment. The next morning, she encounters the current and temporary owner of the house, Betty (Naomi Watts), a blonde bubbly, aspiring actress, who has just arrived in Los Angeles from Canada, with a dream to catch a big break in Hollywood. The house belongs to her aunt that is absent and is letting her stay there. Betty wants to help Rita regain her memory, so she tries to follow the bizarre clues found in Rita’s pockets, money, and bizarre key. The two women eventually become lovers.
The non-linear storytelling process becomes even more perplexed, because characters are constantly introduced or their development and role changes. Chaos ensues, but in a very calm manner as the story moves on without being sufficiently connected. Two men are sitting in a diner called “Winkies”, and one is recounting an ominous and — as it turns out — prophetic nightmare he had. This diner would also serve the continuity of the story as it would be the place where a name tag of a waitress would make Rita remember the name Diane Selwyn; which will result in them searching for her — and not being able to talk to her — and the film becomes even more perplexed. There are mobsters threatening a director Adam Kesher (Justin Theroux) to cast an actress named Camille Rhodes in his movie called The Sylvia North Story, for which Betty auditions and does brilliantly. Some people are killed by a professional hitman and a strange night at Club Silencio with Betty and Rita, now blonde, begins, which, in my opinion, is the most bizarre and intriguing scene of the film.
The scene in Club Silencio is a very crucial one, as its ending is a transition. The main character speaks of illusions and people’s necessity to believe in them. He is speaking the truth and shouting that “there is no band”, that what they are watching is not real, but the two blonde women stay still in denial, because it is more convenient to just not accept the truth and form it into a more comfortable version rather than face it.
The ending completely subverts the course of the story the audience knew up until now. Everything turns around, even though after the first viewing there is not a solid understanding of what is happening. In a spoiler-free way, we could say that Diane Selwyn eventually shows up and so does Camille Rhodes, the director, the hitman, the men in the diner, and even Betty’s aunt; everything is connected, just in an odd order. And not just in chronological order. What is underlying the main text throughout the movie is how Hollywood and the movie industry, in general, are treating women. Dreams and how they are playing inside our minds are used for the narrative style to unfold and are also used as their metaphorical meaning for hopes and dreams to succeed in a non-favorable field. Naomi Watts gives an exceptional performance of the two sides of a coin.
The film is presented as a puzzle of a cubist painting, and when it’s finished, you are not sure whether you have pieced it together correctly. Maybe the picture above will help include the 10 questions that David Lynch inserted in the DVD version of the movie. There are so many theories, video essays, and explanations about this film — and frankly about everything that Lynch does, as is his aforementioned YouTube activity — but it surely, as cliché as this sounds, is enjoyable to watch a well-structured maze of narrative clues, even though you do not know how to follow them to get out.
References
- The Best Movie of the 21st Century: Why Critics Keep Voting for David Lynch’s ‘Mulholland Drive’, indiewire.com, Available here
- Why Mulholland Drive is the greatest film since 2000, bbc.com, Available here
- The mystery of David Lynch’s daily lottery, dazeddigital.com, Available here
