share | improve this question | follow | edited Feb 5 '15 at 14:56. hrkrshnn. View all posts by Luca Maffei. Personal Identity. In reality, feeling guilty about her friend/lover’s death, Diane can’t bear this situation and she undergoes a devastating mental breakdown; persecuted by the elderly couple additionally transformed into a terrifying creature, she decides to commit suicide by shooting herself with a shotgun, thus becoming the same corpse found in the dream as well as foreseeing her destiny. What comes next is a series of seemingly meaningless events that perfectly fit into the protagonist’s dream/guilt logic: let’s think about the director Kesher – the one Diane hates –  portrayed as a helpless inept incapable of facing his wife betrayal with the pool man – true fact, as told by Kesher at the engagement party making it look ridiculous in the dream – losing control of his own movie when the powerful Mafia bosses demand he cast their protagonist; let’s think about the hit man – the same one actually hired to kill Camilla – unable to accomplish a job without causing troubles – an unconscious signal Diane wants Camilla to be rescued; let’s think about Diane/Betty turning out to be a great actress at the audition as to leave the audience speechless and also going with her aunt’s friend to another film set (Kesher’s one), from which she runs off due tue a visual exchange with the director, assuming the famous starring role would be given to her only after she had witnessed the role of the girl “imposed from above” – which it happens to be Camilla Rhodes and having the same features of the woman that the real Camilla kissed in front of Diane at the engagement party. After being invited to a dinner party by Camilla and riding in a limousine on Mulholland Drive, her ride is interrupted: waiting for her along the road her ex-girlfriend surprisingly arrives to walk her up to a party at Adam Kesher’s house (Justin Theroux), director of their upcoming film. 103 3 3 bronze badges. Camilla says that they shouldn't do that anymore. As Shutter Island, Mulholland Drive is a film about dissociation, but in spite of Scorsese’s main interest into assembling a great human drama within his movies, Lynch prefers to be exclusively focused on the oneiric dimension. However even then it is a futile attempt to describe the puzzling story that is Mulholland Drive. It’s been 13 years since David Lynch’s horror-noir Mulholland Drive enthralled audiences, and while not everyone can agree on what the film meant, most of … The western rural portion in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties is named Mulholland Highway. Mulholland Drive is on general release. Mulholland Drive is a twisting, turning road that tells a story of the history of Hollywood. posted 2007-Feb-24, 8:34 pm AEST ref: whrl.pl/R7rMx. The Trauma, the Dream, and the dream as trauma. Diane wins the Jitterbug contest. Although making a detailed list of each element of reality that occurs in the dream would require a proper essay, a quick excursus should mention the Cowboy – quickly fading to black at the engagement party and key element of the dream –  Coco – Kesher’s mother in reality, Betty’s aunt landlord in the dream – the “real” waitress named Betty – Diane takes her identity in the dream while the projection of Camilla remembers the name “Diane” in the dream – and the above mentioned involuntary witness of the killing pact. Mulholland Drive is the greatest study of a dream – and therefore of a trauma – ever seen in theatres, which takes place on three interlacing and overlapping levels – Reality, Dream and Subconscious. All rights are reserved. Meanwhile, dreaming about breaking into the film industry a woman named Betty – or the distorted and “purified” projection of Naomi Watts/Diane –  arrives in the City of Angels accompanied by an elderly couple with disquieting smiles, who eventually turns out to be a projection of her sense of guilt, and she settles in the apartment owned by her aunt and actress now occupied by the projection of Camilla whom she starts a relationship with. Mulholland Drive (2001) is a neo-noir mystery/crime film starring Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, and Justin Theroux. What the hell is going on in Mulholland Drive? It’s no coincidence that the filmmaker’s following movies, Inland Empire and Twin Peaks: The Return, would be extensions of what we have already seen in this one and other Lynch’s movies. Here is my answer from elsewhere: Most of the film is a dream. User #35615 452 posts. This article reveals the explained plot and the detailed events in David Lynch’s movie Mulholland Drive, revealing its meaning and storyline. BBC was wrong to consider Mulholland Drive the best film of the 21st Century: as revolutionary as linked to classical cinema and having its roots in that Old Hollywood Lynch mentions several times (probably feeling nostalgic about), it’s actually the last great masterpiece of the 20th Century. True, Mulholland Drive doesn’t fit into any of today’s typical horror subgenres: It’s not a slasher movie, it’s not a monster flick, and there’s no haunted house. Frankly, the movie could be interpreted as an improved version of Twin Peaks: Fire … Many mysterious figures strengthen this feeling: the monstrous homeless man scaring the unnamed man to death at the beginning of the movie – who is indeed an involuntary witness of the pact between Diane and the hit man – and reappearing at the transitional moment from dream to reality as a kind of guardian of the subconscious mind; the elderly couple reappearing at Diane’s final breakdown and pushing her to suicide; and finally the great puppeteer, a man in the wheelchair capable of maneuvering the dream. Naomi Watts (Betty) – Dream Graduated in Economics, he follows cinema with passion since he has memory. Mulholland Drive is a street and road in the eastern Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California. Great job on the "Mulholland Drive" explanation. After surviving a terrible car accident along Mulholland Drive, a woman loses her memory completely. Perhaps "Mulholland Drive" can be seen as the first surrealist film of the 21st century. The killer shows her a blue key: when Diane sees it again, it will mean the job has been fulfilled. Follow David Lynch's clues and win a trip to the real Mulholland Drive (The Observer) David Lynch's 10 Clues to Unlocking This Thriller (Metafilter) The idea leading his viewers on a paper-chase seems a little unconvincing as it goes against Lynch's usual habit of letting his work stand alone. To find out more, including GDPR Compliance and how to control cookies, see our Privacy, Cookie & GDPR Policy. She then collapses, and the emcee announces that there ‘is no band’. At some point, she meets another aspiring actress–a beautiful dark-haired woman named Camilla Rhodes–during an audition for a movie, The Sylvia North Story. asked Dec 9 '11 at 4:18. magnattic magnattic. Learn how your comment data is processed. Back to home, Betty vanishes into thin air and Diane/Camilla finds a mysterious blue box that once opened with a key – the “real” blue key – it reveals the deception of the dream and it marks the passage into the dimension of reality. The most memorable moment of the movie takes place towards the end of the dream, as the projection of Camilla is going to become aware of her amnesia remembering the name “Diane Selwyn” and as a result she carries out investigations along with Betty/Diane contributing to bring the two women in a house where they discover the disfigured corpse of a woman in advanced decay stage. Whilst watching Mulholland Drive, and particularly in this scene, the audience may feel these emotions, yet not be able to pinpoint exactly why — and this is Lynch’s intention. In order to love and understand the movie, one has to necessary go with the flow and enter the dream. There are a few questions about this film, all basically asking what it's about. The Trauma, the Dream, and the dream as trauma. Although this is a turning point, it’s not placed at the beginning of the movie, but just before the end, so everything else happening in the first two hours of Mulholland Drive is nothing but Diane’s dream and her subconscious mind struggling to deal with her love affair and guilt over the decision to have Camilla killed. After an unusual The Straight Story, the master of mind-blowing surrealism, David Lynch, came out with the highly acclaimed Mulholland Drive, a neo-noir mystery thriller which draws on dream interpretation. The Jitterbug prologue is bold, brassy and very loud. It is written and directed by David Lynch. The most apparent cause of her deteriorating condition is guilt over a horrible incident she recently set in motion. By navigating this website, you agree to use cookies. The film – and therefore the dream – actually opens with a mistaken identity: in the limousine along Mulholland Drive, Camilla turns into Diane in the dream – here’s the dissociation taking place – and she survives a fatal road accident. As Shutter Island, Mulholland Drive is a film about dissociation, but in spite of Scorsese’s main interest into assembling a great human drama within his movies, Lynch prefers to be exclusively focused on the oneiric dimension. I'd reached many of the same conclusions, but am indebted to you for explaining the creepy homeless guy … Diane’s deep shock after Camilla and Adam announce their engagement during the party forces her to hire a hitman to kill the woman has betrayed her. As usual, this happens without any explanation being given and leaving the viewer the task of putting things in a particular order (as occurred in Lost Highway). But thanks to the French film production StudioCanal, Lynch managed to take the unreleased pilot back and he decided to get some new material – about forty minutes of new scenes – reassembling everything, turning it into a film and subsequently releasing it in theaters in 2001. Certains cherchent encore des explications au scénario de l'un des meilleurs films du siècle, sorti en novembre 2001. Animation 2011 G. Ella. The true synopsis of Mulholland Drive can really only be explained by different theories. 3. With Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux, Jeanne Bates. A fun fact about this movie is it has started as a resounding failure: ABC agreed to produce Lynch’s television pilot for a new TV series conceived during Twin Peaks at the end of the 90s – it was firstly conceived as a spin-off from this series, as found out later – hoping to recreate what is considered the American filmmaker’s highest-grossing film nowadays. Raid0. Has anyone ever driven along the real Mulholland Drive in the Hollywood Hills? For reasons that become progressively clearer, her life has reached a point of desperate crisis that has driven her into a suicidal depression. years possibly) 2. The road is featured in a significant number of movies, songs, and novels. We challenged six top cinema critics to explain the plot. There is a lot of classic cinema inside Mulholland Drive, starting with Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo – whose interplay between characters was already Lost Highway‘s  framework – and continuing with the mood and overall aesthetics of the film, where we see all the characters moving, talking and even dressing and combing their hair as an old-fashioned film noir, despite the story’s contemporary setting. The most acclaimed movie of the last twenty years has started out as a rejected television project: funny, isn’t it? For Lynch, films and dreams are both different and the same. I will try that some day. The Cowboy, the Monster, and Opening the Blue Box in Mulholland Drive …We are such stuff As dreams are made of, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. Sequence of Events in Mulholland Dr. 1. Mulholland Drive is no exception: within a filmography in which it’s almost impossible to choose movies significantly better than others – except for the unfortunate Dune – the above-mentioned movie represents the pinnacle of Lynchian poetics. His target is to tell and analyse the most fascinating movies of our times. Mulholland Drive est un film magnifique et si mon article peut au moins apporter un tout petit éclairage sur certaines zones d’ombre, mon objectif sera pleinement atteint. Frightened and traumatized, she takes refuge in a house belonging to an Hollywood actress where she meets a girl seeking her fortune, who tries to help her remember who she is. Mulholland Drive, The Reality Diane Selwyn, a young blonde women with dreams of becoming a major movie star, flies out to California to jump start her acting career. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. This is the most oneiric and meaningful moment in the whole film: the Club Silencio is a late night theater where « this is all a tape-recording » and a singer dies on stage while the song continues playing. For any request, contact us by mail. Having lost her memory entirely, Diane/Camilla wanders the streets of Los Angeles at night and finally she takes refuge in a famous actress house whose owner is away, filming an upcoming movie. The overall feeling is that each character’s destiny is driven from above by some sort of force able to control over human destiny. A noter qu’il s’agira ici d’une véritable explication du film et non d’une interprétation purement personnelle car je … You can experience Nonlinear narrative style during this movie. Documentary Feature 2015 G. Amazonia. After a car wreck on the winding Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a perky Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality. The point of no return, a limit beyond which the author’s aestethics can’t go any further. I have! He aims to make his films dreamlike through surreal scenarios, mysterious characters and events, and an exploration of the darker side of the human … Mulholland Drive: A Dream Analysis. In the meantime, a well-known filmmaker is strong-armed by Mafia into casting their actress of choice in the leading role of his film, and a monstrous figure terrorises an unnamed man. This stylistic choice and this particular timeless atmosphere allow this great masterpiece not being affected by the passage of time, thus making it immortal. Mulholland Drive Dumpster Monster Scene: Even scarier than the original! There is no mystery to be revealed nor thriller involved, there is no peculiar human tragedy. Shocked by the discovery, they take refuge in Betty’s house and they finally arrive at Club Silencio after a one-night stand. Mulholland Drive is a story about a woman named Diane Selwyn who is experiencing an extreme mental and emotional breakdown. Une limousine roule dans la nuit sur Mulholland Drive… The unauthorized use and the copy of contents without express authorization is forbidden. We recommend you to read it only after watching the movie, and not before, in order to preserve the pleasure of the first vision. Forum Regular reference: whrl.pl/R7rMx. Although technically encoded as 5.1 channels, the DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack has little to no rear channel activity. Her family (the old man and old woman) is there and cheers for her. Camilla and Diane fool around on the couch (notice the ashtray). Wrapping My Brain Around Mulholland Dr. | Tilt Magazine Mulholland Drive is a detective film in the sense that … Directed by David Lynch. Mulholland Drive (stylized as Mulholland Dr.) is a 2001 American neo-noir mystery film written and directed by David Lynch and starring Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux, Ann Miller, Mark Pellegrino and Robert Forster. That sounds like a great idea. It’s pretty hard to believe David Lynch has claimed he doesn’t consider himself a cinephile after all, because each movie is so beautiful and chosen with great care it can only come from a brilliant mind, deeply loving and understanding Cinema at its best. plot-explanation david-lynch mulholland-drive. Injured and in shock, she makes her way down into … Documentary Feature 2014 G. Sissi (Part 1) Classic 1955 G. Marni. David Lynch's Mulholland Drive may be a brilliant movie - but do even its biggest fans know what it's about? Does the appearance of the strange old couple has something to do with sexual abuse? … Then the movie proper starts, with a few parallel stories: In one, a gorgeous woman is in the back of a limo, climbing the winding curves of Mulholland Drive above Los Angeles.