'Mulholland Drive' (Lynch, 2002)

Mulholland Drive Notes

‘half day half night’
Flashes in and out of dreams?? The bizarreness makes me confused about what parts are dreams and what parts aren’t.
Movie theatre also appears in my recurring dream. Interesting to see that other people have similar dream imagery to me.
Hazy lights while driving. Reminds me of being a passenger in a car at night and dozing off.
Generally confusing, surreal.
The whole betty story was a dream? Or a coma? Or a purgatory? Or something that wasn’t real?
What does the blue key open?
Interesting that there are dream objects and translate in between real and fake life (blue key).
Dreams grasp very strongly onto certain motifs that may or may not be related to daily life (names, places, objects).
Familiar objects/images in unfamiliar settings (Diane’s phone also being used as a mafia phone).
The acting part of Mulholland drive manifested into my own dreams!

I am not even sure if that whole thing was a dream. My own theory is that the first half was a hallucination or purgatory of some sort, but perhaps not a dream in the traditional sense, since Diane is seen to have shot herself to death or to near death in the final clip. I think that it could be the last few moments of her brain activity, scrambling to put her whole life together. It is a dream of sorts, but I think that it is more likely to be a hallucination or middle space.

The way that Lynch presents dreams is fascinating, and very reminiscent of Dali’s sequence in Spellbound. The dream within the dream is particularly effective, since it is only at the end that you even realise the insignificance of the first described dream. I can definitely see the resemblance between the man in ‘Winkie’s describing his dream, and the man in Spellbound describing his. It is a similar sort of hazy recollection of events.

Press

‘Lynch’s themes are wild and unconventional: dreams materialised; crazy thought bubbles brought to life.’ (Buckmaster, 2016).

I really enjoyed this film, especially since so much of the visuals were just completely unhinged. I always enjoy a film that cannot be easily understood, because it allows you to think about the people who made the film, and what their intentions truly were.

‘Lynch maintains the surreal atmosphere throughout.’ (Buckmaster, 2016)

Even at the end of the film, you are not 100% sure which half of the film was fake, and which half of the film was real. There is even the theory that Diane and Camilla are actually just characters being played by Betty and Rita.

The scenes with the movie theatre called ‘Silencio’ and the strange blue box with the strange blue key are all so reminiscent of my own dreams. They are so randomised, completely absurd, and it makes no sense why they would even occur in the first place.

‘Its dream-like qualities give rise to many confusing and unexplained things that naturally encourage interpretation. But as critic Roger Ebert, one of the film’s greatest champions noted: “There is no explanation. There may not even be a mystery.”’ (Buckmaster, 2016)

References:

Buckmaster, L. (2016). Why Mulholland Drive is the greatest film since 2000. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20160822-why-mulholland-drive-is-the-greatest-film-since-2000 [Accessed 10/05/21].

Research

Confirm copying