Movie Review - Mulholland Drive

Mulholland Drive contains the fundamentals of Post modernity because it is hard to fix the story to one view as it seems to drift away before the audience can decide what is actually taking place. "But Lynch's subplots seem to be running in tandem with a different, non-existent story line." (Tatara, 2001) The evidence sums up quite clearly the experience of trying to watch the film. Lynch has made a decision of making the lead character's dreams the bulk of the story to draw the viewer in and have them convinced they are real, however when both characters appear to have been sucked in the blue box and 'awaken' then the viewer is following the same people but as different characters from what was shown. The story twists and floats away to break the assumptions the viewer has made up to the point where it has completely changed and the audience are left struggling to find a dominate view.

Figure 1, (2011), Two Female leads

The clash of themes in the film help to keep mystery of whats happening in the film because the conflicts have a big contrast to open up another view on characters, story and world of the film. "This visually menacing, highly entertaining horror picture, which deconstructs Hollywood as the dream factory and the land of opportunity, continues to explore such Lynchian obsessions as good versus evil, dreams versus nightmares." (Levy, 2006) The viewer can see these themes clash in the character of Betty Elms/ Diane Selwyn because even though it is essientially the same person, the two identical characters have their own complete personality. Betty is a typical young actress, exciting by the hollywood dream and the passion of being a successful actor, whereas Diane is a jeaous ex - lover of Camille and becomes enraged with her relationship with Adam Kesher so plans her murder as revenege. The story becomes a nightmare with these new personalities as the viewer gets a very different view of who these 'people' are.

Figure 2, (2010), One of female leads in another role as Camille in love with the movie director

Lynch confuses the viewer further, with subtle hints that all these different worlds that fade in and out of the movie are an illusion. "Rita drags Betty to a nightclub. It is as though the two of them (and thus, Diane) are having an epiphany. At the nightclub, they see a show that tells them this is all an illusion." (Young, 2008) This specific scene in the film throws world of the story out of balance because of people pretending to be on the stage and vanishing to leave a prerecorded voice and the host officially repeatedly saying 'This is an Illusion' makes a viewer wonder if that is true for the dream - like story that is played out in the bulk of the film.

Figure 3, (2011), Nightclub 'Silencio' - Illusion scene

Illustrations

Figure 1, (2011), Two Female leads, @ http://alienationmentale.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/mulholland-drive-review/, Accessed on: 13th March 2011

Figure 2, (2010), One of female leads in another role as Camille in love with the movie director, @ http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2010/oct/01/mulholland-drive-david-lynch-watch, Accessed on: 1st October 2010

Figure 3, (2011), Nightclub 'Silencio' - Illusion scene, @ http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/mulholland-drive-night-club, 6th September 2011

Bibliography

Levy Emanuel, (2006), Emanuel Levy cinema 24/7 - Mulholland Drive, @ http://www.emanuellevy.com/review/mulholland-drive-3/, Accessed on: 20th October 2006

Tatara, (2001), CNN Entertainment - Mulholland Drive, @ http://edition.cnn.com/2001/SHOWBIZ/Movies/10/12/review.mulholland.drive/, Accessed on: 12th October 2001

Young, (2008), Looking Closer - Mulholland Drive 2001, @ http://lookingcloser.org/2008/11/mulholland-drive-2001/, Accessed on: 21st December 2008

4/5