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Hate it but those who enjoy it, really do so.
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Movies Mulholland Drive - worth it?
- Thread starter SmoothPies
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I remember watching Lost Highway and thinking it was garbage. When I looked it up online, I thought there was some slight pretentiousness behind some of the reviews, typically saying something like "aaah if you're looking for a plot-driven movie where guy X does action A and causes reaction B, then you won't like it," as if that may be the only reason someone may not be into it, almost as if not liking it must necessarily require a level of simple-mindedness. I love Jodorowski's films, because he goes fully into the surreal in a very unique way, and creates truly interesting, creative, thought-provoking, and arresting vignettes, but I really thought Lost Highway was simply 2+ hours of pointless shit, with maybe 2 or 3 interesting short scenes in the entire runtime. Anyway, this was a long time ago when I was much younger, but it put me off Lynch's stuff for a while, and I never really bothered with it again. Not saying his work is worthless based on that one watch; one day I may give it another try. I'd watch his stuff knowing that it may be strange, mostly incomprehensible, and that it appeals only to a small set of very devoted fans.
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Sometimes you need some time to give a movie a re-watch to cleanse the mental state you were in the first time you watched it. Some of my favorite movies I was expecting something different or wasn't in the right state of mind when I first watched them. That doesn't guarantee you'll like the movie a second time, but it can happen and be rewarding.
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It's..."artsy". Alejandro Jodowroski(and of course David Lynch) type shit. It is what you make of it. It's not a "movie" more than it is an experience, that's meant to be watched and mulled over a million times...or not. It's worth it if you know what you're getting into and like movies like these. If not, it'll be a tough watch that will leave you thinking "What in the absolute fuck was that? How in the hell do people like this shit?"
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Fantastic film. It's Lynch's Sunset Blvd. I can't imagine the average movie goer would enjoy it but anyone who's grown up with Twin Peaks or has an interest in Lynch's kind of metaphysics and symbolism , it's endlessly rewatchable. Like Kubrick, Lynch's work will continue to be dissected until the end of cinema.
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The movie is a mystery, a riddle, and a maze.
It is not as abstract or unintelligible as most people think it is.
David did intend for his work to be interpreted individually, and he enjoyed for various people to have their own interpretations.
But there are many things in this movie that can be logically pieced together and form an overall cohesive narrative, incontrovertible meaning that are like a transparent shell surrounded by fog and filled with mysterious objects.
Layers with different levels of discernibility.
A lot elements are referential to a lot of old Hollywood stuff.
Here are my cliffs after reading a very long series of interpretations:
It is not as abstract or unintelligible as most people think it is.
David did intend for his work to be interpreted individually, and he enjoyed for various people to have their own interpretations.
But there are many things in this movie that can be logically pieced together and form an overall cohesive narrative, incontrovertible meaning that are like a transparent shell surrounded by fog and filled with mysterious objects.
Layers with different levels of discernibility.
A lot elements are referential to a lot of old Hollywood stuff.
Here are my cliffs after reading a very long series of interpretations:
The movie is comprised of a dream, flashbacks, scenes to be interpreted as “real,” imaginations, hallucinations, and metaphoric/symbolic representations.
Diane grew up in Canada and her parents were not in the picture. Her grandfather molested her at some point when she was growing up. As is common in many instances of child abuse she was blamed for it and the issue was buried like it never happened when her grandmother found out.
She went to Hollywood in search of stardom with money inherited from her aunt, who had some sort of success in showbiz but died before Diane could connect with her.
She met an actress named Camila who she became very close with, most likely they had a sexual relationship. Camila was seductive, she would sleep around with directors and producers and found more success than Diane, eventually Camila started manipulating Diane, literally pimping her to directors and producers to further her career while Diane got scrap parts but not enough to make it.
Diane was so far from her wholesome dream of stardom, her self-esteem was in shambles, she had to resort to working at Winkie’s and engaging in prostitution, then Camila starts distancing herself and breaks up with her at some point.
This is devastating to Diane, later after the breakup she reluctantly accepts an invitation to a party where Camila again uses her as an “extra” to bolster her image and breaks Diane’s heart when she announces her engagement with the young Hollywood hotshot Adam and right after that she kisses a different female actor on the lips as if to torment her again.
Diane’s dark aspect of her psyche emerges and she hires a hitman to kill Camilla. The hitman instructs her that when she receives a blue key it means the work has been done.
Diane’s mental breakdown is worsening in the aftermath of the murder having taken place.
In this headspace is where the movie starts:
The jitterbug scene in the beginning is a memory warped by imagination perhaps experienced under the influence of drugs, the psychedelic collage differentiates it from a flashback or dream.
In it she reminisces an idealization of the time in which she won a dancing contest that impulsed her dream of going to Hollywood and transcending to a beautiful fantasy world where she will escape from her demons.
When she pictures herself walking up to the front stage the image is clear, but the image of her grandparents snugging and basking in the victory is blurry and out of focus because even though she tries to see them under a loving light the trauma will always be there.
She descends on her pillow and the subsequent and largest chapter of the movie is a dream.
In the dream a lot of the characters represent a part of her own psyche in some level, and everything that happens is her mind’s representation of her subjectivity:
-My parents are upstairs, I’ll could tell my dad!
-But you won’t
-You’re playing a dangerous game, if you’re trying to blackmail me it’s not going to work, get out before I tell my dad, he trusts you.
-What will he think of you?
-Stop it, that’s what you said from the beginning. If I them what happened they’ll arrest you and put you in jail. Get out of here.
-Before what?
-Before I kill you.
-Then they’ll put you in jail.
-I hate you. I hate us both”
This shows the sexual trauma in her psyche that makes her deal with having felt these terrible emotions that poison her soul and the festering darkness that results in a murderous impulse that lashes out.
When Adam drives away from Hollywood because they’re taking away his creative freedom he heads home and finds his wife cheating in the dream and he gets blamed for it, so it’s like the part of Diane that is trying to take control of her path but if she wants to leave Hollywood and revert to her old life what she has there is emotional trauma. Of being blamed for a sexual transgression where she was the victim.
When they go to the “Club Silencio” I think the magician’s act is representative that she is being shown the illusion of her waking reality and her dreaming reality, her childhood trauma is brought to the fore when the blue light starts strobing and there is a sound of thunder along with some female gasps and a male grunt, that’s when she starts shaking uncontrollably due to the intensity of her repressed memories. “Club Silencio” can be referent to the family’s silencing of her regarding the abuse.
Also I think the lady with blue hair could be symbolic of Lincoln’s assassination in a theater’s booth, reminding her that Camila’s assassination didn’t fail like how she’s wanting to dream it, what with the hitman in her dream having a series of flubs after he kills the guy with the “little back book” symbolic of all the Hollywood prostitutes that she formed part of.
In the last part of the movie Diane has woken up from the dream, returns to the shattered headspace in her dingy apartment wearing her shabby clothes, has flashbacks to her breakup with Camila, the catastrophic diner among successful movie figures (when Camila takes her up there via “a secret path” it’s symbolic of sexual career shortcuts), her hiring the hitman….
And finally transitions to a metaphorical/symbolic/(metaphysical?) scene where we go back to the alley behind Winkie’s where we see slow flashes of red light which through the movie are symbolic of prostitution
and then we turn the corner to face the demon-hobo who puts the blue box that probably holds the repressed trauma in a bag and sets it down, the miniaturized and unhinged grandparents set loose from it and sneak into her apartment where they terrorize Diane and she shoots herself.
This last part seems like it might be a hallucination, but even after she shoots herself there is still smoke stacks going off in the room which do not correspond to a realistic event. So it could be a metaphorical representation of what happened. Not really sure what to classify it as ontologically. I guess this part is very open to personal interpretation.
Anyways there’s a lot to analyze but the most concealed and important secrets I believe are that she got abused and she was a hooka!
Diane grew up in Canada and her parents were not in the picture. Her grandfather molested her at some point when she was growing up. As is common in many instances of child abuse she was blamed for it and the issue was buried like it never happened when her grandmother found out.
She went to Hollywood in search of stardom with money inherited from her aunt, who had some sort of success in showbiz but died before Diane could connect with her.
She met an actress named Camila who she became very close with, most likely they had a sexual relationship. Camila was seductive, she would sleep around with directors and producers and found more success than Diane, eventually Camila started manipulating Diane, literally pimping her to directors and producers to further her career while Diane got scrap parts but not enough to make it.
Diane was so far from her wholesome dream of stardom, her self-esteem was in shambles, she had to resort to working at Winkie’s and engaging in prostitution, then Camila starts distancing herself and breaks up with her at some point.
This is devastating to Diane, later after the breakup she reluctantly accepts an invitation to a party where Camila again uses her as an “extra” to bolster her image and breaks Diane’s heart when she announces her engagement with the young Hollywood hotshot Adam and right after that she kisses a different female actor on the lips as if to torment her again.
Diane’s dark aspect of her psyche emerges and she hires a hitman to kill Camilla. The hitman instructs her that when she receives a blue key it means the work has been done.
Diane’s mental breakdown is worsening in the aftermath of the murder having taken place.
In this headspace is where the movie starts:
The jitterbug scene in the beginning is a memory warped by imagination perhaps experienced under the influence of drugs, the psychedelic collage differentiates it from a flashback or dream.
In it she reminisces an idealization of the time in which she won a dancing contest that impulsed her dream of going to Hollywood and transcending to a beautiful fantasy world where she will escape from her demons.
When she pictures herself walking up to the front stage the image is clear, but the image of her grandparents snugging and basking in the victory is blurry and out of focus because even though she tries to see them under a loving light the trauma will always be there.
She descends on her pillow and the subsequent and largest chapter of the movie is a dream.
In the dream a lot of the characters represent a part of her own psyche in some level, and everything that happens is her mind’s representation of her subjectivity:
- Betty in her pink tiny sweater is her innocent side, has a rosy outlook and naive hope to be a movie star.
- Rita is the sexual side of her that she would emulate after Camila once she got to Hollywood and befriended her, seeing her finding success by sleeping around with directors and producers.
- Adam is the part of her that tries to take control of her situation, but faces external obstacles
- Dan in the Winkie’s is the side of her that felt fearful of “the man in the back”
- “The Man In The Back” is a rotten hobo that represents the dark part of her psyche that lies in her subconscious a.k.a the back of her mind (in fact the character is played by a woman and doesn’t really look like a man), a dejected persona with no self-esteem that resides in ruination
- The Aunt represents the motherly figure which she longs to connect with, but in her dream they never get to meet because in real life she is dead
- Coco represents a naive idea of old Hollywood glamour, and as well as a protective motherly figure that has roots in showbiz.
- In the dream there are people looking to kill Rita because those are the parts of her psyche that feel like Diane’s problems all come from having met her.
- In the dream her grandparents are presented as an old couple she just met, were warm to her, and sent her off to Hollywood with their best wishes. She’s preserving the image of paternal affection she wants to have of them while also creating distance between them. But their sinister side is latent and can be seen when they are driving away grinning creepily, happy to have her go away and maybe find success that they can leech off from, continuing the exploitation.
- The prostitue that the hitman has an interaction with has short blonde hair like her in real life, it’s an allusion to her involvement in sex for money or favors
-My parents are upstairs, I’ll could tell my dad!
-But you won’t
-You’re playing a dangerous game, if you’re trying to blackmail me it’s not going to work, get out before I tell my dad, he trusts you.
-What will he think of you?
-Stop it, that’s what you said from the beginning. If I them what happened they’ll arrest you and put you in jail. Get out of here.
-Before what?
-Before I kill you.
-Then they’ll put you in jail.
-I hate you. I hate us both”
This shows the sexual trauma in her psyche that makes her deal with having felt these terrible emotions that poison her soul and the festering darkness that results in a murderous impulse that lashes out.
When Adam drives away from Hollywood because they’re taking away his creative freedom he heads home and finds his wife cheating in the dream and he gets blamed for it, so it’s like the part of Diane that is trying to take control of her path but if she wants to leave Hollywood and revert to her old life what she has there is emotional trauma. Of being blamed for a sexual transgression where she was the victim.
When they go to the “Club Silencio” I think the magician’s act is representative that she is being shown the illusion of her waking reality and her dreaming reality, her childhood trauma is brought to the fore when the blue light starts strobing and there is a sound of thunder along with some female gasps and a male grunt, that’s when she starts shaking uncontrollably due to the intensity of her repressed memories. “Club Silencio” can be referent to the family’s silencing of her regarding the abuse.
Also I think the lady with blue hair could be symbolic of Lincoln’s assassination in a theater’s booth, reminding her that Camila’s assassination didn’t fail like how she’s wanting to dream it, what with the hitman in her dream having a series of flubs after he kills the guy with the “little back book” symbolic of all the Hollywood prostitutes that she formed part of.
In the last part of the movie Diane has woken up from the dream, returns to the shattered headspace in her dingy apartment wearing her shabby clothes, has flashbacks to her breakup with Camila, the catastrophic diner among successful movie figures (when Camila takes her up there via “a secret path” it’s symbolic of sexual career shortcuts), her hiring the hitman….
And finally transitions to a metaphorical/symbolic/(metaphysical?) scene where we go back to the alley behind Winkie’s where we see slow flashes of red light which through the movie are symbolic of prostitution
(Diane has a red lamp next to her phone, in the dream Mr. Rook calls a middleman, who in turn calls a guy in a dilapidated apartment with an important seeming phone, this guy is probably a pimp and he calls Diane’s phone but in the dream she doesn’t answer because she wants to turn her back to the griminess yet in reality there is a flashback where the caller was actually Camila which is how one can surmise she was the pimp)
This last part seems like it might be a hallucination, but even after she shoots herself there is still smoke stacks going off in the room which do not correspond to a realistic event. So it could be a metaphorical representation of what happened. Not really sure what to classify it as ontologically. I guess this part is very open to personal interpretation.
Anyways there’s a lot to analyze but the most concealed and important secrets I believe are that she got abused and she was a hooka!
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Only if you like Lynch. Probably one of his more accessible movies though. Great flick.
Prime Watts is drop dead gorgeous and a fine actress.
Prime Watts is drop dead gorgeous and a fine actress.
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The first time I saw it I thought it was weird but ok. As I've gotten older and a greater appreciation for Lynch, now I love it. Plus there is a pretty impressive sandwich in it.
You'll probably not like it the first time and think it's 'artsy' and 'pretentious'.
You'll probably not like it the first time and think it's 'artsy' and 'pretentious'.
This is a great take. And yes Watts does an outstanding performance.
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I drive on Mulholland drive everyday, I live just off of it. 
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I drive on Mulholland drive everyday, I live just off of it.
Its is a strange stretch of road.
I remember my friend and I driving down Mulholland one night and there was some event going on to the right of us with a guy directing traffic into the lot. We continued driving straight for no more than 30-45 seconds and suddenly we drove by the same event with the guy directing traffic into the lot only this time it was on the opposite side of the road to the left of us. It was the damnedest thing. Its haunted or something.
Also quit bragging you son of a biscuit eater.
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You ever take a drive southwest to Cloverfield Boulevard?I drive on Mulholland drive everyday, I live just off of it.
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Great film, definitely worth it especially if you're a fan of Lynch. I've been meaning to watch it again.
A man of culture.
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I'll watch Blue Velvet (Prime) this weekend and I have Twin Peaks on Paramount + so I'll give it a go. I have not watched one minute of it tbo.
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If you’ve never seen Twin Peaks you should really start at the beginnning. It’s only 2 seasons, and I’ll admit that a lot of season 2 sucks. But the old shows are still very good albeit a bit dated, the movie Fire Walk With Me is great, and Twin Peaks: The Return (season 3) is a masterpiece.
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Naomi Watts during that time period was just
Check out prime MILF Watts in "Adore". It also has Robin Wright. Giggity.
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His most accesible film is The Straight Story.
A wholesome, stoic, quirky linear story about mending a familial bond. Rated G.
