Mulholland Drive

To me, a film like David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive" is a great film because it does what movies do better than any other art form. It's a film for the sense, not necessarily for the analytical purposes, or for people with literate minds. This is a film that puts you through a maze, I don't think it can be ever figured out, but it rewards with each viewing no matter what.

There is a plot of "Mulholland Drive", and according to Lynch who wrote and directed it, it can be followed. Lynch seems to have fun with his films where he leaves everything open to interpretation.

The history of "Mulholland Drive" has been well documented by Lynchophiles alike; it started out as a television pilot for ABC, but the network dropped it after seeing the final cut. Lynch went back to the drawing board and decided the idea could be made into a feature film. While the pilot was left open-ended, Lynch was able to find a solution that could easily be best described as dreamed up...probably.

The film is a Hollywood story and follows a young wide-eyed girl named Betty (Naomi Watts) who moves to the town from Canada to be an actress. She takes up residence in her Aunts lavish apartment and hoping to land it big. But when Betty gets to the apartment, she's surprised to discover Rita (Laura Harring), a woman who has survived a car accident but has lost her memory. The only evidence to her old identity happens to be a bunch of money that is found in her purse. Betty decides to help Rita find out who she really is.

There are other forces at play here involving a film director (Justin Theroux) who is being intimidated by a group of mystery men to cast an unknown actress for the lead role in an important movie he's making. There is also a hitman (Mark Pellegreno) who discovers a mysterious black book that might be related to Rita; a strange looking cowboy, and a strange looking creature/homeless man living in an alley of a Winkies restaurant, and he might hold the key to the whole mystery, yet what do we know.

About two thirds into the way of "Mulholland Drive", there is a dramatic shift, after Betty and Rita visit a theatre where everything is recorded and we are told by the master of ceremonies what we see is an illusions. Suddenly things change and Watts and Harring become two completely different characters.

You can question the plot of "Mulholland Drive" all you want, I find it interesting that Lynch has opened the door to many different variations, you could come out with a different interpretation each time you view it. For many, the film is an allegory for stardom in Hollywood, and it's Lynch's cynical view of the movie making business. That could be part of the story, seeing how one of Lynch's favorite films is Billy Wilder's "Sunset BLVD." which is also a film about broken dreams in Hollywood, but the film leaves it much more open than just that. Lynch uses cinema as a sensory experience, and while sometimes this leaves the viewer in the dark, it's a radical change of pace to linear storytelling.

Lynch seems to sometimes be working in a stream of consciousness, where he doesn't care if what he is showing makes sense, his images and pure atmosphere usually remain so powerful that it makes for a purely satisfying cinematic experience. One of the problems I had with Christopher Nolan's "Inception" was how it was a film that was trying to remain abstract yet not letting go of audience expectations. Thus, "Inception" became a film about dreams with rules, David Lynch works without rules, he knows that dreams sometimes don't make sense, and sometimes movies don't have to either. I suppose it's a matter of taste with a director like Nolan and a director like Lynch, however I much prefer to be kept in the dark a bit and making up my own mind about what I am seeing.

"Mulholland Drive" is one of David Lynch's cinematic masterpieces, and perhaps his most enjoyable and satisfying. I love returning to it because each time it's like watching a different film, and each time I feel closer to unlocking its secrets, until later, when I realize the secret is part of what makes it great.