More than twenty years after its release, David Lynchs remains MulhollandDrive as fascinating as it is haunting. Now that the film is returning to thecinema in a restored version, a new generation of film fans can consider thequestion: what does this film actually tell?
Ewoud CeulemansDecember 19, 20222:25 pm
“Twenty years later, this is still the most meaningful and memorableexperience of my career,” actress Naomi Watts posted on her Instagram accountover a year ago, captioning a behind-the-scenes video on the set of_Mulholland Drive_. “I love you and thank you, David Lynch.”
Watts has since the premiere of Mulholland Drive at the Cannes Film Festivalin the spring of 2001, built up a fairly impressive resume, with roles inrespected 21 Grams, Eastern Promises and the Oscar-winning Birdman. Butnot coincidentally, her breakout role is in Mulholland Drive dearest to her.In the recent Sight and Sound poll of the greatest films of all time, onlytwo films from the 21st century made the top 10: Wong Kar-Wais In The Moodfor Love and Mulholland Drive. Five years ago, Lynch’s film topped a BBCpoll of the best films of this century.
Watts’ career hadn’t quite reached cruising speed when Lynch cast her as BettyElms, a young, naive actress who heads to Hollywood to pursue her dreams.Appropriate, right? Only, as in almost every David Lynch film, nothing is whatit seems: after all, Watts also plays Diane Selwyn, for whom the Hollywooddream has become a nightmare.
That metaphor was not chosen by chance. Lynch described Mulholland Drive_like “ _a love story in the city of dream s”, a tagline that could equallywell have applied to La La Land. But in Lynch’s world, Hollywood is not thesetting of a sun-drenched musical, but a place where all is not what it seems,where illusions are shattered, where all logic is lost. The title explicitlyrefers to Billy Wilders Sunset Blvd , another movie classic about themercilessness of Tinseltown. But just as Sunset Boulevard is a straight, wideavenue, the film follows a clear narrative. While Mulholland Drive is adark, winding road in the hills, hiding secrets behind every bend.
Just as Watts plays a naive and a failed actress, Laura Harring plays both afamously arrogant Hollywood star (the love interests from Diane) as thehelpless, unnamed survivor of a car accident (she is helped by Betty). Lynchalso focuses his camera on Adam (Justin Theroux), a flamboyant director who isbeing extorted by mafia film producers, but also on other figures who seem tohave nothing to do with the central plot, from a bumbling hit man to anordinary man who a weekday dinner tells of a nightmare – and promptlyrelives that nightmare.
It is those ‘extra’ scenes, which seem largely detached from the central plotsurrounding Watts and Harring’s characters, that provide an unambiguousinterpretation of Mulholland Drive complicate. The most common analysis isthat Betty Elms and “Rita,” as Harring’s unnamed character calls herself, arefantasies of the embittered, suicidal Diane Selwyn. But every possibleinterpretation has loose ends.
‘Lynchian’
The style and atmosphere of Lynch’s work is so unique that the adjective”Lynchian” has made it into the Oxford English Dictionary, explaining thatLynch’s films “place surreal or sinister elements against everyday, banalsettings” and “use haunting visual imagery that emphasizes a dreamlike qualityof mystery and menace”. That definition applies to Lynch’s best-known titles,from Blue Velvet until Twin Peaks but in Mulholland Drive that style isperfected.
It is also a style that is often imitated, but never matched. MulhollandDrive is unique, because it never becomes clear where reality ends and wherethe dream begins. Is Betty Elms a figment of Diane Selwyn’s imagination? Or isit the other way around? And who is the monstrous man with the mysterious bluebox behind the dinner lives? “There is no explanation,” said influentialcritic Roger Ebert at the time. “Maybe there isn’t even a mystery.”
A key scene is the one in which Betty and Rita visit a dark, grim nightclub.Music is playing, but the master of ceremonies emphasizes: “There is no band.Only a recording.” There is no reality, only an illusion. Yet you believe thatthe singer who afterwards performs ‘Llorando’ really sings – until she fallsdown and simply continues to play the song. As a viewer, you choose to stepinto the nightmare that Lynch creates, until you can no longer distinguishbetween dream and reality.
Since the release of Mulholland Drive the speculation about the film’sdenouement and significance has never stopped – type ‘Mulholland Drive’ intothe Google search bar, and you’ll instantly get ‘ explained as a suggestion.But the power of Lynch’s masterpiece lies precisely in the fact that you don’thave to fully unravel the mystery to feel the irresistible power of the film.Lynch himself also realizes this. “I never explain,” he told in 2018 TheGuardian about his work. “That would limit it, make it smaller.” After all, amovie or TV series is like a magic trick, he thinks. “And magicians don’t tellyou how they do things.”
**Mulholland Drive plays again in cinemas from Wednesday. **