Lynch and his Pure Cinema Art

Rating: 10/10 (2 August 2009)

David Lynch is no ordinary director. His surrealist and unique style, along with his typical filming way and nonsensical dialogues gave him a mixed reputation. What some might call a wacky, stupid and disconnected movie is regarded by fans and followers of the director as a visionary and revolutionary film. And the meaning of revolutionary is also revisited in Mulholland Dr. The plot is a little complicated. It transmits to the watcher a sensation that something is going on, some mystery is in the air. From the moment the film begins, following a young actress arriving at L.A. filled with dreams, to the bare end, this big feeling of mystery, of some meaning on every scene to be understood and solved, follows the mind of spectators, who are subliminally told to make their own theories about the movie. One of the most characteristic traces on Lynch's way of making his movies is the 'cult' atmosphere. This atmosphere is reinforced by the professional acting, the uncommon scenes and the insertion of some apparently disconnected situations in the movie. Here on Mulholland Dr., these traces are strong and remarkable. The elements and the feeling of watching a thriller are reinforced by the Lynch elements. The expressivity of the nonsense here is a proof that a movie is not always a way of telling a story. The pure cinema art of David Lynch is the art of touching the spectator, of expressing feelings and ideas even with no coherent story. And this creates the atmosphere I'm talking' about. That's an allegory to the real plot of the thriller, those metaphors, those apparent useless bullsh*t to uninitiated people. The coolest thing about this surrealism here in Brazil is the fact that some stupid translator changed the title of the film to 'Cidade dos Sonhos' (City of Dreams), which is somehow allusive to the dream-like sequences that appear sometimes. The last piece on Lynch's masterpiece is all the mystery around the plot. We are introduced to new things, to new elements and new characters by the end of the movie, which are there to help on fulfilling our need to explanations in part. Because Mulholland Dr.'s ending isn't conclusive at all. Lynch opens the door so we can enter and finish the story with our own theories and versions. For people who like solving problems, the director left ten clues to solve the thriller and find his own version of the story. But that's not really necessary to like Mulholland Dr. or any other Lynch movie. You don't necessarily have to understand one of his movies to like them. You have to watch and immerse yourself into the film, I guess. And that's why Mulholland Drive is really a fantastic thriller, which's worthy of watching many times so you can make your own version and get clues that reinforce it. All the pieces of a multiple combination puzzle are there on a brilliant plot. Along with great acting, shooting and arranging of sounds (another trademark of Lynch's movies, the experimentalism of sounds to make a scene), this is what makes watching Mulholland Drive a remarkable experience of the senses, and elects this film to a status of pure expressive art.