Mulholland Drive......

Rating: 10/10 (13 July 2008)

Fans of David Lynch and his twisting, odd and addictive television show Twin Peaks in particular, will love Mulholland Dr. because it captures all that series' oddness, dreamlike feel and creepiness in one film. In fact Mulholland Dr. actually started out in Lynch's mind as a TV series like Twin Peaks. But it was deemed too expensive. So Lynch gathered all of the cast and crew back together and shot the end of the surreal film.
And what a movie. Beautifully shot made and almost impossible to solve. It begins with a beautiful woman 'Femme Fatale' (Laura Harring) staggering from a car wreck on Mulholland Dr., and inevitably forgetting who she is. She then makes her way to an apartment on which Betty Elms who then decides to help Harring find out who she is. The film then references another Femme fatale by the name of Rita Hayworth in Gilda. So far straightforward. Not, lynch tricks us and laughs at our idiocracy as we think it will be a simple narrative, where Betty is actually a struggling actress (with bad hygiene towards the end of the film) named Diane and her lover a star named Camilla, who is Rita.
One of the joys with Mulholland Dr. is that Lynch doesn't give us all the answers. Is the first half a dream Diane is having while blasting her head off? Which story is real and which one is not? Head Scratching stuff, though Lynch has hinted that there are clues in the mise-en-scene and the narrative its self. .
The accident occurs on "Mulholland Drive," a windy, mountainside. Metaphorically, the road to fame is long, twisty, and dark, with danger around every corner: evidenced by the violent car wreck that begins the film. Mulholland Drive is the location of Rita's accident in the dream sequence, where as in real life the limo ride culminated in the dinner party where Camilla and Adam Kesher announced their engagement in front of Diane.
Club Silencio is a very significant place and ends the dream half of the film. Like the magician says during the introduction to the strange nightclub is that everything they hear and see is an illusion and I feel that this is what affect the women so much as it is realisation time for both of them. The club is an illusion just like the Red Room in Twin Peaks.
Another is the idea of the magician as the devil as he has the stereotypical look of the devil, a goatee; he also has a wand which could represent a pitchfork.
The Blue Haired Woman- Diane's dream is full of images of people in 'high places.' Mr. Roque, the Castigliane Bros, the Cowboy. Throughout the dream there seems to be someone (or something) manipulating every event. Maybe she's Diane's idea of God, who can watch but not take part in human affairs, while the magician is her idea of Satan, who has more influence over people (he makes Betty shake). Considering the state of Diane's life, it makes sense that God is up in the background while Satan takes centre stage at Club Silencio
Like Twin Peaks, Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Wild At Heart and Lost highway, the confusion, surrealness and blurred lines between dreams and reality are part of what makes the film so addictive. Some audiences may get impatient that the end doesn't resolve what has gone before, but the beauty of Lynch's luscious visuals, Angelo Badalamenti's haunting scores and the superb performances more than make up for any frustration. Interestingly Lynch casted actors who previously appeared in soaps, Laura Harring Sunset Beach, Naomi Watts and Melissa George both appearing in Home and Away. The film is superb, engrossing, annoying and dazzling film that is in my eyes Lynch's best film since Blue Velvet.