The desire for fame, the intensity of love

Rating: 10/10 (14 February 2011)

This is a work of such outstanding genius and of such subtle nuance and complexity, that a brief review cannot possibly do it justice. In this film, writer and director David Lynch restrains himself from being too gross and disgusting and manages to concentrate instead wholly on just telling this gut-wrenching tragic tale in its fullness, to the exclusion of his usual self-indulgent follies and distractions. (The many bizarre 'Lynch touches' found throughout this film are kept within bounds, so that they all work and are effective.) I have just seen the film for the fourth time, and it gets better every time, and definitely improves with (either its or one's own) age. There are many fans of this film, and there is a website I recommend, which is www.mulholland-drive.net/studies where many answers to enigmas in the film are to be found. For instance, the house at 6980 Mulholland Drive towards which 'Rita' is being driven in the limousine at the opening of the film is really at 6980 Macapa Drive, whereas 6980 Mulholland Drive is apparently an unoccupied spot directly below the Hollywood sign above Mulholland Drive, which is a long road which goes up towards the Santa Monica Hills and is an address of many famous movie stars past and present. The Hollywood sign on the hills features prominently in the film, and is of the essence of the tale. It is wonderful to see two old-timers and shameless scene-stealers in this film, namely Lee Grant and Ann Miller (it was her last film appearance, not long before she died). The moody and hauntingly effective music for the film is by Angelo Badalamenti, who has worked with Lynch on most of his films and on TWIN PEAKS. Badalamenti appears in the film as one of the two Mafia brothers who spits out his espresso coffee and keeps saying 'This is the girl.' (He does not speak in chords or octaves, however, but has a human voice.) The film is remarkable for the stunning, brilliant, and Oscar-worthy performances of the two leading players, Naomi Watts and Laura Elena Harring (her strange surname was originally Herring, which is a respectable English surname, and why she changed it I cannot imagine). Every frame of this film is totally mesmerizing. I do not know how Lynch manages to make every shot so full of mystery and menace, and although a lot of it is down to brilliant editing, the only real answer can lie in saying simply: 'That's a genius at work.' If only he were less unruly in some of his other films, or had somebody to restrain him from his excesses! Geniuses are naughty boys and need to be restrained by Nanny or they run out of control and make a botch of their work. But in this film, he kept down his wilder urges and just made the film work. The famous French producer Alain Sarde had the good sense to back this film, which was languishing unappreciated as a script in America and was misunderstood. It really is more of a European film, despite the intensity of its locale and its deep roots in that specific and uniquely American fantasy world of Hollywood. The film is dedicated at the end to Jennifer Symes (1979-2008), who was apparently an aspiring young actress similar to the character played by Naomi Watts in this film, though that is not information which I have verified, and is just from the internet. The beginning of the film shows Naomi Watts ('Betsy') emerging all fresh-faced and breathless from Los Angeles Airport, an ecstatic expression of excitement and anticipation on her face at arriving in Hollywood, where she hopes to become a star but will settle for being just a famous actress. She takes a taxi to an apartment which belongs to her aunt, who has gone to work on a film on location so that Betsy can stay there for a while. The address given in the film is 1612 Havenhurst, but that does not exist, as Havenhurst ends at 1500. The real address of this truly extraordinary art-deco apartment is I1 Borghese, 450 Sycamore Avenue, for those who want to drop in for tea with the aunt. (Why not? Hollywood is where fantasy is reality, isn't it?) Watts and Harring are totally spellbinding in their performances and in their relationship with each other, which becomes very physical and just about as intense as they get, not to say obsessional. There are electrifying scenes with both Melissa George as Camilla Rhodes and Michele Hicks as Nicki Pelazza. Both of them do wonderful sixties songs, as auditions. And there is a spine-tingling and magnificent rendering of Roy Orbison's song 'Crying' in Spanish by Rebekah Del Rio which Lynch films in full. One of the endearing traits of the naughty little boy Lynch is his love of sixties music. It seems that a jitterbug contest in Canada was cut from the beginning of the film. 'Betsy' is supposed to have won it, so what a shame we did not get to see it. Possibly there was pressure from the producer about the length, as the film is two hours and 20 minutes long, and in some versions as long as two hours and 27 or variously 28 minutes (I suspect a minute of the sex scene may have been cut). I wonder if there will ever be a director's cut, or perhaps this is it. David Lynch carries on the noble tradition of French surrealism in his films, whether he knows it or not. Every screen minute of this film is in an alternative reality, even when the camera stares at mundane things like a plate of uneaten fried eggs at Winkie's on Sunset Boulevard. Sometimes I could imagine that André Breton and Philippe Soupault secretly contribute to his scripts through a medium and devise some of the eerie, supernatural, and reality-piercing scenes.