I got lost again

Rating: Null/10 (3 December 2001)

I already got lost on Mulholland Drive in 1986 (see my comments on MULHOLLAND FALLS, of last April). This time, I managed to stay on for 100 of its 145 minutes, but had to pull over after. It started very brightly with a endiabled jitterbug, first looking a little farfetched but soon explained by the Canadian starts of Naomi Watts. Then the intrigue proceeded smoothly, like an usual Film Noir, far more inspired than BLUE VELVET, which was plain dull at its beginning.
Then things began to look awkward, when the villain started to fire on a vacuum cleaner. And I had to pull out when the bad smelling corpse of Diane Selwyn came back to life under Naomi's nice features... David Lynch is a brilliant director, and I was fascinated for 2/3 of his last movie. But unlike in BLUE VELVET, which kept the suspense alive until three minutes from the ending credentials, I had to abandon my glasses for a kaleïdoscope, in order to keep up with the merry-go-round falling action.
No wonder Mr. Lynch had to enroll the French producers Alain Sarde and Le Studio Canal+, plus a few others, in order to transform his Zero-number of a TV series into this brilliant but long drawn-out movie. With all the possible humility, I beg to advise him to think a hundred times before starting his next production, if he still cares not to see angry customers stepping out and yelling for their money back. I had brought along two of my best friends, and discussed the movie contradictorily for a while, before our chauffeur found his car towed away. He swore never to be found on MULHOLLAND DRIVE again. Henry Caraso, Paris