Erinyes

Rating: 9/10 (24 May 2013)

"".... Come to me now again, release me from this pain, everything my spirit longs to have fulfilled, fulfil, and you be my ally...."" From the poems of Sappho circa 630 - 570 BCE, Lesbos, Greece.
Lynch you are a tease! As of late, a great fan of David Lynch's work, I finally got round to watching "Mulholland Drive". There is a turning point in the course of the film where everything appears to be thrown up in the air and any assumed understanding of the multiple strands plot, disappears. It's the point where someone may justifiably scream "What the hell is going on?". Persevere and you will be rewarded!
Not everything makes sense, some scenes in my view are meaningless in terms of plot relevance, such as the cowboy random appearances, the reckless and clumsy contract killer shooting mistakenly through a wall and carrying on killing irrelevant people, the bizarre mafioso espresso coffee spitting scene, the young man with the dream-come-true fear at Winkie's, but curiously enough they don't appear to be out of place in the film. I am sure seasoned cinematography critics could explain these easily but in my view the film is a fantasy, a dream with some nightmarish undertones. And, in dreams or fantasies we don't have to explain everything. In most cases we wouldn't be able to, anyway!
What came to mind as I was watching Diane/Betty moving along the non-linear flow of the film, were notions of innocence, aspiration, love, passion, failure, reality, disappointment, jealousy, hate, envy, rage, vengeance, remorse, retribution, (old couple resembling the goddesses of retribution, Erinyes, tormenting the wrong-doers). Do these words bring to mind the human condition?
Not the mainstream feature film but it wasn't meant to be. It challenged me immensely but in a nice way, tantamount to that of trying to solve an engrossing riddle or puzzle. Have I fully understood what was really intended by David Lynch? Most probably not, but I believe I have arrived at a conclusion good enough to make me appreciate this masterfully made psychological Sapphic and enigmatic thriller. I enjoyed it and that's what matters to me.
It could be considered as the second instalment in a trilogy of psychological dream-like mystery thrillers, with the first being "Lost Highway – 1997" and the third "Inland Empire – 2006".
Some reviewers have brought the gory and sick "Hellraiser" into their reviews here. Why? Different genres! And as for the box thing, if they were to be fair and just, then surely it is Pandora that should be suing Clive Barker for copyright infringement!
My only criticism must unreservedly go to the DVD release owners who "forgot" to add subtitles and chapters, in this edition by studio CANAL, Optimum HOME. Catching every word spoken in psychological thrillers matters, especially for the hard of hearing folk out there.