Silenzio

Rating: 10/10 (26 February 2007)

There's certainly a lot to tell about "Mulholand Dr.", and many theories to create around Roy Orbisson, a Twist contest, some whisperings in the dark, kiss me deadly, TV shows or pink painting, but the wisest thing to do is certainly not to speak about the movie, in order to hide the false keys and to forgot them, endlessly lost into the labyrinth's mind of the movie.
But, for I have a minimum of lines to write, let's talk about the fear that desperately haunts every Lynch's character (and maybe every movie character) : the fear of nonexistence. It happens in a theater this time, where a ghostly woman sings a Spanish version of "Crying". The two heroines, one last time Betty and Rita, listen to the song, and fallow the lyrics. They're beginning to cry. "Silenzio" makes them realize that the reality of their world isn't so efficient, that Betty's dream of cinema may only be that : a dream. The time to wake up has arrive for the pretty girl. And then, everything goes backward, like the midget of "Twin Peaks". The crescendo of love is now over and the disillusion begins : poor Betty and Rita, you're only interpretations, phantasms of a Hollywood dream, of a fiction that's about to destroy you. And if that destruction is your only justification, it also dooms you forever.
There are no freedom of choices for the characters of this movie, that just fallows an unpredictable (yet over rational script), witch plays with improbable symbols to edict his fatum (like death as a blue key or suicide as a blue box ?). All they have left is this fear of nonexistence. It always comes, in Lynch's movies, from a first deception : the reality never really fits the dream. Here, it's a swing contest that brought Betty to Hollywood, but the dream word's reality looks a lot like a nightmare of disillusion, where the only thing you can do to survive, is to imagine a new life, a "film noir" world where you pretend to be someone else. That's why to me this movie carries an infinite sadness, especially when you realize that the innocence and naivety of Betty at the beginning of the movie is only and illusion, and that reality has already transforms he in something horrible.
But the movie is far more than an illustration of this beautiful theme, and really can be see as Lynch's absolute masterpiece (maybe with "Lost Highway", but "Mulholland Dr." has the great advantage to have a more coherent narrative structure, whereas "Lost Highway", witch deals with madness, doesn't really make any sense in the end). After all this, there is "Ed's black book", two producers drinking café, "60 reasons why I love you", and almost as much things to enumerate if you want to have a fair idea of the film. But I think there's already too much talking about this move, so I'll just say "Silenzio".