Mulholland Dr : a Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bumblebee around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening.

Rating: 10/10 (14 December 2007)

Mulholland Drive starts with an innocent looking aspiring blonde actress (Betty) from Deep River, Ontario, arriving in Hollywood. The previous evening, a dark haired mysterious looking beauty had an accident in the street with the same name as the movie, after a bunch of racing youths crashed into her limousine. Concussed and with amnesia, she decided to hide in the apartment that was just cleared by Betty's aunt. Betty and Rita (the amnesia girl chose the name from a Rita Hayworth poster in Betty's room) seemed to get on superb, even after it is spilled that Rita is not known to her aunt. After a couple of nights with Rita on the couch, they decided to share the double bed. When a naked, flaming hot Rita kissed Betty goodnight ("Goodnight sweet Betty"), the inevitable follows.
It appears as if Mulholland Drive consist of two parts, because the movie dramatically changed in outward appearance after Rita opened a blue box with a blue key. It is said that MD is about a failed actress. I agree with that, so, I am thinking only the second part of the movie is real. Betty's name is now Diane. And she is just not "the Girl" anymorethings is going dramatically less idyllic for her in the city of dreams in the second part. The first part of the movie can be described as the surrealistic undercurrent of the movie, the knitted together dreams that Diane has, in her not so striking apartment, in her far less attractive reality than Betty. In fact, I am willing to speculate that Part I is the dream that Part II is having. In Part II's dream, the characters and storyline is tossed all over the place, but, with fantastic, deconstructive skill.
Diane is also an actress, like Betty. She is engaged in an unsteady relationship with a seemingly successful actress, Rita. But Rita is deliberately toying with her: Rita and Adam Kesher, also the director in Part I, is soon to be engaged. A tormented Diane hires a killer to get rid of Rita. He told her that the key will be where he mentioned, when Rita is killed. After she found the key, Diane shot herself. Another dream goes south.
The scene when they got the blue box that the blue key open, is vital to the key points of the movie. In the first part of the movie the night after they fooled around, Betty finds a muttering Rita next to her in bed "Silencio, Silencio". Henceforth they head 2 am in the morning to a theatre with the same name, and find a wicked looking magician, which show is centred on the theme that things only appear real. "We hear a band, but, there is no band". In other words, it is all an illusion. Betty has a hysterical fit, and they decide to leave, but before doing so, they found the blue box in the chair next to them. When Rita opens the box, the real events, Part II, kick off. (I believe Lynch has said that he does not know what the damn thing is) The nightmare part II is having brings us such jewels as the scene where the Italian mob makes it clear to Adam that they will decide who will be the lead actress. I am particularly fond of this scene, because of the treatment that the supposedly first class espresso got from the mob boss. This is Lynch's coffee drinking scene.
I have read that there is a point of view that described Lynch's cinema as pretentious. Mulholland Drive, when I saw it the first time, in Brooklyn, with my friend M impressed me infinitely. Probably, one can say it is pretentious, if you want to say: "Life is not like that". The espresso scene, and the Cowboy scene, and the Winkie's scenes are certainly a bit over the top. Certainly a bit "unreal". This reminds me of another scene, also, brilliant. This is when Betty did her rehearsal. So in a way, when they started off with the rehearsal, one prepares oneself for a bit of acting, in the context where the movie itself is taken for real. One of the actors/producers/advisors on the set that watch the rehearsal, made this remark beforehand: "don't play it for real until it gets real. " It honestly is a remarkable scene, because of the force of the acting, and then when it gets real it manages to mix up the viewer's perspective on what is authentic - similar to the familiar illusions that tricks one's eyes into believing that one square is darker than another square, or one line is longer than another because of the adjacent structure. One seems to be asking oneself, "What is going on?" after the scene.
I guess in a way this film tricks our mind into unfamiliar alleys. Sure, after one has seen it, one can willingly favour a discussion that "both squares equally dark" is. It was all only an illusion. For me: I'm still amazed - being sucked up once by that vortex leading into the blue box.