Mulholland Drive (film)

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Mulholland Drive
Directed by	David Lynch
Produced by	Pierre Edelman Alain Sarde Mary Sweeney
Written by	David Lynch
Starring	Naomi Watts Laura Harring Justin Theroux Ann Miller
Editing by	Mary Sweeney
Distributed by	Universal Focus
Release date(s)	October 12, 2001 October 26, 2001 January 4, 2002 January 31, 2002
Running time	146 min.
Country	United States; France
Language	English
Budget	$15,000,000 (estimated)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Mulholland Drive (often abbreviated Mulholland Dr.) is a 2001 Academy Award-nominated psychological thriller written and directed by David Lynch. It stars Naomi Watts, Laura Harring and Justin Theroux.

The film is basically structured around an aspiring actress Betty Elms (Watts), who is trying to find out where and why a woman suffering from amnesia (Harring), is living in her aunt's apartment when she arrives in Los Angeles, California. The actual plot however includes several other seemingly unrelated vignettes, which as the film progresses, connect in various ways, as well as other unexplained, strange scenes which are all involved in the complex narrative.

It is noted for its strong use of alluring, surreal and often dreamlike images, and plot, which has gained much speculation and debate since the film was released. While being strongly acclaimed by many critics, and a moderate box office success, the film has achieved a cult classic status. Mulholland Dr. is currently ranked at #38 on the list of 50 Films to See Before You Die, and appears on and off the IMDB.com list of the Top 250 films.

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Interpretation and allusions 2.1 10 clues 2.2 Original 10 clues 2.3 Special Edition clues 3 Production history 4 Release and Reaction 5 Selected Cast 6 References 7 See also 8 External links

[edit] Synopsis

As the film begins, a surreal image of people doing the jitterbug is shown. The sound of a cheering crowd accompanies a ghostly image of a young blonde woman and an old couple, all of whom are smiling (apparently before said crowd). The final image of the blonde woman waving to a cheering crowd dissolves into a point-of-view shot, with the camera panning over a bed and moving into a pillow. The scene then fades black, and switches to a street sign (Mulholland Dr.) illuminated by headlights. A young, dark-haired woman (played by Laura Harring) is being driven up Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles late at night. She is threatened by two men inside the car with a gun. Before they can kill her, however, their limousine is smashed into by a carload of drag racing teenagers. The nameless, dark-haired woman suffers from a head injury and subsequent amnesia. As the sole survivor of the crash, she wanders down the hillside into LA, finding refuge in the apartment of a vacationing woman and falls asleep. The next day, a young and perky aspiring actress named Betty Elms (played by Naomi Watts), who has just arrived in Hollywood from Deep River, Ontario, moves in and discovers her in the shower. The dark-haired woman sees a poster for the movie Gilda starring Rita Hayworth and decides to call herself "Rita." She tearfully admits to Betty that she has amnesia and together the two of them try to piece together exactly who she is. While going through Rita's purse for clues, they discover $50,000 in cash and a futuristic-looking blue key. Over the course of the film, Betty and Rita fall in love, and share a sincerely affectionate sexual encounter.

Other strange things, at first seemingly unrelated, are happening as well. At Winkie's, a local diner, a man named Dan tells his companion Herb about a recurring nightmare involving a shadowy person living behind the restaurant. When Herb encourages Dan to confront his fear by exploring the rear parking lot, Dan encounters a terrifying filthy figure and collapses from fright.

Film director Adam Kesher (played by Justin Theroux) finds his latest project — and soon thereafter his life — being turned upside down by implacable mobsters, who attempt to coerce him into hiring an unknown blonde actress named Camilla Rhodes (played by Melissa George) to play the lead role in his new film. Adam refuses and finds himself suddenly bankrupt. Later that same evening, after finding his wife cheating on him with the pool cleaner and subsequently checking into a seedy hotel, Adam has a bizarre meeting with a man dressed as a cowboy. He tells Adam that he must give the role to Camilla Rhodes in order for his comfortable life as a director to return to normal.

In another subplot, a bungling hit man steals a "black book" of names and addresses, leaving behind three dead bodies. He, along with two police detectives, are all trying to track down the dark-haired woman now known as "Rita".

Meanwhile, Betty goes to a Hollywood acting audition and performs brilliantly. Betty is then taken to a soundstage where she catches a glimpse of Adam Kesher, who has just caved in to the mobsters' demands and hired Camilla Rhodes for his new picture. Betty abruptly flees from the soundstage to pick up Rita and follow a clue to the apartment of a mystery woman named Diane Selwyn. This leads to their discovery of a rotting corpse, presumably a murdered Diane. Rita decides to disguise herself by wearing a blonde wig, fearing that the same people who harmed Diane are after her as well. That night, Betty and Rita become lovers and sleep together.

Rita later awakens and insists that she and Betty attend an eerie performance at a midnight theatre called Club Silencio, during which Betty begins shaking and both women cry uncontrollably. They later return to their apartment. Betty suddenly vanishes and Rita, finding herself alone, opens a small blue box with the blue key from her purse.

After this, an entirely new reality suddenly emerges. Betty wakes up and finds herself a depressed and lonely failed actress named Diane Selwyn. Her former lover, an actress named Camilla Rhodes (now played by Harring), has abandoned her to pursue a life of riches and glamour by marrying a successful director, the same Adam Kesher who appeared earlier in the film. Feeling betrayed and humiliated, Diane meets at Winkie's with the same hit man from the previous reality and pays him thousands of dollars in cash to kill Camilla. After receiving confirmation that Camilla has been killed (by the appearance of an ordinary blue key) and now under police suspicion, the guilt-stricken and tormented Diane breaks down into insanity and shoots herself.

[edit] Interpretation and allusions

Lynch has refused to comment on the film's meaning or symbolism, leading to much discussion and multiple interpretations. The most widely cited interpretation, however, is that the first two-thirds of the film is a dream of the real Diane Selwyn (Watts), who has cast her dream-self as the innocent and hopeful "Betty Elms" and reconstructs her life, history, and persona into something like an old Hollywood movie. In her assumed life, Diane is successful, charming, liked by everyone she encounters and lives the fantasy life of a soon-to-be-famous actress. The last third of the film presents Diane's actual bleak life, in which she has failed personally and professionally.

The film's original television pilot script suggests the plot changed to fit a movie format (see Production History below). The pilot script balanced normal and weird elements like early seasons of Twin Peaks. The pilot laid the groundwork for story arcs, like the mystery of Rita's identity, Betty's career and Adam Kesher's film.

Plot points of the film's ending—viz., the physical relationship between Rita and Betty, the trip to Club Silencio, the "alternate reality" and "identity swapping" that the film shares with Lost Highway, the love triangle with Betty/Diane, Rita/Camilla and Adam—were written and shot long after the first-hour-and-a-half were completed (see Production History below). Many elements from the first part of the film were reused in the second half in ways Lynch may not have originally intended, for example, the old couple Betty met on her flight to later become imps traveling out on the fringes of Betty/Diane's imagination. The ending is a creative, though complicated, attempt to tie together elements from the first two-thirds of the film.

[edit] 10 clues

Contained within the DVD release, there was a card detailing 10 clues to help the viewer solve the mystery. When the 2-disc edition was released, some of the clues had been reworded.

[edit] Original 10 clues

1. Pay particular attention in the beginning of the film: at least two clues are revealed before the credits.
2. Notice the appearances of the red lampshade.
3. Can you hear the title of the film that Adam Kesher is auditioning actresses for? Is it mentioned again?
4. An accident is a terrible event... notice the location of the accident.
5. Who gives a key, and why?
6. Notice the robe, the ashtray, the coffee cup.
7. What is felt, realized and gathered at the club Silencio?
8. Did talent alone help Camilla?
9. Note the occurrences surrounding the man behind Winkies.
10. Where is Aunt Ruth?

[edit] Special Edition clues

1. Be particularly attentive at the beginning of the film: at least 2 clues are revealed before the credits.
2. Be really attentive when a red lampshade appears on screen.
3. Can you hear the title of the film for which Adam Kesher is casting actresses? Is this title mentioned again?
4. A car accident is a terrible thing... Pay attention to where the accident takes place.
5. Who gives the blue key and why?
6. Pay attention to the dress, the ashtray and the coffee cup.
7. At the club 'Silencio', something is felt, the viewer realizes something, the clues come together... But what is it?
8. Did Camilla only become famous thanks to her talent?
9. Pay attention to the man behind 'Winkies'.
10. Where is Aunt Ruth?

[edit] Production history

David Lynch wrote the script himself in late 1998, to early 1999, originally as a TV pilot. ^[1] The majority of Mulholland Dr. was originally shot on a budget of USD$8,000,000 in 1999 as a 95-minute pilot for a television series on ABC. The network was unhappy with the pilot and decided not to pick it up as a series.

The script was rewritten and more scenes added, when it was decided to transform it into a feature film. Lynch filmed new scenes in late 2000—funded with money from French production company StudioCanal. ^[2]

Latina singer Rebekah Del Rio plays herself at the midnight theatre, "lip-synching" an a cappella Spanish version of Roy Orbison's song "Crying". The vocals in the film were those of a first take just moments after she was introduced to Lynch in his home.

The film is dedicated to Jennifer Syme, a former assistant to David Lynch, who died after a serious car crash in April 2001. Although some believe the car crash in Mulholland Drive is based on Syme, her accident took place after the film had completed its script and shooting production.^[3]

[edit] Release and Reaction

Mulholland Drive premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2001 to major critical acclaim. Lynch was awarded the Best Director prize at the festival (sharing it with co-winner Joel Coen for The Man Who Wasn't There). In the United States, the film was released in October 2001. Despite mixed audience reaction, it drew positive reviews by many critics. It was named Best Picture by the New York Film Critics Circle, and even more notably was given a four-star review by Roger Ebert, who is known as one of Lynch's biggest detractors. The box office grossings in the US were fairly low, however the film became much talked about after its popularity on DVD and VHS.

Lynch was nominated for a Best Directing Oscar for the film. From the Hollywood Foreign Press, the film received four Golden Globe nominations, including Best Picture (Drama), Best Director, and Best Screenplay. ^[4][5]

[edit] Selected Cast

Actor	Role
Naomi Watts	Betty Elms/Diane Selwyn
Laura Harring (as Laura Elena Harring)	Rita/Camilla Rhodes
Ann Miller	Catherine 'Coco' Lenoix
Dan Hedaya	Vincenzo Castigliane
Justin Theroux	Adam Kesher
Brent Briscoe	Detective Neal Domgaard
Robert Forster	Detective Harry McKnight
Katharine Towne	Cynthia Jenzen
Lee Grant	Louise Bonner
Scott Coffey	Wilkins
Billy Ray Cyrus	Gene
Chad Everett	Jimmy Katz
Rita Taggart	Linney James
James Karen	Wally Brown
Lori Heuring	Lorraine Kesher
Angelo Badalamenti	Luigi Castigliane
Michael Des Barres	Billy Deznutz
Marcus Graham	Vincent Darby
Missy Crider (as Melissa Crider)	Waitress at Winkies (Diane/Betty)
Robert Katims	Ray Hott
Jeanne Bates	Irene
Patrick Fischler	Dan
Michael Cooke	Herb
Michael J. Anderson	Mr. Roque
Melissa George	Camilla Rhodes
Mark Pellegrino	Joe Messing
Monty Montgomery (as Lafayette Montgomery)	Cowboy

[edit] References

1. ^ >>Pilot script (unconfirmed). fortunecity.com. Retrieved on March 23, 2007.
2. ^ >IMDB trivia for Mulholland Dr.. mulholland-drive.net. Retrieved on December 26, 2006.
3. ^ Lost on Mulholland Drive, Jennifer Syme. mulholland-drive.net. Retrieved on December 26, 2006.
4. ^ Mulholland Drive. Metacritic. Retrieved on December 25, 2006.
5. ^ Mulholland Dr., Awards. lynchnet.com. Retrieved on December 26, 2006.

[edit] See also

• Persona (1966) - a film by Ingmar Bergman.

[edit] External links

• Official site, with trailer
• Mulholland Dr. at the Internet Movie Database
• Mulholland Dr. review by Roger Ebert
• Mulholland Dr. at Rotten Tomatoes
• Lost on Mulholland Dr., comprehensive analysis and resource center based on the Rotten Tomatoes discussions (above)
• Salon.com, analysis and explanation (warning: contains spoilers)
• 'No hay banda': A Long, Strange Trip Down David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, (warning: contains spoilers)
• Deciphering David Lynch's 10 Clues, found within the DVD (warning: contains spoilers)
• Mulholland Drive / lynchnet.com, includes interviews, press kit, film clips
• Mulholland Drive , analysis by Eric Gans, Professor of French at UCLA

The work of David Lynch
Feature films: Eraserhead • The Elephant Man • Dune • Blue Velvet • Wild at Heart • Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me • Lost Highway • The Straight Story • Mulholland Dr. • Inland Empire TV series: Twin Peaks • American Chronicles • On the Air • Hotel Room Other work: Short films • Industrial Symphony No. 1 • Rabbits • Darkened Room • Dumb Land • The Angriest Dog in the World