Poster

Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)

Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)

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EMPIRE — ✪✪✪✪

A beautiful woman suffers amnesia after surviving a car crash on L.A.'s Mulholland Drive. Hiding in an empty apartment, she meets an aspiring actress; as they attempt to unearth her identity, they fall in love. Or do they?

For some, The Straight Story was evidence that David Lynch was at last emerging from the twisted obsessions of his oeuvre thus far. The director's elegiac ode to one man and his lawn tractor embraced some of the more established conventions of cinema — a linear narrative structure being chief among them.

For others, the film was a moribund dalliance with the mainstream that was unforgivably lacking in Lynchian trademarks — dwarves, weird sex and the realm of nightmares that teems beneath society's veneer of normality. Those in the latter camp should rejoice, then, because in Mulholland Drive, David Lynch gets Lynchian with a vengeance.

Linear narrative is, of course, conspicuous by its absence, but in its place Lynch orchestrates a liquid, undulating dreamscape that is at once beautiful, heartrending, madly confusing and, quite honestly, awe-inspiring in its daring and execution.

Set in a hyper-noir L.A., enveloped in night the colour and texture of a bruise, the film pulsates with disquiet. And with the waving, anemone strands of its storylines, Lynch weaves a tapestry of unease.

Occasionally sequences descend into bizarre farce or climax with the horror that they appear to promise. But more often events proceed with mounting, unaccountable menace. One of the most disturbing scenes, almost unbearably portentous, involves Naomi Watts simply making a cup of coffee.

At a point where the plot seems poised on the brink of resolution, the film suddenly folds in on itself, literally disappearing into a black hole from which it reappears more contrary than ever. That this is, in fact, the twist that binds the threads together probably won't occur to you until long after the credits roll. But then, this isn't a film to be followed in the traditional sense; it's one to let wash over you, one to wallow in.

A bone fide masterpiece. An erotic, deeply unsettling, darkly comic journey through the subconscious city of night.

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Idea Bucket

Pay particular attention in the beginning of the film: at least two clues are revealed before the credits.
Notice appearances of the red lampshade.
Can you hear the title of the film that Adam Kesher is auditioning actresses for? Is it mentioned again?
An accident is a terrible event — notice the location of the accident.
Who gives a key, and why?
Notice the robe, the ashtray, the coffee cup.
What is felt, realised and gathered at the Club Silencio?
Did talent alone help Camilla?
Note the occurrences surrounding the man behind Winkie’s.
Where is Aunt Ruth?

©️ Lila Bremner, 2024-2026

David Lynch

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Resources

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YouTube Playlist

https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?si=sbqto4Dib4Teg_zH&list=PLtOkXWKC6NZQReXD4AV00EAsz7YxcOXSj

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Scavengings

Untitled

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