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Reader comments on
Subject: Re: The meaning of Mulholland Drive
Date: Aug 13, 2002
I watched the movie for the first time on video last night. Your post and other posts got me thinking. I will take a stab at expanding some of the theories presented.
I agree with those who think the entire movie is from the perspective of "Diane". I think it is a mixture of factual recollection and dreams. The only "real" thing is that she is recollecting and dreaming, then killing herself. She is a failed hopeful actress working as a waitress (and hooker?). Her neighbor has broken off their lesbian love affair. She dreams of how she would like things to have been, by imagining herself as the perfect "Betty". Betty is Diane -- it's the same actress, in fact, with Betty the fantasy version of the real-life Diane.
All the scenes with Diane are her own recollections (except her own dead body -- this is a dream). Everything else is a dream.
Here is my take on the symbolism:
the old couple represents her consience: clean at first (beaming during the limo ride from the airport), then bad at the end, driving her to suicide
the "monster" behind Winkie's diner represents her guilt; the "guilt" releases the "bad conscience" (tiny old couple) at the end
the "cowboy" is the judge figure (God or something else)
the director represents "fame" and "success", and how it is not what it seems
the Club Silencio is purgatory, with the MC the devil; at the end of the movie, the word "Silencio" is when Diane is dead, having shot herself
the blue key and box are death and emptiness; in general, red objects are purgatory, and blue is death
I haven't decided if the lesbian love affair is for real, and has actually taken place in real with her neighbor, whom she idealizes as "Rita", or if "Rita" is simply the star she'll never be ("Rita" comes from the Rita Hayworth poster in the apartment). If the latter, then it must be that she was in love with "Rita", who jilted her and got the movie part Diane was trying for, and then Diane hired a hit man to kill Camille (Rita). This was the bumbling young punk killer.
The real recollection of Winkie's was Diane meeting with this killer. A man was standing by the register. In Diane's dream, this man went to Winkie's with his psychologist, and told him of the monster, who was really there, killing the man from shock and fear. Remember, the monster is Guilt. It is Diane, not the man, who had the guilt, from having hired the hit man (who apparently failed in his attempt to kill Camille).
Camille doesn't know who she is at first -- is she really Diane? No, we learn, she is not. This means that Diane is NOT a successful actress; she never "made it".
The party scene is probably fantasy as well, as Camille kisses the director, almost mocking Diane/Betty, who confesses to a few bit parts as her "career".
The red pillow at the beginning of the movie is either her real pillow as she falls asleep and begins her dream, or else it is the entrance to purgatory.
In sum, the movie is about a girl from Ontario, Canada (from "Deep River" -- note "Deep River Apartments" where Dorothy Valens lived in "Blue Velvet") who moves to Hollywood after winning a dance contest (the initial movie footage), with the naive aspiration of becoming a successful actress. But Hollywood breaks her, and she ends up with a go-nowhere existence, with a failed lesbian love affair as well. She hires a scummy hit man, who bungles things. She is plagued by guilt and unhappiness, she can't be or have what she wants, and commits suicide. The movie's stream of consciousness is Diane's, in the brief time before she commits suicide. She imagines herself arriving in Hollywood as Betty, with everything perfect: her apartment, her acting skills, her personality, her looks, etc. But it's not enough to overcome her sense of failure. The movie ends with her death. So, in a way, the movie is an indictment of how Hollywood can do that to a hopeful young person. Hollywood as dream breaker.
Of course there are many details, many of which I haven't figured out, and many of which are probably just "decoration", as Lynch is wont to do.
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The meaning of Mulholland Drive
I am the only person I know who perfectly understands Mulholland Drive (Lynch does to but doesn't publically -- for publicity -- admit to it).
FFFFFFFFFrrFFFFFFFFFFFrrrFFFFFFFFFrrrrrFFFFFFrrrrrrrFFFrrrrrrrFFrrrrrrrr
The above is the linear structure of the film, with FFF = fantasy/daydream the rr = reality.
In real life the blonde and brunette have been lovers. The brunette jilts the blonde to marry a film director. In a fit of jealously, the blonde hires a hitman to kill her lover. In her app't, at Mulholland Drive, while waiting for the news of the brunette's demise, she slips into wishful thinking, a daydream, an if only scenario. (We all do this when things in life aren't working out as we would like). This is where the movie begins. The drive rr is real, the accident begins the daydream FFFFF which takes up the first 1.20 minutes of the film, interspersed with moments of reality, [the introduction the hitman, the director's wife's infidelity, etc]. As the film advances, the daydream begins to show cracks, allowing more rrrr moments to get in (the discovery of the blonde's actual apparment, the brunette's taking up with the film director etc). Eventually, the daydream must yield to reality, (analagous to Hollywood fantasy yielding reality). Ending on a strictly rrrr note, we find the jilted blonde, alone, living in rrrr squalor in Mulholland Drive?
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Comment index:
» Re: The meaning of Mulholland Drive « from Rich, Aug 13, 2002
wow from Rosanna, Jun 10, 2002
Re: wow from Joshua (editor of Offoffoff), Jun 12, 2002
Re: wow from Tashtigo707, Jun 17, 2002
PCP from Kilgore Trout, Sep 1, 2002
Aunt??? from HugeElvis, Oct 14, 2002
» Re: The meaning of Mulholland Drive « from Rich, Aug 13, 2002
wow from Rosanna, Jun 10, 2002
Re: wow from Joshua (editor of Offoffoff), Jun 12, 2002
Re: wow from Tashtigo707, Jun 17, 2002
PCP from Kilgore Trout, Sep 1, 2002
Aunt??? from HugeElvis, Oct 14, 2002
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