|
Reader comments on
Subject: My Take On Mulholland Drive - PLEASE READ!
Date: Sep 25, 2002
Hi everyone! This bulletin board has been so incredibly helpful to me in working out just what the heck is going on with Mulholland Drive. And I agree with a lot of the stuff that's been posted but I'd just like to say what I think is going on.
As he was promoting the film, Mr. Lynch loved to confuse reporters and interviewers with his cryptic notions of "ideas" and "where ideas come from". He claimed that at some point, we tune into ideas and our intuition simply puts it all together.
The subconscious is a very strange thing. I believe that dreams are simply random ideas buried in our subconscious being flashed or replayed in front of us. They don't necessarily hold any meaning but they are simply ideas which have inadvertantly stored in our memory. Have you ever had a dream that you accept while you're having it, but once you wake up, you go "That's not right. Where did that come from?" Simply put, have you ever had a weird dream and wondered why the hell you dreamed it? Such is the philosophy behind Mulholland Drive.
My concept of the dream fits perfectly with respect to Mr. Lynch's surreal and hypnotic visual style. The "dream" of Mulholland Drive does not necessarily hold any profound or repressed meaning in the characters. All we can do is simply enjoy the ride Mr. Lynch takes us on, just like we accept our own dreams as we unconsciously create them. The best example that I can think of from the past the Black Lodge sequences from ãTwin Peaksä. If David Lynchâs films have taught us anything, itâs that if we want something to make sense to us, we should allow our natural instincts to pick it up and let our mechanical intuitions lead the way.
Like everyone else, I believe that the film lapses between the dream/fantasy involving Betty and the cruel reality of Diane. The reason the film is so surreal and that extra bit weirder, up until the point Diane "wakes up", is because we are witnessing Diane's dream.
THE LINEAR STRUCTURE OF THE FILM
- The movieâs linear plot begins with the scene with Diane and Camilla fooling around on the couch. Diane has not been given the blue key yet, the piano ashtray has not been taken back by the neighbour and she places a different drink other than coffee (which she was making in the kitchen) on the table. The story follows up until the end of the scene where the hitman gives her the blue key.
- The next linear scene would be the one where the neighbour collects her things, removing the ashtray and revealing the key on the coffee table.
- Somewhere between Diane making the coffee and the scene where she shoots herself, Diane falls into the dream. The jitterbug sequence may be the prelude to Dianeâs dream. Suddenly all these elements buried in her subconscious memory awaken to provide the dream which lasts from the first time we see the signpost to Aunt Ruthâs return to the apartment.
- Diane would have awoken from the dream and after reflecting upon it, realized it was just a dream and not reality. The coffee cup she had made earlier is sitting on the coffee table and the blue key remains. She shoots herself from the guilt of who she has become and how she can never fulfill her dreams.
Going back to my concept of dreams, many ideas, people, places, words in Diane's reality are replicated in Diane's dream but slightly altered.
Many things from the party which Diane hears and remembers (subconsciously) are replicated but placed in Diane's own world. The Expresso guy is simply a face at the party, as is the cowboy. The blonde woman is combined with Diane's image of Camilla to create a new subconscious image in Camilla in the dream. Coco's words are placed in a new context once Diane hears them at the party and is the scene where the limo stops on Mulholland Drive. There is also Adam choosing Camilla, the frightened man in the diner, the line "this is the girl", "those two detectives came by looking for you", the neighbour who has been waiting for "three weeks". Adam's confrontation with the pool cleaning guy is based on a single comment he makes at his party and Diane's imagination is allowed to subconsciously run wild. Notice how the blonde waitress's hairstyle changes, depending on whether she is Betty or Diane. Adam did not actually direct the Sylvia North film but in Diane's memory, she unconsciously MADE him the director because, in reality, he CHOSE Camilla.
All of these things are just little things which Diane notices in her reality but does not consciously register all of them, until they are then raised out of her subconscious during her dream.
The only exception I can make to the "no-real-repressed-meaning" concept of dreams is the appearances of the hitman in Diane's dreams. In reality, she had only met him once to arrange the hit on Camilla but her repressed anger and her subconscious created an entirely new sequence in her own mind, representing her repressed and violent urges to hurt somebody else.
Also, with the subconscious raising theory, there are two things which may not hold true to it: the sequence in the Club Silencio and the man behind the Winkies. However, we do not know everything about these characters. We are witnessing Dianeâs subconscious in action, which SHE would not know of all of the ideas contained within. It doesnât matter where these elements came from, all we need to know is that they are in HER mind from somewhere in her past. Did you notice that when she reaches for the gun in the finale, there appears to be a blue box in the drawer as well? Itâs simply an example of how we do not need to know EVERYTHING about her to accept the ideas put forward in her dream.
In my opinion, this is one of the only David Lynch films where his bizarre filmmaking style seems to be rationalized. It is clear that we are witnessing the inner workings of the subconscious of a woman who had dreams but in reality, wasnât able to realize them. I think it is a brilliant film in the way it has sparked so much discussion. I wholeheartedly congratulate Mr. Lynch on his achievement and look forward to more mindbending exercises in the future.
Previous: Re: My husband is confused | Next: Re: My Take On Mulholland Drive - PLEASE READ!
Respond to this message |
Return to original article:
|
Comment index:
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
» My Take On Mulholland Drive - PLEASE READ! « from James T., Sep 25, 2002
Aunt??? from HugeElvis, Oct 14, 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
» My Take On Mulholland Drive - PLEASE READ! « from James T., Sep 25, 2002
Aunt??? from HugeElvis, Oct 14, 2002
|
|
|
