Mulholland Drive
MULHOLLAND DRIVE (15)
D: David Lynch
Pathé / Studio Canal / Assymmetrical (Mary Sweeney, Alain
Sarde, Neal Edelstein, Michael Polaire & Tony Krantz)
US/France 🇺🇸 🇫🇷 2001
146 mins
Mystery/Thriller
W:
David Lynch
DP: Peter Deming
Ed: Mary Sweeney
Mus: Angelo Badalamenti
Naomi Watts (Betty Elms / Diane Selwyn), Laura
Elena Harring (Rita / Camilla Rhodes), Justin Theroux (Adam Kesher), Ann Miller (Coco Lenoix), Dan Hedaya (Vincenzo Castigliane), Mark Pellegrino (Joe), Robert Forster (Det. Harry
McKnight)
David Lynch's filmmaking standard is generally considered as
creepy, fascinating, hallucinatory as well as profoundly, compellingly confusing, but this is what makes him stand out and he has built a highly successful career around this style, with
films & television shows that stand out long in the memory as a result of it.
Mulholland Drive can certainly be described as all the above
terms. It can also be described as half a dream and half a nightmare as it weaves an intricate story concerning two women, one a budding Hollywood actress and the other suffering from
amnesia, as well as a compendium of strange characters in seemingly unlinked scenarios that all feed into the central story.
Lynch originally intended this film to be a pilot for a TV
series and it's safe to say it's every bit as weird as his iconic TV show (Twin Peaks) that grabbed the attention of many in the early 90s, and whilst that piece of work is his magnum opus as
a television series, this sits beside Blue Velvet as his most Lynchian works in cinema.
The film is a puzzling enigma, with as many answers as it has
questions and different people may have different interpretations which deserve discussion. I have my own understanding of what Lynch is trying to say, and if you also manage
to decipher it, it will stick with you as a marvellously dark piece of work as well as a sly jab at the inner workings, corruption, perversions, depravity and falsities abound in Hollywood
& the filmmaking industry . At the same time, if you were to switch it off halfway through, it would be completely understandable, although it would be a shame, as it would take at least
two viewings to notice all the clues and solve this modern, twisted film noir.
8/10
