Mulholland Drive (2001)

Rated:	R
Starring:	Robert Forster, Laura Harring, Ann Miller, Justin Theroux, Naomi Watts.
Director:	David Lynch
Genre:	Drama \| Mystery \| Thriller
DVD Release Date: 04/09/2002

Tagline: Beware what you dream for...

"A Maniacal Thrill!" -The New York Times

This sexy thriller has been acclaimed as one of the year's best films. Two beautiful women are caught up in a lethally twisted mystery - and ensnared in an equally dangerous web of erotic passion. "There's nothing like this baby anywhere! This sinful pleasure is a fresh triumph for Lynch, and one of the best films of the year. Visionary daring, swooning eroticism and colors that pop like a whore's lip gloss!" says Rolling Stone's Peter Travers. "See it… then see it again!" (Time Out New York).

Storyline: A bright-eyed young actress travels to Hollywood, only to be ensnared in a dark conspiracy involving a woman who was nearly murdered, and now has amnesia because of a car crash. Eventually, both women are pulled into a psychotic illusion involving a dangerous blue box, a director named Adam Kesher, and the mysterious night club Silencio. Written by Anonymous

Cast Notes: Justin Theroux (Adam Kesher), Naomi Watts (Betty Elms/Diane Selwyn), Laura Harring (Rita/Camilla Rhodes), Ann Miller [I] (Coco Lenoix), Scott Wulff (Limo Driver), Robert Forster (Detective Harry McKnight), Brent Briscoe (Detective Neal Domgaard), Maya Bond (Aunt Ruth), Patrick Fischler (Dan), Michael Cooke (Herb), Bonnie Aarons (Bum), Michael J. Anderson (Mr. Roque), Joseph Kearney [I] (Roque's Manservant), Enrique Buelna (Back of Head Man), Richard Mead (Hairy-Armed Man).

User Comment: Blake French (baffilmcritic@cs.com) USA • You don't have to understand David Lynch to appreciate his movies, and you don't have to understand "Mulholland Drive" to appreciate it as a masterpiece of modern cinema. Those who require logic will find themselves head over heels in frustration, but even to these people, "Mulholland Drive" will appears as visually enticing and thought-provoking as anything you'll see at the movies this year, or any other year.

Here's what happened at the screening I attended: after the film concluded, the audience just sat in their seats, rubbing their chins as the ending credits rolled past. The usher's came in the theater to clean up, but most of the audience was still glued in their same position, in deep thought, trying to understand the movie and piece the puzzle together before it leaves their thoughts. This is the kind of movie that could lead to hours of discussion afterwards. The debate could go on for days. There is no right or wrong answer.

Many reviews have mentioned that "Mulholland Drive" resembles a dream, and it does. Like a dream, it shortcuts to dead ends, it includes excerpts from other unrelated dreams, it lingers on what it finds fascinating, and disowns the ideas it finds boring.

Are there any waking moments? There's a point a little more than half way through where the film takes a blunt turnaround. This is when everything starts to contradict what we have previously conceived. Does the real story of "Mulholland Drive" begin here? Was the first half a mere illusion? What does it all mean? David Lynch does not answer these questions; he feeds them.

David Lynch movies continually reprise similar themes regarding illusion, identity, and reality. His previous work includes "The Straight Story," "Lost Highway," "Blue Velvet," and "Twin Peaks," but none of his past work surpass his recent addition into mystery film noir. The mystery is never solved. There may not even be a mystery. Don't expect one viewing to be enough.

We meet a variety of characters. Narrative twists surround a car crash and a victim of which who suffers from amnesia. Several murders take place, perhaps because of an authoritative silent dwarf. There's a mysterious western guy in cowboy garb. There's a hit man who gets himself into some hilarious mischief. There's a deformed homeless man who haunts the visions of a helpless, paranoid nobody. There's a movie director who is threatened if he does not cast a specific actress in a role in his movie. There is adultery, paint, jewelry, topless lesbian love scenes, depravity, confusion, depression, illusion, and the list continues.

I will not reveal how these events and characters connect because that would my interpretation. Audiences deserve to have their own unbiased perspective on the material. It works because David Lynch gives the material verve, urgency, humor, depth, and perspective. I have heard "Mulholland Drive" was assembled from scenes Lynch shot for a 1999 ABC television pilot. No network would understand this production, and nobody in their right mind would air this on TV. It's not difficult to tell that David Lynch movies are for an acquired taste. Many people will walk away scratching their heads for days. Others will leave confused and uninterested. You know who you are.

Summary: Possibly the best David Lynch film to date; one of the year's best!

Trivia:

Mulholland Dr. 's narrative structure is broken into two parts. Several of the actors in part one play different characters in part two : The character of "Camilla Rhodes" is played by the blonde actress Melissa George in the first part of the film. In the second, she is played by brunette Laura Elena Harring, who plays the role of "Rita" in the first part of the film. George reappears in part two as the woman who passionately kisses Camilla at Adam's party. Naomi Watts, who portrays "Betty Elms" in the first part of the film, plays "Diane Selwyn" in the second. Ann Miller plays "Coco Lanois", the apartment manager, in part one and Adam's mother part two. The name tag worn by the waitress at Winkie's changes from "Diane" in the first part of the film to "Betty" in the second.
There are other threads that are transformed between the two parts of the film. In the first part, it is inferred that the scruffy blonde man was to kill Camilla. In the second, he kills Diane. The blue key that has a futuristic shape in part one, is an ordinary blue house key in part two. The man experiencing the nightmares and "Cowboy" from part one are both guests at Adam's party in part two. The elderly couple is benign in part one, menacing in part two. A jitterbug scene precedes the opening credits, and in part two it is revealed that winning a jitterbug contest brought Diane to Hollywood. The shot of the unmade bed that preceeds the opening credits turns out to be Diane's unmade bed shown later in the film, in which she shoots herself at the finale. The scene in which Betty watches Adam audition Camilla in part one is echoed in part two by the seemingly out-of-context scene in which Diane watches Adam rehearse a love scene with Camilla and realizes that Camilla and Adam are having an affair. The audition scene in part one is also noteworthy because it marks the only time that the narrative threads of Adam and Betty intersect in part one, and after that scene, Adam disappears from part one.
The division of the two film parts has led to a disagreement among reviewers about the coherence of this film. The LAT reviewer noted that the film's narrative shifts create something that feels "like an alternate reality" and adds that although some things "mean nothing in a conventional plot sense, as powerful images from a dreamlike world, they are unforgettable." The Chicago Sun Times reviewer called the film "a surrealistic dreamscape," noting that "nothing leads to anywhere [in the film]...the characters start to fracture and recombine like flesh caught in a kaleidoscope... There is no explanation..." The Village Voice reviewer called Mulholland Dr. a "mobius strip of double identities." In another review, Lynch was quoted as describing the film as "logical, a linear that's been snipped apart and rearranged just by a hair."
Other reviewers have suggested that the narrative is a dream. The NYT and Salon reviews suggest that Diane, failed in both acting and love, fantasizes Betty's story in part one as a projection of what her life may have been. Thus, the first part of the film becomes Diane's dream, the second part her grim reality.
Many of the production people involved in Mulholland Dr. collaborated with David Lynch on previous projects, including producer Michael Polaire, producer and editor Mary Sweeney, cinematographer Peter Deming and production designer Jack Fisk. Angelo Badalamenti, who composed the music for Mulholland Dr. and appeared in the film as "Luigi Castigliane," also wrote the music for several of Lynch's previous productions. Michael J. Anderson who plays "Mr. Roque" in Mulholland Dr. also appeared in Lynch's television show Twin Peaks . Layfayette "Monty" Montgomery who plays "Cowboy" in Mulholland Dr. worked as a producer on Lynch's Wild at Heart .
Mulholland Dr. was nominated for the Palme d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival, where Lynch tied with Joel Coen for Best Director. The film was named Best Picture by the New York Film Critics and was nominated by AFI as Movie of the Year. Other AFI nominations include Director of the Year for Lynch, Female Actor of the Year for Watts and Composer of the Year for Angelo Badalamenti. The picture was also named film of the year by the National Board of Review and nominated by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for a Golden Globe as the year's Best Film, Drama. Lynch also received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Director, and was named Best Director by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Watts received the National Board of Review award for Best Breakthrough Performance by an Actress.

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IMDb Rating (08/31/13): 7.9/10 from 170,471 users
IMDb Rating (10/15/07): 7.9/10 from 64,892 users Top 250: #250
IMDb Rating (05/08/02): 8.3/10 from 7,611 users Top 250: #90

Additional information
Copyright:	2001, Universal Studios
Features:	• Production notes • Cast/Crew Bios • Theatrical trailer
Subtitles:	English SDH, Spanish, French
Video:	Widescreen 1.85:1 Color (Anamorphic-16x9)
Audio:	ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 [CC] ENGLISH: Dts 5.1 [CC]
Time:	2:27
DVD:	# Discs: 1 -- # Shows: 1
UPC:	025192178023
Coding:	{Criterion Collection Comming -->[V-A] MPEG-4 AVC}
D-Box:	Yes
Other:	Producers: Neal Edelstein, Tony Krantz, Michael Polaire, Alain Sarde, Mary Sweeney; Writers: David Lynch; running time of 147 minutes;Packaging: Keep Case; Chapters: 10; [CC].