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Mulholland Drive [spoilers]
815165
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Okay so we just watched this movie the other day, I really enjoyed the first two hours.
Up until the blue box being opened, everything after that (or possibly everything up to that point) appears to be bullshit. What was the point of it? I really don't understand this film and feel I'd have enjoyed it more if it just ended with the blue box being opened.
Can anyone explain what the point of the end was? It didn't have any suspense or interest to me; why should I care about the characters if I know the second part doesn't matter? Or why should I care about them if the first part didn't matter and I don't really know anything about the characters in the second part?
I'm actually annoyed at the person who recommended this film to us.
Up until the blue box being opened, everything after that (or possibly everything up to that point) appears to be bullshit. What was the point of it? I really don't understand this film and feel I'd have enjoyed it more if it just ended with the blue box being opened.
Can anyone explain what the point of the end was? It didn't have any suspense or interest to me; why should I care about the characters if I know the second part doesn't matter? Or why should I care about them if the first part didn't matter and I don't really know anything about the characters in the second part?
I'm actually annoyed at the person who recommended this film to us.
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Shorter Answer- Naomi Watt's boobs!
I mean, I think a lot of ending is pretty clear cut;
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But again, it's a Lynch film, so he just threw a shit ton of other things that really doesn't tie up. Don't bother trying to make sense of it.
edit: I kind of feel like the following is going to take place between me and my asshole friend that recommended this bullshit to me
Just be glad you didn't watch Lost Highway. All the confusion, none of the Namoi Watt's boobs.
Well, I'll argue that there is still a Narrative in Mullholland Drive, and sometimes the getting there is more important than the destination and blah blah blah, but if you don't like Mullholland, which compared to a lot of his other work, is the most coherent, then you probably won't like the man. And I won't like you.
Seriously. Watch the first season of Twin Peaks.
If you're interested in Lynch without the... er... Lynch, check out The Straight Story. You get the best aspects of his filmmaking style without the confusion.
You do, however, get to see members of Marilyn Manson acting in a porno...
As for the movie, I took it as something where "what" happened wasnt as important as what it was trying to say. I believe if I recall correctly the film was a bit of a metaphore for the film industry. Like a nostalgic look back at old hollywood vs new hollywood. Thats why there were some galmor 20's characters, cowboys and all the stuff that people look back fondly on hollywood for.
But christ its been forever since ive seen it, and I dont remember 90 percent of it. Those people coming out of the box was super creepy though. That crazy mexican lady with blue hair wailing in the theatre was also insane and disturbing.
*Market research shows that Naomi Watt's boobies are especially appealing to the 18-to-32 year old male demographic.
*Anyone who wants to try to fathom its illusionary depths will have to pay to see it at least two times.
*Everyone will be too afraid of being ridiculed as unintelligent to admit that the movie is so intellectually-inaccessible as to be unenjoyable, and thus it will insistently command instant critical acclaim through fear and intimidation.
*This movie is now the ultimate power in the universe, and I suggest we use it.
Heh.
It was actually first pitched as a pilot for a tv show.
Not my cup of tea.
I know, right? It was a serious question. I have an original 110 page script sitting right here. It's got a logical beginning, middle and end, it follows the general rules and guidelines of continuity of time, it has zero explosions and one car crash and thus would be relatively cheap to produce, and yet I can't get an agent even to agree to read it, let alone represent it. What sort of Satanic pact must David Lynch have entered into to get money invested in his films, and was Christine O'Donnell involved in brokering the deal?
The first is that most of the film was actually filmed as a pilot for a series, and then when it wasn't greenlit, he decided to write an ending for the narrative. That's why it almost feels like two different halves -- because it was. I don't think he's gone into detail about what his original narrative intentions were, but that's how it came to be during production.
You have to also understand that Lynch is a surrealist, and his films largely are built on the concept of evoking feeling and emotion in the audience through imagery and sound rather than telling a story with a beginning, middle and end. Mulholland Drive kind of throws a curveball in the way that it gives you a very David Lynch style film (which feel disjointed and surreal, like dreams or nightmares, to begin with) and then builds a narrative where large portions of the film really are (or can be easily interpreted as) a dream.
Which parts of the film are a dream are up to you. You could certainly interpret the first half of the film as a dream, with the odd way that it's shot combined with the seemingly too-perfect world Naomi Watts seems to be inhabiting, and the character archetypes who seem like they walked directly out of Hollywood backlot. Or was that the reality, and the latter half is a nightmare by someone afraid they might fail? Is the entire thing a dream that sours in the middle into something more sinister? Are the two characters played by Naomi Watts the same person? Are the two characters played by Laura Elena Harring the same person? Do we really know one way or another for sure? Does it even matter in the context of the film?
Similarly, whether or not the Blue Box is a catalyst for something, a metaphor, or simply a symbolic gesture that provides some kind of closure to the scene is up to you as well. It's really open to interpretation, and you could probably have 15 people watch this movie and have each of them come up with a different interpretation for that scene alone -- it's part of the fun of watching Lynch films.
Beyond that, there's a ton of other symbolism and metaphor present that Lynch refuses to comment on. Is the entire thing a comment on Hollywood, fame, and vanity? Does your desire to find out what's in the blue box Blue Box represent the characters' struggle to find something themselves that's largely irrelevant, but are so intent on doing so to the point of losing focus on her actions and the present? (i.e., Rita searching for her name and her past). Do the two scenes of 60's pop songs being sung in the middle of the film represent the only true feelings of our main characters, while the intentions laid out in their actual dialog is pointedly cloudy?
I really didn't even begin to scratch the surface of the thematic ambiguity of the film, but you probably get the point. The whole idea is to provoke questions and evoke feelings and thoughts. Film isn't always about telling a story from beginning to end, just as literature, art, or even video games aren't always 100% driven by narrative either. If you were intrigued by the box, felt empathy for Rita as she struggled to exist without truly knowing who she is, and felt scared or uneasy during the scenes such as the diner or Club Silencio, the film did its job.
I actually cite Mulholland Dr. as one of my favorite films, mostly due to it eliciting the effect you described in this post. So I'm just going to quote you as my response.