The Movie Madness Of Mulholland Drive
I have been trying to make sense of some of the movie symbolism in the dream even though it is the lesbian movie love scenes that get the most attention and I think I have a good understanding overall both from my own viewing and many explanations offered online. There are still 3 events in the dream which I am not entirely sure of their meaning.
Mulholland Drive is the story of a beautiful yet profoundly disturbed young lady whose obssession with an actress has recently turned deadly. She has put a hit out on her life, and the film begins on the night she receives confirmation from the hitman, in the form of a blue key deposited in the alley behind Winkie's restaurant/diner, that the hit has been carried through.She is already half-mad by this point, and is prone to psychotic breaks with reality. Whether or not her dire mental state is the result of a clinical illness (schizophrenia), or simply the result of emotional trauma (or perhaps both), is besides the point.
The bulk of the film is comprised of a dream she has on the final night of her life; a dream in which she and Scott shed their former skins (and names) and get another shot at being together (but this time under her decidedly obssessive/possessive terms). But the dream also serves another function, and that is to punish those whom she believes has done her wrong. Watching these "punishment" sequences one can easily imagine her smiling in her sleep. And yet the dream also serves yet another function, one most viewers - and even herself - are largely unaware of. But this final function will take a bit of explaining, so bear with me.
Movie Meanings
1. Right in the beginning the man who's telling another man (his shrink?) about his dream. He then goes out and sees the monster he's afraid of and collapses. This monster, the homeless guy we see again probably represents the evil Diane has unleashed by ordering the hit on Camille. Also the fact that he tells the older man he sees him in the dream but he's in a different place and scared seems to be a clue that this whole sequence is a dream in which Diane has re-arranged character's roles and personalities. That much I get. But why these two characters who we never see again, one awkward and young the other older and sure of himself? Are they meant to represent anyone or anything or is this just random? The younger guy says that in his dream he and the older one are both scared of this evil and the fact that the older man is scared makes the younger guy even more scared? Is this maybe representing or a twisting of some other relationship that exists in the reality thru flashback we see in the movie after the dream ?
2. The old couple, first laughing maniacally and then tormenting Diane right before she kills herself. I get that they probably represent some form of innocence (perhaps her grandparents?) and a positive attitude upon entering Hollywood with boundless possibilities. But even forgetting their ending torment scene, they laugh an evil sort of creepy laugh in the limo, out of Betty's view. What is that all about? Remember Diane is dreaming this so maybe she's just trying to view it as outside forces are sinister and have caused her demise in Hollywood (i.e. the Cowboy). However, I feel something more is going on here. The sexual abuse angle which appears to be revisited in the scene with the older man is intriguing. I wonder if this at all relates to the failed, frenetic masturbation scene. Remember as cruel as Camille and other people were at the dinner party, most people do not react in the form of murder. There seemed to be something about Betty (and therefore Diane's dream of herself) that was repressed and phony in her exuberance and positive attitude. Maybe becoming a star was a 'dream way' to escape awful childhood memories. I'm not at all sure if this is nonsense or I'm reading too much into it, but it has struck me that there is an undercurrent of happiness in Diane's childhood, and the old people's actions seem to verify that.
3. The crazy neighbor Louise Bonner. Not sure if there actually is anything to analyze here besides the surface. It is obvious what the meaning of her statement is and her warning of trouble and that someone (specifically pointed out not to be Betty, and therefore must be Rita) is in danger. We see Betty cloes the door and a flash to Rita. The audience knows Rita was just in danger and presumably still is, but the way Louise says this makes us think that she is in some awful danger from some other force we haven't seen yet. Is this just stating the obvious and a clue to the audience that other stuff than meets the eye is going on and Betty/Diane might not be as innocent as we think? Or is there some representation in the personification of Louise? She is old and somewhat crazy/grotesque looking. Shades of the monster (homeless guy) the guy in the diner had nightmares about? It seems like the only characters who can speak or symbolize the ugly truth in Diane's subconscious are physically repulsive and not 'Hollywood' looking.
Dreams In David Lynch Movies
In most of the films written by David Lynch, dreams are more than just dreams. "Lynchian" dreams are, among other things:
Prophecy. Viewers who remain perpetually confused by Lynch's films would do well to pay special attention to the dream sequences, which, being prophecies, fill in what appeared to be plot-holes. Lynch's dreamers encounter people and places in their dreams that often seem otherworldy - are otherworldly, in fact - but will later turn out to be real.
For instance, Diane's dreams turn out to be more than fantasy by the end of the film, whereupon we see him actually embracing her after killinmg his child; TWIN PEAKS's Special Agent Cooper's dream of the Black Lodge/Red Room, living and the dancing little , all turn out to be real by the final episode; on the flip side of this, TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME dreams of the Black Lodge/Red Room before actually encountering them; and LOST HIGHWAY characterdreams of a mysterious man invading his home and assisting him (Fred) in murdering his wife before any of it actually happens.
And just as the people and places seen in Lynchian dreams will turn out to be real, so are the essential events that occur in these dreams, although sometimes these events are depicted in slightly altered or abstracted terms in the dream. In other words, his dream of murdering his wife (or, more accurately, assisting in the murder of his wife) was a prophecy, even if minor details between the dream and reality (may) differ some.
First contact between the dreamer and an alien, and often malignant, world. If you go back and look at the list I just provided, you'll note that part of each prophecy entailed meeting people and places that appear (and, as it always turns out, are) otherworldly: ERASERHEAD's monstrous man, TP's Black Lodge/Red Room, living man, and LH's Man. So, just with these two key examples, it becomes apparent that Lynch has some very definite and very bizarre methods for depicting dreams in his films. And, more than any other of his films, MULHOLLAND DR. is a film about dreams. But we should also bear in mind that Lynch understands the true nature of dreams (which is to express symbolic and multi-layered unconscious desires), and Lynch stays true to this as well.
Thus, his two-hour dream will contain unconscious wish-fulfillments (like the "punishment" sequences I mentioned), a procphecy (his own fate), and first contact with an alien world's places and peoples (Club Silencio's Magician and the Blue Haired Scott). Kind of a lot to chew on, I know, but that is simply the reality of Lynch's films: they are highly complex, but also quite consistent. They are mysteries to be solved, and all of them can be solved with enough wisdom, passion, and detective work. Do you think you have what it takes? The slew of Ignored suggest that the majority of you do not have what it takes to understand this film. But, if even one of you does (and usually there is one in such a crowd), then this definitive scene-by-scene explanation will make it worth the while.
First of all, it is a dream. Second of all, this is a film so it has nothing to do with "reality of dreaming". Artforms have very little to do with reality. I suggest you record one conversation with your friends and then compare that to any film, theatrical or literary dialogue. Art isn't supposed to mimic reality, it is supposed to transfer our ideas of it. But you have a point, I'll give you that. Read on, I'll get back to this later.
In this film there is this huge dream and then there are some more or less truthful memories and some "real" events that Diane Selwyn does in her apartment. She goes to sleep and she wakes up. Latter part of the film goes to lengths establishing the connections with seemingly irrational dream characters (not very convincingly though, I'll admit). But the method is clear.
Now, the interesting part: Lynch has been great "dream" director. Almost all of his stuff has clear dream-scenes in it, even Eraserhead has clear dream sections among all the bizarre "reality" :) However, his number one "dream" movie, Mulholland drive wasn't meant to be a dream originally. It was TV pilot and that's the reason there are this plethora of characters that don't go anywhere. They would have, if the series would've become reality. Only Silencio part and the disappearance are intentional dream scenes (they were made later). So lots of Lynch's trademark dream techniques like people's changing in the middle of scene, absurd movement in time and space, and just plain old quirkiness isn't anywhere to be seen. Instead we have coherent, normal scenes. Well, maybe not normal per se but compared to Lynch's dream stuff, they are very normal, at least most of them.
I'll agree that sometimes his stubborn wall of silence can be irritating and he seemingly loves the idea that people form many different interpretations from his films. But in MD I'd say that the dream sequence is so clearly formed that if it isn't "concrete" then he is simply fooling the viewer. In the beginning we see that Diane is going to bed and then, when Cowboy says:"its time to wake up now", she wakes up. He muddies the waters in the end when he "kills" Diane in same bed and practically in same position, though. But as always with mysteries, once they are solved, people always feel that there got to be more than this. I'd say this is the main reason Lynch won't ever reveal anything about his films. Their interpretations have life of their own and if he would now "come clear" then it would bound to be a letdown to most folks.
The movie without a doubt is structured so that the first part is a dream or is composed of dreams from the character Diane Selwyn, but it only becomes that way because of things that happen within this 'dreamplace.' In other words, the incarnation of Diane Selwyn by Watts/Betty and the reality she wakes up into is the resolution rather than the pre-determined reality. Everything in the first part centers around an 'accident' with metaphysical implications (two blondes, one box) which is corrected in the final 20 minutes when the ends of the story are made to meet.
The place where the car pulls over and Camilla appears out of the secret path is the same spot where Camilla is confronted by the gun that will end her life (and the accident that saves it). What does this mean in terms of the dream? This is an iconic, even sacred, spot for Diane. It is the place where the soul-death/murder of Diane begins to take place. And that is why it becomes the location of Camilla’s failed execution, where she is “born again” by having her mind wiped clean. We may not ever really know what the exact circumstances were that night. But this is what I think. The Dream, the one that seems to begin with the failed murder, does not end upon the opening of the blue box. This is still the dream. Once Diane’s dream of Betty and Rita starts to come apart, they fall not through to Waking Reality, but simply to another level of the dream. What we are witnessing, then, is Diane’s dream of her betrayal by Camilla. And so, the things we see in this scene are dream elements: crystallized, emotionally heightened, and not necessarily to be taken at face value. I think that yes; there’s no real denying that Diane’s trip up the Secret Path has a transcendent quality to it, and on first viewing, it serves as a brutal counterpoint to the debacle that follows.
When looked at as a part of the whole, however, other colors appear.
My sense of Camilla as being an evil person is not based only on her behavior at the party. There really is something inherently cruel about her, and when she tells Diane, “You drive me wild,” and then almost in the same breath tells her that they have to stop doing this, that may not be an actual “real” event, but it is certainly representative of an important aspect of Camilla’s personality – and more importantly, part of what perversely attracts Diane so powerfully. Now we see why Betty plays her audition the way she does: she comes on literally oozing sexuality to Chad Everett while her words are telling him to go away. Okay. So, back to the Secret Path. If we think of it my way – as a set up right from the start – then it’s really just the ad absurdum extreme of the approach-avoidance behavior we’ve already seen.
And if we think of it my way – as not a representation of reality, and not even a representation of a memory of reality, but a representation of a dream about that reality, then what we’re watching here is Diane’s planned and carried out (soul) execution. With high drama. Diane is let out of the car at the bottom of the hill from Adam’s house. Camilla emerges from the woods – the woods are one of those symbols in MH that signify the overlap of the fantasy-dream and the reality-dream, which is why Sierra Bonita is steeped in woodsy growth, so much that the very doors carry tree motifs on them, and Diane’s apartment has a tree practically growing out of the outside wall. Camilla takes Diane into the woods to a “Secret Path”. In Fairy Tale language, “secret” also means “forbidden”, usually because it will reveal some terrible truth that the heroine would rather remain innocent of. (As does going into the woods itself). And what is revealed to Diane at the summit of the stairway to the stars? Duplicity. A mocking exhibition of the flaunting of Diane’s feelings for Camilla, the original approach-avoidance gal.
The party, incidentally, is where Diane sees The Cowboy for the second time (even though he gave the message to Adam, it was still a dream-Adam, therefore, he was giving the message to Diane); she is seeing him twice because she Did Bad; she had Camilla murdered. This is where the dreams start to turn in on themselves, because when Diane dreams of the corral, and the Cowboy telling her/Adam that he will appear twice if she does bad, Camilla is already dead; Diane already has done bad. How many times has she already had the Cowboy tell her this, in this never-ending spiral of dreams-within-dreams?
And now, at the party, Diane is reliving the first murder – the “original sin”, as it were – that is, the murder of her own soul, or heart, or whatever it was that, once dead, pushed or released her to committing a horrific act. How many times has she witnessed this very betrayal? How close is what we’re seeing to the events that actually kicked this entire cycle into motion? Was it really as cruelly blatant as we’re led to believe? Or has Diane’s dream crystallized the emotional content of the event into something easily portrayed – which is, essentially, part of what dreams are all about? The important thing to remember, according to my perspective here, is that since the entire movie is a post-mortem dream, and this twisting series of spirals are nothing less than Diane’s personal Hell, the entire episode starting with the car on Mulholland Drive, is Diane’s enactment of what is, to her, the source off all her current troubles; and in her mind, it was a grand and glorious drama of the Betrayal of Trust and the mocking murder of love, seen through the distorting lens of the dream.
After Diane wakes up and we view the fractured timeline of "real" events, there seems to be a few scenes that are more Diane's imagination than actual occurrences, or at least, that's how I perceive them. I know the idea of subjectivity has been brought up before, but I wanted to mention a few specific examples:
The scene in the car with Adam and Camilla when he is showing the other actor how to kiss her. Dianne is watching the whole time, and after the kiss Camilla looks directly at Dianne, Adam shouts "kill the lights!" and moves in for another kiss, this one much more steamy. This very strongly implies that the two had sex in the car right there on the set in the middle of the shoot/rehearsal/whatever. I interpreted this as Dianne's imagination running wild after viewing Adam kiss Camilla just a bit too realistically under the guise of demonstrating it to an actor. I don't doubt that Camilla and Adam were having an affair and that Diane found out about it, but I can't imagine a director hooking up with his star smack in the middle of a shoot with cast and crew all around them.
Reality Is Not What It Seems
Two more events that I interpreted to be outside of "reality" occur at the party scene, the first being Camilla kissing the blond girl who Diane would later name "Camilla Rhodes" in her dream, and the second being the manic laughter while Adam and Camilla are announcing their engagement. Both of these events just don't seem to mesh well with my understanding of the characters and circumstances.
I interpreted the kiss to be in Diane's imagination, yet another manifestation of her jealousy. For one, there is nothing to indicate that Adam isn't looking at Camilla when the kiss occurs. In fact, the last we see of him before the kiss is him staring directly at her after saying "sometimes good things happen" so I don't think that it was done "behind his back." Also, Camilla knew that there were other people watching her, including Adam's mother. It doesn't seem logical that she would try to sneak a kiss in with a lover at such a crowded event, especially right before announcing her engagement. I think it far more likely that the blond leaned down to whisper something completely irrelevant to Camilla, Diane caught it and, because she is quite unstable and overwhelmed with jealousy and sadness, imagines it as an act of intimacy. It should also be noted that Melissa George (who plays the blond) and Naomi Watts look rather similar, which serves to make Diane feel like she has been replaced with a copy of herself. She feels that Camilla is laughing right in her face.
Which segways nicely into...
That crazy laughter. This one is probably the most questionable of my examples, but am I the only one who thought that the Adam and Camilla's laughter as they announce their engagement sounded less like the titter of two enamored lovers and more like a reaction to a giant practical joke? I think that Diane might be perceiving the two to be laughing at her at their moment of triumph when, really, they have no motivation for doing so. To me, it's just another example of Diane's paranoia and jealousy. It's also the breaking point, as it turns out, because immediately after (in a remarkable match-on-action cut, I might add) we see Diane with the hit man.
I'm not saying that this is what Lynch intended, nor am I claiming any definitive answers to the mysteries presented in Mulholland Dr. There are no definitive answers in a film like this. Lynch left certain things ambiguous for a reason, and I believe that films develop a life and intentions of their own. What the director actually intended isn't always relevant to how the audience perceives a movie, and everybody watches a film differently based on their background and experiences. No one has a right to tell anyone else that their interpretation of a film is wrong, because there really are no right answers, unless there is blatant contradictory evidence within the film itself. The best directors are the ones who, like Lynch does, allow the audience to think for themselves and decide on their own what conclusions to draw.