Categorised as a psychological thriller, mulholland drive is a classic mind bending mystery movie. Directed by David Lynch. The protagonist, Betty Elms played by Naomi Watts, is a cherry, aspiring actress who arrives in Hollywood after winning a show in her hometown. Betty soon after meets a a beautiful dark haired amnesiac actress, Rita played by Laura Elena Harring, who stumbles upon Mulholland Drive after surviving a car crash. Rita has forgotten her own name and started calling herself ‘Rita’ after looking at a poster for an old Rita Hayworth film.
Both women, along with a few other mind bending stories, help each other out to uncover information about Rita’s past and help Betty to land work as an actress. I won’t elaborate on the story as it is a pleasure to see how the pieces begin to fit in the story. The film is very captivating and truly an example of what great cinema can achieve as the analysis and explanation of the story is still ongoing.
The dream like qualities give rise to many confusing and unexplained scenes in the film. It is one of the most challenging and viewer engrossing films made so far. Characters appear and disappear as interesting plot tangents are cut off abruptly. Late in the running time, after a scene that appears to show her waking from a dream, the protagonist morphs, unexplained, from the optimistic Betty to a haunted-looking, failed actress named Diane!
There is something very fascinating about the film since it prioritises questions over answers, by drawing our attention to something and cutting off the scene to another. It stretches our expectations of what cinema can achieve while also providing aa richly fulfilling experience.
This was originally created to be a television series which later on the producers decided to make it a feature film. The half-pilot, half-feature film has resulted in keeping the general meaning of the film’s events open to interpretation. Lynch has also declined to give an explanation and keep the audience speculate on what transpires. He gave the film the tagline: “A love story in the city of dreams.”
It took me so long to understand the movie with so many theories floating around the web and to be able to find the correct words to describe this masterpiece. I am going to have to watch it again once more just to make sure I’ve not missed out of a clue!
Thank you for suggesting this movie, friend. This classic shouldn’t be missed at all and if you watch it do let me know your opinions and how you think the story ended.
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