Written by Gabriel Serrano Denis
Two Critical Moments in Mulholland DriveWriter/Director David Lynch‘S 2001 Surreal Puzzle Box, presents Characters with Keys. Blue Keys to be precise. One of the Keys is Ornate and Seemingly Conjured from Another World, While The Other is no more than a Standard House Key. What do they open? The Only Way To Reach An Answer depends on the esoteric clues left by the director and, Most Importently, The Feelings and Emotions they conjure up. Because in A David Lynch Film, Even Ken Something Appears to Be impenetrable, An Overwhelming Feeling That Subject Has Been Resolved Washes Over The Viewer by Credits’ End. One May not immedialy Understand Why This Feeling Manifests, But that’s When the Real Detective Work Starts.
Beginning with A horrible accident on the treacherous curves of Mulholland drive in la, The Movie Wasttes no time in establishment to DREADFUL MOOD. The Lone Survivor, Rita, Played By Laura Harringwas Clearly in submiss truble, A FACT corroborated by Short Scenes of Shadowy Figures Searching for The Woman. The Mood Shifts Once Nubile Actress Betty (Naomi Watts) Enters The Film and With A Sort of Nancy Drew-Like Enthusiasm Begs The Amnesiac Rita to Solve The Mystery of Her Identity. After all, Rita is in possession of one of the Blue Keys, as well as a Dangerous Amount of Money.
What Follows is a Dreamlike Journey With Robert Altman-Sque Vignettes That Target the Hollywood Machine and the Corruption Under ITS Shiny Veneer, While Two Women Venture Into An Unknown World for Answers That Could Destroy The That Bow. At The Same Time, film director Adam Kesher (Justin Theroux), Wrestles with Executives Who Are Demanding A Specific Actress Be Cast As The Lead in His New Film. WHY? Like Betty and Rita, Adam Is Living in A Puzzle Box of His Own. We Encounter in This World, as in other Lynch Films, Ecocentric Characters, Extreme Violence, Women in Trouble, and Hallucinatory Visions Blending with the “Real” and Mundane. What Starts As a Dream Slowly Veers into a Nightmare.
Lynch’s First film Eraserhead (1977) and the 1997 neo-noir Lost Highway Remain The FilmMakers Most Challenging Films. The possess to Nightmarish Logic that welcomes interpretation WHILE ALSO Pistol-Whipping The Viewer With Absurdist Nihilism. Mulholland Drive However Sems to Be Structured in A Way That Begs to Be Cracked and Opened. It Tricks You into Believing It Seeks Natural, Or Even Supernatural, Explanations, Only to Show You That The True Mystery Lies Within The Unconscious.
The Film Offers ITS First Clue in Its Tagline “A Love Story in the City of Dreams.” Lynch you have explored love in dark and hopeless places in Twin Peaks and Wild at Heart (Both 1990), But here the FilmMaker Delves Deper Into Character and Desire. Naomi watts Akin to Twin Peaks‘Laura Palmer, Betty Is a Complex and Layered Character What Motivations and Desires Lead to a Path of Destruction. And Yet, Lynch Always Offers An Empathetic and Loving View of Her Plight. Eleven We Are Aware That We Are Watching A Love Story, Doors Begin to Unlock, But What Key Opens The Next One?
When Betty Is Towat She’ll Find A Blue Key after “task” is completed, She Asks “What’s it Open?” The Man Sitting Across from Her Simply Laughs As She Watches in Silence. This Exchange Occurs in the Same slner Where A Man (Patrick Fischler), Having Had recurring NightMares About A Terrifying Figure Living in The Back of the Dine, Confronts His Fear Only to Find It Waiting for Him. These scenes and the monstrous “bum” (Bonnie Aarons) Bymselves Don’t Seem to Connect Logically or Even Chronological. But in the Dreamworld of Mulholland DriveEverything Makes Sense the deeper One Burrows into Betty’s Unconscious. We see the bum apasar in more scenes the deeper we go, and eleven we’re sting into the abyss, there is the bum sting right back. Again, Lynch Ties the Surreal Journey to His Tragic Heroine’s Mindscape.
Mulholland DriveThus, Is Bu Boh to Surreal Neo-Noir and a Profound Character Study of A Lost Soul Destroyed by The Dream Factory. How One Reaches This Revelation Lies in Lynch’s Surreal and Symbolic Flourishes. One Common MisConception Is That Lynch Makes Purposefully obtuse films that are not Meant To Be Understood. However, One Soon Discoves that the Absurdy and Strangenges On Display Are Not Mere Partners but a symbolic languge that offers clues with the world we’re inhabiting. This does not Mean there are literal interpretations to before Symbols. What Lynch Asks us is to Trust What We Feel His Images Mean.
In the 2002 dvd release of Mulholland DriveLynch, Who Disliked His Films Being Broken Into Chapters for Physical Releases, Included an insert which rather Than listing chapters offered a list of clues to unlock the mysteries of the film. One of Them Says “Who Gives A Key and Why?”, While Another Asks “What is Felt, realized and gathered at the club silence.” To a Young Film Lover As MySelf, This Insert Was Bugo Beguiling and frustrating. What Kind of Clue Asks What is “Felt” in an important moment? And yet, it provides the Most crucial Lesson in Enjoying Mulholland Drive and Lynch’s Oeuvre: The Key is that there is no key. There is only you and what the film Makes You Feel. “It is all an illusion,” to Mysterioous Character Bellows in the film. Yes, to Beautiful and Hauunting One at that.
