Mulholland Drive (film)

Mulholland Dr.
Directed by	David Lynch
Written by	David Lynch
Produced by	Pierre Edelman Alain Sarde Mary Sweeney
Starring	Naomi Watts Laura Harring Justin Theroux Ann Miller
Cinematography	Peter Deming
Edited by	Mary Sweeney
Distributed by	Universal Focus
Release dates	October 12, 2001 (limited) October 26, 2001 (wide) January 4, 2002 January 31, 2002
Running time	146 min.
Country	United States / France
Language	English / Spanish
Budget	$15 million (estimated)

Mulholland Dr. is a 2001 Academy Award-nominated psychological thriller written and directed by David Lynch. It stars Naomi Watts, Laura Harring and Justin Theroux.

The plot is structured around an aspiring actress named Betty Elms (Watts), who befriends an amnesiac (Harring) whom she finds hiding in her aunt's apartment when she arrives in Los Angeles, California. The film includes several other seemingly unrelated vignettes, which eventually connect in various ways, as well as other surreal scenes and images which are all involved in the cryptic narrative.

Strongly acclaimed by many critics, but only a moderate box-office success, the film has achieved the status of a cult classic.

Synopsis

As the film begins, a surreal image of people doing the jitterbug is shown. The sound of a cheering crowd accompanies a ghostly image of a young blonde woman and an old couple, all of whom are smiling (apparently before said crowd). The final image of the blonde woman waving dissolves into a point-of-view shot, with the camera panning over a bed and moving into a pillow. The scene then fades black and switches to a street sign—"MULHOLLAND DR."—illuminated by headlights. A young, dark-haired woman (played by Laura Harring) is being driven up Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles late at night. She is threatened by two men inside the car with a gun. Before they can kill her, however, their limousine is smashed into by a carload of drag racing teenagers. The nameless, dark-haired woman suffers from a head injury and subsequent amnesia. As the sole survivor of the crash, she wanders down the hillside into L.A., finds refuge behind some bushes, and falls asleep. The next morning she awakes and sneaks into a vacant apartment. A young and perky aspiring actress named Betty Elms (played by Naomi Watts), who has just arrived in Hollywood from Deep River, Ontario, moves in and discovers her in the shower. It is revealed that the apartment, which is part of a complex managed by a feisty older woman named Coco (played by Ann Miller), belongs to Betty's Aunt Ruth, who is away making a movie in Canada. The dark-haired woman sees a poster for the movie Gilda starring Rita Hayworth and decides to call herself "Rita". She tearfully admits to Betty that she has amnesia, and together the two of them try to piece together her identity. While going through Rita's purse for clues, they discover $50,000 in cash and an unusual blue key.

Betty (Naomi Watts) arrives in Los Angeles; pictured with Irene (Jeanne Bates)

Strange, seemingly unrelated events follow. At Winkie's, a local diner, a man named Dan tells his companion Herb about a recurring nightmare involving a shadowy person living behind the restaurant. When Herb encourages Dan to confront his fear by exploring the rear parking lot, he encounters a terrifying figure and collapses from fright.

One subplot involves the efforts of shady film executives to strong-arm a young, arrogant director. The director, Adam Kesher (played by Justin Theroux) finds his latest project stolen by men who appear to be mobsters, who show him a headshot of an unknown blonde actress named Camilla Rhodes (played by Melissa George) and order him to cast her as the film's lead. When Kesher refuses, his life is turned upside down. Returning home, he stumbles upon his wife in bed with the pool cleaner (Billy Ray Cyrus), who beats him up and throws him out of the house. Kesher checks into a seedy hotel, upon which the manager informs him there is trouble with his credit cards. Kesher then receives a call from his female assistant who informs him he is out of money, and that the film's cast and crew have been let go. The assistant also passes on instructions summoning him to meet "the Cowboy" at a ranch just outside of L.A. Kesher, skeptical but compliant, arrives and finds a threatening man dressed as a cowboy. He tells Kesher that he must give the role to Camilla Rhodes to avoid further trouble. At the next casting call, the actress whose headshot he had seen, Camilla Rhodes, arrives and auditions. The casting director asks him if he has something to say, whereupon Kesher obediently declares, "This is the girl."

In another subplot, a bungling hit man steals a "black book" of names and addresses, leaving behind three dead bodies. He, along with two police detectives, are all trying to track down the dark-haired woman now known as "Rita".

Meanwhile, Betty goes to a Hollywood acting audition and performs brilliantly. She is then taken to a sound stage where she catches a glimpse of Adam Kesher, who has just caved in to the mobsters' demands by hiring Camilla Rhodes for his new picture. Betty abruptly flees from the sound stage to pick up Rita, following a clue to the apartment of a mystery woman named Diane Selwyn. This leads to their discovery of a rotting corpse, which is presumably a murdered Diane. Rita, fearing that the same people who harmed Diane are after her as well, decides to disguise herself by wearing a blonde wig. That night, Betty and Rita become lovers and sleep together.

Rita later awakens and insists that she and Betty attend a performance at an eerie midnight theater called Club Silencio, during which Betty begins shaking and both women cry uncontrollably. After Betty discovers a small blue box in her handbag, both women return to their apartment. Betty suddenly vanishes and Rita, finding herself alone, opens the blue box with the blue key from her purse.

An emotionally hurt Diane (Naomi Watts) exchanges words with Camilla (Laura Harring)

After this, an entirely new reality suddenly emerges. Betty wakes up and finds herself a depressed and lonely failed actress named Diane Selwyn. While alone in her apartment, Diane appears to flashback to recent traumatic events. Her former lover, an actress named Camilla Rhodes (now played by Harring), has abandoned her to pursue a life of riches and glamour by marrying a successful director—the same Adam Kesher who appeared earlier in the film. Feeling betrayed and humiliated, Diane meets the same hit man from the previous reality at Winkie's diner and pays him thousands of dollars in cash to kill Camilla. After receiving confirmation that Camilla has been killed (by the appearance of an ordinary blue key) and now under police suspicion, the guilt-stricken Diane loses her mind, is terrorized by hallucinations, and shoots herself.

Interpretations and Allusions

Lynch has refused to comment on the film's meaning or symbolism, leading to much discussion and multiple interpretations. A widely cited interpretation has the first two-thirds of the film as a dream of the real Diane Selwyn (Watts), who has cast her dream-self as the innocent and hopeful "Betty Elms", reconstructing her history and persona into something like an old Hollywood movie. In her assumed life, Diane is successful, charming, and lives the fantasy life of a soon-to-be-famous actress. The last third of the film presents Diane's bleak real life, in which she has failed both personally and professionally.

10 clues

Contained within the original DVD release is a card detailing 10 clues to help the viewer solve the mystery of the film. When the 2004 2-disc DVD edition was released, some of the clues had been reworded.

Original 10 clues

1. Pay particular attention in the beginning of the film: at least two clues are revealed before the credits.
2. Notice the appearances of the red lampshade.
3. Can you hear the title of the film that Adam Kesher is auditioning actresses for? Is it mentioned again?
4. An accident is a terrible event... notice the location of the accident.
5. Who gives a key, and why?
6. Notice the robe, the ashtray, the coffee cup.
7. What is felt, realized and gathered at the club Silencio?
8. Did talent alone help Camilla?
9. Note the occurrences surrounding the man behind Winkies.
10. Where is Aunt Ruth?

Special Edition clues

1. Be particularly attentive at the beginning of the film: at least 2 clues are revealed before the credits.
2. Be really attentive when a red lampshade appears on screen.
3. Can you hear the title of the film for which Adam Kesher is casting actresses? Is this title mentioned again?
4. A car accident is a terrible thing... Pay attention to where the accident takes place.
5. Who gives the blue key and why?
6. Pay attention to the dress, the ashtray and the coffee cup.
7. At the club 'Silencio', something is felt, the viewer realizes something, the clues come together... But what is it?
8. Did Camilla only become famous thanks to her talent?
9. Pay attention to the man behind 'Winkies'.
10. Where is Aunt Ruth?

Production history

File:MulhollandLynch.jpg

Laura Harring and Justin Theroux being directed by David Lynch

Originally conceived as a television series, Mulholland Drive began life as a 95-minute pilot for a series on the ABC network. The series was produced for Touchstone Television. The network was unhappy with the pilot and decided not to place it on their schedule. Rumours emerged that ABC's decision was due to the violence in the pilot (the decision came in the wake of the Columbine High School Massacre in Colorado). Lynch told Premiere Magazine in 2000, "All I know is, I loved making it, ABC hated it, and I don't like the cut I turned in. I agreed with ABC that the longer cut was too slow, but I was forced to butcher it because we had a deadline, and there wasn't time to finesse anything. It lost texture, big scenes, and storylines, and there are 300 tape copies of the bad version circulating around. Lots of people have seen it, which is embarrassing, because they're bad-quality tapes, too. I don't want to think about it." The script was later rewritten and expanded when it was decided to transform it into a feature film.

Filming for the pilot began in February 1999. The pilot script balanced normal and surreal elements, much like Lynch’s earlier series Twin Peaks. The pilot laid the groundwork for story arcs, such as the mystery of Rita's identity, Betty's career, and Adam Kesher's film project.

Plot points of the feature film's ending—the physical relationship between Rita and Betty, the bizarre trip to Club Silencio, the "alternate reality" and "identity swapping"—were written and shot after the pilot was completed. Lynch filmed most of the new scenes in October 2000, funded with money from French production company StudioCanal.

Release and Reaction

Mulholland Dr. premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2001 to major critical acclaim. Lynch was awarded the Best Director prize at the festival (sharing it with co-winner Joel Coen for The Man Who Wasn't There). In the United States, the film was released in October 2001. Despite mixed audience reaction, it drew positive reviews by many critics. It was named Best Picture by the New York Film Critics Circle and National Society of Film Critics. Even more notably, the film was given a four-star review by Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, who, in the past is known as one of Lynch's biggest detractors:

David Lynch has been working toward Mulholland Drive all of his career, and now that he's arrived there I forgive him Wild at Heart (1990) and even Lost Highway (1997). At last his experiment doesn't shatter the test tubes. The movie is a surrealist dreamscape in the form of a Hollywood film noir, and the less sense it makes, the more we can't stop watching it.

Lynch was nominated for a Best Directing Oscar for the film. From the Hollywood Foreign Press, the film received four Golden Globe nominations, including Best Picture (Drama), Best Director, and Best Screenplay.

Mulholland Dr. was ranked #38 on the Channel 4 program 50 Films to See Before You Die and it appears on and off the IMDB.com list of the top 250 films and the Guardians 1000 films to see before you die where it is described as David Lynch's masterpiece, along with Blue Velvet.

Selected Cast

Actor	Role(s)
Naomi Watts	Betty Elms/Diane Selwyn
Laura Harring (as Laura Elena Harring)	Rita/Camilla Rhodes
Ann Miller	Catherine 'Coco' Lenoix
Dan Hedaya	Vincenzo Castigliane
Justin Theroux	Adam Kesher
Brent Briscoe	Detective Neal Domgaard
Robert Forster	Detective Harry McKnight
Katharine Towne	Cynthia Jenzen
Lee Grant	Louise Bonner
Scott Coffey	Wilkins
Billy Ray Cyrus	Gene
Chad Everett	Jimmy Katz
Rita Taggart	Linney James
James Karen	Wally Brown
Lori Heuring	Lorraine Kesher
Angelo Badalamenti	Luigi Castigliane
Michael Des Barres	Billy Deznutz
Marcus Graham	Vincent Darby
Missy Crider (as Melissa Crider)	Waitress at Winkies (Diane/Betty)
Robert Katims	Ray Hott
Jeanne Bates	Irene
Patrick Fischler	Dan
Michael Cooke	Herb
Michael J. Anderson	Mr. Roque
Melissa George	Camilla Rhodes
Mark Pellegrino	Joe Messing
Monty Montgomery (as Lafayette Montgomery)	Cowboy

External links

• Official site, with trailer
• Mulholland Dr. at IMDb
• Template:Rogerebert
• Mulholland Dr. at Rotten Tomatoes
• Lost on Mulholland Dr., comprehensive analysis and resource center based on the Rotten Tomatoes discussions (above)
• Salon.com, analysis and explanation (warning: contains spoilers)
• 'No hay banda': A Long, Strange Trip Down David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, (warning: contains spoilers)
• Deciphering David Lynch's 10 Clues, found within the DVD (warning: contains spoilers)
• Mulholland Drive / lynchnet.com, includes interviews, press kit, film clips
• Mulholland Drive , analysis by Eric Gans, Professor of French at UCLA