The film “Mulholland Drive” directed by David Lynch, at first glance, may seem like surreal nonsense to many. Pictures appear on the screen in front of the audience, which are in no way connected with each other, and it seems to be simply impossible to catch the meaning.
In fact, all the episodes are connected in one storyline, you just need to understand the meaning and idea of the tape. David Lynch is one of those directors who does not offer simple stories to the audience.
The peculiarity of David Lynch’s artistic world is the concept of duality. Actions develop in conditions of two worlds. One of them is real, understandable to the audience, and the second, as in the movie “Mulholland Drive”, is the world of dreams.
So today we will analyze the meaning of the film “Mulholland Drive” by Lynch. Get comfortable, it will be interesting!
What’s the point
Mulholland Drive director David Lynch categorically refuses to comment on and explain the essence of his work. He is of the opinion that every viewer in his films should see something of their own. What exactly it will be depends on the education, awareness, level of intelligence and imagination of a particular viewer.
Plot Summary
Photo: Twitter›BlackLCult
The main character of the film is the girl Diane Salvin. She enters the dance competition “Jitterbug”, wins it and goes to Hollywood.
“Jitterbug” is translated as “shaking neurasthenic”. Subsequently, hobbies made a real neurotic out of the girl.
In Hollywood, she inherited a house and money from her aunt, who was a successful actress. There, Diane meets a girl named Camilla Rhodes, and not only friendly, but also romantic relationships are established between them. With the help of Camille, Diane gets her first role in the film industry.
Photo: imdb
Camilla’s career is going better than her friend’s. She is approved for the lead role in the film “Sylvia North Story”, and the young promising actress begins an affair with director Adam Kasher.
The result of their relationship is an engagement, which Kasher announces publicly with Diane. At the same time, Camille is in a relationship with another girl, which Diane also knows about.
The rejected girl’s heart is broken, her world collapsed. She takes a desperate step, orders a killer to kill a traitor whom she met at the Winkys bar, and in fear hides at home from the police.
Photo: allofcinema.com
The girl in real life is in a terrible depression, she is unhappy with her life, in which one failure after another awaits her. She wants to run away from Hollywood.
Dream interpretation
In the second part of the film, Diane has a strange dream: the unfortunate killer could not kill Camille, instead she gets into a car accident and loses her memory. After that, Camilla finds herself in a luxurious house where Diane, who has just arrived to conquer Hollywood, lives, but in a dream her name is different – Betty, and her aunt owns the house in which she lives.
Camilla does not even remember her own name and introduces herself as Rita. The girl is completely helpless and completely dependent on Betty. In a dream, everything is wonderful: Diane – she is Betty, a successful actress, from whose game all the spectators are delighted. But she is again not approved for the main role in the film “Sylvia North Story”.
The weak-willed director Kasher bends under the mafia, and on their orders, instead of her, he appoints a young aspiring actress, whose name in a dream is Camilla. This mysterious dream ends with Betty and Rita coming to the Silensis club, where strange events take place, after which Rita receives a blue box, Diane has the key to it.
The blue box is one of the important symbols of the film. It contains a depressive state, suffering and hysteria, with which a girl lives in real life.
After waking up, the girl returns to reality, and the killer also gives her the key.
Photo: cinelounge.org
So we understand that he completed the task, and Camille is dead. Diane feels remorse and guilt for what happened, ghosts come to her. The girl can no longer exist in this state, so she kills herself.
The dream world is the world that Diane would like to live in. There she has a completely different fate, and she is happy.
Each episode of her dream is another attempt to replay her life, to make it the way she sees it in her dreams..
Who is the homeless?
Among the characters in the film, viewers meet a rather strange person – a frightening-looking man, similar to a homeless man, who appears behind Winky’s restaurant.
What value this person carries is difficult to say with accuracy. Most likely, he is just a symbol of Diane or Betty’s paranoia. It is interesting that it is found both in a “dream” and in “reality”, therefore, most likely, it means the girl’s fear of the unknown. The director just decided to give him a face.
Mulholland Drive is a psychological film. However, Lynch himself claims that while watching, you should not look for answers to difficult questions, you just need to enjoy the plot.
This concludes our analysis of the meaning of the film “Mulholland Drive” by David Lynch. Do you have questions or suggestions? We will be glad to see your activity in the comments.
Peaceful sky above your head and see you soon on the pages of new articles!
