Mulholland Dr. Explanation?

Started by Xeditor, April 23, 2003, 05:04:36 PM

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filmcritic

Many, many, many people want to know what happened at the end of David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive". I did as well, but I just enjoyed it. That's part of the brilliance of Lynch. He loves mysteries and likes it when people have different ideas on things.

I have my own take on the ending though. Personally, I think that the entire movie was Betty remembering what she wished would have happened before she died. By the end, reality kicks in and things fall apart. She wanted to be a glamorous actress but she wasn't. She wanted to always be with Rita, but couldn't. And she eventually commits suicide. The rest of the plot devices people can't explain (the bum, the old lady ["Something bad is happening!"] and other bizarre occurences are simply things that occured with no deep meaning. But that's just me.
"You're too kind."
-Richard Roeper

"You're too cruel."
-Roger Ebert

Newtron

After years of thinking about this film, here's my final explanation:
































































































































:yabbse-cry:

chainsmoking insomniac

How are godardian and cbrad able to put up large avatars? I wanna put up a large avatar!!!!  :cry:
"Ernest Hemingway once wrote: 'The world's a fine place, and worth fighting for.'  I agree with the second part."
    --Morgan Freeman, Se7en

"Have you ever fucking seen that...? Ever seen a mistake in nature?  Have you ever seen an animal make a mistake?"
 --Paul Schneider, All the Real Girls

©brad

Quote from: Ghoulardi GoonHow are godardian and cbrad able to put up large avatars? I wanna put up a large avatar!!!!  :cry:

see, the thing is, u got to be cool. consequently, u would have to get cool (which would take a lot in ur case) in order to get a better avatar.

ladysage21

So...I've seence Mulholland Dr. again for the third time around.  This time, I didn't try to hard in figuring it out and piecing it all together...and then it did!  So sit back, relax, and read on for my personal interpretation of the whole movie.

First things first, everyone is confused about the whole "There are 2 clues that are revealed about the movie even before the credits being to roll."  If you watch closely, you'll notice 1) A jitterbug scene with people dancing and prancing happily while a picturesque, even ghostllike shot of Betty arriving to hollywood as if she was a well known movie star.  This is to allude to Diane winning her jitterbug competition which inspired her to come to hollywood and become a movie star, the movie star status that she dreamed of reaching.  2) The camera opens the door, sees the red satin sheets, staggers onto the bed, and plops itself onto the pillow!  This is Diane, who just came into her room and went to sleep.  What follows in the next 2/3 of the movie is her dream in all its horrendous and magnificent glory.  

The Dream...is it only a dream?
It was a dream full of subconscious underpinnings.  You see all the characters that you see later in the movie.  I'll talk about the timeline of things later, but here's the deal.  Everything that Betty experiences is everything that Diane yearned for herself that she never achieved or never even had: The movie stardom and acting achievement as a lead role (her audition in the dream).  In her dream, Adam has horrible things happen to him, from losing his money to his wife, is everything that Diane wanted to happen to him, especially since he stole her lover, Camilla (Rita).  It shows the ill-will that Diane has against him.  Gosh, there are sooo many other things that happened but I am at a brain clot right now.  So I'll share what I can remember to address but email me if you have something you would like me to address.  Ok, so back to my interpretation.  So Adam is forced by the Hollywood powermen to cast Camilla Rhodes as the lead actress, regardless of whether she has talent or not.  This displays Diane's jealousy towards Camilla (Rita), she felt as if Camilla didn't rightfully earn the lead roles she attained, that she had the people in power helping her (such as Adam himself since he's the director and all).  And a lot of things happen in between that I'm forgetting due to a huge brain clot right now, but let's get to the juicy stuff.  There's the big scene at El Silencio theatre in which la llorona (an allusion to a  fictitious character in Spanish urban myth who kills her children and goes crying, looking for them), sings a Spanish version of Roy Orbison's "Crying" http://www.lyricsdepot.com/roy-orbison/crying.html which explains a lot about how Diane really feels.  

The Waking Moment
And then there is the blue box and it is opened and we zoom out of the pillow into Diane's bedroom.  She wakes up from a loud knocking at her door, which is her neighbor, asking for her stuff back since they had just recently switched apartments.  Her neighbor tells her that it's been 3 weeks and the detectives are still looking for Diane.  Diane then prepares to make coffee, sees Camilla, pushes her out the door, and then goes to make coffee.  She sits down on her couch and sees Camilla in the couch half naked.  Camilla tells her to stop and Diane says "it's because of him (Adam) isn't it?"  Then we still switch back and forth between Diane sitting at the coffee table and her scenes w/ Camilla.  

The Timeline
So here's what I think it all means.  The timeline is important and the time markers (one of the clues to look for) is the coffee cup, the ashtray and the red lamp.  So here is the real timeline when the movie is pieced together.  1) Camilla and Diane's affair, Camilla tells Diane it's over, Diane masterbates cuz she misses Camilla.  If you notice, when the neighbor comes, she takes the ashtray away.  When Camilla is on Diane's couch, topless, the ashtray is still there.  2) The dinner/engagement party.  The red lamp shows up twice in the movie, as phone calls from mobsters and also from Camilla...what a juxtaposition.  3) Diane hires a hitman to kills Camilla with the money she got from her aunt's death.  He says that a blue key will be there once he is done with the deed.  If you notice when the neighbor picks up her stuff, the blue key is also on the coffee table.  4) Camilla is killed.  5) Diane goes to sleep and dreams that 2/3 of the movie. Everyone she saw at the dinner party stayed with her subconssciously and appeared in her dream.   6) She wakes up to her neighbor's knocking on the door.  Her neighbor takes the ashtray and you see the blue key on the table.  This is the present now.  Diane sits there from noon till night, flashing back to thoughts of her, now dead, lover.  7) That same night, she sees the demons creeping out of her blue box (sort of like everyone has a deep little blue box in them which they store their deepest darkest sins and secrets and demons).  The demons (an embodiment of her guilt) come back to haunt her and due to the guilt and agony of it all, she kills herself.  

Ok, so that was my interpretation of that.  I hope this helps somewhat!

jokerspath

That's a pretty big first post.  I think its gonna inspire me to watch the film without fastforwarding to the girls.  Consider that a success!

aw
THIS IS NOT AN EXIT

mr_boz

i was kind of ticked that the MULHOLLAND DRIVE dvd didn't have chapter stops.  getting to the girls is a little more challenging this way.

:wink:

-ccb

MacGuffin

Quote from: ladysage21So...I've seence Mulholland Dr. again for the third time around.  This time, I didn't try to hard in figuring it out and piecing it all together...and then it did!

What's your explanation as to why Cookie is both the hotel manager and the Silencio announcer in Diane's dream? Why does he play dual roles?


"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

Pas

Two things I've found out quite recently...

The lady who played Coco is famous for her books about astrology and hadn't played a role in quite sometime before M.D. ...
The guy pool cleaner is Billy Ray Cirus, a one-hit wonder country singer

What it has to do with anything ? They're almost the only people we don't see in her "real" life, and it's because she knows the characters from their actors actual main career.

It doesn't make anything simpler, but it's fucking cool. And I found that all by myself. God I rule

ladysage21

Quote from: MacGuffinWhat's your explanation as to why Cookie is both the hotel manager and the Silencio announcer in Diane's dream? Why does he play dual roles?

I'm not sure but this is what I think of it.  The Silencio Theatre is definitely the turning point in the movie, and one of the most crucial.  I think the hotel manager plays dual roles to further divide the lines between reality and fiction.  In the silencio theatre, everything is imitated: from the band playing, to the woman singing...maybe even the announcer.  Who's to say that the announcer isn't really the hotel manager acting as an announcer?  I mean, it is an "air theatre" per se in which everything isn't what it seems, and who's singing/acting/playing isn't really an actor/singer/musician. J Just like Betty isn't really Betty, and is really Diane imitating Betty. So yeah.  Sorry if this doesn't make sense to anybody...it's only my opinion.

Pubrick

it seems u've managed to explain the outline of the film, like the structure, but not the meaning of any characters or even lines for example the cowboy, the twinky's freak-out person, the scary bum behind twinky's, the final line "silencio" said by the blue haired woman.. these are ppl whose roles exist almost outside diane's reality/dream.

u may hav put the film together in an editorial way, but the significance of individual elements, other than arbitrary time-markers, has still gone unanswered.
under the paving stones.

©brad

Quote from: MacGuffin
What's your explanation as to why Cookie is both the hotel manager and the Silencio announcer in Diane's dream? Why does he play dual roles?

damn, i never noticed that. i must be slippin in my old age.

the way my room is set up, my closet has a little wall that hides it. anyway, long story not as long, everynow and then i imagine the bum behinds twinky's is gonna pop up behind the wall in my closet, w/ that grin and all the dirt on him. yikes. i cant get the shit outta my head.

i have my own ideas about the bum and whatnot, but its the kinda thing that works better in the brain. its kinda like u have a feeling of whats going on but u cant articulate it well enuf. thats how i feel about the bum.

MacGuffin

Quote from: ladysage21I think the hotel manager plays dual roles to further divide the lines between reality and fiction.

But Cookie plays dual roles within her dream (fiction); not one in Diane's dream and one in her reality like all other characters. He would be purely fictional then.

And, hey, cbrad:

"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

©brad

aaahhh!! god damn u mac!!!!

*©brad runs in the corner and hides.

atticus jones

fyi...

i am not even remotely interested in this thread and this is the first time i have ever ventured here...

i remember smoking weed with a friend and watching dune... that was the single longest night of my life...

lesbians help tho
my cause is the cause of a man who has never been defeated, and whose whole being is one all devouring, god given holy purpose