Mulholland Drive
Mulholland Dr. is a 2001 genre-defying film written and directed by David Lynch. It stars Naomi Watts, Laura Harring and Justin Theroux.
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
Lisa Lackey Carol
Mark Pellegrino
Joe Messing
Monty Montgomery
(as Lafayette Montgomery) Cowboy
The plot is structured around an aspiring actress named Betty Elms (Naomi Watts), who befriends an amnesiac (Laura 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.
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.
When 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 the aforementioned 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 street 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. This scene transitions into Dan's nightmare in which
Herb encourages Dan to explore the rear parking lot, where 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 witnessing an earth-moving performance by Rebekah Del Rio. Ms. Del Rio sings her own Spanish version of Roy Orbison's "Crying". The entire show is based on illusion and how man connects sounds with visuals. 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 flash back 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; though whether this suicide is dream or reality is debatable
as the bed becomes surrounded by smoke, indicating a dream like state. The final
scene of the film shows a blue haired woman--the same one as shown previously
in the theatre--simply saying "Silencio". The film fades showing her
glittering earring.
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