'Mulholland Drive'

It's another dreamscape/nightmare from David Lynch, and is inexplicable and interesting, is sure to be misunderstood, and elicits nervous laughter from the audience. Lynch has never, with the possible exception of "The Straight Story", directed a linear storyline. From the opening moments of his early masterpiece "Eraserhead" through the two seasons of "Twin Peaks", to the mess of "Lost Highway", this is a truly singular director for whom the word "vision" is more than an epithet. The genesis of "Mulholland Drive" was a television pilot, and when the series wasn't picked up, the good director refashioned it as an "independent feature", shot different footage, and eventually shared the Best Director honors with the Coen Brothers at Cannes this year for what turns out to be an easier watch than "Lost Highway" but is stillthe kind of film I like to characterize as "art which you might not want to look at , but can't deny that it is art."

David Lynch has only directed nine features. "Twin Peaks, Fire, Walk With Me" was a prequel film based on his television series. "Mulholland Drive" was originally going to be a television series. The difference between the way the images are presented do not really matter with Lynch, but the images do. Rather than rely upon "story" and "plot", Lynch crafts what have always been characterized as "dream states" where the audience can only passively experience the images, not really trying to understand or "follow" the movie as they would a conventional narrative. When I first saw "Lost Highway", the people I saw it with agreed that although it really wasn't a "likable" film, it still possessed artistic merit, and deserved it's place in film history. For me, Lynch is like that in all regards. I can't dismiss anything he does. It's as if he puts his own dreams on screen, and we are invited to see what is in those dreams, even if we, like the director himself, rarely understand them.

I don't think anyone will "understand" "Mulholland Drive"either, but I do believe it is a more enjoyable picture than "Lost Highway" and while it is not the best film in Lynch's canon, I liked it better than "Wild at Heart". Certain directors are favorites of mine, and Lynch is one. I always anticipate his movies, and when the film starts unspooling, I always get that sense that I might not enjoy the proceedings, but I will see images I haven't seen, and I will be subjected to a world view, or dream state, I haven't experienced. Of course, the more dreams Lynch films, the more the themes are duplicated, and we can always see ghosts of other films. This is what makes them "Lynchian" after all. In this regard, the midgets, duplicate personalities, eerie Angelo Badalamente music, skewered pop sensibility, torch singers on a stage in front of a red curtain, and beautiful people doing ugly things are all present here. The milieu this time is Hollywood, and it has been noted by most critics that this is a "noirish" tale, although filmed in color, and could be a comment on the filming process and Hollywood's insistence on casting the "personality de jour" in a project to the detriment of the director's wishes.

These are the "characters" in Mulholland Drive, who we see might not, as in "Lost Highway", even be who we think they are. We are first introduced to the amnesiac "brunette", who calls herself Rita, played by Laura Elena Harring,. She is riding in the back of a long black limosine in the first scene, snaking along Mulholland Drive, and is rendered an amnesiac in an auto wreck (another Lynchian staple) early in the scene. Next we meet fresh faced Betty Elms, played by Naomi Watts, the "blonde" from Deep River, Ontario who comes to Hollywood looking for stardom. She seems naive and robust, with a talent and a friendliness guaranteed to help her go far in her pursuit. Her aunt has loaned her an apartment in a Hollywood complex run by Coco, an underused Ann Miller, who seems to be one of those Old Hollywood Types. Then there is Justin Theroux as Adam Kesher, a Hollywood director who is being pressured by "men in suits" named Castigliani to cast starlet Camilla Rhodes in his current project.

I am tempted to call this one of the better films of the year, but it is pure Lynch, and is sure to confound, and probably downright put off a lot of people, if those people get around to seeing it. For one, I am enthralled by the work, and appreciate Lynch's repetition of themes and dreams from earlier films, and earlier nightmares. I don't even claim to want to "understand" "Mulholland Drive". Like I am supposed to, in dreams, I stay quiet and experience the pure sensory experience, even when it gets confusing or disgusting.

Lynch can always be counted on to deliver, and he does here. That the audience doesn't know exactly what is being delivered, only adds to the mystique. Watch out for the little tourists, and also make sure you don't try to figure out the ending. I'm sure Lynch didn't.

David Lynch, in a Noirish moment.

Mikometer Rating: 7 of 10

'Mulholland Dr.' MPAA "R"
Naomi Watts: Betty Elms
Laura Elena Harring : Rita
Justin Theroux: Adam
Ann Miller: Coco
Robert Forster: Detective McKnight
Dan Hedaya: Vincenzo Castigliane

Alain Sarde presents a production of Les Films Alain Sarde, Studiocanal, Picture Factory, released by Universal Focus. Director David Lynch. Producers Mary Sweeney, Alain Sarde, Neal Edelstein, Michael Polaire. Executive producer Pierre Edelman. Screenplay David Lynch. Cinematographer Peter Deming. Editor Mary Sweeney. Music Angelo Badalementi. Production design Jack Fisk. Running time: 2 hours, 27 minutes.

 

Review written and copyrighted 2001 by Michael F. Nyiri i