This sinful pleasure is a fresh triumph for Lynch, and one of the best films of a sorry-ass year. The ending of Mulholland Drive is cryptic, experimental, bizarre, and—fittingly—very, very Lynchian.David Lynch has become known for his ambiguous, enigmatic scripts. With Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux, Jeanne Bates. [50] The co-dependency in the relationship between Betty and Rita–which borders on outright obsession–has been compared to the female relationships in two similar films, Ingmar Bergman's Persona (1966) and Robert Altman's 3 Women (1977), which also depict identities of vulnerable women that become tangled, interchanging and ultimately merge: "The female couples also mirror each other, with their mutual interactions conflating hero(ine) worship with same-sex desire". One film analyst, Jennifer Hudson, writes of him, "Like most surrealists, Lynch's language of the unexplained is the fluid language of dreams. Mulholland Drive est un film à énigme néo-noir américano-français écrit et réalisé par David Lynch et sorti en 2001.Il raconte l'histoire de Betty Elms (Naomi Watts), aspirante actrice, fraîchement arrivée à Los … Note the occurrences surrounding the man behind Winkie's. [126][127] Having received 40 critics' votes, it is one of only two films from the 21st century to be included in the list, along with 2000's In the Mood for Love. [132] Special features in later versions and overseas versions of the DVD include a Lynch interview at the Cannes Film Festival and highlights of the debut of the film at Cannes. Check out our gallery of the 2021 Golden Globe nominees in the leading and supporting acting categories, as the characters they so brilliantly played and in real life, Search for "Mulholland Drive" on Amazon.com, Title: Homes for You Price (High to Low) Price (Low to High) Newest Bedrooms Bathrooms Square Feet Lot Size. A dark-haired woman is the sole survivor of a car crash on Mulholland Drive, a winding road high in the Hollywood Hills. "[22] Theroux noted that the only answer Lynch did provide was that he was certain that Theroux's character, a Hollywood director, was not autobiographical of Lynch. [128] The following year, Mulholland Drive was named as the greatest film of the 21st century in a poll conducted by BBC Culture.[129]. The clues are: The dark-haired woman assumes the name "Rita" after seeing the name on a poster. The story follows several other vignettes and characters, including a Hollywood film director (Theroux). … When you start working on the sound, keep working until it feels correct. Rated R for violence, language and some strong sexuality, Lost Highway: Why It's David Lynch's Most Underrated Movie, Mulholland Drive & 9 Other Movies That Are Open To Interpretation, Nick Nolte Turns 80 and Fans Are Celebrating the Oscar Winner's Career, Everything Coming to HBO Max in January 2021, Peter Dinklage's 5 Favorite Films Dealing With Memory, 'Their Finest' Director Lone Scherfig: Five Beloved Movies About Movies, The 25 Best Surrealist Movies of All Time, Films That Play With The Concept Of Reality, IMDb Poll Board Movies That Awoke Your Passion For Cinema, WatchMojo: Another Top 10 Scariest Scenes from Non-Horror Movies. [57] Her perkiness and intrepid approach to helping Rita because it is the right thing to do is reminiscent of Nancy Drew for reviewers. [78], The first portion of the film that establishes the characters of Betty, Rita and Adam presents some of the most logical filmmaking of Lynch's career. Notice the robe, the ashtray, the coffee cup. David works from his subconscious. Written by [90] When the song plays, Betty has just entered the sound stage where Adam is auditioning actresses for his film, and she sees Adam, locks eyes with him and abruptly flees after Adam has declared "This is the girl" about Camilla, thereby avoiding his inevitable rejection. Rita unlocks the box, and it falls to the floor. Les hommes pensent avec le cœur, contrairement aux fausses rumeurs. "[79] James Berardinelli also criticized it, saying: "Lynch cheats his audience, pulling the rug out from under us. [63] According to film historian Steven Dillon, Diane transitions a former roommate into Rita: following a tense scene where the roommate collects her remaining belongings, Rita appears in the apartment, smiling at Diane. Lynch is playing a big practical joke on us. Optimum Home Entertainment released Mulholland Drive to the European market on Blu-ray as part of its StudioCanal Collection on September 13, 2010. (2001). [47] Betty and Rita were chosen by the Independent Film Channel as the emblematic romantic couple of the 2000s. He throws everything into the mix with the lone goal of confusing us. The American-French co-production was originally conceived as a television pilot, and a large portion of the film was shot in 1999 with Lynch's plan to keep it open-ended for a potential series. [34] Referring to the same sequence, film theorist Andrew Hageman notes that "the ninety-second coda that follows Betty/Diane's suicide is a cinematic space that persists after the curtain has dropped on her living consciousness, and this persistent space is the very theatre where the illusion of illusion is continually unmasked". Heterosexuality as primary is important in the latter half of the film, as the ultimate demise of Diane and Camilla's relationship springs from the matrimony of the heterosexual couple. [57] Naomi Watts, who modeled Betty on Doris Day, Tippi Hedren and Kim Novak, observed that Betty is a thrill-seeker, someone "who finds herself in a world she doesn't belong in and is ready to take on a new identity, even if it's somebody else's". She is also the first character with whom the audience identifies, and as viewers know her only as confused and frightened, not knowing who she is and where she is going, she represents their desire to make sense of the film through her identity. It tells the story of an aspiring actress named Betty Elms (Watts), newly arrived in Los Angeles, who meets and befriends an amnesiac woman (Harring) recovering from a car accident. "[26] Michael Wilmington, writing for The Chicago Tribune found "everything in "Mulholland Drive" is a nightmare. "[8] Watts also had experience with the road before her career was established: "I remember driving along the street many times sobbing my heart out in my car, going, 'What am I doing here? [41] Another analysis suggests that "Adam Kesher does not have the control, he wants and is willing to step over who or what is necessary to consolidate his career. The sexuality erodes immediately as the scene ends and she stands before them shyly waiting for their approval. Although the audience still struggles to make sense of the stories, the characters are no longer trying to solve their mysteries. '"[17] After being stripped of creative control of his film, he is cuckolded by the pool cleaner (played by Billy Ray Cyrus), and thrown out of his own opulent house above Hollywood. [120] In 2010 it was named the second best arthouse film ever by The Guardian. 8306 Skyline Dr… [35] In an explanation of her development of the Betty character, Watts stated: I had to therefore come up with my own decisions about what this meant and what this character was going through, what was dream and what was reality. Instead of punishing Camilla for such public humiliation, as is suggested by Diane's conversation with the bungling hit man, one critic views Rita as the vulnerable representation of Diane's desire for Camilla. Rita's very grateful for the help Betty's given [her] so I'm saying goodbye and goodnight to her, thank you, from the bottom of my heart, I kiss her and then there's just an energy that takes us [over]. Diane is a sharp contrast to Camilla, who is more voluptuous than ever, and who appears to have "sucked the life out of Diane". But it obviously works for him. [71] One analysis of Adam's character contends that because he capitulated and chose Camilla Rhodes for his film, that is the end of Betty's cheerfulness and ability to help Rita, placing the blame for her tragedy on the representatives of studio power. There's no purpose or logic to events. Roche concludes that Mulholland Drive is a mystery film not because it allows the audience to view the solution to a question, but the film itself is a mystery that is held together "by the spectator-detective's desire to make sense" of it. Laurel Canyon Blvd./Crescent Heights Blvd. She is considered to be the reality of the too-good-to-be-true Betty, or a later version of Betty after living too long in Hollywood. [24] On the other hand, Justin Theroux said of Lynch's feelings on the multiple meanings people perceive in the film, "I think he's genuinely happy for it to mean anything you want. [41] The title of the film is a reference to iconic Hollywood culture. It's well known that David Lynch's "Mulholland Dr." was assembled from the remains of a cancelled TV series, with the addition of some additional footage filmed later. An ABC executive recalled, "I remember the creepiness of this woman in this horrible, horrible crash, and David teasing us with the notion that people are chasing her. "[55] However, in another interview Watts stated, "I was amazed how honest and real all this looks on screen. In the second part of the film, however, she appears as Adam's mother, who impatiently chastises Diane for being late to the party and barely pays attention to Diane's embarrassed tale of how she got into acting. Of course I have amnesia so I don't know if I've done it before, but I don't think we're really lesbians. What are the answers to David Lynch's clues? It is this transformation that one film analyst suggests is the melding of both identities. [17], Filming for the television pilot began on location in Los Angeles in February 1999 and took six weeks. Popular reaction to the film suggests the contrasting relationships between Betty and Rita and Diane and Camilla are "understood as both the hottest thing on earth and, at the same time, as something fundamentally sad and not at all erotic" as "the heterosexual order asserts itself with crushing effects for the abandoned woman".[52]. Rita and Betty then gaze at each other in the mirror "drawing attention to their physical similarity, linking the sequence to theme of embrace, physical coupling and the idea of merging or doubling". [34] Similarly, Hageman has identified the early scene at Winkie's as "extremely uncanny", because it is a scene where the "boundaries separating physical reality from the imaginary realities of the unconscious disintegrate". 26 . [58] She serves as the object of desire, directly oppositional to Betty's bright self-assuredness. Welcome to Mulholland Drive - an online women's fashion store based in Miami, Queensland. Writer Charles Taylor said, "Betty and Rita are often framed against darkness so soft and velvety it's like a hovering nimbus, ready to swallow them if they awake from the film's dream. [97], Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, who had previously been dismissive of Lynch's work, awarded the film four stars and said, "David Lynch has been working toward Mulholland Drive all of his career, and now that he's arrived there I forgive him for Wild at Heart and even Lost Highway ... 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". Media portrayals of Naomi Watts' and Laura Elena Harring's views of their onscreen relationships were varied and conflicting. In a nutshell, I think that Mulholland Drive is a filthy and subversive La La Land. Don't look for an order or a normal plot because its not going to be like that. An accident is a terrible event—notice the location of the accident. The person who saw it, according to Lynch, was watching it at six in the morning and was having coffee and standing up. In a similar interpretation, Betty and Rita and Diane and Camilla may exist in parallel universes that sometimes interconnect. Her search for her identity has been interpreted by film scholars as representing the audience's desire to make sense of the film. You want to get it, but I don't think it's a movie to be gotten. [64] Hence, Diane is the personification of dissatisfaction, painfully illustrated when she is unable to climax while masturbating, in a scene that indicates "through blurred, jerky, point of view shots of the stony wall—not only her tears and humiliation but the disintegration of her fantasy and her growing desire for revenge". [35] Author Valtteri Kokko has identified three groups of "uncanny metaphors"; the doppelgänger of multiple characters played by the same actors, dreams and an everyday object—primarily the blue box—that initiates Rita's disappearance and Diane's real life. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of kindness, intelligence and sophistication. Mulholland Drive isn’t a movie about dreams, it is a dream (or, at least, until the blue box is opened)—a Hollywood horror story spun by a frustrated actress yet to cross into consciousness. [62] Instead of threatening, she inspires Betty to nurture, console and help her. Her amnesia makes her a blank persona, which one reviewer notes is "the vacancy that comes with extraordinary beauty and the onlooker's willingness to project any combination of angelic and devilish onto her". "[30], David Lynch uses various methods of deception in Mulholland Drive. But, time flies and Rita's opaque past demands answers. [124] In 2011, online magazine Slate named Mulholland Drive in its piece on "New Classics" as the most enduring film since 2000. "[96] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 85 out of 100 based on 35 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". At last his experiment doesn't … Now, in the centre of an elaborate labyrinth of half-truths, faded memories, unrequited loves, and dangerous encounters with the city's ugly face lies a strange key to a mysterious keyhole, an even stranger indigo-blue cube, the young director, Adam, and one cryptic woman: the amnesiac brunette and devilishly seductive car-crash survivor, Rita. Betty locks eyes with Adam, but she flees before she can meet him, saying she is late to meet a friend. It all was so beautiful, wonderful, and amazing. But, time flies and Rita's opaque past demands answers. The motor accident, which causes Rita (Laura Harring) to lose her memory, occurs on Mulholland Drive itself, winding east-west along the crest of the Hollywood Hills, which divide Hollywood from the San … For one critic, Betty performed the role of the film's consciousness and unconscious. Lynch then provided an ending to the project, making it a feature film. She arranges for Camilla, an ex-lover, to be killed, and unable to cope with the guilt, re-imagines her as the dependent, pliable amnesiac Rita. Later that morning, an aspiring actress named Betty Elms arrives at the apartment, which is normally occupied by her Aunt Ruth. Rita (the femme fatale) and Betty (the school girl) represent two classic stock lesbian characters; Heather Love identifies two key clichés used in the film: "Lynch presents lesbianism in its innocent and expansive form: lesbian desire appears as one big adventure, an entrée into a glamorous and unknown territory". Betty and Rita go to Diane Selwyn's apartment, where a neighbor answers the door and tells them she has switched apartments with Diane. [14] Harring considered it fateful that she was involved in a minor car accident on the way to the first interview, only to learn her character would also be involved in a car accident in the film. [30] The disorienting effect of the music playing although del Rio is no longer there is described as "the musical version of Magritte's painting Ceci n'est pas une pipe".[93]. In other territories outside the United States, the film grossed $12,892,096 for a worldwide total of $20,112,339. A casting agent takes her to a soundstage where a film called The Sylvia North Story, directed by Adam, is being cast. She and Betty have sex that night. Betty finds a blue box in her purse that matches Rita's key. Anonymous videotapes presage a musician's murder conviction, and a gangster's girlfriend leads a mechanic astray. The Mulholland Dam’s location in Weid Canyon, in the hills below Mount Hollywood, had long been considered an ideal place for a dam. [101], Mulholland Drive was not without its detractors.