This my first full exposure to Lynch. I've seen pieces of several Lynch movies and they all have proved to be equally as perplexing if you try to figure out literally what's going on. Mulholland Dr. didn't stray from that feeling, even after seeing the entire film.
I kind of got the vibe of a real world versus the dream world of Hollywood. There's the people we see on film, carefully constructed characters meant to be accessible by the audience that we all come to know as almost real people. But the actors are only serving as vessels for the directors/writers ideas of fake people he invented in his mind. It's his dream we're being exposed to, not the actors themselves. We aren't seeing the actors on screen, just windows into someone else. There's a double life at play (for most successful actors, it's even tenfold lives); one we know and one we think we know.
In the reading, it mentioned a characteristic about Lynch films where there is a sense of optimism and hope within the stories. In regards to Lost Highway and Mulholland Dr., it mentions how the protagonist misses 'their moment' but somehow hope it conserved. I didn't get this feeling from Mulholland (except for the missing of the moment). I lost most, if not all, of the hope by the end. It was a downward spiral. I suppose the larger rationalization would be that the praise and acceptance of a film pointing fingers at Hollywood could be seen as hopeful. It's funny that the TV project of Mulholland never took flight because it's clear that some studio executives understood the piece. And then even more funny that it did take flight as a feature film.
Also want to throw in that the scene in the diner where the man is describing his dream and then the 2 men go in the back to confront the fear, was one of the most suspenseful scenes I've ever seen. Don't question your dreams, it's just your minds way of stretching it's arms or cracking it's back.
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I was wondering about that the actors' "lost moment", too. I think maybe Camilla's character redeemed her moment after being in that 'car crash', which we're not sure ever happened, but we do know that the mafia/hitmen were hunting her down on the streets at one point... which means she used to be a prostitute?! I'm really not sure and I'd have to fact-check that one. But I think the major point is that Camilla went from being a mess to being the wife and top actress for the mafia's favorite director, so maybe that's her "moment" she got back that's supposed to give her hope. But yeah, there's not too much hope in this film!! Pretty dark stuff.
ReplyDeleteWhat she was doing with all the money, and why she was running from the Mob, was one of the questions Lynch was planning to answer in the tv series he had planned. But Eric, I think you're right that Lynch doesn't really hold together when you take him literally--or rather, he does because he's really good at what he does, but rather that that's not the way to get at any 'meaning.' Your sense is similar to mine--I think that ultimately the dreamer is Hollywood itself, not any actual person, and that the one controlling the dream is the writer/director--who also sometimes experiences events beyond his control, Hollywood being ultimately the company town it is.
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