Saturday, May 1, 2010

Mulholland Drive


Now I'm no expert on David Lynch, but I have recently seen a lot of his films lately due to the fact that I'm in another course that is all about David Lynch and his time in the film Industry. I really enjoyed Mulholland Drive, because of two reasons really, one because it plays a lot with the concept of reality and imaginary, or the whole light and dark world that Lynch typically depicts in his films, and two , because Mulholland Drive really plays around with the audience.

I really enjoyed a lot of the psychology behind the film, with the audience being tricked into believing the happenings that are taking place on screen. That is why I would have to say the the scene with Club Silencio is probably my favorite and probably the key scene of the film. The reason I figured that it is key is because that scene is probably best described as the transition scene, from the light world two the dark world. The club scene included a conductor that told the audience that what they were seeing and hearing was a recording as recording and not the real thing. For the case of Betty/Diane, this was shown to affect her state of mind and even cause her to convulse because she believed in the imaginary so much, which was pretty weird and i didnt get that at the time. Anyways, just like how Betty believed that she was I this imaginary world, the audience also believed that they were in the same world because emotionally we are taken in by the performances, such as the Spanish singing lady. Now this did effect me on an emotional level I'm not sure if it did for anyone else but I do believe that was the point, because there were no subtitles so we weren't supposed to know what was happening exactly. Instead we were supposed to feel what was going on and be drawn in...then brought out as soon as she fainted, but kept singing.

So in my opinion I really liked that it played with us on psychological and emotional level. Alright in class I really liked that we tried to put a narrative to not only this film, but in general for David Lynch's work. He himself has said multiple times that he hates it when people try to make sense of his films, but I really think that we came up with some good ideas to what some of Mulholland means. Now I thought that it was just about the imaginary and reality but in class someone described Betty and Rita to be the same person, one just being the more sexual side of a person and the other being the peppy blond. I think that was a very interesting way of looking at the film because theirs so many ways of interpreting work by lynch. I thought this description was pretty accurate because both character end up being blond, and there is a point where they are next to each other...blond looking at there mirrored images.

The reading that we were given really put the whole fim in perspective for me to in a way make me see what was really happening. What I'm talking about is the whole ordeal with Mulholland Drive being a depiction of Hollywood and the good and the bad of how that town works.I really think that this fits what we are seeing on screen , because of how many different elements from different films are incorporated into the first "dream world" part. I believe that this really shows the whole " I'm gunna be a star" aspect of moving to Hollywood.

Once I read this I really thought that this was a story that happened to lynch, him being in the spot of Adam the director. the only reason I say this is because a lot of his films are beautiful like Mulholland Drive, but Dune was kinda totally against his will, so I though that this was showing what he was going through at the time. Haha I really can see David Lynch smashing someones windshield in.

6 comments:

  1. I really, really love the way you describe the Club Silencio scene and I think your interpretation of it truly makes sense. I was also really moved emotionally by the singing, and it's true that when the singer faints but the voice continues it totally pulls the audience out of that emotional intrigue. I agree with you that the way Lynch messes with the audience's expectations is really an awesome aspect of this film.. we spent so much time in class trying to make sense of the actors switching characters, but I really felt it was just another way of Lynch taking us out of the 'dream realm' films usually put us in, and reminding us that none of this is real.

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  2. I completely agree with you about the club silencio scene and how it was the turning point and the most important scene in the movie. You said that we go from the light world to the dark world. Does that mean that the imaginary is the light world to you and that the dark world is the real world?

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  3. I agree as well that the club silencio was a huge part in the film, and it was the point where i started to get a little confused but also extremely intrigued. Knowing a little Lynch, I guess I thought I was ready for anything....but then the rest of the film happened and I wasn't ready at all. Dune is a movie i've been hoping to see and i'm going to check it out soon.

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  4. Yeah sorry about that, when I do say light world I mean imaginary and dark is reality in the case of this film, because Lynch seems to always be fooling around with a " two world scenario" in his films.

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  5. I really liked hearing your analysis of the club silencio scene as well and agree that it is this major turning point sequence of the film. Your comment about the lack of subtitles was interesting and I completely agree that Lynch felt it was entirely about the experience, making us as an audience be completely engaged in this moment even though it is presented as being fake.

    You talk quite a bit about how Mulholland Dr. being a comment on or at least addressing Hollywood behavior and lifestyle and how the film could have possibly been what Lynch was going through at a time. This made me wonder what Lynch thinks about Hollywood films. It’s pretty clear that he is commenting on the soulless aspect of the cookie-cutter process that Hollywood films follow. But it also seems like while the overall craft or point to Hollywood films may not interest him, he’s clearly fascinated by this concept and continuously explores it.

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  6. I think this is a really good entry. And you're quite right--Lynch plays with our perspective by playing with the perspective of the characters we're following. We believe in the illusions they believe in, an get really baffled when he makes it obvious to us that everything is an illusion. Which is factually true in Movie World, and which we've been studying all semester. Lynch just makes a point of it, in ways that are really interesting.

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