Story telling is an art which arrests the audience by gluing them to their seats, making them think, guess and involve in the process. There have been various ways of story telling from ages, but back in 2001, David Lynch, created a new way in fact a whole new process of arresting the audience by making a remarkable film 'Mulholland Drive'. Initially, it was the ABC network that decided to give the filmmaker carte blanche, for a TV series. The first version, which was 1 hour 40 minutes old, was a pilot episode that the network ended up refusing, deeming it too disconcerting. Objections included the nonlinear story line, actors age did matter, and disturbing images. But, when the pilot caught the French Producer's eye for its mythical, uncanny, captivating and spooky tones, it saw the light as 2 hour 26 minute feature film. This film is an ode to Hollywood, a place which is always known as 'land of dreams'. Just like dreams which can also turn into unforgettable nightmares, this film depicts the same. There are many striking resemblances about the people who landed in Hollywood to pursue their dreams. Are they successful or not? Did the people find the right key to open the box of surprise?
The scene opens with the Jitterbug dance sequence. The dance sequence is a mixture of images that are full of energy and that have a powerful impact. A woman lying on a bed covered with red bed sheets breathing in and out, with her face covered by a pillow. A dark-haired woman (Laura Harring) is the sole survivor of a car crash on Mulholland Drive, a winding road high in the Hollywood Hills. Injured and in shock, she makes her way down into Los Angeles and sneaks into an apartment. Later that morning, an aspiring actress named Betty Elms (Naomi Watts) lands into the City of Dreams, happy and cheerful accompanied by elderly couple at the airport. She then arrives at the apartment, meets her aunts friend Coco (Ann Miller) and grabs her keys to the apartment which is normally occupied by her Aunt Ruth. Betty is startled to find the woman, who has amnesia and assumes the name "Rita" after seeing a poster for the film 'Gilda' starring Rita Hayworth.
At a diner called Winkie's, two men sitting peacefully and talking. Dan (Patrick Fischler) is talking to Herb (Michael Cooke), telling him that he wanted to come to that particular Winkie's for a reason. Herb appears to be a therapist and he listens as Dan talks about a dream he has had two times that involved that particular Winkie's. The dream occurs during half-night, the transition point between night and day. In his dream, the lighting is weird and Dan notices Herb by the cash register. He says Herb is scared in the dream and that scares Dan as well. Then Dan realizes that there is a man behind the Winkie's with a horrible face who is controlling whatever is going on in the Winkie's. Dan is terrified of ever seeing that man's face outside of his dream. Once Dan has finished recounting his dream, Herb decides they should go outside and look behind the Winkie's to see if there is anybody out there, because he thinks this will help Dan. Dan says he is willing to go look because he wants to get rid of the "God-awful" feeling he has. However, when they go behind the Winkie's and come to a walled area, a horrible face looks out at them from behind the wall and Dan is literally scared to death.
Elsewhere, an upcoming director Adam Kesher (Justin Theroux) and the Hollywood big shots are involved in a scuffle for the movie he is directing for Ryan Entertainment. He is ordered to recast his lead actress and two of the big shots are trying to force him to accept a replacement actress that they have chosen. He is insisted to cast an unknown actress named Camilla Rhodes as the lead in his film which he denies. Adam learns that Ray from Ryan Entertainment is shutting down the movie. Adam is having trouble resisting the forces at work that ultimately want to replace and kill off the Camilla persona, and so he just says he is going home He angrily resists them, even to the point of smashing the windshield of the limousine within which the two are driven to the meeting. Adam arrives home and he walks in on infidelity that destroys his family. Adam resists, but after being thrown out of his house when he finds his wife cheating on him, he learns that his bank has closed his line of credit and he is broke. He agrees to meet a mysterious figure called The Cowboy, who urges him to cast Camilla Rhodes for his own good. Meanwhile, a bungling hit man attempts to steal a book full of phone numbers and leaves three people dead.
Two men, Joe and Ed, who seem friendly to each other by having a good friendly talk. As they talk in Ed's office, all of a sudden Joe pulls out a gun and kills Ed. When he tries to make it look like suicide by putting the gun in Ed's hand, he accidentally fires a shot through a wall and the bullet hits a heavyset woman in the next room. As the woman screams, Joe goes over to that room and struggles with the woman, finally dragging her back to Ed's office. A janitor with a vacuum cleaner notices Joe dragging the woman, so Joe calls to the janitor telling him that the woman is hurt and he is just trying to help her. He asks the janitor to come to Ed's office to call a hospital for the woman because Joe needs his help. Then Joe goes into Ed's office, and positions the woman by the wall that the bullet went through. And then he shoots her twice in the back. Just after that the janitor walks in and Joe shoots him and then positions his body next to the woman's. When the janitor was shot, the vacuum cleaner turned on and so as Joe puts the gun back in Ed's dead hand, he next shoots the vacuum cleaner. This causes it to short out, which causes a problem to the building's electrical circuits, which causes an alarm to trigger in the building. Joe wipes away all of the fingerprints he thinks he has left, and then he grabs Ed's black book and heads out the window and down the fire escape.
Betty talks with her aunt on the phone about an audition that her aunt has arranged for her. While describing how hard she will work at learning the lines of the script so she can try to be like a movie star, Betty then tells her aunt about how she found Rita, naked in the aunt's shower. The aunt says she doesn't know Rita which shocks Betty as she is thinking the whole time Rita was her friend. Confused Betty slowly walks towards the bedroom where Rita is lying, opens the door to question her. But Rita is in tears because she doesn't know who she is, she has amnesia. She assumes her as a burglar but Betty stars to understand the situation of the woman when she starts describing herself in the helpless situation. To help the woman remember her identity, Betty looks in Rita's purse, where she finds a large amount of money and an unusual blue triangular key. Meanwhile, Betty has decided to try to save Rita from the ultimate retribution. Betty and Rita hide the money and the key in a hatbox in the closet. Then they head to Winkie's to call the police from a pay phone. Rita gets the feeling of seeing the beast which Dan has met earlier, but she resists and shies off. Betty does call the police and she does find out that there was an accident on Mulholland Drive. Then they go inside of the Winkie's and there they see a waitress with "Diane" on her name tag. This triggers another memory in Rita. She remembers the name Diane Selwyn. They go back to the aunt's apartment and look up the name "D. Selwyn" in the phone book. There is only one entry for "D. Selwyn" and so they call the number. An answering machine picks up and they hang up without leaving a message. The voice on the answering machine is not Rita's, but she does recognize that it is the voice of someone she knows. So they are not sure if Rita is Diane Selwyn or not, but they believe that they are getting close to unraveling the mystery of Rita's identity.
People who appear to undercover police are searches for Rita. Rita is safe in Betty's apartment helping her to prepare for audition. She recites the lines along with Betty helping her to score an impression in her audition. Betty heads to the audition and her aunt's friend, Wally Brown, the casting agent, has invited the director and many others to come see her audition for the part. Betty plays the role of helpless young lad, who got stuck in an affair with her elderly family friend. She is trying not to continue this relationship any further, but she gets provoked. Her performance wins applause but the director of this whole scene seems no care. The casting group cheer her for skills and acting abilities and also see a bright future ahead for her. Betty accompany Wally into an onset location where Adam is auditioning young women for a role. He sees Betty and gets instantly smitten by her charm and vice-versa. Betty leaves the place without a word with the director as she promised Rita to help her. Betty and Rita takes a cab and heads towards Diane's house. They visit the apartment and DeRosa, neighbor of Diane opens the door. She lets them know that they had switched apartments and Diane is now living in Apartment 17. Betty knocks on the door for Apartment 17, there is no answer at all this time. So she walks around to a side window to see if she can open it. One window is unlocked and she opens it and then asks Rita to help her in. Reluctantly Rita helps her, and she gets in and opens the front door so she and Rita can go in. Once inside they are forced to hold their noses because there is a terrible smell. As they make their way to the bedroom they find a corpse there which they assume to be Diane Selwyn. The dead person was killed by what appeared to be shot gun blasts, which left many holes in the mattress. Betty and Rita run out of the apartment with Rita terrified, silently screaming and hiding her face in her hands.
Traumatized Rita heads back to apartment and starts cutting her hair crying and gets to be saved by Betty who changes her persona with a wig. She transforms Rita into a new figure by disguising her and which also soothes Rita at the same time. They became close to each other and appear to share a bond. When Rita wants to sleep on the couch, Betty wishes to sleep next to her the bed. As Rita comes over to the bed, she takes the wig off and looks at herself in the mirror fixing her hair. Then she comes over to the side of the bed and takes off her towel. She is totally nude as she gets under the covers. She's now lying naked and says 'Good Night' but Betty starts kissing Rita on the lips. Initially, Rita hesitates but even she continues doing so. They both get along well which shows a signs of blossoming relationship.
Rita holding Betty's hand in the bed, suddenly wakes up uttering 'Silencio'. Betty wakes up in a state of trance, worries about Rita who is chanting Spanish words. Rita then takes her to a stage show in the theater 'Silencio'. The emcee explains in three different languages that everything is an illusion; Rebekah Del Rio comes on stage and begins singing the Roy Orbison song "Crying" in Spanish, then collapses while her vocals continue—her performance was a recording. Both Betty and Rita are transfixed by Rebekah Del Rio's singing. A tear falls down Rita's cheek. Betty is also in tears. Then Rita puts her head on Betty's shoulder, crying even more now. Betty also is getting more distraught. And then, all of a sudden, Rebekah Del Rio stops singing, but the music and the words of the song continue, proving that once again it was all an illusion. Rebekah Del Rio then falls to the ground, either dead or unconscious. Betty and Rita are still sad but no longer touching as Cookie and another man carry Rebekah Del Rio off stage. At this point, Betty looks into her purse and takes out a blue box. Then the singing stops. Betty and Rita look at each other, and they are both afraid. Betty and Rita rushes back o the apartment. Both women walk extremely fast. As they enter Aunt Ruth's apartment, Betty takes the blue box out of her purse. When they get to the bedroom, Betty lays it on the bed while Rita reaches into the closet where the blue key is hidden in a hatbox with all the money. When Rita picks up the hatbox and turns around, Betty is gone. However, it is not until Rita has opened the hatbox and pulled out her purse with the key in it, that Rita finally notices that Betty is gone. She searches for Betty and now she begins to worry. She picks up her purse, opens it up and takes out the blue triangular key. Then she picks up the box, putting the key into it and slowly turning it. All the while, she has a look of fear and hopelessness on her face. After turning the key all the way, she opens the box, filled with the darkness, and then the box drops and lands on the floor, and Rita is gone. There is no trace of either Betty or Rita. Aunt Ruth walks into the hallway to see what's happening in the room. It is as if she heard something and has come to see what it was. However, she sees nothing, not even the blue box. It is as though Betty and Rita were never there. And so, satisfied that there is nothing there, Aunt Ruth leaves the room.
Diane Selwyn wakes up in her bed in the same apartment that Betty and Rita investigated. She looks exactly like Betty, but is a failed actress driven into a deep depression. Diane gets out of bed and goes to the door to let her neighbor, DeRosa, in to get things that she had left there after the apartment switch. DeRosa says that she has been waiting three weeks to pick the stuff up. Diane tells her what box she put her things in, and DeRosa goes and gets the box. Before she leaves, she notices that her piano ashtray is on the coffee table. Diane says, "Take it." As DeRosa gets her ashtray, we notice a blue key on the coffee table. Then, after looking the place over one more time, DeRosa leaves, but she does remember to warn Diane that two detectives came by again looking for her. When DeRosa is gone, Diane goes into her kitchen to make coffee. While she is standing over the sink she believes she sees Camilla (who looks exactly like Rita) alive, in a red dress, standing in the kitchen with her. Smiling, Diane says, "Camilla, you've come back." She pours her coffee into a cup that appears to have come from Winkies. Then, with coffee cup in hand, she heads for the couch. As she gets to the couch, she suddenly sees a topless Camilla lying on the couch looking up at her. She undresses herself and starts kissing Camilla passionately trying to make out. Camilla seems interested at first but she hesitates and restricts Diane doing so. Diane pulls away by saying it is because of him.
In a flashback sequence, Diane is dressed in character for a bit part in a movie that Adam is directing and in which Camilla is the leading actress. Adam wants to show the lead actor how to perform his make-out scene with Camilla. So Adam orders the set cleared so that he can work the scene out with just Camilla and the lead actor without distractions. Camilla asks Adam if Diane can stay and he says yes. Then he proceeds to show the actor how to make out with Camilla. Camilla starts smiling at him and obviously getting into it. She looks over at Diane, smiling as if to tease her. Adam seems to be really enjoying himself while Diane watches. Diane cannot help but be jealous, and the pain shows in her eyes. At some point Adam yells, "Kill the lights," as he begins giving Camilla another big kiss. Camilla and Adam have begun flirting openly with each other, and they are already in a relationship. She makes Diane jealous and enjoys making Diane watch her in this type of situation. Camilla put Diane in emotional abuse for her own satisfaction. And it seems clear that Camilla is also showing Diane how she is promoting her career by flirting with the director.
It is nighttime and the phone is ringing next to a lamp with a red lampshade and an ashtray full of cigarette butts. Diane does not answer the phone during the first three rings. The answering machine picks up after the third ring. The answering machine's message is the same previous one when Betty and Rita called the number for "D. Selwyn" while sitting on Aunt Ruth's couch. After the message is through, Camilla starts talking on the other end and Diane picks up the phone and speaks with her. Camilla wants Diane to come to Adam's party. She tells her that a car has been sent to take her to the party and it is waiting just outside of her apartment. Hesitantly, Diane agrees to come. Then Camilla tells her that Adam's address is 6980 Mulholland Drive. Diane is in a limousine heading up Mulholland Drive. She reaches Adam's party being welcomed by Camilla who introduces his mother Coco. Camilla pawns Diane in the party in front of Adam and Coco by blaming for her late arrival. At the dinner table Diane exchanges words with Coco about her Hollywood arrival and meeting Camilla. She describes how she met Camilla, how she missed her roles and how Camilla helped her. Adam and Camilla announces their engagement leaving Diane in tears.
Now Diane is in Winkie's Diner and she is jumpy and whirls around when the dishes break. After the waitress apologizes, Diane notices the waitress's name tag. It says "Betty" on it. Diane goes back to her conversation with the blonde man, whom we come to realize is a hit man. She shows the hit man Camilla's photo resume and says, "This is the girl." The hit man tells her not to show him that picture in a public place like Winkie's. Then he asks her if she's got the money. She shows him the money in a black pouch by her side. The hit man then says, "Okay. Now once you hand that thing over to me, it's a done deal. You sure you want this?" Diane replies, "More than anything in this world." The hit man seems satisfied with that remark and reaches into his shirt pocket and produces a blue key. "When it's finished, you'll find this where I told you," he says. After a few moments, Diane notices a man at the cash register who looks back at her after she started staring at him. Then she refocuses on the hit man and his blue key. She asks him, "What's it open?" He just laughs in a sinister way.
The beast outside Winkie's Diner grabs the blue box wrapping in a paper bag. The beast then drops the bag and tiny versions of the two grandparents comes out of the bag, apparently after having gotten out of the blue box. They are making strange noises and they are walking strangely. They seem quite monstrous even in their small size. Diane is back in her bedroom at Apartment 17. All her fantasies are now ended. Suddenly, she hears a loud knocking on the door. In her mind, the little demonic grandparents crawl under the door laughing. She hears more loud knocking. Then she hears voices in her head. One of the voices is a woman screaming. After hearing this she gets up and runs to her bedroom. The scream in her head seamlessly becomes her own scream of horror, perhaps the same scream she cried out during her childhood, as she sees that the demons have grown to full size and are following her into the bedroom. Blue lights are flashing all around as she is backing into the bedroom with the two demons on her heels. Finally, she falls onto her bed, reaches into a drawer near her bed, grabs a gun and then shoots herself in the head. Her body is alone on the bed and everything quiet. Then blue smoke begins to fill the room. Slowly the images of Betty and Rita and the city lights behind them fade away, leading to the stage in Club Silencio. A lady with the blue-hair is still sitting looking at the audience whispering, "Silencio."
This movie strikes the right chord in presenting the 'City of Dreams' a.k.a Hollywood. Hollywood is just not like any other lifeless city but it carries the soul of art, dreams, money, movies, success, failures, friendship and betrayals. Hollywood and its famous streets Sunset Blvd, Mulholland Dr. etc play lively character in this whole film. A woman winning a dance competition back in a Deep River, Ontario lands in the City of Dreams. She might have won the dance competition but couldn't compete with people who toys with her emotions. She juggles in between flashbacks and fantasies finally ending her career and her dreams with just one gun shot. She finally found peace by sleeping with no chance of waking up. Her ups and downs throw light on Hollywood and its treatment to its guests who comes to the city with a dreaming career. David Lynch narrative is completely non linear and every scene leaves up a mark on the audience. Missing a scene in this movie is terrible mistake to make because every scene and every shot has a deeper meaning and appears differently with repeated viewings. Angelo Badalamenti score, Peter Deming visuals and Mary Sweeney editing are top notch and deserve a special mention. Actors Laura Elena Harring, Naomi Watts Justin Theroux and Ann Miller excelled in their performance making the audience glued to the seats. The man behind this whole concept and vision, 'David Lynch' who received his honorary Oscar in this year 2020, deserves a standing ovation and complete respect to even think such kind of a movie. He never answered the critics about his review of the story and asked the viewers to come with their own explanations. As a result there are various theories and books with metaphorical and meta-physical explanations from various authors in decoding this movie. So what can you come up with?
At a diner called Winkie's, two men sitting peacefully and talking. Dan (Patrick Fischler) is talking to Herb (Michael Cooke), telling him that he wanted to come to that particular Winkie's for a reason. Herb appears to be a therapist and he listens as Dan talks about a dream he has had two times that involved that particular Winkie's. The dream occurs during half-night, the transition point between night and day. In his dream, the lighting is weird and Dan notices Herb by the cash register. He says Herb is scared in the dream and that scares Dan as well. Then Dan realizes that there is a man behind the Winkie's with a horrible face who is controlling whatever is going on in the Winkie's. Dan is terrified of ever seeing that man's face outside of his dream. Once Dan has finished recounting his dream, Herb decides they should go outside and look behind the Winkie's to see if there is anybody out there, because he thinks this will help Dan. Dan says he is willing to go look because he wants to get rid of the "God-awful" feeling he has. However, when they go behind the Winkie's and come to a walled area, a horrible face looks out at them from behind the wall and Dan is literally scared to death.
Betty talks with her aunt on the phone about an audition that her aunt has arranged for her. While describing how hard she will work at learning the lines of the script so she can try to be like a movie star, Betty then tells her aunt about how she found Rita, naked in the aunt's shower. The aunt says she doesn't know Rita which shocks Betty as she is thinking the whole time Rita was her friend. Confused Betty slowly walks towards the bedroom where Rita is lying, opens the door to question her. But Rita is in tears because she doesn't know who she is, she has amnesia. She assumes her as a burglar but Betty stars to understand the situation of the woman when she starts describing herself in the helpless situation. To help the woman remember her identity, Betty looks in Rita's purse, where she finds a large amount of money and an unusual blue triangular key. Meanwhile, Betty has decided to try to save Rita from the ultimate retribution. Betty and Rita hide the money and the key in a hatbox in the closet. Then they head to Winkie's to call the police from a pay phone. Rita gets the feeling of seeing the beast which Dan has met earlier, but she resists and shies off. Betty does call the police and she does find out that there was an accident on Mulholland Drive. Then they go inside of the Winkie's and there they see a waitress with "Diane" on her name tag. This triggers another memory in Rita. She remembers the name Diane Selwyn. They go back to the aunt's apartment and look up the name "D. Selwyn" in the phone book. There is only one entry for "D. Selwyn" and so they call the number. An answering machine picks up and they hang up without leaving a message. The voice on the answering machine is not Rita's, but she does recognize that it is the voice of someone she knows. So they are not sure if Rita is Diane Selwyn or not, but they believe that they are getting close to unraveling the mystery of Rita's identity.
People who appear to undercover police are searches for Rita. Rita is safe in Betty's apartment helping her to prepare for audition. She recites the lines along with Betty helping her to score an impression in her audition. Betty heads to the audition and her aunt's friend, Wally Brown, the casting agent, has invited the director and many others to come see her audition for the part. Betty plays the role of helpless young lad, who got stuck in an affair with her elderly family friend. She is trying not to continue this relationship any further, but she gets provoked. Her performance wins applause but the director of this whole scene seems no care. The casting group cheer her for skills and acting abilities and also see a bright future ahead for her. Betty accompany Wally into an onset location where Adam is auditioning young women for a role. He sees Betty and gets instantly smitten by her charm and vice-versa. Betty leaves the place without a word with the director as she promised Rita to help her. Betty and Rita takes a cab and heads towards Diane's house. They visit the apartment and DeRosa, neighbor of Diane opens the door. She lets them know that they had switched apartments and Diane is now living in Apartment 17. Betty knocks on the door for Apartment 17, there is no answer at all this time. So she walks around to a side window to see if she can open it. One window is unlocked and she opens it and then asks Rita to help her in. Reluctantly Rita helps her, and she gets in and opens the front door so she and Rita can go in. Once inside they are forced to hold their noses because there is a terrible smell. As they make their way to the bedroom they find a corpse there which they assume to be Diane Selwyn. The dead person was killed by what appeared to be shot gun blasts, which left many holes in the mattress. Betty and Rita run out of the apartment with Rita terrified, silently screaming and hiding her face in her hands.
In a flashback sequence, Diane is dressed in character for a bit part in a movie that Adam is directing and in which Camilla is the leading actress. Adam wants to show the lead actor how to perform his make-out scene with Camilla. So Adam orders the set cleared so that he can work the scene out with just Camilla and the lead actor without distractions. Camilla asks Adam if Diane can stay and he says yes. Then he proceeds to show the actor how to make out with Camilla. Camilla starts smiling at him and obviously getting into it. She looks over at Diane, smiling as if to tease her. Adam seems to be really enjoying himself while Diane watches. Diane cannot help but be jealous, and the pain shows in her eyes. At some point Adam yells, "Kill the lights," as he begins giving Camilla another big kiss. Camilla and Adam have begun flirting openly with each other, and they are already in a relationship. She makes Diane jealous and enjoys making Diane watch her in this type of situation. Camilla put Diane in emotional abuse for her own satisfaction. And it seems clear that Camilla is also showing Diane how she is promoting her career by flirting with the director.
It is nighttime and the phone is ringing next to a lamp with a red lampshade and an ashtray full of cigarette butts. Diane does not answer the phone during the first three rings. The answering machine picks up after the third ring. The answering machine's message is the same previous one when Betty and Rita called the number for "D. Selwyn" while sitting on Aunt Ruth's couch. After the message is through, Camilla starts talking on the other end and Diane picks up the phone and speaks with her. Camilla wants Diane to come to Adam's party. She tells her that a car has been sent to take her to the party and it is waiting just outside of her apartment. Hesitantly, Diane agrees to come. Then Camilla tells her that Adam's address is 6980 Mulholland Drive. Diane is in a limousine heading up Mulholland Drive. She reaches Adam's party being welcomed by Camilla who introduces his mother Coco. Camilla pawns Diane in the party in front of Adam and Coco by blaming for her late arrival. At the dinner table Diane exchanges words with Coco about her Hollywood arrival and meeting Camilla. She describes how she met Camilla, how she missed her roles and how Camilla helped her. Adam and Camilla announces their engagement leaving Diane in tears.
Now Diane is in Winkie's Diner and she is jumpy and whirls around when the dishes break. After the waitress apologizes, Diane notices the waitress's name tag. It says "Betty" on it. Diane goes back to her conversation with the blonde man, whom we come to realize is a hit man. She shows the hit man Camilla's photo resume and says, "This is the girl." The hit man tells her not to show him that picture in a public place like Winkie's. Then he asks her if she's got the money. She shows him the money in a black pouch by her side. The hit man then says, "Okay. Now once you hand that thing over to me, it's a done deal. You sure you want this?" Diane replies, "More than anything in this world." The hit man seems satisfied with that remark and reaches into his shirt pocket and produces a blue key. "When it's finished, you'll find this where I told you," he says. After a few moments, Diane notices a man at the cash register who looks back at her after she started staring at him. Then she refocuses on the hit man and his blue key. She asks him, "What's it open?" He just laughs in a sinister way.
The beast outside Winkie's Diner grabs the blue box wrapping in a paper bag. The beast then drops the bag and tiny versions of the two grandparents comes out of the bag, apparently after having gotten out of the blue box. They are making strange noises and they are walking strangely. They seem quite monstrous even in their small size. Diane is back in her bedroom at Apartment 17. All her fantasies are now ended. Suddenly, she hears a loud knocking on the door. In her mind, the little demonic grandparents crawl under the door laughing. She hears more loud knocking. Then she hears voices in her head. One of the voices is a woman screaming. After hearing this she gets up and runs to her bedroom. The scream in her head seamlessly becomes her own scream of horror, perhaps the same scream she cried out during her childhood, as she sees that the demons have grown to full size and are following her into the bedroom. Blue lights are flashing all around as she is backing into the bedroom with the two demons on her heels. Finally, she falls onto her bed, reaches into a drawer near her bed, grabs a gun and then shoots herself in the head. Her body is alone on the bed and everything quiet. Then blue smoke begins to fill the room. Slowly the images of Betty and Rita and the city lights behind them fade away, leading to the stage in Club Silencio. A lady with the blue-hair is still sitting looking at the audience whispering, "Silencio."
This movie strikes the right chord in presenting the 'City of Dreams' a.k.a Hollywood. Hollywood is just not like any other lifeless city but it carries the soul of art, dreams, money, movies, success, failures, friendship and betrayals. Hollywood and its famous streets Sunset Blvd, Mulholland Dr. etc play lively character in this whole film. A woman winning a dance competition back in a Deep River, Ontario lands in the City of Dreams. She might have won the dance competition but couldn't compete with people who toys with her emotions. She juggles in between flashbacks and fantasies finally ending her career and her dreams with just one gun shot. She finally found peace by sleeping with no chance of waking up. Her ups and downs throw light on Hollywood and its treatment to its guests who comes to the city with a dreaming career. David Lynch narrative is completely non linear and every scene leaves up a mark on the audience. Missing a scene in this movie is terrible mistake to make because every scene and every shot has a deeper meaning and appears differently with repeated viewings. Angelo Badalamenti score, Peter Deming visuals and Mary Sweeney editing are top notch and deserve a special mention. Actors Laura Elena Harring, Naomi Watts Justin Theroux and Ann Miller excelled in their performance making the audience glued to the seats. The man behind this whole concept and vision, 'David Lynch' who received his honorary Oscar in this year 2020, deserves a standing ovation and complete respect to even think such kind of a movie. He never answered the critics about his review of the story and asked the viewers to come with their own explanations. As a result there are various theories and books with metaphorical and meta-physical explanations from various authors in decoding this movie. So what can you come up with?
Comments
Post a Comment