Mullholand Drive What a flick!!

[SavageWalker]

One can only assume and speculate the intentions of David Lynch having when forming the story surrounding the film, Mulholland Drive. The film doesn’t conform to traditional or conventional film narrative; therefore it is within this approach which demystifies any logical explanation or reasoning in providing any rationale behind the meaning of the film. For such a direction in narrative chaos that Lynch provides his audience, it is my interpretation that Lynch intended to deliver a film which serves the purpose of supplying the audience with the teasing sensation of visual pleasure internal to them. Such a statement implies that the external visual pleasure of the director’s intent forms the creation of the internal visual pleasure of the viewer. This would then suggest that the external visual pleasure is the deliberate construct of the films unconventional framework, and the internal visual pleasure is the viewer’s obsession to the succession of realisation within the narrative meaning of Mulholland Drive.

An additional observation concerning the DVD version of the film, Mulholland Drive, surrounds the acknowledgement that there are no chapter points which separate each scene within the movie. If we then consider that the lack of such chapter points was intentional, it could then be perceived that this intention suggests that the movie is to be viewed chronologically. Therefore, if the audience is forced to watch Mulholland Drive in this way, the film in its narrative meaning could be interpreted to have no sense of time in that without exception all the events within the film take place within one single moment in time.

In an interview that accompanies the DVD version of Mulholland Drive, Lynch expresses and I quote “Well there are many characters, some…all are dealing with somewhat of a question of identity”. This is an interesting statement by the director, as far as I am aware the only character in Mulholland Drive that is questioning their Identity is Diane Selwyn. This statement could relate to how Diane has created other characters from within her dream state to represent areas of her psyche. Lynch also expresses another point, again I quote, “nothing is ever the same…story dictates how it should be told, and each story is different so each story talks to you in different ways”. With this statement Lynch begins to indicate that the story of Mulholland Drive can be interpreted differently by individuals, suggesting that there is no true explanation to the question, “What really happened?” but only a personal interpretation of the individual.

In order to establish psychoanalysis as a mechanism for formulating an understanding towards what really happened within Mulholland Drive it is important to recognise the fundamental framework which the film is based around. The condition of such a framework can only be determined once the film in its entirety has been viewed, this is important for a film such as Mulholland Drive, as it follows an unconventional form of narrative in how it deals with dreams, flashbacks and reality.

The main theme surrounding Mulholland Drive focuses on lesbianism between two Hollywood actresses. Diane and Camilla, after meeting each other on the set of a movie, their relationship grew leading into a love affair. However, Camilla being the more talented and most successful actress of the two supports Diane’s acting career throughout Hollywood. Their relationship eventually finishes when Camilla falls for a successful Hollywood Director named, Adam Kesher. Camilla attempts to resolve the concerns between Diane and herself, however Diane refuses acceptance, and gradually Diane’s state of mind begins to deteriorate. Overwhelmed with immense jealousy and retribution, Diane organises an assassination on Camilla. She is then informed by the hitman that once the assassination job is complete that she will find a key placed in her apartment. After waking from the sound of someone knocking at her apartment door, Diane’s realisation for what she had committed develops into guilt, which then transforms into a descent into madness, leading into the eventual act of suicide.

The main theme is based on Diane’s reality. At the moment of death, Diane’s life flashes before her, running parallel to this is a creation of fantasy and desire which Diane produces from the memories of events leading to her suicide. It is the continual flow of parallels which causes Diane’s conscious mind to create links from both the imaginary and the actuality of her existence.

Within the moment of death, Diane produces a fantasy state; this can be considered a creation of denial from her unconscious which becomes conflicted with her consciousness. If we then consider how within the dream sequence events unfold, from the beginning a woman, dazed and confused after surviving a car crash and suffering from amnesia, finds sanctuary in an empty apartment:

To suffer from amnesia in a dream indicates our attempts to blot out the disliked. It also indicates a fear of change. Amnesia in dreams can suggest death, either past or present. This may not be physical death, but a time of great change in the dreamer’s life (Ball 1996: 56)

When the confused woman meets Betty, a young and enthusiastic actress, who has recently moved to LA in search for fame, Betty decides to help the unknown woman, by which time has named herself, Rita. Both woman are lead on an unknown path of mystery and intrigue which leads them further into the unknown. While becoming closer both women eventually confront their sexual desires towards each other that neither can resist. From this there is the suggestion that Diane within her dream state has created Camilla in the form of Rita, however knowing that the Camilla in reality had betrayed their love, Diane’s fulfils her desires with the creation of Rita suffering from amnesia, and thus Diane in her dream state can have complete control of her desire towards Rita.

Additional throughout the fantasy, Diane creates an alternative life for Adam Kesher. Throughout Adam is portrayed in having difficulties with unknown mobsters who are forcing Adam to give the lead role of his latest movie to an unknown actress by the name of Camilla Rhodes. It would seem that within reality, Diane’s hatred of Adam Kesher remains through her fantasy in terms of wanting Adam to suffer. Therefore within the dream state, Adam has numerous problems revolving around his wife committing adultery and even Adams banks accounts being frozen, thus distressing Adam further.

What is the smallest measure of time that can be perceived, one could imagine that it would that of one single moment! Consider if you will the moment of death of oneself, time would have no bearing. This could be explained for the meaning of Mulholland Drive.

Throughout this essay, I justify my claim through many examples of how each scene in the film relate to each other. From researching Mulholland Drive on the Internet, I have found many theories for the meaning of the film; however such theories come with the acceptance by the respected author that there are some occurrences that remain unexplained. Using psychoanalysis to identify with the themes within Mulholland Drive, my theory concerning the absence of time and of which the entire film is encompassed within one single moment could be considered an accepted explanation to the question, “What really happened?”

Presenting the idea that Diane is the main protagonist and therefore being her dream, is through the way in which the scene changes to Diane waking up from sleeping following on from when Rita opens the blue box, this suggesting that the blue box is a device within the dream which causes the awakening of consciousness and bringing the dreamer back to reality. One could conclude that the blue box represents Diane’s fantasy through the unconscious, thus cannot be considered a dream but more of a hallucination of Diane’s consciousness. (However, for the purpose of this essay I will refer to it as a dream) Once the blue box has been opened, then Diane’s true self is realised and unleashed into her consciousness, thus terminating the fantasy that she had previously created.

Supporting my theory that the entire film is represented within one moment in time, there are many sequences that would suggest this. Firstly the representations of the Tramp and the Club Silencio challenge the viewer’s perceptions of any rational theory in that they both exist outside the dream state and represented within a separate time frame that has no relationship with the flashbacks or the reality segment. This would suggest that imaginary representations form some kind of connection to the psyche of Diane while within her dream state, allowing her conscious mind within reality to create awareness that she is indeed involved within a fantasy world that she has created as a form of self denial.

***To be Cond***

[SavageWalker]

The way in which Lynch has edited Mulholland Drive, the viewer would not immediately identify the first 2 hours of the film as a dream sequence, as it does not conform to any conventional film principles in how dreams are represented within traditional Hollywood style. It is only within the last 30 minutes of the film, the viewer is then presented with a series of flashback sequences which completely adds to confusion in terms of the changing identity of Betty, who now becomes Diane, and Rita who now becomes Camilla. This belief is exemplified with two distinct scenes surrounding Winkies Diner. The first being contained within the dream sequence where Betty and Rita are sitting down in the Diner, when Rita glances at the name tag of the waitress which reads, “Diane”, this then prompts Rita in regaining part of her lost memory. The second scene is contained within one of the flashback sequences where again in the same diner, both Diane and the hitman are discussing the details of the planned assassination of Camilla, Diane glances at the name tag of the waitress which reads, “Betty”. The significance of the acknowledgment of the waitresses name in the dream sequence could relate to the suggestion that Diane in her unconscious mind is recognising that it’s a dream whereby using the waitress as an external identification:

The process by which a person either, (a) extends his identity into someone else, (b) borrows his identity from someone else, or (c) fuses or confuses his identity with someone else. In analytical writings it never means establishing the identity of oneself or someone else. (Rycroft: 1995: 76)

One instance where the consciousness of the dreamer enters the unconscious state of the dream is when Betty and Rita visit Diane’s apartment and finding the dead body of a woman (who does not appear to be the real Diane, as she is a brunette and wearing a yellow watch), when presented with the last 30 minutes of the film the viewer learns that Betty is Diane, and in this realisation, concludes that Diane is in actual fact witnessing her own death, through the form of the relationship of the subject establishing a connection of the physical world (reality) to that of the non-physical world (dreaming).This can somewhat relate to the psychoanalytical theory of Introjection:

The process by which the functions of an external object are taken over by its mental representation, by which the relationship with an object ‘out there’ is replaced by one with an imagined object ‘inside’. The resulting mental structure is variously called an introject, an introjected object, or an internal object. (Rycroft: 1995: 87)

Therefore, using the theory of Introjection to explain any logical meaning, one might assume that its meaning would form the conception that if Diane has already died, then within that moment of when death occurs, her dying state of consciousness becomes merged with her unconscious. Furthermore, it would seem that within the dream, Diane witnesses her own death in exactly the same way as when in reality Diane commits suicide and ends up in the same bedroom, laying on the same bed in exactly the same position as the dead woman within the dream sequence. One significant question which this raises is how can the dreamer witness his or her own death in the same way that it concludes? – It would seem more so of a premonition within the dream then dreaming of the act itself! Another point to consider is when Diane in the reality sequence does commit suicide, the way in which she is tormented by the old couple and is forced to walk backwards in a complete frenzy towards the bed and position herself before putting a gun to her head, seems rehearsed or as though she is reacting in a dream like trance:

Trance-like states occur in hysteria, though these are usually called spells, seizures, or dream-states; and in childhood, in the form of sleep walking. The feature common to all these is that part of the ego (or self) is out of action, so that the subject either surrenders his will to another or acts on wishes and phantasies that are otherwise inhibited. (Rycroft: 1995: 185)

Through the study of dream interpretation while closely following Freudian theories from psychoanalysis, one can identify how external influences and experiences from reality can directly translate the emotions of the dreamer throughout their dream state. Furthermore, the translation of such emotions are manifested within the dream in a form where by the dreamer unconsciously constructs physical representations relating to different aspects of their emotional psyche. Therefore in the case of Mulholland Drive, it is viable to suggest by the formed psychoneurosis developed within reality, Diane constructs a fantasy world within her dream state enabling her to act out her desires. This in turn allows absolute pleasure of her unconscious, thus achieving wish-fulfilment: ***To be Cond.. Again***

[SavageWalker]

The theory assumes (a) that dreams have psychological meaning, an assumption which was revolutionary in 1900; (b) that the hallucinatory quality of dreams enables the dreamer to represent as fulfilled wishes which would otherwise have awakened him; and (c) that the wishes expressed are, in general, ones unacceptable to the sleeper’s waking self, either because they are incompatible with his values (e.g. death wishes towards his nearest and dearest) or because they are infantile and are therefore stated in a disguised, distorted manner. (Rycroft: 1995: 197)

Desires through wish-fulfilment can be in the form of many different aspects of the dreamer’s life. For Diane, the two main desires that she wishes to fulfil within her dream are, firstly the desire to become enriched in total fame and stardom, secondly, the desire for Camilla to return as her lover. With both these desires, the process of wish-fulfilment produces elements to the fantasy that can directly match elements to that in reality, however due to the unconscious certain aspects are altered. This can be seen in the mother of Adam Kesher, who in Diane’s dream becomes the apartment manager, where Betty is staying and has no relation to the Adam Kesher from the dream.

Within Mulholland Drive the psychoanalytical approach of displacement theory in terms of providing a mechanism for understanding throughout the dream suggests an awareness of Diane’s increasing psychoneurosis derived from reality which directly manifests itself into her dream:

The process by which energy (cathexis) is transferred from one mental image to another, displacement is one of the primary processes and is responsible for the fact that, for instance, in dreams one image can symbolise another. (Rycroft: 1995: 39)

It is this displacement which transfers consciousness energy from reality into the symbol manifestation within the dream, therefore allowing the dreamer to establish a direct connection to their suppressed emotions. For Mulholland Drive, such an unconscious awareness within the dream allows Diane to indirectly confront her anxieties through the use of an external object, and to further explore what resides in the deepest recesses of her repressed state of consciousness:

That towards which action or desire is directed; that which the subject requires in order to achieve instinctual satisfaction; that to which the subject relates himself. In psychoanalytical writings, objects are nearly always persons, parts of persons or symbols of one or the other.
(Rycroft: 1995: 113)

Such mechanisms within the dream state in terms of projecting the dreamers repressed emotional energy into object representations are formed into two categories. The first of which is in the representation of people, the second being the representation of locations and physical objects. Both categories may be based upon actual experiences from the dreamer’s reality. Within Mulholland Drive, there are many representations of Diane’s emotional energy which are conveyed through People, Locations and objects. One such example of this surrounds the man at the Winkies Diner describing a dream he had had to another man, possible a psychiatrist. The man begins to describe how the diner is the setting of his dream, and from behind a wall outside the diner, lurks something sinister, of which plagues him terrifyingly. The psychiatrist recommends both of them to go outside and to check the wall. When both men reach the wall that was described within the dream, a tramp pops his head out from behind, instantly the man falls to the ground, presumably dead. The scene has many associations that reflect Diane’s psyche. The first of which is the wall behind the diner:

In dreams, walls usually indicate the boundaries we have set ourselves. These may be created as defence mechanisms, and it is sometimes helpful in the interpretation to decide whether the walls have been created in order to keep ourselves in or others out. (Ball 1996: 510)

The second association is the representation of the tramp. As Diane shoots herself in reality, her sub consciousness reacts in one moment, so the creation of the tramp is a representation of her demons that torment her past:

To dream of a tramp in the sense of a decrepit old wanderer links us back to the part of ourselves which is not expressed fully in real life. The tramp personifies in us the wanderer, the freedom lover. In dreams he will often appear at a time when we need freedom, but can also show that that need can bring difficulty and sadness. (Ball 1996: 481)

Thirdly there is the actual presence of the man that is describing the dream. He can be perceived as a direct manifestation of Diane’s anxiety of her conscious state. The fact that he is describing the dream surrounding the location of the restaurant would suggest an internal representation of Diane’s consciousness identifying with the sequence of events that took her to suicide. Identifying with the memory that the restaurant was the location where Diane finalised Camilla’s fate when she paid and instructed the hitman to proceed with the act of assassination on Camilla.
Other forms of representations which reflect Diane’s emotional state run throughout her fantasy, unlocking parts of her unconscious. Firstly the importance of the blue key signifies many areas of her psyche. From within Diane’s dream, the blue key bears a different form to that in reality. The significance of the relationship remains the same; accept that within the dream the blue key extends its meaning further. On close examination, the blue key within the dream resembles a triangular form. In acts of literature this can represent the triangular love affair of Diane, Camilla and Adam! When the blue box is opened with this key, it represents the realisation that the fantasy is no more then false! The importance of the key in the dream connects Diane with the memory that it was the hitman’s key which was the signal for the success on Camilla's assassination! Furthermore within the dream, it was Rita that had the key together with the money, so this suggests that within Diane’s dream, her unconscious had developed a recollection that the fantasy was created as a form of denial due to Diane paying the hitman for the assassination on Camilla, and the key was a form of acknowledgement that the act was completed.

One could consider that the dream ended once the blue box was opened because there was no more need for wish fulfilment. One purpose of dreams is to act out one’s fantasies and desires, once these have been accomplished there is no more to dream. It would also seem that Diane’s conscious recognised that it was merely a fantasy rather then reoccurring memories from her past, this can be identified in the way her unconscious incorporates her Aunt within the dreams conclusion. In reality Diane’s Aunt is deceased, however within the dream, Betty’s Aunt is very much alive. When you see Betty's Aunt enter the bedroom after the blue box drops to the floor - this can represent that "the dreamer" realises that it is indeed a dream and thus erases all the previous events regarding mostly Betty and Rita - in other words, it represents the realisation that the love affair never happened! The aunt serves the purpose as a device to allow Diane to form her own fantasy in her own logical narrative.

The club Silencio is more of an entrance into another dimension (afterlife) and within the Club, the stage performers echo through Diane's consciousness that she is no longer alive. They perform, suggesting everything is an act, that nothing is real. The singer performs, but during the performance, she falls to the floor but she is still heard singing, suggesting that the body dies but the spirit still lives on! The club Silencio is considered a form of non-reality (like a realisation on death itself) the empty stage with the microphone in the centre representing the "light"! Furthermore, considering that Silencio is Spanish for “Silence” suggests the representation that this location is a symbolisation for the silence of death!

To suggest further that the film is based upon one single moment, the most apparent evidence is how the film begins and how the film concludes. The film begins with the Jitterbug contest that Diane had entered and won. Superimposed together with Diane are an elderly couple (Presumably her grandparents). Directly connect this with the end sequence of the film, where shots of LA are superimposed with Diane and Camilla looking onwards. However the most significant part to this is in how Camilla is wearing the blonde wig that Rita wore within the dream sequence - this can be interpreted in representing how Camilla was indeed assassinated, then upon Diane committing suicide joins Camilla in the afterlife. However with Camilla wearing the blonde wig this would have the suggestion that Diane joins Camilla with the memory she has created for Rita!

Lastly, the superimposed shots produce somewhat of a spiritual feel, since the first and last scenes of the movie convey this, it can suggest a single moment in time whereupon the scenes which are in-between these two sequences would suggest desires/fantasies and memories in a flash of time when Diane is dying from the gunshot.

For the most part, in psychoanalytical reading Diane’s representation within reality suggests her ego being torn through the progression of her mental state of mind leading to madness. Within her dying state, Diane’s unconscious creates a fantasy which tries to manifest her id into another form of ego However through the emergence of her superego, in the form of her grandparents, this manifestation becomes false and the realisation of her decayed ego had lead her to the acceptance of her death. Seriously go get the film

[GemDeLaCreme]

David Lynch is the master

[SavageWalker]

Yes indeedy he is.

P.s sorry for the huuuuuuuuuge eyesore of a thread but it will come in handy if u watch the film.

[morven]

so scotty where u copying this from?

[SavageWalker]

I wrote it

[GemDeLaCreme]

it makes good readin

[morven]

haha yeh right did u write that! if so then im joining metallica as the new cello player

btw why u not on MSN?

[SavageWalker]

He he K. I didn't but i added a hell of alot!! cuz the guy who wrote it was talking jibberish at times.

[SavageWalker]

i am on it too much

[GemDeLaCreme]

y did u write this, if u did, not that im sayin u didnt?