I recently purchased this film as its one of my favorite David Lynch movies and, as well, features the glorious Naomi Watts. It also features the voluptuous and beautiful Laura Elena Harring, whose career, unfortunately, does not seem to be thriving much. Aside from these two bonus features, the DVD is a brebones disc, but does comes equipt with an insert where David Lynch offers 10 clues to "solving" the mystery of Mulholland Drive. As I am sure, most people need to watch it minimally twice before even speculating any type of conclusion.

Before I get to the clues, I will point out that the price drop on this DVD, from perhaps 26.99 to 12.99 appears to be because the new editions do not come with an insert (mother of all that is unholy!!!). Well, I know about it because I bought it when it first came out, probably at 26.99 and have since sold it. Needless to say, I was disappointed it was not there, and to say that for a nearly 10 dollar drop for a slip of paper seems crazy. Or maybe its the other way around, that to raise it another 10 dollars seems crazy.

  Ok, so a quick look at the questions and I will explain them one by one:

1. Pay particular attention in the beginning of the film: at least two clues are revealed before the credits.
2. Notice appearances of the red lampshade.
3. Can you hear the title of the film that Adam Kesher is auditioning actresses for? Is it mentioned again?
4. An accident is a terrible event... notice the location of the accident.
5. Who gives a key, and why?
6. Notice the robe, the ashtray, the coffee cup.
7. What is felt, realized and gathered at the club Silencio?
8. Did talent alone help Camilla?
9. Note the occurrences surrounding the man behind Winkies.
10. Where is Aunt Ruth?

 

These are going to be thought provokers, so I provided photos at the appropriate moment to help refresh some of yose memories. If you have yet to see the movie, it might be a good idea to wait to read this. Ok, on to the clues:

 

1)  Pay particular attention in the beginning of the film: at least two clues are revealed before the credits.

The film opens with a 50's style dance-a-thon with couples in front and sillouettes in the background. Some of the faces appear familiar. Who are these people dancing, and why? Then, a Lynchian moment of distorted sound fades in where we get a blurred look at Betty with the two elderly couple she traveled with on the plane. They seem to have a larger position within the plot than one might think. We end with our star, Betty (Fig. 1), coming to the foreground, appearing to be applauded.

  Later in the film, when she is Diane, she states that was once a winner of a Jittery-bug contest (Fig. 2). I am assuming this is the reference she was making.  The name is Betty is later assigned to a waitress at Winkies who poors Diane a cup of coffee.

 

2. Notice appearances of the red lampshade.

There are a few moments when you see the red lampshade (Fig. 3), like in the beginning when you follow the trail of phone calls. Except in this room, the phone rings, but no one answers. Who are they calling? Could it be Diane Selwyn's apartment, whom we find later is dead. 

Later, we see the red lamp again, this time with Diane (formerly Betty) standing in the room who answers the phone to be asked by Camilla (formerly Rita) if she was going to the party (Fig. 4).  It is here that you also see another ashtray full of cigarettes.

3. Can you hear the title of the film that Adam Kesher is auditioning actresses for? Is it mentioned again?

  I can't, can you? Let me listen for it again, but for the life of me, I can't seem to recall anyone announcing the film's title. Lynch asks if its mentioned again, I am not sure what the significance of this is if its not said in the first place, which leads me to presume it is mentioned, but embedded. I considered the title "The Girl is Still Missing", which is also a codeword to put something in action.

4. An accident is a terrible event... notice the location of the accident.

It is, obviously, on Mulholland Drive. But what do we notice about the location? On a hilltop, on a bend. Although that is the scene after the credits, we do come back to it a second time around. It is below a house where a Hollywood party is happening, and above on the hills over looking the house where Betty is staying. The accident (Fig. 5) occurs from a bunch of kids racing on these roads, eventually smashing into Rita's limo, right at the time she was held at gunpoint and asked to get out of the car. Who these men were, I do not know. Where Rita was going is hard to say as well. 

Later, when Betty is Diane, she goes to the same place and is dropped off at this particular location to walk up the hill and eventually to party. One might say, based on this, that after the accident, it was merely a dream that Camilla was having. Upon waking, the characters and faces and situations have changed. I think its interesting there is an "up and down" movement from the dream to the waking (or vice versa). I don't know if this suggests that Mullholland Drive is some sort of Purgatory or even Earthly realm, the middle ground between Heaven and Hell, Dream and Waking, or some sort of consciousness threshold. 

5. Who gives a key, and why?

The second Diane is given a blue key (Fig. 5). There are 2 blue keys: one is strange shape which opens the blue box (fig. 6). The other blue key is regular looking. She is given a key by the guy she asks to kill Camilla (Harden) which I am not sure what it opens. Its here where we see the regular shaped blue key on the coffee table of Diane's apartment. The neighbor sees it, there is a point made about it, but nothing said. The photos below show the different scenes showing the key (Fig. 7 and 8).

  6. Notice the robe, the ashtray, the coffee cup.

This is sort of a vague statement. It's like saying, look for a moment where David Lynch is not drinking coffee or smoking cigarettes. But I presume that when all three are on the screen simultaneously. This happens when Diane (plays by Naomi) is sitting in her apartment in a ratty robe with a piano ashtray on the table and her coffee cup. Her neighbor comes by to pick up some boxes she forget to get. Diane is miserable, aggitated and rude to her neighbor. There is a sense of a past between the two, but its hard to say about what. Here Diane hallucinates or remembers some of the past intimate moments she has had with Rita.

  7. What is felt, realized and gathered at the club Silencio?

At first it is a very surreal place, uncomfortable, but intense, intimate. But suddenly, there is a complete breakdown where Betty and Rita are crying during the Spanish rendition of "Crying". The realization is that they are living in a dream. Its the waking that is a terrible moment. The waking up to truth. This is one of my favorite scenes! With Betty and Rita crying, there is such an emotional outburst that it cries out for significance. It is previous to this scene that Betty and Rita asvance their relationship in a beautifully erotic moment (one of the most erotic scenes in Hollywood history!), it is afterwards that Rita says in her sleep "Silencio". This is the club they go to where their realization comes to fruition. What is this realization? That Rita is not who she thinks she is, and that she is in fact Camilla. I am not sure what Silencio and Crying have to do with it. But the theater is all about illusions, which perhaps Lynch was implying that either Dream or Reality, its all illusion. 

  8. Did talent alone help Camilla?

All signs point to her not having the talent, but chosen. This does not suppose she does have talent. But her being chosen I think has more significance.The first Camilla seems to have talent, but she is lip-synching a song, which she does rather well. The second Camilla, who is now dating the director (Thoreoux), so it would seem she got the part by default. In the first case, however, she was demanded the role by some sort of Hollywood mafia types who are insisting that she get the role, despite her talent. Perhaps that she was to become the new young face of Hollywood. Thoreoux's character really does not want to comply, but feels he must in order to save his own life. The second Camilla we know is set to be "taken out" by Diane, which is where she gets the blue key.

 

  9. Note the occurrences surrounding the man behind Winkies.

So just what did happen behind Winkies? There was a man who had a dream about a monster that lived behind the Winkies diner. When he goes to make sure that it was only a dream, he discovers that this monster still exists. Is he still dreaming? This is one of my favorite scenes in the movie. Although it seems incidental, it probably has the most significance. Two characters sitting at a Winkies, and the way the story is told about the dream is classic Lynch where the small details become so intriguing and eerie that you cannot help but pay attention to it. So what do the details of garbage, graffiti, a staircase, a phone booth and an entrance sign add up to?

 

  10. Where is Aunt Ruth?

It is stated by Betty at the beginning of the film that she is on a shoot in Ontario, Canada. I think Aunt Ruth is the motivating force behind a lot of the happenings. But later we discover that Ruth has died and since Betty's (now Diane) career has gone down with it. But this is now another reality that exists in someone elses mind, namely Camilla.

I feel like I watched this movie 10 times while writing this article. Its a puzzle to me, and still is, although I have been able to make connections of the film, but again, nothing absolute.  

There are some wonderful websites out there that go into more advanced explanations of the film and these questions. The one that seems the best is http://www.mulholland-drive.net/home.htm which gives a deep exploration of the film, the characters, locations and settings, props and just about every aspect of the film you might have not considered. 

I don't have any full, conclusive ideas about this film, and it makes the film more interesting because of it. I would rather have the questions than the answers. But I would say that there are two realities occuring in the film: a dream and a waking one. The starting point is the dream, and then when someone wakes up (I think its Camilla's dream).

One of my other favorite scenes is the one with the Cowboy. I laugh so hard listening to him talk and the way he states things. Again, its one of those Lynchian moments that are completely full of character quarks. But here is an interesting part of the scene: He states that "You will see me one more time if you do good, twice if you do bad." Aside from this scene, you see him twice. Once when he wakes up Diane (good?) and the second time at the party where he walks past in the background after the original Camilla Rhodes exits (bad?). 

This is probably Lynch's best work to date. It is the only film he received an Oscar nod for direction, although he won the Palm D'or at Cannes Film Festival in 1984 forBlue Velvet. His early works like Eraserhead and Elephant Man are classics in their own right, despite some changes in his style. They both show equally the creativity and promise of Lynch as he has the ability to surround you in his world and keep you in that world, despite its strangeness. You accept the absurdities of the reality which is a true mark for any director. 

So in the end, I have no fucking idea what I am really talking about. But I can say that I notice more than I did the first 20 viewings. Maybe some other websites have sorted it all out and maybe they are right, or maybe they are wrong. Maybe I am actually more right than I realize. I did not read any because I did not want to be influenced by what they had written, otherwise I would just be copying their ideas. I still love this movie! 

Comments and opinions are very welcome to post in the forum in this thread.