Mulholland Drive - theories please.

i watched inland empire again a few weeks ago and had the same feeling. MD+IE+Eraserhead+his early short films seem like the biggest influences on new twin peaks. oh yeah, and old twin peaks too obv :)

Yeah I think that's part of why Mulholland Drive has aged so well. The more you watch it the more it makes sense, but it'll never make complete sense. Even when you think you've cracked its logic, it still seems kinda scrambled. There are still pieces that don't fit. And there's something addictive about that sense that order is always just out of reach.

The original Twin Peaks had that, too, a fairly linear structure and interpretation with some untidy ends to keep you guessing, but Mulholland Drive and the new Twin Peaks are packed so much denser. There's a lot more to chew on.

Lost Highway and IE made it too easy to dismiss certain scenes as "oh he's just being weird," but Mulholland Drive and the new Twin Peaks deny you that shortcut.

IE is too long and my memory too short to get into into specific scenes, but i think a lot of the parts that people dismiss as lynch being a weirdo could conceivably have something to do with the plot. i read a really, really long analysis/theory of IE once (published in the classic 1998 internet style) that covered everything in exhaustive detail.

i need to watch lost highway again soon, it's been too long!

but yeah, i get your point about IE making it really easy to make those dismissals, which is too bad. lynch almost seems to be begging people to be confused at certain parts of it, whereas MD kind of dangles the mystery just out of reach at all times.

I haven't seen Lost Highway recently enough to defend it, but Inland Empire is less oblique than Mulholland Drive imo.

Wild at Heart is the one I'd call out for being intentionally obtuse and weird for its own sake. I already kinda felt that way but the deleted and extended scenes in the Lime Green set (which made clear the extent to which Lynch intentionally edited a lot of clarity out of the film) cemented that notion.

xxp Yeah, exactly. To be sure, I don't doubt that each scene in IE had meaning and significance. But a general interpretation was so far out of reach on that one that the message became "don't even bother." That movie loses the audience before it even earns one.

But you compare that to Mulholland Drive, which immediately draws you into mysteries... car crashes, amnesia, movie casting intrigue, romance... there was so much to cling to there, your mind is engaged the whole time. By the time the twist hits in the final act you're too vested in the movie to just throw your hands up

xp Old Lunch that is the most contrarian thing I have read online in a while. You really think so?

Maybe he does that more often than I realize (thinking just now of the scene in the Missing Pieces that makes Laura's 'I am the muffin' line in FWWM just a little less out of left field).

WaH is his worst film

xp Old Lunch that is the most contrarian thing I have read online in a while. You really think so?

― Evan R, Tuesday, May 23, 2017 10:55 AM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Which, about IE being more straightforward than MD? If so, then yeah. I was able to shake out the general thrust of IE's 'narrative' after seeing it twice. MD took a few more viewings.

WaH is his worst film

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, May 23, 2017 10:57 AM (forty-nine seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

100% agreed. I think I even prefer Dune.

Gifford was a poor choice of collaborators

xp yes

Mulholland Drive is a movie about a jaded, struggling actress who takes out a hit on her ex-girlfriend then finds a happy fantasy land where everything is magical just after she kills herself.

Inland Empire is a movie about... honestly I have no idea. Like, literally no idea.

It's about what happens to brilliant actresses who have career making roles in movies like Mulholland Drive and then no one wants them anymore

I mean, I guess reduced to a logline (Modern-day actress must take on the role and retrace the journey of a dead actress in order to set her soul free!), IE is a little more high-concept than MD but its presentation is more straightforward.

Inland Empire is a movie about the cursed production of a film. the modern film is a remake of another film that was attempted many years ago and left unfinished. the act of at of the modern production opens some sort of portal that connects the timelines.

i'm sure when he explained this to the financiers it was like that one scene in MD!

the act of at of the modern production opens some sort of portal that connects the timelines.

word barf, by me, zs

i just meant that when they go about filming the remake it awakens the curse and the timelines connect

i don't actually know that it's a curse, but the point is that bad things happened during the old filming, and now bad things are happening again

yeah I would think that's fairly straightforward...? there are of course a number of scenes that don't seem to connect but whatever

i'll stop talking about IE on the MD thread but i think it's a really really rewarding movie to watch multiple times, especially within a few weeks of each other when you can remember the details and see things near the beginning of the movie the second time around that you would not have took notice of before. but since it's 3 hours long and incredibly scary and bleak for so many of those minutes, it's bound to be unseen. it's a bit challopsy but it's my favorite thing by DL

I don't think that op is at all chall. MD, IE, and Eraserhead all vie for first with me depending on my mood.

(And The Grandmother.)

now THAT is challopsy, although the grandmother is definitely the best of his early work. :)

i live about a five minute walk from the Mulholland Drive cottage apartments. no rotting corpses on the premises as far as i know.

http://www.seeing-stars.com/Images/ScenesFromMovies/MulhollandDrive4.jpg

just seeing that pic creeps me out

the sound design & mixing in MD is incredible... that distorted jet engine sound that comes in right when Betty and the oldies pop up out of focus and overexposed in front of the jitterbug dance...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MLMLvSqT6g