Mulholland Drive

Hm. Apparently Lynch actually first heard "Crying," which led to him listening to more of the Big O and putting "In Dreams" in Blue Velvet. In my own Silencio Repertory Theater I will imagine how he would use "Leah" in a scene.

Or what would have happened if he had discovered The Louvin Brothers instead.

Here's Lynch on that song:

Rebekah just wanted to come over for a coffee and sing in front of us. She didn't want to record anything, but she came in and four minutes later—I think before she'd had her coffee—she's in the booth. And the one take that she sang, four minutes off the street, is the vocal that's in the film. THE ACTUAL RECORDING!

The weird thing is that she chose to sing that particular Roy Orbison song. I was about to start shooting Blue Velvet, and "Crying" came on the radio. I said, "Jeez! I've got to get that song to see if it would work in the film." In the end, it wasn't quite right, but I started listening to other cuts, and "In Dreams" came up. (...) Rebekah knows Barbara Orbison, Roy's second wife, and she's the one who translated "Crying" into Spanish, but it's just so strange that that was the song that was almost in Blue Velvet.

Oh, so that's why there is a Barbara Orbison credit/thanks in there. Great story, thanks!

I watched Bergman’s Persona last night, on HBO Max. I saw it college, but barely remembered the details (I’m just kultured enuff to have caught the general allusions in MD). It’s an interesting film; not exactly a masterpiece (though who am I to say). Awesome performances, of course.

Maybe I’ll revisit Altman’s 3 Women at some point (another one I saw decades ago), as I know it’s another touchpoint.

Hour of the Wolf is another Bergman that has something in common with a number of Lynch films - a character disintegrating into his fantasies (or being victimized by their embodiment).

Huh, never heard of that one

I wouldn't recommend it unless you've watched 60 other Bergman films.

3 women has many parallels with MD imo

The Silence has a number of shots in it that seem to have heavily influenced Lynch too. Basically he's a Bergman disciple.

Hadn’t thought about that but yeah.

I wouldn't recommend it unless you've watched 60 other Bergman films.

I love Bergman's films from 1963 - 1969 and am ambivalent about the rest. I'd like to see The Touch, although the only critic who admired it was Robin Wood.

I wouldn't recommend it unless you've watched Hour of the Wolf first.

Heh

I saw a handful in college, but the only one I have a strong memory of is Scenes From a Marriage (which I loved).

Previously I was only aware of the Ingrid Bergman connection.

Just want to call out my favorite shot from the movie. The long zoom-out at the start of this clip, from what looks like a live musical performance to what is then revealed as a radio broadcast and then as a filmed scene of a radio broadcast. It breaks the 4th wall and just keeps on breaking them. I think it's a perfect little encapsulation of what the movie has to say about both filmmaking and storytelling in general, including the stories we tell ourselves. Also, it's just gorgeous to watch.

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Monday, April 19, 2021 12:00 PM (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

man good post have not watched this in too long, its kind of sad the popular conception of lynch is dark/weird/abstract which doesnt give him credit for mastery of the form

Silencio.

I really have to ban myself from using the word vertiginous when talking about certain lynch moments but that (and inland empire locomotion) is this incredible moment where you feel the trapdoor give

El resto es silencio.

I think Hour of the Wolf was maybe the 4th Bergman film I watched and I still like it, totally worth seeing as long as you like the idea of Bergman doing gothic horror.

Yeah, I remember enjoying it, but that it was kind of atypical, Bergman-lite maybe, like almost a self-parody or close to what detractors thought he was doing.

Max von Sydow didn't turn into a werewolf, so it sucked

Count Floyd: "Oh well, it wasn't scary but they got depressed at the end, didn't they, kids? You think it's not scary to be depressed? Did you see them? They, they couldn't... function in this world... with the faces... all those faces..."

Watched this again last night and the crescendo of the old couple slipping under the door and terrorizing Diane until she finds the gun to end her screams ... it's just unbelievable what this guy does with overlapping images and sounds and effects. Nothing else like it in film excepting maybe the end of The Return.

Yep. Besides all his weirdness and originality, he's also just a virtuoso of image and sound.

Lol at Count Floyd coming over from the Midnight Cowboy thread. #onethread

What's amazing is how the old couple are smiling in exactly the same way at the beginning and end of the film. They might even be more terrifying in that hired car after meeting Betty/Diane.

Yeah, that whole thing is WTF.

Like where are they going and why are they behaving that way?

Having not watched this in the intervening decades since it came out all I could remember was the prurient interest and the general vibe, so was pleasantly surprised how much good stuff there was from beginning to end to appreciate. I don’t have much to add on that front. Trying to think of their is any use in comparing with a film on a somewhat similar theme, The Limey, but the two movies are so different, maybe don’t want to go there.

Also trying to remember the substance of a National Lampoon Bergman parody I read once, The Høwl of the Muppets.

xxp the smiles and laughter of the old couple are echoed by Adam Kesher and Camilla Rhodes later in the film
https://www.mulholland-drive.net/pics/cast/oldcouple1.jpg
https://www.mulholland-drive.net/pics/cast/adam_camilla.jpg
(images from mulholland-drive.net where of course someone noticed it way before I did https://www.mulholland-drive.net/theories/18.htm )

That’s an interesting pairing of images, but it’s hard to take a site seriously that conflates the two different “realities”:

First, we've seen how the hitman operates. It is hardly a stretch to imagine him taking out Adam in the process of killing Camilla. In fact, I think it's a bit of a stretch to imagine him killing ONLY Camilla. This guy murdered a vacuum sweeper for crying out loud.

(FWIW, I only vaguely know what to make of the old couple, but it does seem awfully reductive to declare they “represent Adam and Camilla”)

I don't think the hitman is in the dream reality, he doesn't interact with any of those characters. Some "reality" elements are intercut with Diane's Betty dream (e.g. Dan in the diner). Oddly Adam is the only character who seems to have continuity/identity through both worlds, although several faces repeat.
And no, I don't think that the old couple "represent Adam and Camilla" any more than the diner waitress Betty/Diane "represents" Diane/Betty. The whole film is about twinning, representation, offset realities, dream logic.

Oh, that’s interesting, I definitely don’t agree with that first part of what you wrote… but cool to hear the idea! I guess there’s a lot of ways to read even just the basic “presentation” of the movie.

tbh I'm not even sure I agree with myself!

I mentioned this movie to a friend, and he wrote: “Napkin… NAPKIN!!!!!”

So I guess there are more memorable quotes than I initially thought.

So glad I watched this again.

I’m watching Barry Lyndon—there’s a nice analogue of the dinner party scene near the beginning of the movie (it doesn’t play out the same way, of course…).