Decalogue:Watershed proudly presents a year-long series of events reflecting on cinema from 2000-09
Mulholland Drive: Your thoughts
We want your thoughts about Mulholland Drive, our 2001 Decalogue film. Spot on or a horrible choice? Let us know below…
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I feel Mullholland Drive reached a climax when Betty and Rita gave way to one another in the bedroom scene. Up to this point, there was a discernable narrative-plot. Soon after however, the film descended into a maelstrom of non-comprehensibility. I’ve no problem with the weirdness – we expect and want that from Lynch, but I still want some kind of narrative-plot, or if it’s hard to discern, at least the carrot of knowing that there is one. But then, I don’t think the ending was ever meant to make sense – it would seem that after it was confirmed the project wasn’t going to be accepted for TV, Lynch sort of gave-up on it. To this day, apparently, he refuses to explain the ending, presumably because there is no explanation. Shame. Lynch is a terrific filmmaker. The cinematography, the way he pays attention to detail to convey a sense that something isn’t quite right – is genius. Mullholland Drive was disturbing and strangely compelling, but I want to leave a film feeling some kind of edification or deepening of perspective.
On the other hand, I might be wrong, because the dream analysis interpretation seems to make some sense.
Watching Mullholland Drive for the first time at Uni in Cardiff was a true revelation. I had been a fan of Lynch’s films for several years after catching a late night showing of Lost Highway on Channel 4. However the tone, performances and unsettling sense of menace – tempered by the usual Lynch nods to humour and the mudane made it the most abosrbing of his works that I had seen at that point.
I remember trying to pull apart the story with 4 other people in the car on the way home, decamping to a pub and spending the next 3 hours trying to work it all out – we didn’t succeed totally, but made further viewings a must.
Whilst I would have been fascinated to see how the premise would have evolved into a TV series – the end result is one of the most fascinating and talked about films of the decade. A worthy choice for the Decalogue.