Mulholland Dr. Film Blog

What a bizarre movie. One day I might be able to wrap my head around what I just witnessed in Mulholland Dr., but I am honestly not that confident. I do not know what the goal of the director was, because that would probably require me to understand what actually happened in the film. Maybe the goal was to completely mess with the viewer? Maybe it was to create a movie so bizarre and strange that the viewer walks away so befuddled that nobody can help but talk constantly about it? I do not know, but what a complex movie with a plot that must be somewhere in the script, I just cannot find it. The last forty minutes especially were just a whirlwind. That being said, if one wants to look into meta elements of the film, they can look maybe into the forced casting of a particular actress against the director’s wishes? Whatever reasons there may have been, he was stuck with an actress that he did not want. Maybe the film was just trying to bring notice to Hollywood corruption and how some people are picked for roles that have nothing to do with whatever talent they may or may not possess? It does have some connections to Sunset Boulevard, which we, of course, watched earlier this semester. Most notably, there was the shot of the street sign for Sunset Boulevard at one point. There was also the Stockholm Syndrome-type relationship featured in both films, Sunset Boulevard having Joe grow attached to Norma and Mulholland Dr. having “Betty” and “Rita” have a bizarre relationship after Betty just finds Rita laying in her Aunt’s bed. Betty could have just called the cops but did not and only grew more and more attached to Rita, just as Joe grew more and more attached to Norma, even returning after he left.