Mulholland Drive (film)
Mulholland Drive (stylized as Mulholland Dr.) is a 2001 surrealist mystery film written and directed by David Lynch, and starring Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux, Ann Miller, Mark Pellegrino and Robert Forster. It tells the story of an aspiring actress named Betty Elms (Watts), newly arrived in Los Angeles, who meets and befriends an amnesiac woman (Harring) recovering from a car accident. The story follows several other vignettes and characters, including a Hollywood film director (Theroux).
Not to be confused with the 1996 film Mulholland Falls.Mulholland Drive
David Lynch
- Mary Sweeney
- Alain Sarde
- Neal Edelstein
- Michael Polaire
- Tony Krantz
- Les Films Alain Sarde
- Asymmetrical Productions
- Babbo Inc.
- Le Studio Canal+[1]
- The Picture Factory
- Universal Pictures (United States; through Universal Focus)[a]
- BAC Films (France)
- May 16, 2001 (Cannes)
- October 12, 2001 (US)
- November 21, 2001 (France)
146 minutes[12]
English
$15 million[13]
$20.1 million[14]
The American-French co-production was originally conceived as a television pilot, and a large portion of the film was shot in 1999 with Lynch's plan to keep it open-ended for a potential series. After viewing Lynch's cut, however, television executives rejected it. Lynch then provided an ending to the project, making it a feature film. The half-pilot, half-feature result, along with Lynch's characteristic surrealist style, has left the general meaning of the film's events open to interpretation. Lynch has declined to offer an explanation of his intentions for the narrative, leaving audiences, critics, and cast members to speculate on what transpires. He gave the film the tagline "A love story in the city of dreams".
Mulholland Drive earned Lynch the Prix de la mise en scène (Best Director Award) at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, sharing the prize with Joel Coen for The Man Who Wasn't There. Lynch also earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Director. The film boosted Watts' Hollywood profile considerably, and was the last feature film to star veteran Hollywood actress Ann Miller.
Mulholland Drive is often regarded as one of Lynch's finest works and as one of the greatest films of all time. It was ranked 8th in the 2022 Sight & Sound critics' poll of the best films ever made and topped a 2016 BBC poll of the best films since 2000.
Plot[edit]
A woman is about to be shot by her limousine chauffeur on Mulholland Drive, but is saved when a car crashes into them. The woman is the sole survivor, and wanders off in a daze; she hides in an apartment when the occupant leaves with suitcases. Aspiring actress Betty Elms arrives at the apartment, loaned by her aunt, and finds the woman. The woman confides she has amnesia and is in danger, and dons the name "Rita" from a Gilda poster. The two discover a large quantity of cash and a blue key in Rita's purse.
At a diner, a man tells his companion about his recurring nightmare of the restaurant, saying it is caused by a horrific figure hiding in the alley behind. Noticing similarities to his nightmare, the man and his companion investigate behind the diner. The figure appears, causing the man to collapse in shock.
Director Adam Kesher is threatened by mobsters, forced to cast unknown actress Camilla Rhodes as his film lead. When Kesher refuses, the mobsters remove his line of credit and the studio shuts down production. Kesher discovers his wife's infidelity and is soon asked to meet a cowboy, who urges him to cast Camilla for his own good. Elsewhere, a bungling hitman leaves three people dead in an attempt to steal a book of phone numbers.
While at the diner investigating Rita's identity, the waitress's nametag causes Rita to remember the name "Diane Selwyn"; they call Diane's number, but there is no answer. Betty leaves Rita to attend an audition, and is shown around by a casting agent. Betty enters Adam's soundstage, where he is auditioning for The Sylvia North Story. Betty and Adam lock eyes but Betty flees the set, recalling a promise to meet Rita. Adam casts Camilla Rhodes at her audition, to the delight of the studio.
Betty and Rita go to Diane Selwyn's apartment complex, but the occupant explains she is Diane's neighbor and they recently swapped apartments. Breaking into Diane's new apartment, Betty and Rita discover a woman's decomposing corpse, horrifying Rita. Rita emotionally attempts to cut her hair off, but Betty persuades her to don a similar blonde wig. Later that night, the two have sex. At 2 a.m., Rita awakens from a nightmare while chanting "Silencio" and insists that the two go to Club Silencio.
At Club Silencio, the emcee explains that everything is an illusion, and the women soon cry to Rebekah del Rio's Spanish rendition of "Crying". The performer collapses but the singing continues, revealing audio to be a playback recording. Betty discovers a blue box matching the key in her purse, and the two women return home. Rita retrieves the key, but finds Betty has vanished; unlocking the box, Rita vanishes too and the box falls to the floor. The apartment owner, seen leaving in the opening, investigates the noise but finds nothing.
Diane Selwyn, a depressed and struggling actress resembling Betty, awakens in the apartment Betty and Rita investigated. Diane's apartment swap neighbor shows up to claim her old possessions, and warns that detectives have asked for Diane's whereabouts. Diane has fantasies about her past relationship with Camilla Rhodes, a successful actress who looks like Rita. Despite Diane's investment in the relationship, Camilla breaks up with Diane.
At Camilla's behest, Diane attends a party at Adam's house on Mulholland Drive, the party's attendees resemble people seen previously. Diane explains to the partygoers she moved from Canada after inheriting cash from her aunt, and became friends with Camilla on The Sylvia North Story despite losing the leading role to her. Camilla kisses and whispers about Diane to the "Camilla Rhodes" Adam cast earlier, angering Diane. Adam and Camilla prepare to make a joint announcement (suggesting they are getting married) as Diane shakes with rage.
At the diner, Diane meets the hitman and hires him to kill Camilla, who explains he will leave a blue key to signal that the hit has been completed. In her apartment, a traumatized Diane stares at the blue key on her coffee table. Terrorised by hallucinations, Diane runs into her room and shoots herself. At Club Silencio, a blue-haired woman whispers "Silencio", ending the film.
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
Originally conceived as a television series, Mulholland Drive began as a 90-minute pilot produced for Touchstone Television and intended for the ABC television network. Tony Krantz, the agent who was responsible for the development of Twin Peaks, was "fired up" about doing another television series. Lynch sold the idea to ABC executives based only on the story of Rita emerging from the car accident with her purse containing $125,000 in cash and the blue key, and Betty trying to help her figure out who she is. An ABC executive recalled, "I remember the creepiness of this woman in this horrible, horrible crash, and David teasing us with the notion that people are chasing her. She's not just 'in' trouble—she is trouble. Obviously, we asked, 'What happens next?' And David said, 'You have to buy the pitch for me to tell you.'" Lynch showed ABC a rough cut of the pilot. The person who saw it, according to Lynch, was watching it at six in the morning and was having coffee and standing up. He hated the pilot, and ABC immediately cancelled it. Pierre Edleman, Lynch's friend from Paris, came to visit and started talking to him about the film being a feature. Edleman went back to Paris. Canal+ wanted to give Lynch money to make it into a feature and it took a year to negotiate.[81][82]
Lynch described the attractiveness of the idea of a pilot, despite the knowledge that the medium of television would be constricting: "I'm a sucker for a continuing story ... Theoretically, you can get a very deep story and you can go so deep and open the world so beautifully, but it takes time to do that."[79] The story included surreal elements, much like Lynch's earlier series Twin Peaks. Groundwork was laid for story arcs, such as the mystery of Rita's identity, Betty's career and Adam Kesher's film project.[83]
Actress Sherilyn Fenn stated in a 2014 interview that the original idea came during the filming of Twin Peaks, as a spin-off film for her character of Audrey Horne.[84]