Mulholland Drive
TV ClubHouse: archive: Movies Feb-Aug 2002:
Mulholland Drive
Webkitty | Sunday, May 26, 2002 - 07:42 am     This is playing on pay-per-view right now so just in case anyone is thinking of watching it this weekend. I think this was nominated for a Golden Globe award for best director or best picture, and maybe an academy award too? I didn't know anything else about it other than that so that was what I based my decision on to watch. It has, ahem, how do I put this, some VERY adult scenes in it. It is a confusing movie, the story shifted around alot and it has an almost "supernatural" undertone to it. Very strange, "artsy" type film. |
Mssilhouette | Sunday, May 26, 2002 - 09:55 am     Yeah I saw that thing. That's David Lynch...takes a simple storyline and adds a lot of drugged out crap then people who can't figure it out call it brilliant and nominate it for awards. Most people were saying you needed to see it twice to figure it out....trust me one trip was enough. LOL The low down: 2 women...one has lost her memory the other is a perky wannabe star. After that's established then we go for a ride with crazy characters and situtations. Perky tries to help Forgot-Me-Not remember what happened to her. On and on it goes...oh yeah and there's a thing about a blue key and a blue box. Then there's a romance between Perky and Forgot-Me-Not...basically there's a lot of well, woman on woman nude sexual situations as well as the most painful looking mastrubation scene I've EVER seen a woman do, it's not supposed to look that way but it does. Oh and on it goes and we're slowly shown the movie's big twist. And even then you're still not sure what the heck is going on. Slowly it seeps into your brain until you go mad and start drooling...Or you throw the tape out the window, whichever comes first. Anyway, the whole thing is VERY David Lynchy so if you liked Twin Peaks or Blue Velvet, then this is for you. If you don't like having your mind screwed with or walk away thinking "What the heck did i just watch!" Then this movie isn't for you. |
Gail | Sunday, May 26, 2002 - 10:06 am     That has to be the best movie review I have ever read - or at least the funniest!! |
Car54 | Sunday, May 26, 2002 - 10:09 am     MsSil, but did you LIKE it? |
Mssilhouette | Sunday, May 26, 2002 - 01:15 pm     Well I thought that if he went the straight forward route it would have been a good movie. I thought a lot of the different directions are Lynch's style but the psycho stuff was a bit overdone. He seemed to add it in just to further confused his audience. You know brillance through bulls**t The trippy stuff is kinda like abstract art. Yea you know it's crap but if you stare at it long enough you begin to see something. WARNING!! I'm gonna give a slight spoiler so if you don't want to read it then stop now! Cause I'm going to summarize the plot in 5 words... To read it highlight this line---> Single White Female on acid! |
Soeur | Sunday, May 26, 2002 - 04:09 pm     Blue Velvet was unsettling enough. I was watching it on tape very late one night and kept dozing off. So I would wake up, rewind to catch up on what I missed, nod off, rewind... As a result, scenes from that movie are indelibly etched on my memory. I've been wary of David Lynch ever since. |
Oregonfire | Sunday, May 26, 2002 - 04:32 pm     I loved Mulholland Drive, but then again, I'm a Lynchaholic. The best thing the movie has going for it is that it makes no attempt to have a coherent story line--it's like two movies in one. Most movies are so predictable that....ZZZZZZZZ, they're boring. I also love the Lynchian atmosphere--densely moody and emotionally charged. His blondes always act the h*ll out of their roles, and there's usually an amazing singer who's very moving, but of course, very odd. I took a friend with me to see Twin Peaks for the second time, and she was mortified by it. Guess I'm a freak. That masturbation scene DID look painful! LOL. |
Webkitty | Sunday, May 26, 2002 - 05:18 pm     At least she kept her clothes on for that scene! LOL. MsSil, maybe I missed something, but I don't remember any drugs in this movie? I thought the tone of the movie was set because of that little blue box and the strange key that went with it. I couldn't figure out if it was from another dimention or an "alien" box, or something else.... And who/what was that weird creature thing that the man was frightened of at the restaurant? How did he fit into it? My husband said, don't try to figure it out, its just that kind of film. Whatever! I like all kinds of movies, and sometimes I'm in the mood for quirky or strange, I was just shocked because of the "love" scenes, I had no idea they were in there. At least I was at home with just my husband and not in a theater! I'm not a prude, but I like to at least have an idea of what to expect if I'm sitting beside a stranger in a theater, if you know what I mean  |
Mssilhouette | Sunday, May 26, 2002 - 06:46 pm     Kitty, I was referring to a movie in my spoiler and the weirdness as though being on acid or some other trippy drug, that's all. Not that someone in the movie was actually using drugs. But there is a scene with Perky Blonde girl talking to the fumbiling hitman where she's kinda strung out or something. I think the blue box was just part of the dementia. |
Webkitty | Sunday, May 26, 2002 - 07:06 pm     Interesting take MsSil, I always enjoy reading your reviews You remember alot more details than I do. |
Lslb | Monday, May 27, 2002 - 07:17 pm     Saw this and I guess it just went right over my head. I thought I knew what was going on and suddenly I realized I knew absolutely nothing. It's the kind of thing you can ponder for days and never figure out. Probably best for me to just leave it alone. Hahaha! |
Ocean_Islands | Monday, August 19, 2002 - 08:58 am     What do you think this movie means? I just saw it a few days ago and am dying to give my interpretation. |
Webkitty | Monday, August 19, 2002 - 01:25 pm     OI, I would love to hear what you think this movie means. (seriously) I thought that it had something to do with another dimention. (the blue box, the key, time travel?) As I said in my above post, that creature thing that was behind the restaurant seems to be a key in this. (to me at least) I can't get anyone to discuss it seriously. Friends just say its "one of THOSE movies" don't try to analize it. (as did my husband) I still think about it from time to time. Tell me your thoughts  |
Ocean_Islands | Monday, August 19, 2002 - 07:08 pm     Well, personally I think it is rather straight forward. A girl named Betty (Bitsie) wins a dance contest in Canada. Based on this success, she decides to go to Hollywood to pursue a movie career. She goes to her aunt's house to stay before she can find her own place. During auditioning, she meets a beautiful woman named Camille, with long dark hair. She falls in love with her. Eventually she gets her own place, where Camille spends a lot of time with her. Betty soons realises they are in competition for this prime role. Camille wins the part. Betty is upset but doesn't feel threatened. After the shoot, Camille has fallen in love with the director and they decide to get married. Betty plots to kill her, but this never happens, and she ends up devastated and kills herself. The first half of the film is a delusional overdose. Look at the HOLLYWOOD sign. The letters O and D are highlighted, signifying an acid trip. The car crash is a symbol signifying Betty's devastation at the marriage announcement. The blue box is symbolic of suppressed memories; when Betty finds the blue box and uses the blue key to open it, the overdose is over. The mobsters forcing the director to hire Camille are a figment of Betty's imagination -- it is her justification of why she did not get this role -- "it must have been studio pressure that made the director choose Camille". Why does the 'fake' Camille look just like Betty? Because Betty cannot deal with the fact that she did not get this role and projects herself, dream-like, into this character. Look at the '50s jukebox singing scene. The dark haired woman at the beginning (a dream stand-in for the real Camille) is perfect for the part, as is the real Camille. The fake blond haired Camille (a projected blond Betty) isn't so great and clearly is not as good an actress. Betty's acting scenes (the rehearsal in the apartment, the audition) show an extraordinarily talented actress -- unreal. It's a wish fulfillment fantasy of Betty's to be so talented. When Camille and Betty 'discover the dead woman in the apartment' -- it is not real, but only an imagined projection of Camille's reaction when Betty actually kills herself. When Camille and Betty go to the music hall called 'Silencio' -- 'silence' -- the film is revealed. The blue box of repressed memories appears in Betty's purse, and she has a strange seizure. This is the key to the film -- this shows that the film is about Betty's fantasy and illusions, not Camille's ('this supposed woman who has amnesia'). These are mere players mouthing the words to some one else's dialogue; the dialogue is Betty's. She is making it up as she goes along, and the film is a dream where the players take symbolic roles to act out Betty's psychodrama. Betty is later seen with disheveled hair, very upset. This is the real Betty; all the rest had been an illusion, a fantasy. Her life, in fact, is horrible and she is alone and desperate, which leads her to her final act. The creature thing is a another dream symbol -- a symbol of solitude and devastation. It is not real, but only a dreamed manifestation of Betty's desperation, and maybe a picture of her soul. Why do the waitresses have 'Diane's' name tag, and then Betty's name tag, later? In fact, Betty sees herself in the waitress. The waitresses look strangely like Betty. Betty can see herself in the future, working as a waitress when her acting career does not work out. This causes great upset in her view of herself, devastating her even more. All clear now? lol |
Webkitty | Monday, August 19, 2002 - 08:05 pm     Well gee, I guess Betty really over-reacted to not getting that part!! Thanks Ocean, very cool! I think I will watch it again with your perspective. Let me see if I have this right........... Betty wants to be an actress more than anything. When she doesn't get the part she longs for, she looses her confidence. She has a love affair with Camille, who is everything Betty WANTS to be. But Camille leaves her for a man. She is devastated. She plans to kill Camille but kills herself instead. Could the "monster" at the restaurant be how she sees herself if she fails as an actress and ends up becoming a waitress? (in the acting world, ending up as a waitress would be the ultimate devastation?) The blue box switches us from dream/fantacy sequence to reality? This movie has been bothering me (every so slightly) from time to time. If I can buy into your interpretation of it (and I think I can) it will put it to rest for me for once and for all. |
Ocean_Islands | Tuesday, August 20, 2002 - 09:24 am     I think the 'monster' could be that; but I think it more belongs to the dream world, so that it is not so much that she sees herself as that as it represents a fear of what she feels she either might become -- or even a manifestation of fear/anger/revenge ... or something of that nature. Let me know what you think after you see it again. |
Hummingbird | Friday, August 23, 2002 - 07:11 pm     I hated, hated, hated, hated, hated this movie. (Sorry Roger Ebert for stealing one of your most famous lines.) And what on earth was Bill Ray Cyrus doing in this dud? |
Ocean_Islands | Monday, August 26, 2002 - 08:38 am     You may have hated it, but what was it about? |
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