Whether you're a fan of David Lynch or not, whenever we watch his bizarre, chaotic, twisted, and gorgeous films, we can't help but ask the same question: "What the hell is this about?"
The surrealist carnal horror film "RubberHead" in 1977, the incest-filled film noir "Blue Velvet" in 1986, the psychological thriller "Night Terror" in 1997, and especially the most famous, eerie and confusing 2001 "Mulholland Drive".
If you think "Mulholland Drive" is just about Betty Ermes, a young woman who wants to become a Hollywood actress, meets Rita, a mysterious woman who has lost her memory due to a car accident on the winding Muhran Drive, then I am afraid that you and I have watched a completely different movie.
The true plot of Mulholland Drive can only be explained by various speculations. Even so, attempts to describe the full story of Mulholland Drive are futile.
Betty's spiraling journey to find Rita's true identity introduces her to the dark and heartbreaking land of Los Angeles. And who can tell whether this is a linear narrative or a non-linear narrative?
Simply put, Mulholland Drive can be divided into three stages: detective suspense story, dream shattered fantasy, final delusion and madness.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="8" >5. Betty, who wants to be an actress, is actually diane Selwin</h1>
This is obvious to viewers who are unclear about exactly what the whole story tells, and can be explained from the first two stages. The first stage is a suspenseful detective plot by Betty and Rita. The second stage makes us realize that the detective story between Rita and Betty is more meaningful.
We realize that much of the plot of Mulholland Drive is actually Betty's own fantasy. In the real world, Betty is Diane Selwyn. After becoming a down-and-out actor, Diane became very depressed and eventually became an addict.
The clue is that when Diane meets with a killer and asks him to kill Camilla, the name tag of the waitress who serves the two of them is "Betty". In the fantasy, Diane's subconscious tries to use the name to tell her exactly what she did.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="12" >4. Rita's car accident was actually a dream</h1>
The car accident that happened on Mulholland Road at the beginning made the overwhelmed Rita feel good about Betty, which was actually a dream in Betty's subconscious.
The car accident itself has a deeper meaning for Rita and Betty's relationship. The crash took place in the same place as camilla picking up Betty to party at the film director Adam Kaiser's house.
At the party, Betty is shocked and angry to witness her lover Camilla and Kaiser announcing their engagement. The car crashes into the limousine, a metaphor for how Camilla and Kaiser really feel when they laugh and kiss in front of Betty and announce their engagement.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="16" >3</h1>
At the end of Mulholland Drive, Betty has become a former actress, her dream of becoming a Hollywood star has been shattered, and she lives in Hollywood's slums and becomes addicted to drugs. Betty then meets a killer at The Wenkee restaurant— a scene that has happened before.
She gave the killer a picture of Camilla and a large sum of money, and was told that after the target died, she would receive a blue key. The symbolism of the blue key and box is the assassination of Camilla.
At the beginning of the film, Rita finds a blue key in her bag, and when the blue box appears, she quickly disappears.
The blue key appears with the box, which means that the killing is complete. It was actually Betty's subconscious that was trying to remind her that she had hired Camilla herself.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="21" >2</h1>
The plot in which director Adam Kaiser and the filmmaker are forced to change the lead role is also a product of Diane's fantasy, which Diane uses her own way to explain her reasons for not being able to play the main role.
At first Adam Kaisher was reluctant to give in, and then we saw his life begin to fall apart. In the end they forced him to accept the inner heroine. The plot strongly hints at Diane's conspiracy theory explanation of why Diane didn't play a leading role in Kaiser's film.
In the first phase of the detective fantasy story, Betty auditioned for a lead character, and the casting directors immediately admired her talent. However, the behind-the-scenes manipulation of meetings by mysterious gangsters in the dark room, and the intimidation and seduction of the men in scary suits who look like they came out of The Sopranos, make it clear that they want another girl to star.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="25" >1</h1>
Many people don't seem to understand or wonder why the killer in Mulholland Drive kills his friend, then has to kill the fat woman next door, and then kills the cleaner.
The scene seems confusing in Mulholland Drive and is never mentioned in betty and Rita's story. In fact, this scene is purely Betty's fantasy, in fact, Betty imagines the killer killing Camilla.
There are many important clues to prove this. The first clue was Rita's head injury. If you look at the killer shooting the part of his friend, you will find that it is in the same place as Rita's head bleeding.
Another clue is the killer himself. Later we see Diane, aka Betty, meeting with the killer and hiring him to kill Camilla, aka Rita.