Might have spoilers for anyone who wants to but hasnt yet watched it.

Absoloutely brilliant film but one of thos ethat will ahve you guessing and arguing over what it all means and what actually happens.

My brother in law has a theory that is WAAAAAYYYYY to simple for a Dvaid Lynch movie. He think its simply a dream, a nightmare and a dream within a dream.....but then he never really does delve that deep into things.

My interpretation of what happens seems to be the sam as most people...yet the odd thing is that loads of peopel (including me) have picked up on a sexual abuse sub-story in the film.....but there no real hint or indication or it

What do you think of it, what your theory...love it or hate it?

Just call me Coco. Everybody does.

purpledoveuk said:

These two theories are the most common ones, and I think both are true - it's a story about sexual abuse, and it is a dream within a dream. Salon did a very thorough and oft-referenced story on the film. It's a long read but an interesting one.

I tried to get an explanation from David Lynch himself (also tried that years ago when "Lost Highway" was released...) and the guy HATES talking about and analyzing his movies... It's all up to personal interpretation, like Jazz music, according to him...

Neversin.

I think it fairly simple was you put all the pieces together.

Girl wins contest/goes to Hollywood looking to be a star.

Doesnt really make it and turns to part-time prostitution to make ends meet..not treated too good

Meets successful movie star somewhere along the way who offers her small parts in her big films as they are lesbian lovers

Big star lesbian lover messes small time actress around and ditches here for movie producer in a very bitch way

Rejected part-time actress hires hit on Lesbian lover and,upon getting confoirmation that eh kill was successful (but was it?) goe sto bed racked wit guilt.

Dreams about what could have been if she was succesful and the other actress needed her and not the other way around.

Who dream is filled with people she knows, people she caught a glimpse of,excuses why thing didnt work out etc etc but she is happy in her dream even though there are loads of time when she trying to tell herself that it isnt real.

Wakes up from dream,realises whats happened, shit hits the fan and she goes mad torrmented by guilt and visions of her sexual abusing grandparents and with teh police banging on the door she shoots herself

Silenceo

check out this site if you want all the therories..some are crazy though!!!

http://www.mulholland-dri...?front.htm


Oh by the way
...Im being naugty and trying to copy my bro-in-laws DVD but its copy protected...any idea of programs to get aroud this (free ones preferably)

purpledoveuk said:

yeah, that's pretty much what i'd assumed.

though that whole box and the fucked up theatre scene, i had no idea about at all.

loved the film in general tho'. cute actress too.

TheFrog said:

The box..I have no idea about unless it soemthing about locking everything away

but the theatre is when it all starts to fall apart - even in her dream she can no longer escape all the stuff thats been happening.If you get chance to watch it again you might see this:

The guys on stage is telling her that everything isnt what it seems,its all a dream.

She starts convulsing....but she's not fiiting - I think its to simulate the sexual abuse that she received and she being fucked...just as she stop a males grunting climax can be heard. Thats the real pisser her for her - the sexual abiyse has coem back to her, she realised none of it is real.

The Silencio bit is her Silence on the abuse issue...for good once she kills herself.


Ther are still a few lose ends I cant tie up..the aunt is one of them,who was she...she's obviously dead as "working in canada" is slang for dead. Did she know about/have soemthing to do with the abuse and bought her silence by getting her to hollywood.


The actress is Naomi Watts and she is indeed very cute and looks alot like Nicole Kidman....sho she is really good friends with

I just watch the lesbian parts
[Edited 6/20/05 12:06pm]

No exact clear theory on what’s happening, but here’s my take.

First part is a dream. We know thins because someone is going to sleep…their head is sinking into the pillow. My other guess is that Diane has killed herself and there are the fleeting thoughts she is having before she dies. It does help if we start at the real beginning….


The second half is the reality Diane lives in. She’s a wanna be actress who is in love with Camilla. They are lovers and are both going for the same acting part (they are both budding actresses) Camilla basically gets the part over Diane because the director falls in love with her. After that, Diane can’t get into movies at all while Camilla becomes a star and ends up getting engaged to the director, much to Diane’s dismay. Not only that but she even has a side girl as well. Diane hires a hit man on Camilla. And because of her grief, she in turn ends up killing herself. In this second half watch VERY closely, there are flashbacks Lynch is giving you but very slyly (Watch for the placement of certain items on the coffee table in her apt). They give you the sequence of events.

In the dream sequence…Camilla is in the Limo…not Diane. (Diane is now dreaming these events) and the audience goes through what was supposed to happen…however instead of getting shot, there is that accident and Camilla actually lives (Diane doesn’t really want her dead, but has no other “choice”, so Camilla survives in the dream.) She also has amnesia. And ends up relying on the help of Diane. Thus the dream turning Diane as the one that has to “Help” Camilla. And Diane is the “real budding star”. Though her dream also tricks her because the director has to choose another girl for the part (a different girl entirely…but her name is Camilla…again that damn Camilla has taken her role. The girl that ends up taking her “role” is the same girl that Camilla in the real world is seeing/kissing in place of Diane). As mentioned before there is unrequited/angry love between the real Diane and Camilla, Diane ends up dreaming that Camilla falls in love with her and “Needs” her. They have hot sex and then there is the Silencio sequence…which I think is probably the last real thoughts Diane is having…though I am guessing this part.

You have to realize that the names and other things are messed up in the beginning. Most of the reality comes over to the dream in a very strange way. The weird blue key is really the regular blue key to the apt (or is it a lockbox?). Coco isn’t the mother to the director…she’s the landlord. Diane hates the director, so many bad things happen to him in her dream…but really his decision for her not to get the part is explained in her dream that “he had no choice”…instead of that he’s really an ass and she didn’t get the part because of Camilla.

Parts I am still ??? about are the cowboy… The whole diner scene and what that thing is behind the café. The “Silencio” sequence.

I really wish this had been made into a TV show or something. It was very intriguing to say the least.

Again it might be easier to expalin if I change the order -

The dinner party...the dinner party is real and is the snapping point for Dianne, she is humilated when Coco patronisingly taps her hand after she says how she got to Hollywood (the dance contest), Camilla has ditched her for the director and,to make matters worse, the blonde actress who beat her to teh part in teh movie is also knocking off her lesbian nlover...the same lesbian lover who nastily lured her out to teh party just to embarasses her....she then goes on to hire the hit.

The cowboy coudl be one of 2 things - popular belief has it that he is her pimp but I think he's just somebody she spotted and has recreate din her dream. He walks past in the background at the dinner party just as things get to teh lowest point for Dianne.

The thing behind the cafe - This is part of Diannes dream again, the guy who get scared to death by the thing behind the cafe is teh only guy who witnessed Dianne order teh hit...he had to be removed even if it was just in her dream. He was probably teh guy who tippe dteh police off.

Silencio - It the shit hitting the fan at a whole new level...even in her lovely dream Dianne is telling herself that it isnt all real,her world is unraveling, the sexual abuse is coming back to her, she is starting to remember and wake up.

Dianne then wakes up flips out and is driven to suicide.

The only bit I dont get is that by teh gun in her bedside table is another blue box

ANd of course the old people coming after her are her fears.

Yeah the cowboy I think was just a person in passing who was given a bigger part in her dream. And him checking up on her in the end is just a Lynch thing.

RipHer2Shreds said:

Ann Miller was a great star

Friggin' love this movie. In many ways, it was the feminine counterpart to Lost Highway. LH focused on male jealousy and obsession leading to a psychogenic fugue state of denial on the part of the main character, and his guilt eventually destroying his illusory world. MD shows female jealousy and obsession leading to a similar state: murder, an elaborate fantasy world that eventually crumbles due to guilt, etc. These two films are basically the same theme, just with a different gender perspective.

JediMaster said:

MD = LH + BV

Neversin.

Neversin said:

Yeah, lots of Blue Velvet elements in it as well.

I've always been curious about what Lynch had planned for the TV series. I know Marilyn Manson was suppossed to have a role in it.

JediMaster said:

Mulholland was more thought out...and less "lost".

Neversin said:

I don't buy that at all. They all have those wierd elements. I think MD is Twin Peaks mixed with the Identity shifts of Lost Highway. It had more in common with those two than it did with Blue Velvet.

Personally, I think it was a David Lynch Film done correctly. It combined all of the elements of his previous movies yet executed them with a finesse that was missing from Lost Highway and his other films.

JediMaster said:

Same here man... Hopefully the rough cuts of scenes will appear on the, eventual, ultimate limited collector's bluray disc version of MD... Time will tell...

Neversin.

superspaceboy said:

I think the whole "murder mystery" element in MD and BV, with these two naive childlike characters, are quite similar...

Neversin.

lilgish said:

Yep. And quite sexy when she was younger.