Let's discuss the reality and symbolism in "Mulholland Drive"

Here are some of my initial thoughts on this wonderful movie... I wrote this stuff a long time ago and haven't re-thought it yet, so these might change:

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The function of "The Cowboy" - It was kinda like when the Mystery Man asked Fred Madison "Who the fuck are you?!!" in Lost Highway. He was destroying the fantasy that Fred was living in... he was trying to bring Fred back to reality. Fred, of course, never made it back to reality and was cursed to travel down the lost highway forever.

The Cowboy served the same function, only Betty/Diane DID come back to reality and was unable to deal with the situation. She killed herself as reality chased her down the hall.

In my estimation, the old couple represented the truth or reality. They were at the jitterbug contest and they were with Betty/Diane at the airport... the movie slipped into fantasy as they drove away laughing at her. This is symbolic of reality giving way to fantasy... Rita/Camilla was already dead when they drove away and the movie turned into Betty/Diane's fantasy or escape from reality. The fact that the old couple are extremely small when they come out of the blue box and when they come under Betty/Diane's door symbolizes her separation from reality. They grow very large and horrific at the end of the movie as reality crashes down on Betty/Diane and she runs to the bedroom and kills herself. Reality is Betty/Diane's nightmare.

The jitterbug contest was a symbol of Betty's past innocence and it is an element of truth. The opening scene with couples dancing in a jitterbug contest is not some strange, meaningless intro; it is the truth and reality. We find out later that Betty came to Hollywood after winning a jitterbug contest, not because her aunt had gone out of town. She mentions this at the end of the movie when she is getting more and more jealous of Rita/Camilla's engagement to the director character and implicit love affair with the nameless girl.

The party at the end of the movie is the truth and demonstrates the reality Diane/Betty's situation... she is not who we think she is, nor is her life what it appears... the Cowboy walks by in this scene, signaling the divergence of Betty/Diane's mind.

The Silencio Club was used to convey the message that reality is not what it seems... There is no band yet you hear the music... the emotional performance of Roy Orbison's "Crying" is a facade as well... truth is not always what it seems. This demonstrates the duality of Betty/Diane's mind.

The Blue Key is a dual-symbol. It symbolizes both Betty/Diane's locking away of reality and the completion of the murder of Rita/Camilla. The key shows up at various points in the movie and changes from the strange, futuristic key to an ordinary house key depending upon Betty/Diane's frame of mind. It is ordinary when she kills herself.

The Blue Box shows up at the Silencio Club... in my estimation, the blue box contains reality and truth. Diane/Betty knows the truth and reality and has symbolically locked it away in the box. Earlier in the movie she and Camilla found a strange, futuristic blue key along with $50,000... the strange blue key is her fantasy representation of the real blue key that the hit-man said that he would leave to tell her that the job was done... If you will remember, the old couple comes out of the blue box at the end of the movie... which brings me to the bum or monster character.

The bum or monster symbolizes death. This character arrived at the first of the movie for no other reason than to make a man die of fright and later this character is one of the catalysts for Betty/Diane's suicide. The bum character opens the box and lets reality out... reality being symbolized by the old couple who are now very small.

EDIT: Added spoiler warning to title
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[This message was edited Thu Oct 3 20:48:53 PDT 2002 by IceNine]

yeah...okay, so ill pick at your explenation a bit then...to start:


the aunt and uncle dont represent reality or truth but betty/diane's excitment at the beggining and then guilt at the end...


hence the overzelous fake smiles and joy expressed at the beggining and then the horror that draws her to eventually kill herself...

SkletonKee said:

SkletonKee said:

The box opened and released reality... or evil... however you take it, in the form of the old couple... they later chased her down the hall as "reality" set in.

IceNine said:

This I agree with! But I have to re-watch to really debate your other brilliant points.


whatcha got 'ta say fo yo'self Kee?

see..i dont see the cowboy or the aunt/uncle as actual people...or entities...they are more like metaphors...david lynch allowing you to visualize whats actually going on in betty/diane's brain...


if you notice the name tag on the waitress during the beginning of the film...the name on it is betty (err..or is it diane)..i think thats a clue from david...later on the name is reversed to diane (or betty...errr)...that just stroke me as a key to getting into how betty/diane would mix reality and fantasy all at once...

SkletonKee said:

The Cowboy in "Mulholland Drive" and the Mystery Man in "Lost Highway" are absolutely NOT real people... they are consciousness and reality invading on fantasy. They are exactly the same character.

The name tag was a HUGE clue, yes.

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[This message was edited Thu Oct 3 20:47:45 PDT 2002 by IceNine]

oopsies..i lost track of where i was going with that...


okay, soo betty/diane is soo tortured by killing camille that she manifests her aunt/uncle as that guilt..the guilt drives her soo insane that she kills herself...

also, im not really certain that the aunt really existed..could it be that betty/diane used the money her aunt/uncle gave her to kill camilla..and could this have furthered her guilt?

IceNine said:

okay..so we agree on that...so how then could betty/diane be taken over by "evil"...every action that she takes is done for love...to suggest that her dark side took over is a betrayal of her character...IMHO

fuck! i just lost my post! argh!


dammit lost my whole complete train of thought!

SkletonKee said:

She was overcome by jealousy, not evil... she killed her "lover" out of jealousy.

IceNine said:

but i thought u said the aunt/uncle represented evil..no?

Heres what I think:

The old people are demons ... laughing cuz they know she's starting out trippin on memory lane trying to come back as the victim not the murdering lying bitch she was...

at the end the old people come back and take her ass back to hell... the realization of what happened come to fruition.

if you remember, there were flashbacks of her committing the suicide.. well at the end instead of seeing a fresh corpse of "current reality" you see some ugly dried up crusty corpse.. of reality passed.

The bitch realized she was a murdering ho and was lost in purgatory trying to find her way... came back as her girlfriend who had the better life she was always envious of... and then the trip to silencio fucks everything up. roles reverse... then she starts tripping again and final them old demons come and get her ass.

thats my interpretation off the cuff.

i have to rewatch to give my brilliant observations more credibility. lol.

The part that also makes me thinks they are ghost reliving the past is when shes at the aunts house and the cube drops... they disappear but the aunt turns around and looks...

and remember the crazy apartment dweller psychic..

dude im telling you ... its about death

nLA said:

That is a damned fine theory!

I like it!!!

And... when did you get to meet David Lynch??? Damn you!

:EVIL:

Well..I think that all of this is going through Diane's mind, right after she killed herself, but before she actually died... her reality got messed up in her mind at this point... events that took place in reality, taking her up to the point of killing Rita/Camilla, were jumbled.

She killed Rita/Camille out of jealousy, and in her jumbled thoughts she, Betty/Diane was the one that helped Rita... Rita being the lost one and not Betty.

Wait... I have to think... I really need to watch this again...

AzureStar said:

LOL! it'll do it to ya!

nLA said:

didn't that psychic look like the person behind the trash can? and what was with that black book?

IceNine said:

I'm gonna rewatch this wkend after Red Dragon... but I met David Lynch at a special Q&A screening for Mullholland. He's very eccentric but *really* nice. I'm sure he's nutty as hell tho'... and a major smoker.. i thought it was his cologne!

nLA said:

My memory is bad when it comes to movies... I have to have just watched it in order to remember anything... especially one like this! lol...

AzureStar said:

I don't know what the black book is all about...

AzureStar said:

You know Azure, I cant remember. We need to watch this wkend and re-discuss!

I'm actually getting all worked up about this movie and the possibilities that Ice presented.

I am such a dweeb! LOL

AzureStar said:

We will watch it together next weekend and figure out what we can figure out... okay?



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[This message was edited Thu Oct 3 21:11:24 PDT 2002 by IceNine]

nLA said:

I agree with a lot of Tony's theories... he and I had discussed it before... shortly after I had watched it! I think we should all do just that! Re-watch and then discuss! lol...

Your theories make a lot of sense too... damn... just when you think you've got it all figured out!


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[This message was edited Thu Oct 3 21:05:23 PDT 2002 by AzureStar]

IceNine said:

Okay! I would love that!



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[This message was edited Thu Oct 3 21:11:48 PDT 2002 by AzureStar]

nLA said:

Yeah... this movie requires multiple viewings... MANY viewings...

hmmm...see, this is why i love david lynch...the movie is just the beggining of the experience...


and still dont the demon or evil theory..i like where u all are getting at ...but for me, i look this as one of david's most straight forward stories...its about the lose of love...whats soo amazing is that he is able to fit in the supernatural and murder mysteries that made Twin Peaks and Lost Highway soo fun..but, its all rationally explained...its as if he realized how touching basic reality could be (in The Straight Story) and wanted to see if you could mix in his wilder ambitions found in TP and LH into that reality...

what remains is one of the most powerful movie experiences ever...to say that the supernatural had anything to do with Betty/Diane's actions (for me) ruins that appreciation...but then heck, i could be all wrong...thats the fun of lynch...

SkletonKee said:

Yeah, and David Lynch will NEVER tell you what he means either!

It is certainly fun to try to interpret his films.

damn...my last post is horrid..thats what i get for trying to post on a puter thats dying...ill edit it later.. lol

Aumiam, I need someone "like you" to explain me "Mulholland Drive" , where the fuck are you?