[This message was edited Sun Apr 20 5:27:50 PDT 2003 by AaronSuperior]

I'm pretty damn good at figuring movies out, but this one... I don't know.


Maybe I'm just caught up on how many layers of symbolism I'm supposed to be digging down into, but someone... please explain

paralell universe(s)???

try -in' 1st!

great googley moogley!

Ask Tony he watched it again just the other night!

There is a ton of symbolism in the movie... I posted a nice, long discussion about this before... I will try to find the link.



I loved the movie.

Here is the link to my thread on symbolism in Mullholland Dr.:

http://www.prince.org/msg...pid=306479

Enjoy my (possibly lame) interpretations.

aaron (brown) stumped

film at 11

a david lynch flick is like a bad prince 3 album set

theres gonna b something fer everyone

for me it was that

evil matterafact

cowboy

chills

shausler said:

The cowboy confused me a little. I'm still not sure what he's all about.

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:

---

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.

Its a reworking of a very, very similar idea "Lost highway"... with lower budget style.

IceNine said:

I loved the movie too. And I love the symbolism. I'm kind of hung up, though, on a few points, especially about the blue box and the miniature old people and the monster/homeless guy. I've got it all pretty much figured out, the symbolism and the body-transferring stuff, but I'm still trying to fit a few pieces together.


Great flick

shausler said:

don't call me that.

AaronSuperior said:

Did that silly shit I wrote above make any sense?

AaronSuperior said:

:NANA:


:WINK:

IceNine said:

actually, I haven't read it yet. I haven't had time to delve into it and look through that link you gave me, so I haven't even read it yet. I will this evening and think about it

AaronSuperior said:

Exactly. We rented it last summer in Maine... t'was entertaining, but I simply didn't "get" it.

Great asessment IceNine. David Lynch films take a bit of noodle power to understand.

EvilWhiteMale said:

In that case i will avoid them. :LOL:

IceNine said:

This is a fantastic summation of the film. I'm going to print this off and give it to people to read when we discuss this flick. I think this film is not so much a "re-working" of Lost Highway, as it is a compaion piece. Both feature a character trying to escape their reality by creating a new one, and both are driven to this by a violent act they commited due to jealousy. The major difference is the fact that one is from a very male perspective, while the other is female. The amazing thing about both of these films is how accurately the depict the different mindsets of the different sexes. Both have a common motive, and both are fueld by guilt from their jealousy. The difference is the nature of their fantasies.