Monday, September 24, 2007

Mulholland Drive by David Lynch


Dreams are more potent than reality. We might live numbly through our days and nights, but in our dreams, the feelings, regrets, aches, fears and hopes pulsate with a strange intensity. We can cry in our dreams, we can be mortally afraid, we can feel an intense longing in our dreams which has no outlet in our waking lives.

Some random notes:

Why does the assassin mess up? Diane wishes him to be a mediocre, error-prone murderer. In her heart, she does not want Camilla to die.

Who is the young man who has nightmares? It is Diane, transferred into his body. She is the one who has nightmares (she has had recurring dreams about the diner). The psychoanalyst is a symbol for the organized part of our selves, which is well-dressed, has a clean, shaved face, regular features, and who knowingly looks at us, knowing all our secrets but in denial.

Adam Kesher is also another face of Diane. The world is corrupt. And what is our wish in the face of this corruption? "I am going home." "I am going home." (Adam Kesher after his meeting with the mafia). And if home too is a den of rejection and betrayal? There is nowhere to go.

When Rita mumbles in her dream "No Hay Banda" and is woken up, she tells Betty, "Go with me somewhere." Where are they at present? They come out and see something pasted on a pole: "Is Hell".

"There is no band"! This is but a dream. In face of extreme suffering within a dream, we do get messages within the dream that it is a dream, so that we can wake up. Diane does wake up soon after this message, in a daze.

Who is the streetwalker? She takes something from the assassin's shirt pocket. Remember the assassin had the blue key in the very same shirt pocket.

...

This is movie which made me sadder than a thousand other movies about heartbreak. David Lynch has crafted a true masterpiece of world cinema by presenting the immeasurably haunting vision of what tears mean, deep down.

The acting by Naomi Watts is exemplary, a shining light of artistic excellence.

Recommendation: Masterpiece.

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