Mulholland Drive and David Lynch Contextualised

Career:

David Lynch (born January 20th, 1946) is a surrealist and experimental American Filmmaker. Before getting into film, he studied as a painter and used his art to create the animations for his first film Six Men Getting Sick in 1967. This short was a success, and he went on to notably make The Alphabet 1969 and The Grandmother 1970. All three of these were incredibly experimental, mixed media pieces using a combination of art and film to make shorts in the horror genre (a favourite of Lynch’s.) In 1970, he began studying at the American Film Institute Conservatory in LA but the lack of creative control he felt he had over his project Gardenback led to him quitting in his second year. The filming of sci-fi/horror Eraserhead began in 1972 but a lack of studio support and financial issues meant it was only completed in 1976. It was rejected from Cannes and NYFF, but was screened at LAFF and has since become one of the most famous underground indie films of all time.

This set in motion Lynch’s career; releasing The Elephant Man in 1980, Dune 1984 (which failed dramatically and caused Lynch’s disillusionment with the studio system,) Blue Velvet, 1986, Twin Peaks- a TV show that started in 1990 with three seasons and a film, Wild at Heart, 1990, Lost Highway, 1997, The Straight Story, 1999, Mulholland Drive, 2001 and Inland Empire, 2006.

Lynch’s career has been an ongoing battle between corrupt studio systems and critics who don’t understand (to say the least) his work. To quote him in an interview with Wired about his experience making Dune- “Why would anyone work for three years on something that wasn't yours?” Many critics have also disliked his refusal to follow typical film techniques and rules, and the overacting in the name of surrealism.

Reoccurring Themes/Style:

Nearly all of David Lynch’s films are about or make references to dreams, and to achieve this he often plays with clues and mystery; letting the audience work out if its fantasy or reality. He also uses fragmentation and obstruction of the truth to further (and make the audience even more confused) “I think fragments are pretty interesting- you can dream the rest.”

The use of duality as the theme but also the motif of doppelgängers and doubled objects/symbols are prevalent in his work. This is the represent the contrast of life as “the world we live in is a world of opposites.” Doppelgängers are one of the main plot points in Lost Highway as a man that looks exactly like the main character kills his wife, and then in Mulholland Drive there are the parallels between Betty and Rita in the same wigs, and Diane and the woman Camilla kisses at the end (who also takes Betty’s job in her dream.)

There are also curtains in basically all of his films; often used to signify the mystery and evil beyond the audience will never be shown. As David masterfully said: “I love curtains.” This classic theatrical motif often contrasts the mid century, idyllic Americana set as the location of Blue Velvet and to an extent Mulholland Drive. Lynch likes roadhouses and underground jazz clubs and diners. Lamps are also a reoccurring motif- there are lots of bedside tables with ash trays and old phones on. Not sure of the relevance but go get ‘em David?

Cinematography wise, Lynch uses dramatic shifts in focus and lighting to distort the visuals. This is repeated in Mulholland Drive with the “lens whacking” (basically letting loads of light into the sense which creates a disorienting blurry effect) and the random lightning in Club Silencio. These are often paired with shadow and random smoke- also in Silencio and parcelled at the end of the film with the blue plume of smoke.

Lynch also loves a good random shot; specifically an eerie handheld pushing in shot (either to nothing in particular or through an opening.) In Blue Velvet apparently “it had to be an ear because it’s an opening” which follows with the whole clue/obscured information thing he’s got going on. To further the visual confusion, Lynch often uses crossfades as a nod to film noir but then also similar techniques in the blurry superimpositions and random dissolves between fantasy and reality- “I’ve always loved fade outs and fade ins… don’t know why.” How convenient!

Colour is a big thing in all of his films- the blue in Blue Velvet representing the unknown and sexual promiscuity (maybe) and the red in Lost Highway representing fear and jealousy (also maybe.) In Mulholland Drive, intense colour is particularly present in the more emotional scenes- such as the red undertones representing Diane’s resentment of Camilla at the party, or the dark blue of Club Silencio reflecting the end of the dream in an almost grief-like state. Apparently Lynch’s favourite colour is black, which doesn’t seem surprising.

Lastly, sound. Working with Angelo Badalamenti for basically all of his films, together they make the soundtrack beforehand and then try and match the scene to the energy and emotion of the score- as a “verification things are going the right way.” There is little to no silence in Mulholland Drive, but when there is it’s obvious something is up. This is because Lynch employs “room tone” constantly- using sound motifs such as slowed down electricity wires moving in the wind, or just wind in general. In Eraserhead the sounds is sci-fi and cosmic, whereas in Lost Highway they’re just spooky with a Nine Inch Nails song jumpscare.

Influences:

In Mulholland Drive specifically, there are a number of different films and cultural influences that have shaped the story. To start, typical Film Noir conventions are used in the visual elements such as the backlighting of Betty and Rita in the taxi or the Femme Fatale trope Rita/Camilla is based on. Nearly all of Lynch’s film reference The Wizard of Oz in somewhat (or are just a freaky violent retelling like Wild at Heart) but this one seems to be more Sunset Blvd based, reflected in the timeless Hollywood aesthetic, or Persona, reflected in the lesbians-slowly-turning-into-each-other aesthetic… David Lynch also has a reoccurring rather questionable theme of female suffering in his films, which after reading up about (a lot) seems to have stemmed from seeing an abused naked women walking down the street as a child and thinking, quote, “It was so incredible. It seemed to me that her skin was the colour of milk, and she had a bloodied mouth.” This probably needs unpacking, but that’s definitely the job of a later bog post.