Mulholland Drive Close-Up (Closing Sequence)
Narrative:
The scene begins with Diane picking up a phone call from Camilla as she is about to leave the house. The limo takes her along Mulholland Drive but stops randomly (insert “we don’t stop here” from Rita earlier.) Camilla then appears through the trees to take Diane up a short cut to the house. There they meet Adam and his mother who is the character of Coco in the dream. As everyone sits down for dinner, Dianne reminisces about her aunt and winning a dancing contest, and then her time working with Camilla and then getting low level roles because of her. All the while, Camilla flirts with Adam, shouts at a waiter in Spanish and kisses a blonde woman who looks intentionally similar to Diane. The whole situation is amplified through Diane’s fuming imagination, who, by the end of the dinner when Adam and Camilla seem to be announcing their engagement, is physically shaking with rage.
Through an extremely quick cut, Diane is sat looking quite disheveled in Winkie’s Diner making a deal with a contract killer to get rid of Camilla. After he receives the money, he says she’ll know the job is done when she finds *the* blue key in her apartment. Fade to the homeless person behind the diner (a physical manifestation of Diane’s remorse) sitting menacingly holding the blue box. Cut to Diane staring guiltily down at the blue key on the coffee table in Diane’s grimy flat. Then, two tiny grandparents (to quote Maya “why are there old people, why are they small, why are they giggling”) crawl under her front door and chase her down the hall in a very slasher-esque manner. A terrorised Diane makes it to her room and shoots herself- hence the random decaying body in her dream. The whole entire film ends back in Club Silencio, where a mysterious looking blue haired woman whispers “Silencio.”
Key Elements:
The performance in this sequence is notably different to the dream segment of the film. What was one an uncannily cheerful and hopeful Betty is replaced by Diane’s extremely troubled and paranoid character. This is seen in her timid reaction to the phone call from Camilla. Then initially at the party she is awkward and out of place, but this later progresses to her physically shaking as a reaction to betrayal. Also, in contrast to the smiles and perfection of the dream, Diane looks pretty disheveled in this end sequence- reflective of her mental state.
The cinematography in this sequence is far more subtle and subdued; and at points even completely still. To start, there is a slow zoom into Diane’s phone while she’s on the phone in quite a long take of her natural perfromance (or at least more natural than her dream world person.) Then, when at the part, the edits are all simple shot reverse shots between an embarrassed Diane telling her true Hollywood story, whatever Camilla is up to which is often in Diane’s eye line, or the people she spots around the space who serve as the cast of her dream. Mid way through this party, there is a weird random seemingly unnecessarily lens bash that makes everything out of focus and then cuts to Diane’s coffee cup; its out of place feeling possibly signifying the final switch from dream to reality (and Camilla’s final betrayal that justifies Diane paying an assassin to kill her?) There is also a random blurry bit again- which could be interpreted as any positive bits of the party being ignored by Diane as its entirely possible the whole situation is just relived from memory in the later scene with her in the Diner.
There also seems to be a slight red hue of light on Diane that gently intensified as she gets more angry and embarrassed. Then through a very fast match cut edit, the light in the Diner is cold and emotionless (strangely similar to Diane at this point…) But the homeless person outside the diner with the blue box in the tiny grandparent infested paper bag is lit by harsh red lighting. Afterwards in Diane’s apartment, the flashing white light on her face mirrors that on the Mulholland Drive sign at the very beginning and then on Betty in the theatre when she starts having a fit. I’ve got nothing to say about this, David just likes flashy lights and psychotic women.
The sound design in this sequence is so typically Lynchian. The uncanny on edge opening car drive music is replayed while Diane also travels down Mulholland Drive, and the whole party sequence is defined by a slowly crescendoing light jazz that is uncomfortably loud compared to the volume the characters are talking at. There is also the common Lynch background buzz, that stops abruptly for the diner where no non-diegetic sound is played whatsoever to highlight the extremity of Diane’s decision. There is low uncomfortable sound contrasting Diane’s high pitched diegetic screaming as she is charged at by old people, and then the dreamlike music plays over a superimposed montage of Rita and Betty in the fantasy world (both of them looking similar and so signifying both of their deaths.)
Interpretation:
This whole end scene feels (to me) like the realistic parallel to the whole dream- Diane travels along Mulholland Drive(Rita travels along Mulholland Drive,) the pair meet (the pair meet,) Diane sees everyone at the party (everyone from the party is a character in her dream,) Camilla betrays Diane (Rita takes Diane to Silencio,) Diane sits guiltily staring at a key in flashy light and the kills herself (Betty has a fit in the flashy light at the club, they both cry, find the key, Betty disappears.) In my opinion, the dream is just Diane’s rationalisation or repression of the fact that she has killed her lover.
Auteur:
David Lynch loves a good side table…
