Mulholland Drive Close-Up (Winkie’s Sequence)

Narrative:

The scene begins with an establishing shot of the cheerful looking “Winkie’s Diner” sign (after Betty confronts Rita and finds the key.) Inside, there is a man and his friend sat eating breakfast. Through a dynamic stedicam shot, the man explains his reoccurring dream of being in that exact diner and finding an evil person behind the building. The man sits shaking in fear, and to try and help him get over it they leave the food and go round the back of the diner. Through a very long pov esque shot, they do in fact find the evil lurking person behind the diner and the man faints dramatically.

Winkie’s Diner is a reoccurring setting in Mulholland Drive- the place where the incompetent assassin in Diane’s fantasy world has no luck finding Camilla/Rita, where Betty and Rita go for lunch and the waitresses “Diane” name tag reminds her of something, and then back in reality where Diane hires the assassin in the first place and subconsciously takes on the waitresses name “Betty.”

Key Elements:

The cinematography in this scene is all very normal, but completely contrasts the hazy shaky shots of the dream and the static harsh shots of reality. In the diner, the conversation is edited normally in a shot reverse shot that with each edits and more emotional acting gets closer to the main man. This could easily be still and clam; but no. Instead it’s made of constantly moving stedicam shots that float ominously above each characters shoulder. It also makes the long pov shot outside the diner more spooky and mysterious.

There is constant non diegetic sound throughout this scene- frost from an underlying white noise that crescendos when they leave the table. There is also what sounds like a slowed train track noise as the man explains his nightmare, and then the outside shots are defined by a string-like Shining-esque high pitched diminuendo. As for diegetic, there is no background sound in the diner to just focus in on their conversation, and the traffic noise outside is heightened to create a sense of overwhelm.

Context:

David Lynch loves diners- they frequent the majority of his films. This scene also has no narrative place in the wider film, and so has often been interpreted as Lynch explaining his views on dreams and fear to the audience.