Mulholland Drive: From ordering an Espresso to visiting Silencio.

 Throughout the years since I started loving the art of cinema, I have encountered various art forms visioned by various directors. It is safe to say that  Mulholland Drive has made me fall in love and insanely connected to the man behind the curtain : David Lynch. As David turns 77, reviewing one of his classics is a small gift from me to him of how much impact he has done in my life from cinematic, artistic and philosophical point of view. It is insanely hard to describe the emotions and meanings of any of his movies by words, but I will my try best having watched this movie 6 times so far. 

Mulholland Drive is one of Lynch's movies which according to me is a nice introduction to Lynch's contribution. If you like this movie, you are good to go to watch his other ones starting from Blue Velvet to Inland Empire. The beauty of his movies is that there are millions of interpretations of what he is trying to say.  He has this unique way of producing a feeling via amazing visuals along with the perfect music. These relate to the abstract ideas and dreams which one experiences during sleep : harder to make sense of them but still creating an impact in your mind. Every Lynch movie till date has created a lasting impact for a couple of days and in a good way. 

Initially planned to be a tv series, Mulholland Drive in brief is about the adventure of  two (or one ?) characters:  an aspiring actress (Naomi Watts) and a lady who survives an accident at the "Mulholland Drive" (Laura Harring).  The opening credits of the film where you see a lot of ballet dancing (reminding me of Rybczyński 's Tango) which superimposes into the face of Naomi Watts already gives you that this film is not a normal mystery film you would have thought of. The film initially hovers around both of these women and also separately the personal and professional life of a movie director (Justin Theroux) choosing "The Girl" which ultimately converge and turn into a confusing mesmerizing spectacle which leads the audience to just recollect all the events and trying to piece the parts of puzzle together like finding the blue key to the box (which Lynch claims he has no idea what does it mean :Catching the Big Fish). Adding Silencio, remembering the nice old people from the airport and the man behind Wendy's are just there to make you feel crazy. The noir mystery turns out to be a larger than a life spectacle which could be just a wild dream of someone. 

Lynch plays with the juxtaposition of dream and reality in a very broader sense and Mulholland drive fits again in that category. It is hard to distinguish what is real and that is the main mystery of the film which has no particular answer : you never know if the top stops spinning right?  Even though the scenes in the film get more and more incoherent and shocking, Lynch already makes you feel comfortable in the universe he is trying to make you visualize. The world of his is crazy. It has no straightforward meaning, has weird encounters, has a cowboy predicting your life, has an amazing bar called Silencio and the menacing man behind the Wendy who watches everything. His way of how once should visualize horror is different and unique. It does not make you scream in the usual way, it gives you an unusual discomfort which is more horrifying that just jump scares. To be honest, Bob from Twin Peaks and the Man behind the Wendy has given me nightmares.

Laura, Naomi and Justin just nailed their characters perfectly. Lynch's recurring actors from his past movies and Twin peaks were also present again.  Badalamenti's music along with his cameo in the famous Espresso scene is quite to remember.  "I've told every little star" has been engraved in my memory since then. 

To conclude, this is a movie which I suggest to anyone who is into noir genres and wants to experience something unique. The more you watch it, the more you get the hidden clues and the ways you want to interpret its meaning.  I am looking forward to watch this masterpiece again.