In Honor David Lynch, Let's Revisit His Masterpiece "Mulholland Drive"

Great film.

I loved the way Ann Miller's character in the first half of the movie was jovial, warm, and comforting, then in the second half, she was kind of a cold, snooty old bitch.

Even though Chad Everett had just one scene in the movie, he was appropriately sleezy and predatory and icky and played it to perfection.

"Silencio..."

Never liked that film.

It IS Mulholland Drive!

I put it alongside "Moby Dick," as one of the great masterpieces of the American underbelly.

Is John Krasinski his love child? Serious question.

One of my all-time favorite movies.

I remember Ebert saying that even setting everything else aside, it was a visual masterpiece. I must agree. It also captures the cynicism of LA with style and finesse.

R9 The scene toward the beginning where Laura Elena Harring is wandering through the deserted, palm tree-lined streets of a silent LA in the middle of the night was breathtaking from a cinematography standpoint.

LOVED that movie. Was not a huge Lynch fan until that one. I spent hours scouring the internet for the "meaning" of the film. Sheer perfection and definitely in my top 5, which is interesting since Wild at Heart is in my bottom 5. Naomi Watts was golden in that role and Laura Harring was breathtakingly beautiful. She moved my Kinsey number from a 6 to a 2 for a couple of hours.

I had a friend ask me about David Lynch, a couple of years ago and this was the movie I showed him. I think it’s his best film but I know that’s debatable.

The list of clues on IMDb was especially helpful back in the days before YouTube had so many video essays.

Lynch was a smart guy about the movie industry. In an interview while he was promoting this, they asked if he would be happy about being nominated for an academy award. He said that since he missed DGA, there was absolutely no chance he would be nominated at the Oscars.

He was nominated at the Oscars that year. Well deserved and it must’ve been a very pleasant surprise.

Brilliant.

Thoroughly engrossing film, one that challenges the audience but inspires it to rise to the challenge with its eerie atmosphere, twisting narrative, and riveting performances, primarily from Naomi Watts.

It’s Lynch’s great masterpiece. RIP to a true master.

Love the film more than life itself.

That Vanity Fair article, though, is pure pretentious BS. I mean the writer thinks she's so clever, like "look at me, I'm doing the same thing as the movie! I'm as brilliant as David Lynch!

Guess what, babe - you're not.

The party scene with Robert Blake.

oops that's from Lost Highway.

No cameo for me? WTF??

'The Man Behind Winkie's':

Ann Miller is really the icing on the cake.

Love the scene at the airport with the sweet old couple who encourage Naomi Watts in her quest to stardom …

… until they’re in the back of their car and begin cackling like demons. Just chilling.

[quote] Ann Miller is really the icing on the cake.

What am I? Chopped liver?

Maybe I was.

"This is the girl."

Innovative director.

I love this movie, one of my top five, but it is missing something I can't identify.

The monster behind Winkie’s is nightmare fuel. I will not link it lol

That scene kind of fucked me up as a younger person.

Nervous laughter for me r27.

I'll watch it again tonight.

I dunno. Many of his tropes and techniques were shop worn by mid-career and now in 2025 some scenes read as camp.

Lee Grant said today on Twitter she was fascinated by his movies and how his mind must work, and when she was offered one day of work on Mulholland she jumped at it just to have worked with David Lynch.

Naomi Watts not being nominated for an Oscar for this is a travesty. I think it’s one of the best film performances ever.

The nominees that year were

Nicole Kidman, Moulin Rouge

Judi Dench, Iris

Sissy Spacek, In the Bedroom

Reneè Zellweger, Bridget Jones’s Diary

Halle Berry, Monster’s Ball (winner)

Naomi deserved to be in over Judi, Reneè, and possibly even Halle. I’d give it to Sissy since Naomi wasn’t nominated.

R31 I was shocked she didn't get a nomination. Her performance was brilliant.

When Betty and Rita are walking down the aisle in Club Silencio, you get a glimpse of Laura Palmer and her friend Ronette sitting together. It's brief and Lynch doesn't make a big deal of it but they're there, and it's never explained. Nor do I think Lynch ever addressed it in interviews. Another mystery from a man full of them.

You can see them in this picture.

NOBODY got LA the way David Lynch did--the glamour, the horror, the sense of menace....

Let's revisit the street and forget the movie.

the winkies scene is another all timer. he is just so great. i'm really sad about this because i held out hopes for one more great project. even the stuff he was doing for netflix, that was sort of low effort, was brilliant. what i love most about lynch is the way he chews on stress in a scene. he pushes it beyond all limits. one great example is the twin peaks return - when the gun goes off while bobby is in the diner with his daughter and shelly. different elements of stress all fall on top of eachother until the whole scene becomes excrutiating and incoherent. the conversation they're having is tense and stressful in the first place, then a bullet goes through the window, then everyone is in a panic and screaming, then as the cops and bobby try to figure out what's going on some other totally unrelated party is stuck in the middle of the road with their car alarm going off, and now the driver of that car is screaming and becoming unhinged, and now that drivers passenger is vomiting this crazy goo all over the place, and all of the noises come together to form this black hole of sound, it's amazing. no other director does something like that. the safdies are the only thing i've seen that comes close to the way lynch portrays anxiety and stress by just forcing you into it so viscerally. It's not just his sober and honest portrayal of the depraved depths of the human psyche, the ugliness and horror hidden behind picket fences and manicured lawns that made him so great to me - but his borderline naive and innocent embrace of hope, purity, goodness, there was a real longing and yearning and appreciation for the surface goodness that is too often corrupt and false. just a singular voice and vision in art that never ever compromised. rest in power david, you are so missed.

r33: Mind = BLOWN

I recently read an interview with Isabella Rossellini where she said that HE broke up with her! And not the reverse. I found that amazing.

R33 R37 he did this in inland empire too, the ending scene of that movies include other characters from his universe all jointly celebrating an embrace of their existence in a fiction

The winkies monster scared the shit out of me. Some of Lynch’s films have have scared me more than anything else. After watching Fire Walk with me I had to sleep with the lights on.

Inland Empire is great too. Im

[quote]Laura Harring was breathtakingly beautiful. She moved my Kinsey number from a 6 to a 2 for a couple of hours.

Ditto although it lasted longer than 2 hours for me. Stunningly beautiful. I was shocked she didn't get any kind of career boost after Mulholland Drive.

Interesting, r30. I've always felt like her character in MD was supposed to be some kind of double for the Winkie's bum. The costuming and styling were similar for both characters

That's what I thought too r43

Yeah but.....what's it *about*? I got a crisp $100 here bill for anyone who can tell me......

It's about the death of a Hollywood dream and dreamer.

It’s my favorite film of his too. It’s an intoxicating experience to watch, like a surreal noir-ish nightmare that I (strangely) never want to wake up from. I had seen it before, but I once watched it stoned in college and it was one of the few enjoyable experiences I had smoking pot—watching it high, the film suddenly, and inexplicably, made perfect sense to me.

Inland Empire is a close second, which is somewhat less enjoyable but still a fascinating masterpiece that’s even more of a nightmare in film. I really loved Lynch’s post-millennium work. It had a slightly different feel to it. Lost Highway was a bit of a transitional piece that led to the films that followed I think.

I love Blue Velvet of course too, and Wild at Heart. The Elephant Man never fails to make me cry. All of his films offered something interesting and/or challenging. There was truly no one else like him.

The Kiss of Betrayal

R48 Naomi Watts was robbed at the Oscars that year. What she conveyed with just her face alone in that scene was heartbreaking.

100%, r49. I remember there was controversy around the movie because it started as a TV film and then additional scenes were shot to re-edit it into a theatrical feature. But if Lynch could get nominated as director then Watts certainly should have been for lead actress. She really did an amazing job going from upbeat Betty to devastated Diane.

[quote]It's about the death of a Hollywood dream and dreamer.

I've always said this should be mandatory viewing for anyone getting off the bus in Hollywood hoping to make it big as an actor/actress

I'm always fascinated by the film-within-the-film-within-the-film when Adam is directing a scene where 1950s teens are (obviously) lip-syncing "Sixteen Reasons" and Betty is brought to the set. The shot of Naomi Watts in that ice-blue sweater is exactly like a Hitchcock blonde -- and then she panics and flees.

I think Wild at Heart is his masterpiece

Agree that Naomi Watts my robbed. You can Mary me but her performance in this movie as Diane has brought me to tears many times.

This is a great David Lynch documentary

Oops

Thanks. This is a great book.

He and Naomi seemed to have a genuine closeness and affection for each other that I always found adorable. He had similar offscreen relationships with so many of the people he cast in his films. So many actors who worked with him seemed to become like a part of his family.

The story has been told by many actors (Naomi Watts, Melissa George, many others), but he would cast his roles simply by looking at photos of the actors, narrow it down to a few, and then have meetings rather than traditional auditions. He didn't really "cast" people so much as he "chose" them. Given how aesthetically-driven his work was, it makes sense that he'd take that approach, and it really worked out brilliantly for the most part. He captured some phenomenal performances, Watts's being one of them. It seems he had a keen ability to intuit a lot and discern things about people from a distance. He was able to just intuitively know whether or not they were "right" for the story he had in his head. If they fit into the vision like he wanted, they were chosen. It's an interesting alternative to the traditional, protracted, and often brutal Hollywood casting process, and possibly better.

R48 Melissa George talks about filming that scene in this clip. Apparently it was added on after the project had morphed into a feature film, and Lynch asked her to come back to set to shoot more. She was on vacation in Bali for her birthday, and flew back to Los Angeles just to shoot that scene.

I'm just trying to imagine a studio meeting today for MD.

"What stars do you have lined up?"

"Well, none, but I've got a couple of goshdarned good-looking girls. I do have some of the co-stars."

"Who?"

"Ann Miller, Billy Ray Cyrus, and Chad Everett."

" ... "

I'm so happy that Criterion has most of Lynch's masterpieces in their collection. They gave Inland Empire the full red carpet Criterion treatment.

It was so strange seeing Billy Ray Cyrus in mulholland Drive

Not a big output, but everything he did was worth seeing. It’s hard to believe we won’t get one last movie. RIP.

R58 He seemed like a really sweet man who cared about his actors.

That's probably a big reason why he was able to get such great performances out of them.

I just saw a video that naomi watts posted on social media where lynch is directing her to slap him and she can't do it, and he's like, "just do it" and she whimpers, "I don't want to!" and they laugh and hug

The way Naomi Watts says "I'm in love with you" in this scene gets me every time. It's an amazing love scene.

[quote]It was so strange seeing Billy Ray Cyrus in mulholland Drive

That scene got a huge laugh when I saw it in the theater.

I also for screamed out loud for the first time ever in a cinema at the entity behind Winkie's diner. Scared the hell out of me

Really, the Winkie's jump scare is one of the all-time greats.

Because Lynch tells you EXACTLY what is going to happen, and you jump anyway.

Exactly, R68. I mean I knew it was gonna be something fucked up but I wasn't expecting THAT! Dear god

I have watched this movie so many times and still have no idea what half of it means (besides the obvious Hollywood hopeful finds reality storyline).

Ultimately, I think it's a film about our impulse to impose meaning on dreams, and films.

R31, Watts was strangely overlooked by not just the Academy, but by the Indie Spirits and the Golden Globes voters who liked Mulholland Drive enough to give it a Best Picture nomination. A few high profile critics’ prizes might have helped her build momentum, but most of those went to Sissy Spacek (another great performance and easily the most deserving of the eventual Oscar nominees).

It’s a reminder not to take film awards too seriously. Mulholland Drive is the rare film that deserves to be called a masterpiece, and Watts gives a once in a lifetime performance.

When Watts is "Diane" her teeth are kind of gnarly. It really helps to define the character. But they're perfect when she's Betty. I wonder if they made them for her or if they really look like that and she just took her caps off. I love how she practices the scene with Rita that she's gonna do with Chad Everett and she's pretty amateurish. And then when she's in the actual scene with him she kills it. I was also surprised she wasn't nominated because she got to show the whole spectrum of her talent in that movie.

The nominees that year were

Nicole Kidman, Moulin Rouge/Judi Dench, Iris/Sissy Spacek, In the Bedroom/Reneè Zellweger, Bridget Jones’s Diary/Halle Berry, Monster’s Ball (winner)

They could have put Sissy and or Judi in Supporting and that would have given Naomi a slot.

Love this film.

Watts' character acting turn remains one of the best scenes in any movie, ever.

I don't like all of Lynch's work.

I guess Naomi really didn't need the awards because the real award was that this movie launched her career.

I love randomly saying to myself or anyone close by in a haughty voice "We don't stop here..."

IF you had to put a narrative on a film where the purpose IS NOT the narrative - it's a fever dream during the last moments of a woman's life who has committed suicide after the successful hit she put out on her much more successful actress girlfriend.

^ or on a more mundane note, it could just be the fever dream before the suicidal death of a failed actress who never amounted to anything in LA - her mind creating all these grandiose machinations and plots against her talent as to the reasons why she never succeeded, and not the fact that she just wasn't good enough. I am sure that happens a lot more often than we think in LA, without the whole needing to kill someone first.

Alright. I've somehow missed this one even though I'm an EG so I plan on watching tomorrow night. You better not be wasting my time!

I've told every little star ........

The Academy did this movie so wrong.

The way Lynch always finds the creepy and unsettling in old saccharine pop songs is amazing.

Indeed, r81

R78 - what's an EG?

Love Letters (Straight from Your Heart) was a nice touch in Blue Velvet.

r83 Eldergay, I think

Sixteen Reasons

R78 You won't regret it.

If you actually see a picture of the bum behind Winkie's, it becomes even more disturbing.

It's a woman, not a man.

She appears to be horribly burned.

Her appearance is that of a witch.

Not worse than looking at Lee Grant's ruined face. Yikes.

Llorando by Rebekah Del Rio is superb.

The apartment building where Ann Miller is landlady in the film is Le Borghese, one of the architecturally greatest courtyard apartments in the city.

A sow's ear into a silk purse.

He was a genius in the way he rescued failed, abandoned scraps into wonderment

And of course r90 Llorando by Rebekah Del Rio is just Roy Orbison's Crying in Spanish, which fits perfectly into the tone of the film of duplicity and things not being what they seem.

Eraserhead is another Lynch film I love rewatching and reading different interpretations.

[quote] Agree that Naomi Watts my robbed. You can Mary me but her performance in this movie as Diane has brought me to tears many times.

MARY!!!!

I just realized how much Mulholland Drive lives rent free in my head.

I probably think about this film more than any other.

Lynch was smart about never answering questions about the twists and turns in his movies. I never knew that Naomi Watts had toiled for ten years in Hollywood without work before the got this role. I thought she was a newcomer.

Naomi likes to look back with anger but she did actually get work.

R93...."Just"?

She sent it through the fucking wall.

I prefer Alan Rudoph's Trouble in Mind any day.

R99 the JUST want about her performance. It was more referencing the comment about Lynch finding these older songs and making them very haunting like Every Little Star or Blue Velvet.

When I saw MD at the theater, I was disappointed that I didn’t get the “brilliance” everyone was raving about. The performances were fantastic, but I was confused by the film. I think if I had access to an online discussion of the film I would have appreciated it more at the time.

Me too R102 and it sent me on a deep dive into the meaning of the movie which was available on the Internet.

R102 / R103 After first viewing, I dismissed MD as nothing more than a David Lynch fever dream but it stuck in my mind to the point where I had to dig deeper - what was I missing? I still watch it occasionally and am impressed by its structure and the performances.

R103 I had limited internet at that time (and dialup).

Recently re-watching, I notice that Betty is passing through a series of gates. The LA airport, the magnificent apartment building, Paramount Studios. Are there the gates of heaven or the underworld? Is there a difference, ultimately?

The woman behind the dumpster is Bonnie Aarons. She is also famous for playing the demonic nun Valak in The Conjuring film series and its spin-offs.

It's a Mobius strip

^^what is?

The movie, you dope!

r108 I think Lost Highway is more of a Mobius strip.

The main explanation is that it's half idealized dream and half harsh cold reality. In my opinion it also represents duality.

Camilla Rhodes represents the actress who pretends to be an innocent ingenue but is a calculating fame hungry woman who successfully uses and discards people to get to the top.

Betty represents a genuinely talented actress who shows promise but ends up quickly burning out, only getting minor roles, suffering mental health issues and addiction before ultimately dying tragically in scandalous circumstances and ultimate semi-obscurity.

Adam represents a small time director who after several personal setbacks sells out and becomes a major arrogant egotistical jerk (even more so than he was in the beginning).

Coco represents the old star who is professional, supportive, kind and patient but not as kind and patient as she comes across. She's world weary and no nonsense. She's the type who will act very friendly and motherly but the next time you meet her she's not as nice and will barely remember you ("let's do lunch").

The hitman supplies drugs, prostitutes and other unsavory favors to the Hollywood elite.

The cowboy represents the old time fixers in Golden Hollywood. Clearly works for the mafia that have a large piece of the industry under their control. You don't want to cross him more than once.

Don't know who the elderly couple represent.

Shout out as well to Angelo Badalamenti’s sublime music. The title theme completely encapsulates the glamour, sophistication, and yet dark undertone of Hollywood. It fits the film like a glove. It’s sensual, yet brooding and menacing. The scene of the limo driving up Mulholland drive at night with this theme playing gives me the shivers.

Angelo Badalamenti’s phrasing of “Napkin!” as he spits out the disgusting espresso lives with me to this day. It’s the only way to say it when asking for a napkin.

It's no David Lynch "Dune"!

It's a good movie, a positive movie.

Getting out of the car and climbing to the party.

R117 Camilla was slowly easing Diane out of her life. Diane was obviously not on the guest life for the above reason. She snuck Diane in so she could make it crystal clear to her that she has moved on with Adam, that they were getting engaged and she should read the writing on the wall and take the hint once and for all that they were completely done.

Spectacular.

The best movie so far of the 21st Century.

Didn't understand it, still don't but his films and his television projects are disturbingly memorable. And yes, he had an amazing eye. All of the leads in Twin Peaks, male and female, were knockouts.