Mulholland Drive

[Manuel V. Cabrera Jr.]

I've seen it twice now, and i can't say enough good things about it.  I was a
huge fan of "Lost Highway", but now the latter seems almost to have been a dry
run for MD.  I think Lynch has really perfected a certain way of dealing with
slipping identities.  He was playing with this in LH, but the underlying
narrative of Fred Madison murdering his wife, thanks to a slip by Barry Gifford
in an interview, threatened to obscure what was most interesting about it with
the uninsightful commentaries that consequently ensued over what was 'real' and
what was 'fantasy' or 'delusion'.  Lynch is careful in MD not to leave much room

open for this.  To use a figure coined by Slavoj Zizek (whose work on Lynch is
the best such critical work I've seen, despite its failings), MD seems to give
us a loop-like narrative where multiple diverging possibilities are constantly
created but which fatalistically always converge on the same traumatic
inevitability.  Stragely enough, Zizek never used this kind of reading with
Lynch, but has applied it principaly to the work of Kieslowski.  In any case,
I'm more inclined to say that is "Lost Highway" was a kind of Moebius strip,
then MD is a Klein Bottle--no edges to grasp hold of in trying to discern figure

from ground in any consistent way.  It's his best film to date, to my mind...

                                                                mandel cabrera

Don Corathers wrote:

> For those who have seen Mulholland Drive, a question for discussion, which
> we can pursue offline if this subject is too NP, although it might be a
> pleasant diversion from the Current Topic.
>
> Multiple choice: the geometric figure that best describes the plotline of
> this film is:
>
> a. A circle.
> b. Two (or more) circles in parallel planes.
> c. Two tangential circles.
> d. A spiral.
> e. A double helix.
> f. None of the above.
> g. All of the above.
> h. Not dreamt of in our philosophy, Horatio.
>
> With Lynch, there is usually a point in the experience when I ask myself
> what I will call the Giles Goat-Boy Question, which goes: "Is he really
> doing something here, or just fucking with me?" One of the virtues of
> Mulholland Drive is that it never gives you a moment to doubt its sincerety.
> That might come later, as you try to sort it out with your date over a beer.
> By then it doesn't matter. What lingers after a dream is not the sense of
> it, but the way it changed your brain chemistry while it was happening. And
> the conviction that if you could only hold the whole thing in your head all
> at once, it *would* make sense.
>
> To Thomas's list of memorable scenes I would add the set piece in the office
> of the young private detective, for which Mr. Lynch should receive a comic
> violence patent.
>
> Don Corathers
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Thomas Eckhardt" <thomaseckhardt at yahoo.de>
> To: "Dave Monroe" <davidmmonroe at yahoo.com>; "'Pynchon List'"
> <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Monday, October 22, 2001 3:00 PM
> Subject: Mulholland Drive
>
> > David Monroe wrote, about "Mulholland Drive",
> >
> > > Convince me.
> >
> > I am afraid this can't be done. A work of art usually
> > either works for you or it doesn't, and I think this
> > is especially true for the movies. What I like about
> > Lynch's best movies is that they fill me with a sense
> > of wonder. He forces me by means of his craft to
> > suspend my disbelief ("unwilling suspension of
> > disbelief" anyone?) and enter a slightly parallel
> > universe. These are cliches but, yes, I am thinking of
> > "confounding expectations" and narratives resembling
> > dreams - not totally incoherent but also not making
> > complete sense to the waking mind. See also "Vertigo"
> > and "Suspiria".
> >
> > And "MD" contains scenes of breathtaking beauty. The
> > performance of Orbison's "Crying" in that mysterious
> > nightclub, for example. The scene at first seems to be
> > a rather heavy-handed approach to the perennial "what
> > you see (or hear in this case) is just an illusion"
> > topos. But this rational thought vanishes as we listen
> > to this incredibly beautiful version of this song, a
> > performance so immediate and overwhelming that the
> > illusion, so to speak, takes on a reality of its own.
> > Something similar happens in the audition scene.
> >
> > It is a trick very similar to that moment in "Blue
> > Velvet" in which Dean Stockwell performs "In Dreams" -
> > a scene which Greil Marcus once accurately described
> > with the words: "Suddenly, for no apparent reason, the
> > whole movie seems to implode." (quoted from memory) -
> > which is one of my favourite movie scenes of all time.
> >
> >
> > I could go on, but I still have some sightseeing and
> > beachwalking left to do. I'll try to find the time to
> > see "Waking Life" in the remaining few days. Thanks
> > for the recommendation.
> >
> > Thomas
> >
> > __________________________________________________________________
> >
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> >
> >