Mulholland Drive

Movies
21

My argument against this movie and against Lynch stand. Acting is not about “being the real” but rather about being greater than it. Acting is not about pretending but rather about creating.

Diane, in addition to her problem of agreeing with Lynch (per the “message” indicated in the “illusory” song and dance routine) is routinely vain, vindictive, manipulative, and dictatorial, besides being a headcase. She’s an ideal person to avoid, which I was unable to do while simultaneously watching this picture.

Superimposing a constructed reality upon “the real” is fine, but Diane is the last person in the world that should be doing such a thing. Silencio was good advice… too bad she took it after the movie instead of before.

The movie gives us no reason to care about Diane or any of her constructed reality… so any sad and poignant aspects are never born.

22

That’s ridiculous. Nothing man can do is “greater” than reality. Beyond the obvious point that everything which exists is, in fact “real,” human brains are far too small to comprehend the whole of our universe, much less transcend it.

23

That’s ridiculous. Nothing man can do is “greater” than reality. Beyond the obvious point that everything which exists is, in fact “real,” human brains are far too small to comprehend the whole of our universe, much less transcend it.[/quote]

Child A has identity A. Child A then hears Mariah Carey sing a song. Child A is impressed and now Child A has identity B.

To that child, Mariah Carey is greater than the reality she replaced.

Every aspect of human identity is attributable. Great acting influences what people think humans can do, how they can behave, what goals they can have.

Take a look at the audition scene in Mulholland Drive. Even for Diane who ostensibly agrees with Lynch about what acting is this is her “star performance”.

Take a look at the audition scene. Your first thought is not “Wow, this is REALLY realistic!”. Its “Wow, this is BETTER than realistic”.

How many women look to actresses for their self-possession and their passion? Precisely what Diane was creating in that scene. Not an re-enactment of reality but an improvement upon it.

The impression of the scene was not that we didn’t think actors could be like that, but that we didn’t think humans could be like that.

Is 2001: A Space Odyssey a re-enactment of humanity? Or is it art that creates reality? And are the actors trying to be human or rather trying to support the movie in its creation of reality?

24

The art-fag pretentiousness of this particular thread is making my legs go numb.

25

Second-favorite film of all time. It’s not all a dream. Half of it is. I’ve watched it a good 5 or 6 times, and I’ve figured out why 95% of the scenes are in there–it pretty much all makes sense. If you didn’t get it, you just didn’t think hard enough.
Every poor review I’ve seen of the movie has said something along the lines of “the film is completely nonsensical.” I haven’t heard from anyone that understood it that I’ve talked to about it (and I preach the Mulholland Drive love to a lot of people) that it was a bad movie… (wow, weird sentence there, but I think it makes sense). Everyone who understood the film thought it was phenomenal.

26

I hope a collector’s edition DVD comes out for it with some good extras.

27

Don’t hold your breath–Lynch, for whatever reason, is averse to making “special editions” of his movies.

28

The only real gripe I had with the flick is that the DVD isn’t broken up into chapters. Damn eccentric Lynch.

29

Roger Ebert does an annual, open-to-the-public film explication at the University of Colorado and I was lucky enough to get to go to a session of it this year. Mulholland Drive was the film he covered. It’s basically a bunch of people watching the film and occasionally yelling at him to “STOP!” so they can make a comment (Ebert makes most of the comments).

The reason I mention it is that if Ebert ever hit the wrong button on the DVD remote, the movie would restart and there was no quick way to skip back to the middle of it. He’d curse; everyone would groan; and the long fast forward would begin. There’s a part of me that thinks that chapters in movies (especially when they’re titled) are an awkward and artificial construction of the DVD format… Of course, I once felt the same way about CD tracks… There really should be a faster fast forward available on DVD players, though, shouldn’t there? Even if Lynch is the only rebel against the system?

The DVD version of Mulholland Drive has one “special feature”. It is a written list of about 10 clues to help you understand the film, written by Lynch himself. Not surprisingly, even these are pretty obscure.

Oh, look. Here’s a link to them.

30

Typically there is – by pressing the FF button multiple times, you can increast it to 2X, 8X, 30X speed.

31

Typically there is – by pressing the FF button multiple times, you can increast it to 2X, 8X, 30X speed.[/quote]

When we got our DVD player last year, it took me forever to figure out how to rewind a bit. With no help in the manual, I eventually discovered that I had to start fast forwarding, then hit the “back” control to turn it into a rewind. These also have speed multipliers for consecutive presses like Desslock mentioned. Would standard VCR controls be too much to ask? I get component video outputs, but no “reverse” button? Still feels kludgy.

32

Not so. I understand perfectly what Lynch was attempting to do but I still found the film to be manipulative and dishonest. “Getting” the plot and buying into it are two different things here. Read over the review that I linked to in my original post and you’ll see that the reviewer understood the movie just fine too.

Chacun a son gout I suppose.

33

My Sony DVD player has a reverse speed button, but only goes to X2 fast forward.

34

Chacun à son gôut.

If you’re going to get élégant, do it right.

35

Fuck those French squigglies! 8)

36

Weenie must be from Paris. Only Parisians are that anal about their language.

“It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.”

37

The movie is ok… the character and taste of the man who made the film are not. As a result the movie is offensive.

38

Brian – What do you think you know about David Lynch from watching his movie? And why do these personal qualities affect the quality of the film? If I told you it was by David Fincher, would it make the same movie better?

39

All of these questions can be answered earlier in this thread, but I’ll do a quick synopsis…

The Club Silencio scene provides us with Lynch’s message for the film, which is that Actors are people who desperately want to be real. Any GOOD acting (classicly espoused by the singer in Club Silencio) is simply a matter of a GOOD ILLUSION.

The whole dream sequence of Diane is set up in order to convince herself of an alternate reality. She is presenting an illusion TO HERSELF… she is simultaneously her own director, actor, and audience.

Diane agrees with Lynch… thus her freaking out at the Club Silencio when Lynch’s “truth” hits home.

But Lynch’s “truth” is anything but true. Actors exploit reality in order to create, but they DO create. Thus while Lynch and Diane see the singer in Club Silencio as a great tragedy since they see her as IMITATING reality, I see the singer as using a soundtrack to create something that the ORIGINAL singer did not.

Or to sum up, Lynch and Diane see the whole point of acting in becoming as close as possible to reality, while I see the whole point of acting to create reality through exploiting the real.

And the audition scene proves my point, as Diane in that scene was greater than real.

This is far from a trivial difference… anyone who understands that acting is nothing more than an attempt to become real by necessity misses the value of acting. And by extension, audiences are condemned for valuing people who are so pathetic that all they do is try to imitate people they call “real”.

By supporting the film you also support what the film is ABOUT… what Diane and Lynch believe about the film’s reality.

As an analogy, would you support a film made by a psychopath about his murderous exploits? How about if the film was stylish, intelligent, with good acting? Or would you call such a film “Offensive”?

Only humans with no values whatsoever both enter and exit a film blind. What does the subject matter matter to such people? They just look for how well a film is “crafted” and call it a day.

I have to admit… those people are even worse than Lynch.

40

Oh. My. God.