In this section of our Colossus Movie Guide for Mulholland Drive, we talk about themes that help us understand the film.
As a primer, be sure to check out David Lynch’s ten clues about Mulholland Drive. The director provided these clues as a helpful guide since the movie’s plot was so confusing.
Cast
- Naomi Watts – Betty Elms/Diane Selwyn
- Laura Harring – Rita/Camilla Rhodes
- Justin Theroux – Adam Kesher
- Ann Miller – Coco
- Mark Pellegrino – Joe
- Robert Forster – Detective McKnight
- Brent Briscoe – Detective Domgaard
- Dan Hedaya – Vincenzo Castigliane
- Angelo Badalamenti – Luigi Castigliane
- Michael J. Anderson – Mr. Roque
- Bonnie Aarons – Bum
- Monty Montgomery – The Cowboy
- Melissa George – Camilla Rhodes
- Billy Ray Cyrus – Gene
- Patrick Fischler – Dan
The themes and meaning of Mulholland Drive
Buying into the Hollywood Dream
At the very beginning of the movie, we watch several people dance. As we’ll find out later in the movie, this was a Jitterbug dance contest that Diane won in her Canadian hometown. This triggered a desire to become a movie star, so she moved to Los Angeles to pursue her dreams like her Aunt Rita. Diane has dewey-eyed visions of what Hollywood is like, how amazing it will be to become a movie star. After all, she has talent. Why wouldn’t she make it?
But things don’t go Diane’s way. She fails to land lead roles in audition after audition, and loses a huge part to Camilla in Adam Kesher’s new movie. Diane falls in love with Camilla, perhaps because she so deeply romanticizes the idea of becoming a movie star that she decides to date one. But that affection soon turns into jealously and rage as Camilla starts to date Adam and her career takes off. This rejection from Hollywood pushes Diane to hire a hitman to murder Camilla.
This entire character arc is a condemnation of the “Hollywood Dream” sold to many young, aspiring actors and filmmakers. Lynch himself discussed this in depth during an interview with Chris Rodley:
This particular girl—Diane—sees things she wants, but she just can’t get them. It’s all there—the party—but she’s not invited. And it gets to her. You could call it fate—if it doesn’t smile on you, there’s nothing you can do. You can have the greatest talent and the greatest ideas, but if that door doesn’t open, you’re fresh out of luck. It takes so many ingredients and the door opening to finally make it. There are jokes about how in L.A. everyone is writing a script and everyone has got a résumé and a photo. So there’s a yearning to get the chance to express yourself—a sort of creativity in the air. Everyone is willing to go for broke and take a chance. It’s a modern town in that way. It’s like you want to go to Las Vegas and turn that one dollar into a million dollars.
When you go to Hollywood, you’re taking a huge chance. The “movie star life” that’s been sold to so many only comes to fruition for a precious few. Meanwhile, everyone else is fighting for scraps. Lynch uses Mulholland Drive (which also the name of a famous winding road where many celebrities have lived and many people have died in car crashes) as a cautionary tale for people who have bought into Hollywood’s giant lie.
The thin line between fantasy and reality
We can extend the above theme beyond Hollywood. This is a familiar feeling to which anybody can relate. We feel pressure to excel in our jobs, in our hobbies, in our intellect. Sell more. Write more. Read more. Do more. Achieve more. And if you don’t achieve more, then you’re a failure.
This is nothing but a lifestyle that’s sold to us—a fantasy. And when you don’t achieve this fantasy, it can lead to isolation, anxiety, depression. And the only way to combat all those negative emotions is to confront the lie that you have to accomplish more to be more. You can define success for yourself and be happy with the trajectory of your path.
Diane is a hopeless case who never tended to her mental needs. She bought further and further into the Hollywood Dream, and allowed it to dominate her mental scape. So instead of congratulating Camilla on her hard work, she decides to eliminate Camilla. Instead of recognizing that the Hollywood Dream is a scam, she dreams an entire movie where she succeeds an actress. Instead of forging a healthier path for herself, she takes her own life.
Diane thinks she imagines a better life when she lays down to sleep. But in that dream, she’s confronted with all the same negativity that flooded her real life. She can’t escape her reality. She can’t accept that life is ugly and full of unfair moments. The “fantasy” sold to us is nothing more than an image, a mirage. It looks nice and welcoming, but once we’re in it, it doesn’t shield us from the universal struggles of life. The further and further you dip into that fantasy, the harder and harder reality becomes to deal with.
What are your thoughts?
Are there more themes you think should be part of the Colossus Movie Guide for Mulholland Drive? Leave your comments below and we’ll consider updating the guide.
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