Story Structure and Meaning of Mulholland Drive - Movie Review Example

?Story Structure and Meaning of Mulholland Drive Mulholland Drive is a psychological Thriller, written and directed by David Lynch. It was produced with a budget of 15 million Dollars. From Lynch's initial idea as a concept for a TV series during the 1990's to Mulholland Drive's release in 2001, the production took several years. The film tells the story of young, naive Betty, who arrives in Hollywood to become a famous actress. Betty is tangled up in a mystery involving another woman who is suffering from amnesia after a car accident, Rita, and a film director, Adam. Towards the end of the film it becomes apparent that Betty is actually an actress called Diane who is tormented by nightmarish visions after she ordered her ex-lover Camilla (Rita) to be killed. Diane's guilt and dark visions become unbearable and in the end she kills herself. Main character Betty Elms is introduced at 1.40 minutes during the pre-title sequence. The first act starts after this sequence, at 2 minutes. The 2nd main character, Rita (Camilla), is introduced at 4.20 after the title sequence. Antagonist number 1- the monster behind the dinner Winkie’s is introduced in the 16th minute. The third main character, Adam, is introduced in the 26th minute. He appears to be a protagonist, as the film shows how his life falls apart and how everyone turns against him. Adam seems to be a good guy: He wants to maintain his artistic integrity but consequently provokes his producers who then turn against him, determined to destroy his life. Mr. Rogues, who appears to be the executive producer (financier) of Adam's film, is the 2nd antagonist and is introduced in the 33rd minute. He can be considered to be an antagonist because he stops Adam's production and orders his henchmen to make the director's life a misery. The main conflict of the film that keeps the audience hooked, is the question who are Betty and Rita really? The first major confusion arises in the 28th minute when we see a headshot of Betty during Adam's meeting with his producers, but with the name Camilla Rhodes underneath it. In the 40th minute Betty becomes aware that Rita is not a friend of her aunt Ruth after all, so who is she? Hence, Betty's realization indicates the end of the first act that started in the 2nd minute. The first act is therefore 38 minutes long. From now on, little hints that seem to lead to the answer of the main question are given. First, it is revealed that Rita's purse is full of money and it also contains a mysterious blue key. Then, Rita remembers the name 'Diane Selwin' in the 48th minute. This realization triggers a whole new set of obstacles for Rita and Betty. They find Diane dead in her apartment. Then it is revealed that the contract killer is looking for Rita. Adam meanwhile has multiple conflicts to deal with as well: he gets sacked from his own film, his wife cheats on him, and he is broke. A mysterious cowboy tells him to cast Camilla Rhodes in his film in order to sort out all his problems. When he does, Adam seems to be safe and doesn't need to fear the reappearance of the threatening cowboy any longer. I believe the climax to be the scene when Diane splits up with Camilla (120 minutes), as this is the turning point in Diane's life: her jealousy will drive her to commit murder. So the 2nd act would be from the 40th to the 120th minute, making it 80 minutes long (consequently, the 3rd and final act is 20 minutes long.) Therefore, Mulholland Drive's 40-80-20 structure fulfills the usual 3 act structure formula for screenplays perfectly. The general formula for screenwriters states that the first act is usually twice as long as the last act and that the 2nd act makes up the biggest part of any movie (usually two thirds). The ending is tragic-the main character Diane kills herself as she can't cope with her guilt and nightmares any longer. From the moment she made the decision to hire the killer, her tragic fate was sealed. The main subplot is Adam's struggle to make his movie. It starts when Adam’s character is introduced in the 26th minute. First, he has an argument with his producers over the casting of his main actress, then he gets sacked. His whole life is falling apart until he makes a deal with the cowboy to cast Camilla Rhodes as the main actress in his film. The subplot ends when Betty runs away from the casting on Adam's set, after he chose Camilla to become the lead actress (82nd minute). Therefore, the subplot lasts 57 minutes. It doesn't echo the structure of the main Betty/Diane- Rita/ Camilla story-line, as it is shorter and takes part only during the 2nd act. However it has one crucial feature in common with the main plot that continuously drives the story forward: Adam, just like Rita and Betty, constantly faces new obstacles until his conflict is resolved. For me, the most unusual scene in the movie occurs in the 131st minute. The camera moves around the corner behind the Winkie's dinner. We see the monster again from earlier on. I believe it represents death. It puts a blue box into a paper bag. Then, a miniature version of the old couple from the first scene in the film, come out of the bag. Old couples are usually perceived to be friendly and innocent but in the context of appearing as part of Diane's nightmarish vision, they are very disturbing and scary. In my view, Lynch used the old couple, as well as other 'normal' people that Diane happens to come across in her ever day live (like the cowboy and the young man at the dinner) to make up the characters in Diane's nightmare. If you don't read the first two quarters of the movie as a nightmare/ dream, those random appearances would confuse you. However, in the context of a dream, it makes sense, as it is common knowledge that people, places and events are all mixed up in our subconscious mind to shape our dreams. That's why we sometimes wonder why we dreamed about any particular person we have come across recently but who doesn't play any important role in our lives. It's the mind playing a trick on us. Lynch is allowing those visions to come to the foreground in this film, and therefore secondary characters in Diane's life become main characters. As long as you are aware that you are watching a nightmare vision for the first two quarters of the film, the story structure works brilliantly as the last act will reveal two major facts one needs to know to understand the film: first of all, that the first and second act are Diane's nightmare vision and secondly, that the 3rd act is her actual reality in which she hires a killer to murder Camilla because she is jealous. I had to watch the film twice to come to this conclusion. When I watched it first I wasn't aware that it was a dream and most of the events and characters didn't seem to make sense. But when I realized that Diane is waking up from a dream in her apartment at the beginning of the 3rd act (after the cowboy tells her ‘it’s time to wake up’), when I also realized that events weren't necessarily shown in sequence, and when I realized that the first two acts are full of subconscious, symbolic visions of real experiences and people Diane encounters in the 3rd Act, the whole film stared to make sense and all the events and people seemed to fall into place like pieces of a puzzle. In other words, Lynch visualized Diane's nightmare, depicting her as the exact opposite of the naive, kind, goodhearted and extremely talented Betty in the dream, the person she would like to be. In real life Diane couldn't be more different to Betty as she is obsessed with being famous and successful, extremely jealous, depressed and criminal. However, there remain certain surreal elements in the film that are not completely explainable, apart from being part of Diane's nightmare, for example the old couple. To conclude, the confusion of Mulholland Drive arises on a first viewing for two reasons: the story-lines and events are not in chronological order and most of the action during the first and 2nd act is actually taking place in a dream. In my opinion, David Lynch has written a screenplay that can be interpreted as complex critique of Hollywood that functions in two ways: Firstly, the plot depicts the shallowness and greed in Hollywood and secondly, the film's complex structural design is the exact opposite of disposable and superficial films that are often produced in Hollywood. In other words, Mulholland Drive is a film that needs to be seen more than once to understand it and that demands an audience's active intellectual involvement, and therefore isn't typical 'Hollywood' entertainment. Hence, I agree with many critics’ view that the film is a nightmare vision and direct critique of Hollywood and those who are obsessed with fame and fall for its illusions. To sum up, Mulholland Drive is about a young woman who is so obsessed with fame and being loved, that she will commit the ultimate crime and is then driven into committing suicide due to her guilt and nightmarish visions. Furthermore, the message of the show in the nightclub Silencio is a clear reflection of the film’s overall theme: show-business is an illusion, actors are disposable, exchangeable, as their performances are not real. The film’s theme is also reflected within the subplot concerning Adam, and how the ruthless Hollywood system tries to destroy him when he doesn't play to the rules. Link: http://www.novamov.com/video/4a86e890be6bc Read More