![]() ![]() As we travel between characters and locations, we are given a grand, romantic tour of Los Angeles: the shiny airports, the rundown bungalows, the hidden nightclubs charged with occult energy, auditions in small corner offices and bustling soundstages alike, meetings in cold corporate office buildings and abandoned cowboy ranches with blinking overhead lamps. There's even a one-off scene with two men in a diner (Patrick Fischler and Michael Cooke), where one of them describes a terrifying nightmare about a "man behind this place.he's the one doing all these things." The scene ends in one of the most viscerally terrifying moments in cinema history. A hitman (Mark Pellegrino) goes on a darkly comic killing spree, quite likely stemming from that early aborted assassination. Meanwhile there are cutaways to other events. ![]() As the film proceeds, it introduces a separate storyline that seems connected in some subterranean way: a shadowy cabal prevents a film director (Justin Theroux) from executing his desired creative decisions in increasingly baroque, ominous fashion. She vows to unravel the mystery of this beautiful stranger. This desire only escalates as the main plot begins: bright-eyed ingenue Betty (Naomi Watts), an aspiring actress newly arrived in Hollywood, discovers that "Rita" (as the amnesiac names herself) has wandered into her absent aunt's apartment. That's what frustrates so many viewers while engrossing others - we are primed to expect answers but we aren't ready for the way they are presented. We meet the potential victim (Laura Elena Harring) whose amnesiac confusion reflects our own: who is she, how did she get here, what does it all mean? Mulholland Drive is a gripping, carefully-told narrative for all its experimentation. The drama begins with a likely murder attempt thwarted by a violent car crash. Angelo Badalamenti's instantly evocative score emerges, its synthesized majesty provoking mixed responses so suited to a film about the magic and deception of the film industry: glamor, tragedy, artificiality, deep emotion. Then a point of view shot, with heavy breathing on the soundtrack, descends onto a pillow and disappears into darkness. ![]() A strange, colorful jitterbug swims into view, pop Americana and surreal avant-garde colliding as figures cascade inside one another and repeat across the screen. So many elements reel us into the first few minutes of Mulholland Drive.David Lynch) appeared at #20 on my original list. The Favorites is a series briefly exploring films I love, to find out what makes them - and me - tick. Mulholland Drive (2001/USA/dir. ![]()
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