Taglines: Beware what you dream for...
Along Mulholland Drive above Los Angeles, an attractive brunette woman (Laura Harring) rides in a limousine. Suddenly, the driver stops and orders her out of the car at gunpoint. Before she can exit, a car driven by joy-riding teenagers plows into the limo. The drivers are killed but the woman emerges from the wreck. In a daze, she stumbles down the hillside and into Hollywood. She falls asleep in the bushes in front of a luxury apartment complex from the golden era of Hollywood.
The next morning, she sneaks into one of the apartments as its tenant, Ruth Elms (Maya Bond), leaves by taxi with her luggage. Meanwhile, two police detectives (Brent Briscoe and Robert Forster) find an earring at the scene of the accident and realize that someone may have survived the crash. They begin their search.
At a Winkie’s restaurant, Dan (Patrick Fischler) tells Herb (Michael Cooke) about a frightening dream he has had involving an evil entity living in the alley behind the restaurant. Herb insists they investigate. As they reach the alley, a crone with blackened skin lurches out at Dan, who collapses.
Betty Elms (Naomi Watts) arrives in Los Angeles from Deep River, Ontario. At the airport, she explains to an elderly couple she met on her flight that she hopes to make it big as an actress. Her Aunt Ruth is allowing Betty to stay in her apartment while she is away filming in Canada. When Betty arrives at Ruth’s apartment building, Coco Lenoix (Ann Miller), the friendly landlady, greets her and lets her in.
Exploring the apartment, Betty finds the brunette cowering in the shower and assumes the woman is a friend of her aunt’s. The unknown woman is dazed and confused and just wants to sleep. She explains that she had a car accident. Inspired by a Gilda (1946) movie poster hanging up in the bathroom, she takes the name Rita but admits she doesn’t remember who she really is. Betty and Rita open Rita’s purse and find thousands of dollars and a bizarre blue key. They hide these objects in a hat box and decide to solve the mystery of Rita’s identity together.
Mulholland Drive (stylized as Mulholland Dr.) is a 2001 neo-noir mystery film written and directed by David Lynch and starring Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux, Ann Miller, and Robert Forster. It tells the story of an aspiring actress named Betty Elms (Watts), newly arrived in Los Angeles, who meets and befriends an amnesiac woman (Harring) hiding in an apartment which belongs to Betty’s aunt. The story includes several other seemingly unrelated vignettes that eventually interlock, as well as some surreal and darkly comic scenes and images that relate to the cryptic narrative.
Originally conceived as a television pilot, a large portion of the film was shot in 1999 with Lynch’s plan to keep it open-ended for a potential series. After viewing Lynch’s version, however, television executives rejected it. Lynch then provided an ending to the project, making it a feature film. The half-pilot, half-feature result, along with Lynch’s characteristic style, has left the general meaning of the film’s events open to interpretation. Lynch has declined to offer an explanation of his intentions for the narrative, leaving audiences, critics, and cast members to speculate on what transpires. He gave the film the tagline “A love story in the city of dreams”.
Categorized as a psychological thriller, the film was acclaimed by critics and earned Lynch the Prix de la mise en scène (Best Director Award) at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, as well as an Oscar nomination for Best Director. Mulholland Drive launched the careers of Watts and Harring and was the last feature film to star veteran Hollywood actress Ann Miller.
It is now widely regarded as one of Lynch’s finest works, and as one of the greatest films of the 21st century. A. O. Scott of The New York Times writes that while some might consider the plot an “offense against narrative order … the film is an intoxicating liberation from sense, with moments of feeling all the more powerful for seeming to emerge from the murky night world of the unconscious”.
Mulholland Drive (2001)
Directed by: David Lynch
Starring: Naomi Watts, Jeanne Bates, Dan J. Birnbaum, Laura Harring, Scott Wulff, Robert Forster, Brent Briscoe, Bonnie Aarons, Michael J. Anderson, Enrique Buelna
Screenplay by: David Lynch
Production Design by: Jack Fisk
Cinematography by: Peter Deming
Film Editing by: Mary Sweeney
Costume Design by: Amy Stofsky
Art Direction by: Peter Jamison
Music by: Angelo Badalamenti, David Lynch
MPAA Rating: R for violence, language and some strong sexuality.
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Release Date: October 12, 2001
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