¶ … Mulholland Drive directed by David Lynch. Specifically it will discuss symbolism in the film, character development and conflict among the characters, some of the storytelling techniques used, and how lighting is used and how it affects the mood of the film. David Lynch has become famous in Hollywood for his unusual, even strange films, and Mulholland Drive is no exception. The film is extremely symbolic of Hollywood and the dreams that people carry inside them. The film symbolizes dreams, but also sin, death, love, and the need for fame that guides so many in Hollywood.
The film's symbolism is often buried in the way Lynch creates a film. The lighting, the twisted plots, and the dreamlike sequences all blend to create another world, and that leads to another symbol in the film -- Hollywood. The characters all want to succeed in Hollywood, because they want fame and fortune, which Hollywood represents, but Hollywood also represents greed, sex, and manipulation, as the characters learn. It is interesting that at the end of the film the women turn out not to have made it in Hollywood at all, they are in the lowliest of professions -- prostitution and waitressing -- which are not that unlike the things women in Hollywood must do to succeed in the film world. In addition, Lynch uses many other symbols in the film, such as the Man in the Chair who symbolizes God, Rita and Betty, who symbolize the age-old Hollywood formula of good girl/bad girl, the Director, who symbolizes the ultimate control of Hollywood and the film industry over a person's life.
Sin is also symbolized by the greed, lust, adultery and obsession that is layered throughout the film, and the color blue that crops up throughout the film in the lighting, and even the blue box at the end, symbolizes mystical powers and perhaps even living another life (reincarnation), like the two characters lead through most of the film. The symbolism is heavy in this movie, and some of it is hard to make sense of during the first viewing. However, Lynch is famous for using symbolism, strange characters, and convoluted plot lines to create real works of art, and Mulholland Drive certainly fits into this category.
Lynch develops the characters slowly and effectively, but sometimes it is hard to decide who is who and what is happening. Betty is a young girl from Canada who wants to be a Hollywood star, and she is innocent and naive from the beginning. She does not seem prepared for the realities of Hollywood, and yet she seems to be a good actress when she auditions for the strange director. Rita is developed more slowly because she does not know who she is, and neither does the audience. Both characters have chemistry that pulls them together, and they have a lesbian relationship after they have known each other for a while. This does not seem unusual because they seem to get along well, understand each other, and have developed a relationship as they try to find out about Rita's past.
As their other characters develop, (Diana and Camilla), the viewer gets a bigger picture of who the women really are, what their dreams are, and how their dreams have colored their reality. So, the character development is slow and even plodding, and sometimes does not make sense, but by the end of the film, the viewer has a good idea of who these characters really are and why they act the way they do. Diane/Rita is the dark-haired temptress who turns out to be a hooker and a waitress in various scenes, and Betty/Camilla is the blonde "good" girl who turns out to be a shady hooker in one brief scene, an actress, and a source of jealousy and betrayal for Diane, which is why she hires the hit man to murder her. That brings the
In the heist itself, time overlaps, and actions that have already been shown are repeated from another character's point-of-view. The audience is left to pout the pieces together so that we see a character do something and then se how it helps the next action lead to the desired conclusion. At the racetrack, with the announcement of the start of the fifth race, the film cuts to Johnny, in the
Film Noir Among the various styles of producing films, it has been observed the noir style is one that has come to be recognized for its uniqueness in characterization, camera work and striking dialogue. Film Noir of the 1940s and 50s were quite well-known for their feminine characters that were the protagonists, the femme fatale. This was most common with the French, later accepted in the United States. There might have
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The fact that she flirts with gender roles and norms is equally as dangerous. For Corky, the danger is manifest in the potential betrayal and also in the eventual show down between the women and their male captors. Jessica is portrayed as a more passive figure, as a more classic pre-feminist femme fatale; whereas Violet is a more active figure, a true "postfeminist good-bad girl hybrid." Things happen to Jessica,
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