In Mulholland Drive, David Lynch is as intrigued by the surreal as he is haunted by old Hollywood. In his Manifeste du Surréalisme, the surrealist visionary and poet, André Breton insists : “La peur, l’attrait de l’insolite, les chances, le goût du luxe sont ressorts auxquels on ne fera jamais appel en vain” [“Fear, the attraction of the unusual, chance, the taste for things extravagant are all devices which we can call upon without fear of disappointment”] (2). He argues that these attributes of fantasy and dark romanticism are qualities of the surreal. The poet Tristan Tzara also praised “l’amour des fantômes, des sorcelleries, de l’occultisme, de la magie, du vice, du rêve, des folies, des passions, du folklore (...) de la mythologie, des utopies sociales (...) des voyages réels ou imaginaires (...) des merveilles...” [“the love of ghosts, spells, the occult, magic, vice, dreams, madness, passions, folklore (...) mythology (...) social utopias (...) real or imaginary journeys (...) marvels”] (3). David Lynch’s interest in surrealism is manifested in his love of suspense and chance and in his obsession with the marvellous and unusual. Fear and wonder pervade Lynch’s Hollywood as it is also populated by a bizarre and enigmatic humanity. It is in reference to Hollywood and the surreal in particular that I will first explore the dream narrative and extended nightmarish climax of Mulholland Drive.


The Desirous Actress and the Dream Narrative : The Role of the Mythic and the Surreal

Mulholland Drive opens with a scene of silhouetted, jitterbugging couples encroached by the washed out, hallucinogenic smears of a young blonde woman in the spotlight and adored. She is both flanked by an old couple - her parents ? the judges of the contest ? - and alone. The purples and blues of the background prefigure the colours of night sky and bruising we will soon see. This is followed by a shot of a bed while the sound of breathing vibrates on the soundtrack. As the camera merges with the pink pillow, we are almost smothered into sleep. What follows is the young blonde woman’s extraordinary dream of love, erotic power and promise in Hollywood and her descent into its weird abyss through romantic disappointment and career failure. Such is the central narrative of Mulholland Drive. The actress is played by the exceptional Naomi Watts. She is both the fair and promising actress Betty and the washed-out, failed actress Diane. The blonde woman’s desirable self, the gifted and adored Betty, the heroine of Mulholland’s dream narrative, becomes the degraded, murderous Diane of Mulholland’s waking narrative or consciousness. Rita, the beloved of Betty, played by Laura Elena Harring, becomes Camilla (again played by Harring), Diane’s movie star lover and victim. Thus, the iridescent dream of Hollywood becomes a luscious nightmare where an actress loves another and where the actress is corrupted by a bizarre, masculinist industry which crafts and destroys her life. We will see that the actress in Lynch’s Hollywood is both victim and executioner.