Mulholland Drive
by David Lynch · film · 2001
unverified
Mulholland Drive is a 2001 mystery film written and directed by David Lynch. the film was originally conceived as a television pilot for ABC, with footage shot and edited in 1999 as an open-ended mystery. after viewing Lynch's cut, however, ABC executives cancelled the proposed series. Lynch then secured funding from French production company StudioCanal to repurpose the footage into a film, for which he wrote an ending and filmed new material. most of the new scenes were filmed in October 2000, funded with $7 million from French production company StudioCanal.
what shaped this
the makers, scenes, and predecessors this work came out of, grouped by how the influence reached it
lineage
- Sunset Boulevard · Billy Wilder
referenced
lynch named the film after the famous hollywood street as a direct homage to wilder's sunset boulevard, and he described it in a 2011 dazed interview as one of his favorite films that shaped the mood and conception of mulholland drive. the film includes visual citations: norma desmond's 1920s car (an isotta-fraschini) appears in a scene, the character betty shares a name with the innocent character in wilder's film, and lynch recreated specific shots including the paramount gates sequence.
“Sunset Boulevard just has the greatest mood; you're immersed in it like a dream. It catches a Hollywood story that connects the golden age of Hollywood with the present day.”
source ↗ - Persona · Ingmar Bergman
visual reference
lynch has cited bergman's persona as a primary influence, and the film's structure of two women whose identities merge directly informs the betty/rita dynamic in mulholland drive. the shot of the two women's overlapping faces in mulholland drive is a direct visual reference to the famous composite face shot in persona.
“Lynch has often cited Ingmar Bergman as one of his primary influences, in particular his film Persona (1966).”
source ↗ - Vertigo · Alfred Hitchcock
visual reference
the blonde wig transformation scene where rita becomes betty is a direct visual nod to vertigo's judy/madeleine transformation, and the scene where betty covers rita's mouth after discovering the dead body directly references scottie holding judy when she witnesses a death. lynch has called vertigo a key text for the film's structure.
“there's no way that shot of the two women's overlapping faces in Mulholland Drive isn't meant to evoke Persona, or that Rita's transformation via a blonde wig isn't an overt nod to Vertigo”
source ↗