Mulholland Drive

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.”

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).”

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”