Mulholland Drive
マルホランド・ドライブ
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
An aspiring actress and an amnesiac in Hollywood; the second half revokes everything the first half promised.
Late at night on Mulholland Drive, above Los Angeles, a dark-haired woman in an evening dress is about to be shot by her driver when another car smashes into theirs. She survives with no memory, walks down into the city and hides in an empty apartment. In the morning she is found by Betty Elms, a bright, hopeful actress just arrived from Deep River, Ontario, who is staying at her aunt's. The stranger takes the name Rita from a Rita Hayworth poster. In her purse are a large sum of cash and a strange blue key.
Around them the city runs on threats. A director, Adam Kesher, is pressured by mobsters to cast an unknown blonde, Camilla Rhodes, in his new film. When he refuses, his production is shut down, he comes home to find his wife with another man, and a mysterious cowboy warns him to give in. A bungling hitman botches a job, killing bystanders. Rita remembers a name: Diane Selwyn. Betty gives a startling audition, shares a long look with Adam across a soundstage, and slips away. Adam casts Camilla.
At Diane Selwyn's apartment Betty and Rita find a woman's body, long dead. Betty disguises the terrified Rita in a blonde wig. That night they make love, and Betty tells her she is in love with her. At Club Silencio, where the host insists everything is recorded, a singer performs 'Crying' in Spanish, and both women weep. Betty finds a blue box in her purse. Back home Rita opens it with the key, and Betty is gone; then so is Rita.
The film turns. Diane Selwyn, a failing, depressed actress who looks exactly like Betty, wakes in the room where the body lay. Her memories come in pieces: a love affair with the actress Camilla Rhodes, who looks like Rita, and its end; losing the lead in Adam's film to Camilla; a dinner party where Adam announces he and Camilla will marry. Diane paid the hitman to kill Camilla, and a blue key was to be the sign the job was done. Now the key lies on her coffee table. Hounded by hallucinations, Diane takes her own life in her bedroom. Betty and Rita appear, smiling at each other, and at Club Silencio a woman whispers 'silencio'.
Starring
Naomi Wattsas Betty Elms / Diane Selwyn
A sunny young actress newly arrived in Hollywood; in the film's last part, a failing actress consumed by a lost love.
Betty Elms / Diane Selwyn’s story
Betty arrives in Los Angeles from Canada and finds a frightened woman with no memory hiding in her aunt's apartment. She helps 'Rita' look for her name, gives a startling audition, shares a long look with Adam Kesher, and slips away to meet Rita. At Diane Selwyn's apartment they find a dead woman; that night Betty tells Rita she loves her. At Club Silencio she weeps, finds a blue box in her purse, and vanishes. The film turns to Diane Selwyn, a depressed, failing actress who looks exactly like her, and her memories: an affair with the actress Camilla Rhodes and its end, the lead she lost to Camilla, Adam announcing their engagement. Diane paid a hitman to kill Camilla; the blue key on her table says it is done. Hounded by hallucinations, she takes her own life.
Laura Harringas Rita / Camilla Rhodes
A woman who loses her memory in a car crash; in the last part, the actress Diane loved and lost.
Rita / Camilla Rhodes’s story
On Mulholland Drive, a dark-haired woman is about to be shot by her driver when another car crashes into theirs. She walks away with no memory, hides in an empty apartment and, found there by Betty, calls herself Rita after a Rita Hayworth poster. Her purse holds a fortune and a blue key; she knows only that she is in danger. She remembers the name Diane Selwyn, and at Diane's apartment they find a dead woman. Terrified, Rita tries to cut off her hair; Betty gives her a blonde wig, and that night they make love. At Club Silencio both weep. Back home Rita opens the blue box, and she too disappears. In the last part, the actress Camilla Rhodes, who looks exactly like her, leaves Diane and becomes engaged to Adam; Diane pays a hitman to kill her.
Justin Therouxas Adam Kesher
A film director forced by mobsters to cast an actress he did not choose.
Adam Kesher’s story
Adam Kesher is casting his new film when men with mob connections insist that he give the lead to an unknown blonde, Camilla Rhodes. He refuses. His production is shut down, he comes home to find his wife with another man, is beaten and thrown out, and finds his bank account frozen. A mysterious cowboy warns him to cast the girl. At the auditions he shares a long look with Betty across the soundstage, then casts Camilla to appease the mob. In the film's last part he is the director who gives the lead Diane wanted to the actress Camilla Rhodes, kisses Camilla during a rehearsal while Diane is made to watch, and announces their engagement at a dinner party at his house.
Ann Milleras Coco
The veteran manager of the building where Betty stays, who later reappears as Adam's mother.
Mark Pellegrinoas Joe Messing
A bungling hitman, and the man Diane hires to kill Camilla.
Melissa Georgeas Camilla Rhodes
The blonde unknown whom the mob insists Adam cast in his film.
Why it matters
Mulholland Drive is about what Hollywood promises young women, and what it does to the ones it does not choose. Most of the film follows a dream of arrival: talent recognised at a first audition, a mystery solved with a friend, a love between two women offered with great tenderness. Its last stretch shows the other side, a woman undone by rejection, jealousy and the loss of her lover to a man with power. David Lynch refused to explain it, and it was rebuilt from a television pilot the network had turned down. It won him Best Director at Cannes in 2001, and a BBC critics' poll later named it the best film of the twenty-first century. What makes it so hard to shake is how completely it lets an observer believe in Betty before showing who needed her to exist.