Unpacking Mulholland Drive: External Narrative

Dream

The dream unfolds, presenting the audience with more details regarding Diane's past, as well as her interpretation of how her life in Hollywood unraveled.

On Mulholland Drive, both Diane and Camilla experience a traumatizing event. For Diane, the event was the party where she ultimately decided to put a hit on Camilla; and for Camilla, it's her death. Diane's subconscious takes this event and transforms it into Rita getting into an accident. Diane is undoubtedly worried that the police would look for her, but in her dream, instead of the police looking for her, someone is looking for Rita. Diane is presented as Betty, the name of the waitress at Winkie's where she ordered the hit on Camilla. It's also possible that this name is alluding to Betty Grable, who was a direct competitor to Rita Hayworth in 1942. Alternatively, it's also possible that this name is alluding to Beatrice Cenci, who is known for killing her father in her sleep for sexually abusing her (we see her portrait in Aunt Ruth's home). This clue is also the first hint the audience gets regarding her possible relationship with her father.

Betty is shown as a naive and impressionable young woman. It is likely that Diane was like this upon her arrival in Hollywood as well. Her pink wardrobe (shirt and later robe) is reflecting her inexperience and innocence. Betty is guided into the life of Hollywood by Irene and Irene's companion (the old couple), and after her hopes are shattered, she sees both of them as having betrayed her (the scene where they laugh in the limousine after she arrives symbolizing this betrayal). She believes they knew she wouldn't survive in the cutt-throat materialistic and superficial world of Hollywood, and that they inevitably led her to her death.

Continued

In her dream, Aunt Ruth is alive, but her name may represent that this is not true (Aunt Ruth -> (a)untruth), implying that her home is that of falsehoods. Additionally, Adam Kesher's mother, Coco Lenoix (French for walnut, referencing the walnut she was eating at the party), is Betty’s landlord. Camilla assumes the role of Rita Hayworth in the dream, taking after the famous actress who had problems with her memory in the subsequent years of her life. The loss of Rita’s memory is the realization of Diane’s desire to forget about Camilla and everything that had occurred between them. While in the real world Camilla was assertive and confident, in her dream, she appears helpless and controllable. In essence, Diane’s dream persona is comprised of two elements: Betty, who is still naïve to Hollywood and fearless; and Rita, who knows about Hollywood, but is afraid to bring it to the forefront. Every time that a piece of information is revealed about reality, Rita becomes uneasy (e.g., Rita losing her balance when Betty tells Rita she came to Hollywood to pursue her dreams). This indicates Diane’s lack of desire to return to the real world.

When Rita goes to sleep, we are shown a scene at Winkie’s again, this time with Dan and his psychologist. Dan mentions how he is afraid of sitting where he is, drawing back to the reality of where Diane orders the hit on Camilla, also indicating that Diane is afraid of who she has become. The embodiment of her inner darkness is personified in the homeless man that Dan sees as he exits the diner, the inner pit of her brooding dark subconscious.

Continued

This movie is a masterpiece.

Diane believes that Camilla achieved her success not because of her talent, but because of her connections. This is why she dreams that the man at the party staring at her was in the mafia (a powerful figure with connections). In her dream, this segment unfolds as the man orders Adam to choose the girl for the role. He orders an espresso and drinks it. Diane was also drinking an espresso when she first saw the man at the party. In the dream, the girl is presented Camilla Rhodes, who in reality is seen as Camilla’s lesbian love interest. The men repeat the same phrase that Diane tells Joe when she orders the hit on Camilla, “this girl.”

Mr. Roque, the owner of the movie studio, is located in a room with a blue light. In this movie studio, which symbolizes the factory of illusions, we see walls surrounded by red drapes, as well as a blue light. This draws parallels to the theater in the club, with its similar red drapes and the woman in the blue wig.

As Diane was fascinated with Joe’s black book, her subconscious attempts to find answer as to how he acquired it. We see Joe botch a hit and take the black book in the office. The messy hit may also be interpreted as Diane’s subconscious attempt at appeasing her guilt, hoping that Joe was incompetent and unable to successfully carry out the hit on Camilla. Joe is later seen with a blonde girl with her nipples exposed, indicating that she is a prostitute and Joe is her pimp. They are shown in front of a sign that shows a hotdog and the words, “made special for Pink’s.” This scene is subtle, but alludes to what happens to naïve girls in pink who want to make it in Hollywood. The prostitute next to Joe also bears some resemblance to Diane. We can then infer that Diane knows Joe because she may have had to pimp herself out occasionally in order to supplement her lack of roles.

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In Rita’s purse, we see an inordinate sum of money and a blue key. This sequence is telling us that the amount she gave Joe for the hit was a lot to her. Additionally, we see a blue key on a more three-dimensional shape. The larger key is symbolic of death coupled with the unity of Diane’s persona and the unknown. The truth about the real world over time come to the forefront in Rita, as she recalls that she was driving on Mulholland Drive. Betty and Rita are then seen making a call from the payphone that Dan paid attention to. The ringing that we hear while Diane is asleep is the unconscious attempt to connect her with reality, as the ego synthesizes what is true.

We now see in the diner that Diane’s name is on the waitress’s name tag. When Rita sees this, she remembers her name as Selwyn. This association informs us that Diane once worked at Winkie’s, much like many aspiring actresses. Louis Boner is shown at Betty’s door, attempting to snap Diane back to reality when she tells Diane that her name isn’t really Betty, and that something bad has happened to Camilla.

Diane believes that Adam Kesher took Camilla away from her, and this is manifested in her dream as an attempt to seek vengeance. In her dream, we see that Adam reaches the same lows that Diane did in the real life, as he loses everything he loves. The pink paint that Adam covers the jewelry with is Diane subconsciously seeking her vengeance (Diane in pink when she arrived in Hollywood).

Continued

Diane’s rehearsal scene is shown twice. This is important, as it shows us the dual composition of her dream persona. In the first rehearsal scene with Rita, she is in pink, showcasing her innocent nature. In the subsequent rehearsal scene with the men, she is seen as more assertive and confident, showcasing the side of her that is no longer innocent due to her tribulations. The rehearsal scene also gives us a glimpse into Diane’s past. We see her playing a possibly underage girl who is with her father’s friend in what appears to be sexual harassment. She attempts to resist him, and then threatens to kill him. This is the second hint at possible sexual abuse at the hands of her father.

The scene where we see Betty meet Adam for the first time indicates that had Adam not been influenced by the men, he would have fallen in love with her and cast her instead of Camilla. Finally, we see the dream world and the real world beginning to coalesce, as Betty and Rita enter the house and see a dead figure that is in the same position as Diane in her sleep. The dead body indicates Diane’s subconscious depression and her waning will to live. Reality is now beginning to seep into Diane’s dream, but the censor in her mind is still unwilling to take her back to reality, and the situation where Camilla dies because of Diane’s actions becomes the narrative of someone dying in Diane’s home because of Rita.

Continued

The more Rita remembers, the more her persona integrates with Diane’s (Rita putting on the blonde wig when she finds out someone died). As Betty and Rita get a cab to go to the club, there is a sign on the electric pole that reads, “Hollywood is Hell.” This reflects how Diane feels about Hollywood. In the club, we hear the man on the stage tell them that what they’re seeing isn’t real, letting the audience know that perhaps this is a dream. Additionally, we see a thinly veiled indication of sexual climax. As the man on the stage raises his arms, we immediately see Diane shaking uncontrollably, the man tensing up, and the sound of a loud moan. Everything then relaxes and Diane calms down. This is highly suggestive of an orgasm, possibly the act Diane performed on her father. The audience then sees the crying singer, reminding Diane of her murder. The woman on the stage may also be symbolic of La Llorona. In Hispanic culture, she is the legend of a doomed mother, who drowned her children after her husband left her, subsequently killing herself.

After the crying scene, Betty finds a blue box in the purse, which the blue key shown earlier appears to be able to open. The box is empty, indicating that much like the blue key Joe gives Diane opens nothing, so too, does the key in the dream. Betty, spotting the key, disappears once Rita turns around. As Betty was always a figment of Diane’s imagination, all we see is Rita. As Rita is also imaginary, when she opens the box, she too disappears, leaving only the empty box on the floor.

Reality

Diane wakes up as she hears the knock on the door by her neighbor. After she leaves, she makes coffee in the same cup we
see at Winkie’s. As she sits on the couch, she sees the blue key that Joe showed her, shattering her dream-world illusions, and forcing her to face reality. Her fears which were presented in her subconscious a la the homeless man are now seen face-to-face in the form of the old couple again as they taunt her. She is unable to overcome her mental turmoil, and shoots herself in the head, committing suicide.

Mulholland Drive, representing Hollywood, illuminates the dark nature of people. Diane, before arriving to Hollywood, is presented as innocent and sweet, with a dark past. Hollywood, by virtue of its business, brings out the worst in her, culminating in the death of her soul and of her body. In the end, Diane dies spiritually empty and temporally unfulfilled.