Mysteries / The Blue Box

October 16th, 2006General2 comments

I hadn’t seen Mulholland Drive in a long time so I watched it once, read some analyses online, and watched it again.

The Salon Analysis seems to be regarded as the most accurate analysis of the movie, although even it admits that there are some things that don’t fit into its theory. But it at least provides a foundation that allows you to figure out bits and pieces of the film and make them work in your mind.

I have one thing to add in my own analysis of the movie — the first 3/4ths are essentially a dream that Diane Selwyn is experiencing. We flash forward and backward through her fantasies and re-imaginings of reality.

The thing I want to add is this: Someone told me once that in a dream, the various characters around us are really manifestations of ourselves. A person that is bullying you is a facet of yourself; people and the way that they act are facets of your personality and perhaps methods of behavior that you wish you could indulge in.

So I think that the monster, the cowboy, the man at Winkie’s telling his psychiatrist the story over lunch — all of these characters are facets of Diane’s personality in this dream world. They seem isolated from the rest of the story but are hidden little pinpricks of it — like how a dream will often change scenes but not their context, and the mind just goes along with the logic.

Basically, I’m saying that there’s a point when it becomes impossible to be too logical about Mulholland Drive, and that’s what makes it so alluring and interesting to think about. It’s like a perpetual puzzle, funny and disturbing and not necessarily something that needs to be solved.

So I’m trying to figure out some mysteries that have been eluding me for a while. A better understanding of Mulholland Drive, a really excellent recipe for pesto, etc..

I’m going to try to read James Joyce’s Ulysses again. I’ve tried several times before but failed. This time I have a pretty good dictionary and I will take notes. Also I will be wearing an eyepatch under my glasses.