Brunette Rita (Laura Elena Harring) wanders Mulholland Drive, dazed and confused after an auto accident. She finds refuge with Betty (Naomi Watts), an aspiring blonde actress who has arrived from Deep River, Ontario, with her innocence intact. The two work together to try to piece together Rita’s story… But nothing is quite what it seems in this rich, disturbing neo-noir from David Lynch, an enigmatic mystery which invites multiple interpretations but which seems to imply these two women are in some ways mirror images… Indeed as the film goes on, it becomes its own mirror.
Films about filmmaking figure prominently in Sight & Sound magazine’s list of the Greatest Films Ever Made: Singin’ in the Rain (#10), Man with a Movie Camera (#9) and Mulholland Dr. (#8) all qualify (as do 8½ and Close-Up). Lynch’s title echoes Billy Wilder’s Hollywood black comedy Sunset Blvd, and his view of the movie business is equally acidic, with Justin Theroux’s auteur losing control of the film within the film to shady power brokers, and Betty’s “innocence” ultimately exposed as either a nostalgic memory or pure fantasy.
Released in 2001, Mulholland Dr was instantly hailed as a classic, and twenty years later it’s the most recent film in Sight & Sound’s top 20.
Sunday’s screening in our PANTHEON series will feature free refreshments and a short introduction by an expert in the field.
September 17: Introduced by Steven Malcic, Media and Culture Lecturer in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University
Presented by
David Lynch
Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux, Ann Miller, Robert Forster
USA/France
2001
English
Award for Best Director (tied) , Cannes 2001
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Credits
Producer
Mary Sweeney, Alain Sarde, Neal Edelstein, Michael Polaire, Tony Krantz
Screenwriter
David Lynch
Cinematography
Peter Deming
Editor
Mary Sweeney
Original Music
Angelo Badalamenti
Also in This Series
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Céline Sciamma's queer costume drama -- about a painter covertly studying a young noblewoman who refuses to sit for her portrait -- was voted 30th Greatest Film Ever Made in a 2022 poll, the highest ranking film of the past decade.
I Am Cuba
Infused with a palpable love for the country and a righteous anger at the injustices of the Batista era, I Am Cuba features some of the jaw-dropping camerawork ever filmed. A euphoric celebration of Cuba, the Revolution, and revolutionary cinema.
The Colour of Pomegranates + The House Is Black
This month's Pantheon screening is a double-bill, Sergei Parajanov's extraordinary evocation of the life and work of C18th Armenian poet Sayat Nova, and, The House is Black (22 min), the only film directed by the great Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad.
Fantasia
Walt Disney pushed the boundaries of animation and sound recording when he put together a movie concert: eight classical pieces by Bach, Beethoven, Stravinski et al, each animated in a different style. It's playful, sometimes cute, other times inspired.
Image: © Disney, 1940