Reviews of David Lynch's films have always been polarized. Some people think that its unprecedented use of the expression method of reflecting reality through dreams has high artistic value and historical significance, while others think that David Lynch has made simple stories fragmented and mysterious. I agree with the former point of view, this is a movie worth studying.
Like most people, the first time I watched this film, I was confused and didn't even know what the story was about. But it gave me a special sense of unease that no other horror thriller can match, just like the feeling of waking up from a nightmare in the dark and huddled under the covers and afraid to move. The difference is that the nightmare is almost forgotten when I wake up the next day, while the plot of this movie is endlessly replayed in my mind. Based on this, I think that director David Lynch's use of the technique of narrating through dreams is successful.
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To analyze this film, we must first understand the two theories in Freud's "The Interpretation of Dreams":
1. Dreams are the satisfaction of repressed and hidden desires. However, due to some concerns at the level of the main consciousness of the dream owner (morality, law, objective facts, etc. in real life), the expression of desire in the dream will not be expressed very directly.
2. The analogous effect of dreams: people avoid pressure subconsciously, and they are substituted into another person in a dream, so that another person can release pressure on their behalf.
After understanding these two theories, we officially begin the analysis of this film. First of all, in order to achieve the effect at a glance, let's clarify what the main line of the story tells:
A young actress named Diane comes to Hollywood to pursue her acting dream. She has a dead aunt and uncle who have no money. During the audition process, although she was not appreciated by the director, she met a very star-like actress named Carmella. The two fell in love, and Carmella helped Diane land a small role in her own film. But the good times didn't last long, and Diane found out that Carmella was having an affair with the director, betraying her. Driven by extreme jealousy and grief, Diane hires a killer to kill Carmella. After Carmella's death, Diane was at home with regret and fear, and had a long nightmare. After waking up from the dream, Diane had hallucinations under the influence of severe psychological pressure and sadness, and eventually committed suicide.
This is the main plot of the movie. It is worth mentioning that this 2 hours and 20 minutes only takes half an hour to describe the above-mentioned plot. The remaining 2 hours are Diane's dreams, and Lynch also There is no clear indication of which clips are dreams, which is why the audience is confused when they watch it for the first time.
To understand David Lynch's films, the most important thing is to clearly define the dividing point between dream and reality. Whether it is this film or the subsequent "Inland Empire", the key points are here. So let's break it down now:
00:2:11 (pillow) ~ 01:56:48 (Diane lying on the bed) is a dream
1:56:48～02:01:34 (Diane walks over the sofa) is the reality
02:01:34～02:18:58 (key lens) is Diane's memory
2:18:58 ~ Diane commits suicide at the end of the film: reality + hallucination
According to the above-mentioned division of the nature of the fragments, let us now sort out those characters whose identities have changed in dreams and reality.
1. Blonde heroine
In a dream: Betty, an extremely talented actress
In reality: Diane, the underappreciated little actor
2. The black-haired heroine
In a dream: Rita, who lost her memory in a car accident, was rescued by the blonde heroine
In reality: Carmella, A-list actress, lover of the blonde heroine
3. Winkie's restaurant waiter
In a dream: Diane
In reality: Betty
4. The Scary Beggar Behind the Wall at Winkie's
In a Dream: The Devil on the Back Wall of the Restaurant
In reality: a beggar who knew the secret of the blonde mistress killing the brunette mistress
5. Coco
In a dream: The landlord's aunt
In reality: Mother of male director Adam
6. The old couple
In a dream: a passerby met by the blond heroine at the airport
In reality: The aunt and uncle of the blonde heroine (deceased)
7. Mystery Cowboy
In a Dream: The Mysterious Man Who Forced Director Adam to Cast
In reality: passersby at the party
8. Stupid killer
In a dream: The crappy killer who grabbed the phone book
Reality: Killer hired by the blonde heroine
9. Old man with a ferocious face
In a dream: The Kar brothers
In reality: passersby at the party
Tips: The actor of this old man is Angelo Badalamenti, the soundtrack master who composed the soundtrack for this film
10. The woman who kisses the brunette at the party
In a dream: (The person who was chosen to play the heroine in the Carmella audition)
In reality: the new love of the brunette heroine, the female rival of the blonde heroine
11. Uncle Whitebeard
This is a relatively special character. He did not appear in reality, but appeared twice in a dream with different identities. The first time was the landlord of the hotel where the male director stayed.
The second time was the performer of the Silence Bar, which may be to show the chaos of the dream, and the final chaos in the Silence Bar also implies that the nightmare is about to wake up.
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After sorting out the context of the film, let's analyze the dream part of the film according to Freud's two theories (for the convenience of description, the names of the characters below are the names of the characters in reality)
1. Two main characters
In the process of watching the movie, it is not difficult to find that there is a huge contrast between Diane and Carmella in the dream and the two in the real world. In reality, Diane is not appreciated by the director and needs the guidance and help of Carmella to play a small role.
In the dream, Diane has a very wealthy aunt and uncle who let her live in a mansion and gave her the opportunity to develop in Hollywood.
She is talented and has excellent acting skills, and has won unanimous praise from the director's team, but she was not selected due to the director's default cast and her lack of time to audition.
Carmella is also completely different from reality. In her dream, she is a girl who lost her memory in a car accident and accidentally came to Diane's apartment. Diane took care of her meticulously and helped her to slowly find her identity.
Analysis: Dreams are the embodiment of suppressed desires and hidden desires. In reality, Diane is not appreciated by the director, and her acting skills are estimated to be mediocre. Therefore, in the dream, the subconscious helps Diane realize what she wants, and she has passed the addiction of becoming a top actor. , but the main consciousness kept reminding her that she was not hired by the director team, and the reason why the subconscious was unwilling to accept it was because of her poor acting skills, the main consciousness and the subconscious had a confrontation, and the result of the confrontation was that she was not hired in the dream. The reason became the external reasons such as the default of the directors and the actors and their lack of time, which not only satisfied the main conscious's concerns about the objective facts in reality, but also satisfied the subconscious needs for self-esteem and escapism.
In reality, Diane is the one cared for by Carmella. The relationship between the two is unequal. Diane is obviously weak, which makes her feel very uneasy and makes her jealous of Carmella. So in Diane's dream, Carmella becomes a weak and injured girl who needs to be taken care of and helped, which satisfies Diane's subconscious need to "be Carmella's hero".
2. Why are the names of people in the film so confusing?
First of all, Diane in the dream exchanged names with the waitress in the restaurant. In the dream, the waitress was called Diane, and Diane became Betty.
Carmella couldn't remember her name at first in the dream, but later called herself Rita after seeing the poster in the bathroom
In the dream, the name Carmella was given to the actress appointed by the director team.
Another point worth mentioning is that in the dream, the "acquaintance of Carmella" that Carmella and Diane came to look for at Sean 17 was also named Diane, but when they broke in, they found that Diane was already a man lying on the ground. dead body in bed
Analysis: Diane and the waitress exchanged names in the dream, which can be explained by the analogy of the dream. Due to the pressure in real life, Diane forced her to avoid intentionally in the subconscious, resulting in the confusion of the name in the dream, forming a kind of "" Diane is not me" to escape reality.
The actress named Carmella in the dream was chosen by the crew to go through the back door because in Diane's subconscious, she felt that Carmella was no better than herself, and she must have gone through a lot of back doors to become a first-line star. This idea is presented in this way in the dream.
As for Carmella's use of the big star Rita's name in the dream, it should be Diane's jealousy of Carmella in reality.
As for why the corpse was named Diane, I personally tend to interpret it as a figurative representation of Diane's guilt in a dream for hiring someone to kill Carmella.
3. About the crappy killer
In Diane's dream, a stupid killer appeared. He made many mistakes and hit a wall in the process of committing the crime, and this killer was the one hired by Diane to kill Carmella in reality.
Analysis: The description of the killer in the dream is so stupid, which is a manifestation of Diane's inner regret and guilt. First of all, the killer's repeated setbacks in the process of committing the crime are due to Diane's subconscious love for Carmella and the idea of killing Carmella in the main consciousness. fight. Secondly, the subconsciously stupid killer is also an excuse for the guilt in the heart, and the guilt is relieved by "I have asked such a stupid killer to kill you".
4. About the scary beggar
The horror of the beggar in the dream was brought about by a man who asked a psychiatrist to talk because of a nightmare, and they came to Winkie's restaurant
Then the psychiatrist accompanies the man to the restaurant
In reality, this gas beggar is someone who knows Diane's secret and holds the box containing Diane's murder evidence
Analysis: To understand David Lynch's films, in addition to the above-mentioned need to find a clear boundary between reality and dreams, there is also a very important element is the "inner demon". In Lynch's films about dreams, you can find an "inner demon", such as the Dutch man with a light bulb in "Inland Empire"
The terrifying beggar is the "inner demon" of the film. Diane knows that he has evidence of his own murder, so this beggar has become the person she is most worried about leaking secrets. In her dream, the beggar turned directly into a terrifying demon.
5. Why Mulholland Drive?
Analysis: There is such a road on the map: Mulholland Highway is a scenic road in Los Angeles County, California, USA, with a total length of nearly 50 miles, from Calabasas near US National Highway 101 to California near Malibu (California) state road
The most shallow reason for the appearance of Mulholland Drive in the film is that the film tells the story of an actress's broken Hollywood dream, and a section of Mulholland Drive is near Hollywood, so it fits the theme.
And the deeper reason is that Mulholland Drive is where Diane's heart breaks. Diane attends Carmella's party, Carmella secretly greets Diane at Mulholland Drive,
Then the two walked up the mountain hand in hand
In the dream, Carmella suffered a car accident, and it was also in this place, and even the driver's gestures were the same
Then Amnesia Carmella slowly walked down the mountain
In reality, the party that Diane accompanied Carmella up the mountain to attend was a pain in Diane's heart forever. At the party, she saw Carmella and the male director making out and announcing their marriage.
Saw Carmella making out with other women
So in Diane's dream, Carmella didn't go up the mountain, but rushed down the mountain without looking back, and walked in the opposite direction, so that Diane and Carmella, who were separated by yin and yang, could enjoy another sweet time in the dream.
6. About Silent Theater
In the dream, Carmella was raving, and after waking up, she took Diane to a strange place called the Theater of Silence
All the performances in the theater are full of weirdness. The performers are all in Spanish. An uncle in red repeatedly emphasized that "without the band, all the sounds you hear are tapes."
Diane is shaking
The last woman sings a tragic Spanish song
(I have to say this song is really good!)
Analysis: Silent Theater is the most bizarre and bizarre segment in the entire film. There are two main questions: The first is: why use Spanish? My explanation for this is that the men on the stage have been emphasizing in Spanish, "This is not real, this is all an illusion." Here, Diane's main consciousness is shouting to her, who is immersed in a beautiful dream, telling her that it is all an illusion. It's not true, it's time to wake up from the dream! "It also explains why Diane was shaking, because she was on the verge of being awakened.
The second question is: why did the old man with the white beard appear here.
My explanation for this is: Diane is in the stage of being awakened, so her dreams are already confusing at this time. That's why the white-bearded old man who appeared earlier will reappear here.
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A few small details:
1. The dancing scene at the beginning of the film: At the beginning of the film, a strange group of people are dancing unreasonably.
At the party in the latter part of the film, Diane explained that she had the idea of becoming an actor because she won an award for dancing the jitba dance.
So it seems that the dance at the beginning of the film should be said to be the jitba dance, which symbolizes the beginning of Diane's actor's dream and the beginning of the film's nightmare.
2. Digital Distortion on Fire Trucks
David Lynch did not give a clear dream hint in this film, which caused the audience to have no clue when they first saw it, but in some details, Lynch still deliberately leaked some flaws
For example, these two consecutive shots, the difference between 119 and 911 on the fire truck, reflect the essence of dream distortion.
3. The cowboy told the male director in a dream that if he behaved well, he would see him again, and if he behaved badly, he would see him twice
But in the end it was Diane who actually met the cowboy twice, once to wake him up
once at a party
4. The old woman Diane saw at the airport in the dream is the same old woman who walked into the room to check when she was about to wake up from the dream
The meaning here is unclear, welcome to add
5. The man sitting next to Diane at the cocktail party is the man talking to the woman next to Winkie's in the dream
The meaning here is also unclear, welcome to add.
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All in all, it's a movie worth looking into, and there are definitely a lot of details in the film that I haven't found. If there are any omissions, please feel free to add them.
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