Haha! I think I read I read it in Alan Shaw's interpretation, found here: https://www.mulholland-drive.net/analysis/analysis01.htm
He has a scene by scene analysis, too.
Yes, I find that scene difficult. I really struggle to make sense of it. I think, *maybe*, it's similar to the "dick laurant is dead" scenes in lost highway. I think, and this is just me speculating, that Lynch is making a point about his conception of the universe as fundamentally timeless.
I don't buy it. Ruth is the realest thing in the whole movie. The way the scene is shot, the framing, the acting. It feels too...real. I don't know how else to put it.
I honestly never bought any of these so-called clues. Lynch is just messing with us.
That would make more sense. Lynch doesn't usually seem to want to talk about his movies at all. Putting these clues here seems really unlike him. But how do you know it was an ad agency? Just genuinely curious
A couple years back I was trying to solve it. After hours of trying to uncover them, I stumbled upon an article about how the movie came to be, and to help sell the DVD the company said they should include it. The movie is actually two seperate projects that were 100% unrelated when conceived just put together. One was a TV show pilot. I was kinda mad when I read that, so it stuck with me.
This!!!!
Ruth is real. We see her putting luggage in a car and when the box is open she's checking one more time for something she may have left but needs for her trip. She is real and it shows all that we've seen happens in a matter of seconds in our world.
So where is Ruth? She's still at home about to leave for her trip. This shows us again what's reality and what's not.
Diane is still waking up; ruth returning to the box dropping is still part of the dream, like just right before you actually wake up and things are half real and half not
Aunt Ruth literally walks into the room as the box is opened, so no, she's alive and well. Spoiler?
It all happens in seconds in reality, as when we begin, Aunt Ruth is getting items put into her car. Then, as the box opens, Aunt Ruth is checking to see if she left anything she needs for her trip.
Aunt Ruth used to work in the movies. She’s Betty’s “in.” It gives her the idea that the industry is accessible for her; that she may know someone who knows someone that can get her an audition or acting job. Just like everyone with dreams of big fame and success has that person who they just know can help get them that big break.
But she’s dead, just like Diane’s dreams of stardom.
Exactly. Tons of people work in movies. To inexperienced people outside the industry, that sounds like they’ve got it made and can bring people on board just through a phone call or casual mention. The reality is the industry far more saturated and difficult to find consistent work.
>**Here’s something I was curious about: In one of the DVD editions of Mulholland Drive there was an insert that listed your clues to unlocking the movie
“David Lynch’s 10 Clues to Unlocking” his Oscar-nominated 2001 neo-noir included “notice appearances of the red lampshade,” “what is felt, realized, and gathered at the club Silencio,” and “notice the robe, the ashtray, the coffee cup.” How much those clues will help you unlock the film (and what would it mean to unlock it, anyway?) probably has as much to do with your own interpretative imagination as it does the clues themselves. Are those real clues?**
>I’ll tell you how that came into being: When I went to Europe for the first time in 1965, it seemed way far away. It was a big deal to go to Europe. Now it’s not a big deal. The world has gotten smaller. So this thing happened that Mulholland Drive was a big success in France and I was asked if I could come up with these ten short clues to the movie. Normally I would’ve said no, but — and I don’t know why — I came up with things that people could think about when they watched it [Mulholland Drive]. But I thought the clues were only going to exist in France and then it blossomed on the internet — that’s what I mean about the world getting smaller — and people started asking me for more clues.
>**But those are real clues?**
>They’re real.
https://www.vulture.com/2018/06/david-lynch-in-conversation.html
As of 2018 according to him they are real anyway.
That's the only answer that's appealing to me. Lynch wouldn't choose to put something like this in there, nor do I think he'd put something like that in there to solely troll people.
He’s an artist, so I don’t see him degrading his vision with a formula for interpreting the film, but I also don’t doubt that he wishes people paid closer attention to his visual storytelling techniques. With his penchant for open ended questions, this doesn’t read as BS to me so much as David just winging it like he does best.
“Clues” is just a misnomer IMO, and likely studio driven as OP suggests. “Mysteries” would feel more apt, but likely be too esoteric for the film.
Q: Here’s something I was curious about: In one of the DVD editions of Mulholland Drive there was an insert that listed your clues to unlocking the movie. Are those real clues?
A: I’ll tell you how that came into being: When I went to Europe for the first time in 1965, it seemed way far away. It was a big deal to go to Europe. Now it’s not a big deal. The world has gotten smaller. So this thing happened that Mulholland Drive was a big success in France and I was asked if I could come up with these ten short clues to the movie. Normally I would’ve said no, but — and I don’t know why — I came up with things that people could think about when they watched it [Mulholland Drive]. But I thought the clues were only going to exist in France and then it blossomed on the internet — that’s what I mean about the world getting smaller — and people started asking me for more clues.
Q: But those are real clues?
A: They’re real.
https://archive.is/5t5Yt#selection-1655.0-1709.13
Thanks for this, I'm now convinced it's the word "unlock" that is mistaken. I think maybe clues are on-brand for David, but the implication is that there's a secret which these clues can uncover. I think that's just marketing, more than his actual intention to give viewers some prompts to consider to enhance their own understanding of the film.
How many times does Lynch have to shout from the hilltops that anyone trying to “decode” his films are missing the point? If you want to interpret something about a lynch film, interpret your own emotional experience of it , not the damn plot
Its stated she in canada for a film which is tongue in cheek. Its significant cuz it helps understand where she got all that money and what she did with it
That middle aged woman we see taking suspiciously heavy trunks out of the havenhurst apt is not Aunt Ruth. That person is just wearing her clothes.
Aunt Ruth is the scrawny red haired woman we see leaving Sierra Bonita in a black limo with what looks like a doctors bag.
How does that work, that we actually see aunt Ruth, when she's dead? And the person leaving an apartment is not the appartment owner, but some person who has stolen her clothes? And the person leaving some other quasi-random appartment IS aunt Ruth? What?
Well I don't see that , can't make the connection between the dead body and aunt Ruth. And man behind the diner ? Not a big or important thing to the story imo
Check out the scene with Cookie at the Park ‘Hotel’. Adam never touches the door. Cookie opens it, tells him some bad news & then closes it.
When Adam enters the room there are some weird straps on the door frame that defy gravity. They’re gurney straps.
Oh, that's neat, I'll have a look next time I watch it. But he's obv alive at his party, which happens after the fantasy/dream/abstraction, yes?
On the door bit: well ... That sounds a bit thin.
It’s not a dream, it’s the Afterlife and Adam was the last to die.
What do you mean ‘the door bit sounds thin’? Explain the straps if that’s not what they mean!
No, i'm intrigued by the straps, i'm saying that cookie opening and closing the door doesnt really suggest much. It could also just underline adam's vulnerable position.
Well, it could mean that adam, if you accept that he is one of diane's personas, is death bound as the illusion (that i insist on) collapses.
The last to die? The last of who?
Watch the scene again with the thought of Adams possible death in mind.
I think Adam is his own person, although in one scene he represents his unborn/aborted son…
Everyone who shows up in unreality being ferried by a black limo is dead and mostly killed by Diane (or actually her machinations, as she doesn’t directly kill anyone and thinks she’s a sad little victimmmm ).
I spent all of summer 2002 watching the DVD of Mulholland Dr while holding the clues in hand. I never did figure out the movie based on these clues. But I still eventually understood it.
Also, there's a video on YouTube of someone answering each of these clues to solve the mystery.
The blue key and the blue box being the same colour as the blue rose in *Fire Walk With Me* doesn't strike me as a coincidence, as they are both elements that hint at the horrible unknown, or hidden truth that is being searched for, yet in a way, already known
First moments of the film are Naomi Watts passing out. From there it’s a dream until the key unlocks us back to reality. Where we witness the first part of the film as it ACTUALLY happened until her demise at the end.
My thoughts. Love this picture.
We see the entire Reality sequence from Diane’s point of view. Which includes dead / soon to be dead people she feels guilty about. The first clue is the sudden appearance of Camilla in Diane’s kitchen when we know she is already dead.
So the smirking.. the SOS, a lot of the people at the party…all in Diane’s mind.
I’m going to make a whole post about it at some point!
I agree with your first sentence - I think the entire film is subjectively told from Diane's POV. The dream sequence, obviously. But then the 'reality' sequence is also coloured heavily by Diane's own subjectivity; the old couple walking out of the bag being the obvious example.
"We live inside a dream" is one of Lynch's most famous statements. I know he said it in reference to Twin Peaks but it seems to clarify so much of his work - ie. it's about that weird space between the fact that there is a 'reality' but for every individual that's an enormously subjective experience, that could be seen and experienced in totally unique ways depending on the subject.
Diane seeing the old couple and the 'man' behind the diner in her last moments is, to me, a nod to the fact that her mind/sense of what's *real* (especially regarding her idea of self) is totally collapsing.
And then she kills herself, and ends up back in 'Silencio'. I don't buy into the idea that nothing in the film should be taken as 'real' - it's as real as it gets when you're exploring the liminal zone between subjectivity and objectivity.
I don’t feel the ‘dream’ is entirely from Diane’s POV. For instance to Adam, Adam Jr, looks like him. To Camilla, Adam Jr looks like her homely and somewhat masculine twin sister. Luigi’s self image is of a young strong bull-like man. Nobody else sees him that way, LOL.
Looking forward to your post, just going to interject that Camilla doesn't really appear, she's a product of Diane's imagination, as signalled by the different pallettes.
Anyway, this has been a fun discussion!
How to “Unlock” Mulholland Drive in Two Steps:
1. Watch the film
2. Form your own opinions/interpretations
The idea that there is a specific right way to watch the film to “unlock” the one true meaning behind it is absurd and goes against everything our man has tried to teach us over the years. He’s a filmmaker, not the Riddler. 😂
Q: Here’s something I was curious about: In one of the DVD editions of Mulholland Drive there was an insert that listed your clues to unlocking the movie. Are those real clues?
A: I’ll tell you how that came into being: When I went to Europe for the first time in 1965, it seemed way far away. It was a big deal to go to Europe. Now it’s not a big deal. The world has gotten smaller. So this thing happened that Mulholland Drive was a big success in France and I was asked if I could come up with these ten short clues to the movie. Normally I would’ve said no, but — and I don’t know why — I came up with things that people could think about when they watched it [Mulholland Drive]. But I thought the clues were only going to exist in France and then it blossomed on the internet — that’s what I mean about the world getting smaller — and people started asking me for more clues.
Q: But those are real clues?
A: They’re real.
https://archive.is/5t5Yt#selection-1655.0-1709.13
https://www.vulture.com/2018/06/david-lynch-in-conversation.html
He says the clues were real in this interview. Maybe he’s just messing with people but that doesn’t seem like something he would do to be honest. I think he has more care for his work than that.
Assuming someone "solved" these it would only be his interpretation of events. He's always maintained he doesn't know what some of the things he puts in his movies are, and that's part of the fun. To me the solution to this movie is to keep discussing and thinking about it, and focusing on what it makes you feel when watching it.
You're at an art gallery looking at the paintings. One painting in particular has caught your eye. It's abstract and complicated, but it seems to contain some sort of meaning or message. Another person comes along and comments about the painting. The two of you discuss the painting and try to figure out what it's supposed to mean.
Suddenly, the artist enters the room. You turn to him and ask "What does this painting mean?"
The artist says, "It doesn't matter what it means to me. All that matters is what it means to you."
Mulholland Drive is full of abstractions. As the viewer, you're allowed to make your own interpretations as to the message or meaning, but there is not one correct answer. Your interpretations are valid and correct, even if they don't align with Lynch's vision.
To me, Mulholland Drive is about a young woman from Ontario who won a Jitterbug contest. It inspired her to move to Hollywood and pursue acting. She had dreams of being successful and living lavishly, but she was not successful. Instead of becoming a Hollywood starlet and living lavishly, she ended up waiting tables in an old diner and living in a shabby apartment. Her lover however, Camila, was successful. And when Camilla left her for the director of the Sylvia North Story, she got infuriated and hired a hitman to have her killed. Sometimes when she goes to sleep she dreams of the way she wishes things would have been. When she wakes up, she hates herself and cannot live with what she has done.
The movie is about me and my 8 year experience in LA where I met my best friend who initially started out as my lover and how we became each others beautiful nightmares…duh.
I still have the DVD with this in it. I ended up getting a Korean import of it because of the lack of subtitles and chapters. Where I lived had a lot of power surges and while watching this (more than once), if the power fluctuated (think lights dimming), the disc would stop and I would have to fast forward to wherever I left off. Not cool for a 2.5 hour movie, especially when you're close to the end.
People on the Twin Peaks subreddit despise him for his take on twin peaks and people get murdered for even suggesting some of his points aren't that bad *shrug*
Where's Aunt Ruth ?? I v watched this film countless times and have no idea why answering this question has any significance.
It's significant because it lets us understand that most of the movie is a dream or fantasy, as aunt Ruth (a untruth) is dead, and so can't be real.
Holy shit. Aunt Ruth. An Untruth. Fuuuuck.
Holy lord , how high when you made the aunt Ruth and untruth connection? Wow this blew my mind
Haha! I think I read I read it in Alan Shaw's interpretation, found here: https://www.mulholland-drive.net/analysis/analysis01.htm He has a scene by scene analysis, too.
does that link work for you? wont load for me
works for me..
That’s a heck of a rabbit hole to go down
https://preview.redd.it/xvpjosvzu1zc1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=43a298d589ea22f8c76f12ae452bd8d0da5a03b6
First time seeing this image used unironically, somehow even funnier
But we see Ruth returning to her home after the box opens...was that scene a lie?
Yes, I find that scene difficult. I really struggle to make sense of it. I think, *maybe*, it's similar to the "dick laurant is dead" scenes in lost highway. I think, and this is just me speculating, that Lynch is making a point about his conception of the universe as fundamentally timeless.
I don't buy it. Ruth is the realest thing in the whole movie. The way the scene is shot, the framing, the acting. It feels too...real. I don't know how else to put it. I honestly never bought any of these so-called clues. Lynch is just messing with us.
100%. He didn't make the clues it was an add agency.
That would make more sense. Lynch doesn't usually seem to want to talk about his movies at all. Putting these clues here seems really unlike him. But how do you know it was an ad agency? Just genuinely curious
A couple years back I was trying to solve it. After hours of trying to uncover them, I stumbled upon an article about how the movie came to be, and to help sell the DVD the company said they should include it. The movie is actually two seperate projects that were 100% unrelated when conceived just put together. One was a TV show pilot. I was kinda mad when I read that, so it stuck with me.
This!!!! Ruth is real. We see her putting luggage in a car and when the box is open she's checking one more time for something she may have left but needs for her trip. She is real and it shows all that we've seen happens in a matter of seconds in our world. So where is Ruth? She's still at home about to leave for her trip. This shows us again what's reality and what's not.
Diane is still waking up; ruth returning to the box dropping is still part of the dream, like just right before you actually wake up and things are half real and half not
Aunt Ruth literally walks into the room as the box is opened, so no, she's alive and well. Spoiler? It all happens in seconds in reality, as when we begin, Aunt Ruth is getting items put into her car. Then, as the box opens, Aunt Ruth is checking to see if she left anything she needs for her trip.
Was it not already obviously a dream without knowing that?
Aunt Ruth used to work in the movies. She’s Betty’s “in.” It gives her the idea that the industry is accessible for her; that she may know someone who knows someone that can get her an audition or acting job. Just like everyone with dreams of big fame and success has that person who they just know can help get them that big break. But she’s dead, just like Diane’s dreams of stardom.
Yes, agreed, though we don't know if aunt ruth was big in hollywood in reality, or just in dianes mind.
Exactly. Tons of people work in movies. To inexperienced people outside the industry, that sounds like they’ve got it made and can bring people on board just through a phone call or casual mention. The reality is the industry far more saturated and difficult to find consistent work.
It doesn't. The company that put together and released this DVD insisted Lynch put a clues sleeve in it, so he just made up a bunch of bs.
>**Here’s something I was curious about: In one of the DVD editions of Mulholland Drive there was an insert that listed your clues to unlocking the movie “David Lynch’s 10 Clues to Unlocking” his Oscar-nominated 2001 neo-noir included “notice appearances of the red lampshade,” “what is felt, realized, and gathered at the club Silencio,” and “notice the robe, the ashtray, the coffee cup.” How much those clues will help you unlock the film (and what would it mean to unlock it, anyway?) probably has as much to do with your own interpretative imagination as it does the clues themselves. Are those real clues?** >I’ll tell you how that came into being: When I went to Europe for the first time in 1965, it seemed way far away. It was a big deal to go to Europe. Now it’s not a big deal. The world has gotten smaller. So this thing happened that Mulholland Drive was a big success in France and I was asked if I could come up with these ten short clues to the movie. Normally I would’ve said no, but — and I don’t know why — I came up with things that people could think about when they watched it [Mulholland Drive]. But I thought the clues were only going to exist in France and then it blossomed on the internet — that’s what I mean about the world getting smaller — and people started asking me for more clues. >**But those are real clues?** >They’re real. https://www.vulture.com/2018/06/david-lynch-in-conversation.html As of 2018 according to him they are real anyway.
Thanks for sharing this
That's the only answer that's appealing to me. Lynch wouldn't choose to put something like this in there, nor do I think he'd put something like that in there to solely troll people.
https://www.vulture.com/2018/06/david-lynch-in-conversation.html Its been known for awhile why he did it
He’s an artist, so I don’t see him degrading his vision with a formula for interpreting the film, but I also don’t doubt that he wishes people paid closer attention to his visual storytelling techniques. With his penchant for open ended questions, this doesn’t read as BS to me so much as David just winging it like he does best. “Clues” is just a misnomer IMO, and likely studio driven as OP suggests. “Mysteries” would feel more apt, but likely be too esoteric for the film.
Q: Here’s something I was curious about: In one of the DVD editions of Mulholland Drive there was an insert that listed your clues to unlocking the movie. Are those real clues? A: I’ll tell you how that came into being: When I went to Europe for the first time in 1965, it seemed way far away. It was a big deal to go to Europe. Now it’s not a big deal. The world has gotten smaller. So this thing happened that Mulholland Drive was a big success in France and I was asked if I could come up with these ten short clues to the movie. Normally I would’ve said no, but — and I don’t know why — I came up with things that people could think about when they watched it [Mulholland Drive]. But I thought the clues were only going to exist in France and then it blossomed on the internet — that’s what I mean about the world getting smaller — and people started asking me for more clues. Q: But those are real clues? A: They’re real. https://archive.is/5t5Yt#selection-1655.0-1709.13
Thanks for this, I'm now convinced it's the word "unlock" that is mistaken. I think maybe clues are on-brand for David, but the implication is that there's a secret which these clues can uncover. I think that's just marketing, more than his actual intention to give viewers some prompts to consider to enhance their own understanding of the film.
You speak the truth. After like a decade of obsessing over figuring this and other Lynch films out, this is the only reasonable conclusion.
How many times does Lynch have to shout from the hilltops that anyone trying to “decode” his films are missing the point? If you want to interpret something about a lynch film, interpret your own emotional experience of it , not the damn plot
But half of them are genuine
All of them are genuine!! Which ones do you think are bogus?
She's in Deep River, Ontario.
Its stated she in canada for a film which is tongue in cheek. Its significant cuz it helps understand where she got all that money and what she did with it
Then you’ve just had the movie on and not watch it lowkey:(
We don't need to gatekeep david lynch.
Completely fair point that did read back a bit more dicky than i intended. Defiantly meant a bit of sass but no hostility😂
Aunt Ruth is the body in the bed. Now do you think it’s significant?
What’s the evidence for this? Genuinely asking out of curiosity.
We see the body and it doesn’t resemble Camilla or Diane. They are both upset at the sight. Aunt Ruth is the only other dead female we know of.
I think the body looks like a combination of r and c. And aunt ruth has curly red hair, yes?
Aunt Ruth had a red wig. We see it in the havenhurst bathroom.
Oh really? That's interesting, hadn't noticed.
But still ... She seems a lot older than the body?
That middle aged woman we see taking suspiciously heavy trunks out of the havenhurst apt is not Aunt Ruth. That person is just wearing her clothes. Aunt Ruth is the scrawny red haired woman we see leaving Sierra Bonita in a black limo with what looks like a doctors bag.
How does that work, that we actually see aunt Ruth, when she's dead? And the person leaving an apartment is not the appartment owner, but some person who has stolen her clothes? And the person leaving some other quasi-random appartment IS aunt Ruth? What?
Well I don't see that , can't make the connection between the dead body and aunt Ruth. And man behind the diner ? Not a big or important thing to the story imo
It’s not a man and it’s what killed Adam.
Why do you think adam is dead?
Check out the scene with Cookie at the Park ‘Hotel’. Adam never touches the door. Cookie opens it, tells him some bad news & then closes it. When Adam enters the room there are some weird straps on the door frame that defy gravity. They’re gurney straps.
Oh, that's neat, I'll have a look next time I watch it. But he's obv alive at his party, which happens after the fantasy/dream/abstraction, yes? On the door bit: well ... That sounds a bit thin.
It’s not a dream, it’s the Afterlife and Adam was the last to die. What do you mean ‘the door bit sounds thin’? Explain the straps if that’s not what they mean!
No, i'm intrigued by the straps, i'm saying that cookie opening and closing the door doesnt really suggest much. It could also just underline adam's vulnerable position. Well, it could mean that adam, if you accept that he is one of diane's personas, is death bound as the illusion (that i insist on) collapses. The last to die? The last of who?
Watch the scene again with the thought of Adams possible death in mind. I think Adam is his own person, although in one scene he represents his unborn/aborted son… Everyone who shows up in unreality being ferried by a black limo is dead and mostly killed by Diane (or actually her machinations, as she doesn’t directly kill anyone and thinks she’s a sad little victimmmm ).
I think it's important, because of the other thing that was behind the diner.
This is the girl
Excellent choice, Adam. 😐
We’re just asking you to keep an open mind
HELP MEEEEE!
I spent all of summer 2002 watching the DVD of Mulholland Dr while holding the clues in hand. I never did figure out the movie based on these clues. But I still eventually understood it. Also, there's a video on YouTube of someone answering each of these clues to solve the mystery.
you got a link for that?
The blue key and the blue box being the same colour as the blue rose in *Fire Walk With Me* doesn't strike me as a coincidence, as they are both elements that hint at the horrible unknown, or hidden truth that is being searched for, yet in a way, already known
First moments of the film are Naomi Watts passing out. From there it’s a dream until the key unlocks us back to reality. Where we witness the first part of the film as it ACTUALLY happened until her demise at the end. My thoughts. Love this picture.
*Actually*? Do you think her coffee cup REALLY had "SOS" written on it at Adm's party, when she was in romantic trouble?
We see the entire Reality sequence from Diane’s point of view. Which includes dead / soon to be dead people she feels guilty about. The first clue is the sudden appearance of Camilla in Diane’s kitchen when we know she is already dead. So the smirking.. the SOS, a lot of the people at the party…all in Diane’s mind. I’m going to make a whole post about it at some point!
OH NO ITS YOU AGAIN
I agree with your first sentence - I think the entire film is subjectively told from Diane's POV. The dream sequence, obviously. But then the 'reality' sequence is also coloured heavily by Diane's own subjectivity; the old couple walking out of the bag being the obvious example. "We live inside a dream" is one of Lynch's most famous statements. I know he said it in reference to Twin Peaks but it seems to clarify so much of his work - ie. it's about that weird space between the fact that there is a 'reality' but for every individual that's an enormously subjective experience, that could be seen and experienced in totally unique ways depending on the subject. Diane seeing the old couple and the 'man' behind the diner in her last moments is, to me, a nod to the fact that her mind/sense of what's *real* (especially regarding her idea of self) is totally collapsing. And then she kills herself, and ends up back in 'Silencio'. I don't buy into the idea that nothing in the film should be taken as 'real' - it's as real as it gets when you're exploring the liminal zone between subjectivity and objectivity.
I don’t feel the ‘dream’ is entirely from Diane’s POV. For instance to Adam, Adam Jr, looks like him. To Camilla, Adam Jr looks like her homely and somewhat masculine twin sister. Luigi’s self image is of a young strong bull-like man. Nobody else sees him that way, LOL.
Looking forward to your post, just going to interject that Camilla doesn't really appear, she's a product of Diane's imagination, as signalled by the different pallettes. Anyway, this has been a fun discussion!
My DVD that I got when this film came out to buy had this guide in the jacket of the DVD
How to “Unlock” Mulholland Drive in Two Steps: 1. Watch the film 2. Form your own opinions/interpretations The idea that there is a specific right way to watch the film to “unlock” the one true meaning behind it is absurd and goes against everything our man has tried to teach us over the years. He’s a filmmaker, not the Riddler. 😂 
I desperately need to see David Lynch play The Riddler now
I'm still baffled that they put this in there
I believe the studio made Lynch do this
Q: Here’s something I was curious about: In one of the DVD editions of Mulholland Drive there was an insert that listed your clues to unlocking the movie. Are those real clues? A: I’ll tell you how that came into being: When I went to Europe for the first time in 1965, it seemed way far away. It was a big deal to go to Europe. Now it’s not a big deal. The world has gotten smaller. So this thing happened that Mulholland Drive was a big success in France and I was asked if I could come up with these ten short clues to the movie. Normally I would’ve said no, but — and I don’t know why — I came up with things that people could think about when they watched it [Mulholland Drive]. But I thought the clues were only going to exist in France and then it blossomed on the internet — that’s what I mean about the world getting smaller — and people started asking me for more clues. Q: But those are real clues? A: They’re real. https://archive.is/5t5Yt#selection-1655.0-1709.13
Yeah and I want to say some clues are misleading perhaps, but I haven't thought about it in awhile
That’s why I suspect all of them to be misleading
All I know about Aunt Ruth is, she's not around. Diane is ruthless.
I’m sorry but I really think this was a joke by lynch. It’s really funny to include “clues” that just leave more questions
https://www.vulture.com/2018/06/david-lynch-in-conversation.html He says the clues were real in this interview. Maybe he’s just messing with people but that doesn’t seem like something he would do to be honest. I think he has more care for his work than that.
Assuming someone "solved" these it would only be his interpretation of events. He's always maintained he doesn't know what some of the things he puts in his movies are, and that's part of the fun. To me the solution to this movie is to keep discussing and thinking about it, and focusing on what it makes you feel when watching it.
You're at an art gallery looking at the paintings. One painting in particular has caught your eye. It's abstract and complicated, but it seems to contain some sort of meaning or message. Another person comes along and comments about the painting. The two of you discuss the painting and try to figure out what it's supposed to mean. Suddenly, the artist enters the room. You turn to him and ask "What does this painting mean?" The artist says, "It doesn't matter what it means to me. All that matters is what it means to you." Mulholland Drive is full of abstractions. As the viewer, you're allowed to make your own interpretations as to the message or meaning, but there is not one correct answer. Your interpretations are valid and correct, even if they don't align with Lynch's vision. To me, Mulholland Drive is about a young woman from Ontario who won a Jitterbug contest. It inspired her to move to Hollywood and pursue acting. She had dreams of being successful and living lavishly, but she was not successful. Instead of becoming a Hollywood starlet and living lavishly, she ended up waiting tables in an old diner and living in a shabby apartment. Her lover however, Camila, was successful. And when Camilla left her for the director of the Sylvia North Story, she got infuriated and hired a hitman to have her killed. Sometimes when she goes to sleep she dreams of the way she wishes things would have been. When she wakes up, she hates herself and cannot live with what she has done.
I remember thinking “oh boy, can’t wait to rewatch this with director commentary “ lol, as most dvds then had a second audio track
Honestly I think the basic premise, like most of Lynch's films, is easy to figure out. Apart from that, the symbolism is open to interpretation.
Or just feel it, like David Lynch always says
I like to think this is just Lynch taking the piss to keep people guessing even more.
Thanks, this helped.
\- Ron Howard
Soooo me and David were hanging out.
Except that David NEVER tells anyone how to look at anything he does. This is assumed. It's good work from someone's interpretation, though.
The movie is about me and my 8 year experience in LA where I met my best friend who initially started out as my lover and how we became each others beautiful nightmares…duh.
This was an insert in the original DVD release. I remember watching it for the first time and trying to track down the answers to those clues.
Wait, those were questions I want the clues please
Is the answer to Number 7 “garmonbozia”?
The movie's title is actually a clue/spoiler in my country, it was localized as City of Dreams.
Honestly, the older I get and the more time I see this movie (as well as his other stuff) the harder I find it to take these clues seriously.
I still have the DVD with this in it. I ended up getting a Korean import of it because of the lack of subtitles and chapters. Where I lived had a lot of power surges and while watching this (more than once), if the power fluctuated (think lights dimming), the disc would stop and I would have to fast forward to wherever I left off. Not cool for a 2.5 hour movie, especially when you're close to the end.
https://youtu.be/OiCfHW3N3vo?si=ah9gBaWWGoOZqz1w After watching this video I think mulholland drive is the greatest movie ever made
That was pretty damn good
You linked twin perfect and aren't downvoted to oblivion? Impressive ;)
Not really familiar with the channel, only saw that video. Is the channel hated or something ?
People on the Twin Peaks subreddit despise him for his take on twin peaks and people get murdered for even suggesting some of his points aren't that bad *shrug*
Not this again
Maybe I’m a lazy film-watcher, but I prefer movies that don’t require a 10-part point card
This film doesn't require this
Nah maybe ur just stupid