Welcome back to Movie Recap. Today I'm gonna show you a 2001 surrealist neo-noir mystery
film called, Mulholland Drive. Spoiler’s ahead. Sit back, relax and enjoy the video.
The movie begins with a set of people dancing in pairs. It’s a jitterbug dance, where everyone
twirls and grooves with jazzy music. Then, flashes the image of a woman with two elderly,
smiling ear to ear beside her. Lastly, it’s her alone, smiling under a blinding light.
Mulholland Drive is a long, winding stretch of road through mountains,
and right now, an alone car traverses in its darkness. Inside the car,
a brunette in a black dress looks at her driver and asks in confusion when the car stops.
The man by the passenger’s seat gets off, and the driver points a gun at her stunned face.
However, nothing happens with the gun, as one of two rushing white cars crashes on theirs.
At an airport in Los Angeles, a wide-eyed blonde marvels at the fact that she is where she is.
Beside her, an old woman with platinum curls hugs her goodbye,
and cheers for her. The old woman and her husband then ride their car wearing their toothy grins.
Next thing the blonde marvels at is the sight of the place, where she will be staying: 16 12,
Havenhurst. There, she meets a middle-aged woman complete with pearl ornaments on her body.
She is Coco, the apartment manager who recognizes her as Betty.
The blonde explores her aunt’s apartment. The place is well-adorned with paintings on the wall,
not to mention, tidy except for a robe on a bed with a note, and a discarded dress on the
floor with a purse and a pair of stilettos. She discovers another “out-of-place” in the
bathroom. A brunette is taking a shower when all she knows is that the place is empty for her. She
learns that a car accident brought the brunette there. Assuming the brunette is her aunt’s friend,
she lets her be and decides to unpack instead. The brunette realizes that she doesn’t know her
name, but a poster comes to her rescue. It is of an actress, Rita Hayworth in one of her films.
She borrows the first name and introduces herself to the blonde.
In Ryan Entertainment, a guy with horn-rimmed eyeglasses sits in a conference room with his
manager and two representatives of the agency. Then, two well-built old men enter and puzzle him,
as the representatives show utter respect for the both. One of the representatives,
a balding white head, “Baldy”, introduces them as the Castigliani brothers.
The guy is a director, and he is here to talk about re-casting the lead actress for his film.
Well, the brothers don’t have much to say. The younger brother slides an envelope
towards the representatives. Inside is a photograph with the name, Camilla Rhodes.
This is another puzzle for the director, and thus asks, “What’s with the photo?”
“That’s the girl!” The older brother simply says. He says it again after showing off
their “hard-to-please” nature, by spitting out the highly-praised espresso served for him.
The younger brother exacts his words with the director’s refusals.
“It’s no longer your film.” With that, the director walks out, and in annoyance,
smashes the brothers’ limo with a golf club. In Havenhurst, the brunette finds herself crying,
as the blonde confronts her about her identity. She confesses the truth. She doesn’t know who she
is. In an attempt to help her, the blonde suggests that maybe she will find out inside her purse.
However, it is proven pointless. Inside the purse, they only find
bundles of money trying to breathe amongst themselves, and a blue key.
The blonde urges the brunette to try and think more about the money, and where she came from.
In a glass room, a man on a leather seat raises a brow as Baldy speaks through the intercom.
Baldy addresses him as Mr. Roque. He is reporting about the meeting with the
director and the Castigliani brothers. With the result, they plan to shut down the film.
Meanwhile, a man in a leather jacket asks an unkempt woman, if she has noticed anyone
new in the streets. Getting a negative response, “Jacky” asks her to keep her
eyes open for a brunette. A slap on her bottom, and Jacky and his companion are out of sight.
In another while, the director has to make his assistant herself. The woman calls him as he
drives, and is adamant in getting him back to the set. Everyone in his set is being fired,
and their film is being shut down. However, the director is set to drive himself home.
His home welcomes him with a beat “Gene Clean” car in his driveway. He enters the house and
calls for his wife. Surprise! A “Gene Clean” man tells him to just forget he ever saw him under the
sheets with his wife. He pours his madness-a can of pink paint, into his wife’s box of jewellery,
and gets himself kicked out of his house. Back in Havenhurst, the blonde convinces
the brunette to start a quest for her identity. Mulholland Drive is the first hint to it, as it’s
the only thing that comes to the brunette’s mind. It gets them to a payphone to call the police,
and confirm an accident on the said road. The police confirm it, but refuse to tell more. Still,
it’s a ray of hope for the blonde. Next thing the brunette knows is that
she is sitting in Winkie’s, and is ordering coffee with the blonde. She eyes the blonde,
as the latter addresses the waiter with her name. Diane rings a bell, and the brunette
tells it to the blonde when they get back home. Diane Selwyn is the name she remembers. However,
she is not sure if it’s her or not. Fortunately, the blonde is not short of ideas.
With the phone directory, they are able to find another ray of hope. They dial the phone number,
and hear a voice mail. The brunette recognizes the voice, and it is good news for the blonde.
However, the good vibes are marred when a strange woman knocks at the blonde’s apartment,
and prophesies trouble. The blonde introduces herself, but the strange woman refuses to listen.
Just then, the manager comes for the blonde, to give her some fax papers for her acting audition.
She is the blonde’s saving grace, as she leaves with the strange woman in tow.
Speaking of strange, it has been a strange day for the director, and now he has to stay in a dingy
Park Hotel. Night comes, and he learns about his bank problems. Then, his assistant confirms that
he is broke, and that an answer may come to him if he meets a certain man called, “The Cowboy.”
Now, he is inside a corral on a mountain in the middle of the night. He is supposed to meet the
cowboy here. He does not wait long, as just as the only light whirs static, the cowboy greets him
with a sermon in riddles. In another sentence, he tells him straightly what to do for the next day.
The director has to start recasting again, and say, “This is the girl.”
for the very girl from the photograph he saw. The cowboy turns to leave after a fair warning.
The director will see him once more if he does good, and twice if he doesn’t.
The light turns off, and the director is alone again in the dark.
It’s another fateful day in Havenhurst. The manager learns about the brunette.
She confronts the blonde, and tells her to get rid of trouble if signs show up.
The blonde brings her Hollywood hopes with her to an audition. She meets a casting agent,
and several other people to take a look at her acting skills. She does not hold back
in her emotions, as she delivers every line on point. Everyone in the room applauds her.
Next thing she knows, the casting agent and her assistant are bringing her to meet a well-known
director in his filming set. The film is in the process of re-casting their female lead actress.
She sees the director with horn-rimmed glasses staring at her, and for a moment,
she also cannot take her eyes off of him. The name Camilla Rhodes buzzes for the director.
He gets back to his station, right after he bids the last actress goodbye. Watching the
woman from the photograph perform, he calls for a man called Jason. In a moment, the man comes
to him with the balding representative, and approves of him with his, “This is the girl!”
The director turns to look at the blonde, and sees her running out of the set.
The blonde has to get back to the brunette, and continue their quest for the latter’s identity.
The blonde and the brunette are cautious when they enter the apartment complex,
where Diane Selwyn is supposed to be. Men in suits are gathered around the area. However,
they’re proved to be harmless, when they see one of them escorting a celebrity into her car.
A woman with a stern voice opens the door of Diane’s apartment. She tells them that she had
switched apartments with the woman, and tells them where the right unit is. She also tells
them she’s going there, as she has things left in the unit, but has to answer a call first.
Learning that Diane has been unreachable for two weeks now, the blonde does not hesitate to use the
window to get inside the apartment. There, they find out Diane’s reasons. She is now a bloated
decomposing body, much to the brunette’s horror. Back in Havenhurst, the brunette tries to
cut her hair. However, the blonde intervenes. A few moments later,
she stares at herself in the mirror. She now sports a bob-cut blonde hair, and bleached brows.
The brunette expresses her gratitude for the blonde. They are now in bed, as the blonde
insists for her to ditch her uncomfortable couch. Her expression of gratitude is responded with
intimate desires, as her bare state makes it easier for the blonde to explore her.
The blonde wakes up at the brunette’s muttering in Spanish. At two o’clock in the morning,
the brunette insists on going somewhere. It’s a stage play by the Club Silencio. They stay there,
until tears fill their eyes from a songstress’s song of misery. Then, the blonde notices something
in her purse. It’s a metal box as blue as the key, that they found from the brunette’s purse.
The brunette goes straight to the dresser and gets the box, where they had hidden her things
as soon as they get home. Then she realizes it’s only the blue metal box, that is in the
room with her. The blonde who was just with her, is nowhere to be seen now. She opens the box,
and in an instant, a void swallow her. The blue metal box falls on the floor.
Then, the owner of the apartment enters, and looks around the room. She gets out noting nothing odd.
The metal box is also nowhere to be seen. In another room, a woman is curled up in
her black dress. The cowboy enters and tells her, “Time to wake up!”
A constant rapping on the door wakes the blonde. She’s in Diane Selwyn’s apartment.
She gets up, and sluggishly opens the door. It’s the stern-voiced woman, who swapped apartments
with Diane. She’s mad as she asks the blonde where her things are. She leaves with her things,
and also leaves a message that two detectives came again looking for the blonde.
A moment later, the blonde notices a blue key on the coffee table. Then, she remembers
herself crying in front of the brunette, saying, “Camilla, you’re back!” she pulls herself back,
and makes herself some coffee. In another moment, the blonde is on
top of the bare brunette. She rides her, and attempts some pillow talk, when the brunette
tells her she wants to stop them. The blonde instead sticks her hand between their pearls,
and demands the brunette to take back her words. The moment brings her to an episode of filming
a scene. The director is teaching the lead actor how to play his role.
The brunette, being the lead actress, demands for the blonde to stay in the set. There, the
blonde witnesses her lock lips with the director. Then comes the night at 69 80, Mulholland Drive.
The blonde has been told the brunette has a surprise for her.
What a surprise indeed as she finds herself in front of the director,
and the brunette exchanging heart eyes and locking lips. There she also meets the manager,
whom the director introduces as his mother. At the dinner table, the blonde entertains
the mother with her beginnings in Hollywood. A jitterbug dance contest and her aunt’s inheritance
brought her there. Then she tells how she met the brunette. It’s while vying for a lead role
in a movie by a director called Rooker. Well, she has always been second place to the woman,
or maybe even lesser. She also does not forget to note how Rooker thinks poorly of her.
She looks around and sees people of the industry. There’s the older of the Castigliani brothers
keeping his gaze as she looks at his way. Then, there’s the girl called Camilla from the audition.
The girl walks up to the brunette and shares a kiss with her all the while looking at the blonde.
Tears stream the blonde’s face as she keeps her eyes on the girl walking away.
She sees her almost bumping into a guy in a cowboy getup as she looks back at her.
However, more tears flood her when the director and the brunette get everyone’s
attention with their announcement- a passionate lip-locking announcement.
The next day, the blonde finds herself in Winkie’s looking at a waiter tagged “Betty”,
who is apologizing for her ceramic accident. The blonde is in a talk with Jacky. She shows him
a photo of the brunette. “This is the girl!” she says. In return, Jacky asks for money. Showing him
what she has, Jacky shows her a blue key, noting that she’ll find it once everything is done.
Every strange thing surrounding Mulholland Drive is actually an alternate reality the blonde has
demanded from Jacky. In this hallucinated world, everything goes fairly well for her, her dreams
and her romance while the opposite goes for the ones who hurt her. However, it does not last long.
A man covered in soot, sits among the trash. He eyes the blue metal box in his hands with
soulless passion. From the box, miniature figures of the grinning elderlies come out.
The movie ends when the blonde finds the blue key in her apartment. Then, she finds herself running
away from her beginning. They are the elderlies- the ones who cheered her from the start of her two
journeys: her acting world after the jitterbug contest and her alternate life that started in
the airport. They had crawled out of the floor in mini figures and instantly grew in front of her.
Screaming at the ecstasy of the elderlies, she falls on her bed
and reaches for the gun in her drawer. A cloud of smoke appears as she blows her head.