Whether Mulholland Drive should be viewed as a grand puzzle where, if watched with the eyes of a hawk and the memory of a dolphin, everything will fall neatly into place to reveal the deceptively simple story hiding in plain sight, or whether it’s just one large mood piece that is meant to be felt rather than understood is a question that will never be answered. But that is only the start of the expressionist tapestry Lynch has dreamt up, with multiple vignettes seemingly disconnected from the wider narrative taking up a large part of the runtime to create an experience that seems tailor-made for cinephiles to argue over. Intercut with this is a subplot featuring director Adam Kesher ( Justin Theroux) and his struggles to make his film after it is commandeered by mobsters who demand he cast unknown Camilla Rhodes as its lead, despite his wishes. Her journey causes her to cross paths with Betty (Watts), an inspiring actress fresh out of LAX, and the two form a close bond. Merely describing the plot of Mulholland Drive could fill an article by itself, but on a most basic level it revolves around Rita (Harring), the amnesiac survivor of a car crash as she attempts to discover her real identity. It’s phenomenal stuff, and a clear reminder of why Lynch is one of cinemas great auteurs. But it’s also a masterful example of constraint creating creativity, with an intriguing but underwhelming pilot being transformed into one of the most acclaimed films of the 21st century.
This half-TV/half-movie hybrid, combined with a healthy dose of eccentric surrealism that has defined Lynch’s career, makes for a peculiar experience that sets Mulholland Drive apart from any other film. By the time the cameras were rolling on the new footage twenty months had passed since the initial batch of filming, with many of the previous sets and props having been long since discarded.
Lynch set to work reuniting the cast and crew whilst also expanding his script to provide the story with a sense of closure, but that proved to be a difficult task. From across the Atlantic came StudioCanal, a lifeboat in one hand and a check for $7 million in the other, and soon after the decision was made to reconfigure Mulholland Drive into a feature film.
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