Mulholland Drive’s True Artistry.

5 hours ago
5 min read

Explained.

spoiler alert

If you haven’t seen the film, Mulholland Drive, you need to stop reading this blog post. This is your final spoiler alert.

FROM: JamesLegare.Substack.com

The gremlin has the blue cubical box.

Just remember that: the gremlin has the blue cubical box, the box is the key (“key” in the sense that it is the clue that makes Mulholland Drive make sense. And, the movie is not that difficult to understand.

It is not my goal to explain the plot of Mulholland Drive. - Please be sure to see the movie before continuing.

Mulholland Drive, written and directed by David Lynch and produced in 2001, is indisputably a cinematic classic. With neo-noir elements and a surrealist narrative, it is perhaps his finest film.

link2source - to wikipedia.

Major Characters

Justin Theroux - as Adam Kesher.

Naomi Watts - Betty Elms and Diane Selwyn.

Laura Elena Harring - Rita & Camilla Rhodes.

Ann Miller - Coco.

Naomi Watts, playing the role of an aspiring young actress, has newly arrived in Los Angeles from Canada and is embarking on her acting career.

Laura Harring plays the amnesiac car-crash victim and is befriended early in the film by Naomi Watts.

Justin Theroux, the Hollywood director coping with marital and financial problems, sees his film hijacked by the mob, and production shut down.

Ann Miller plays two roles in my view: that of a doting landlady, and, finally, it is revealed that she is the mother of the director played by Justin Theroux.

The multiple related senses of the word key.

How does the word ‘key’ apply in computer science or programming?

In computer science, key usually means a value used to identify, access, or control something in a system.

The word ‘key’ can refer to a physical key that turns in a lock. It is also something that can be used to solve a puzzle: as in, ‘the key to doing something.’

The gremlin has the blue cubical box. However, he does not possess the key to open it. The assassin has the key and leaves it for the client after successfully completing his task. The key appears in other scenes and is used by other characters in addition to the gremlin.

alternate timelines, time travel

Some films about alternate timelines and time travel include: Back to the Future, It’s a Wonderful Life, and Donnie Darko to name just a few. The concept is usually treated in one of three ways: fixed timeline, changing timeline, or multiverse with branching alternate realities.

Time travel with a fixed timeline means the past cannot be changed. Time travel with a changing timeline means actions in the past can alter the future. And finally, multiverse time travel is a story model in which going to the past creates or enters a different timeline or universe instead of changing the original one.

conclusion

In my opinion, Mulholland Drive has elements of nonlinear time travel. It would seem that events are not necessarily changed in the past, but the characters are acted upon by the multiverse.

“What does it open?” The assassin laughs at the client’s question about the purpose of the key, which he is to leave “someplace where you will find it” after the deed is done. The assassin is paid a great deal of money for the task, but the source of that money is never fully explained in the film.

The scene bleeds into the darkness of night, and then tinges of red.

And then the viewer realizes he is watching the action in a familiar parking lot—the one behind the diner in downtown Los Angeles. We have been here before with the two unnamed figures. The redness comes from a pulsing red light flashing against a wall. The source of the light is never explained in the film. Possibly, it is intended to evoke the fires of hell, making the light one of the film’s many symbols.

A film centered on a love triangle, with one inevitably jilted lover.

I don’t need to tell you who hires the assassin.

This is not the outcome one would have anticipated at the beginning of the movie. Yes, there were tinges of foreboding, but everything seemed very Southern California—sunny and sugary sweet.

The Turning of the Key.

It is as though the box were a portal to another dimension.

Rita inserts the key into the lock on the cube-shaped box and turns it. As she does this, we hear the metallic sound it makes. Taking out and placing the key on the bed, she opens the box. What happens next shows that the box is a portal to another dimension—or perhaps multiple dimensions.

Rita disappears into the box, which then falls to the floor beside the bed, as there is no longer anyone to hold it. The resulting thud—this is where the time travel comes in, in my view—causes the aunt to enter the bedroom to investigate the noise. This is the same aunt who earlier left for her trip to Canada; she is presumably still there.

The bedroom that the aunt finds is pristine; there is no clutter. She walks about the bedroom, searching for the source of the noise. There is no box on the floor. Seeing that everything is in order, she makes a soft hurrumph sound, turns, and exits the room.

Monty Montgomery, or, the Cowboy.

“Hey, pretty girl, time to wake up!” says the Cowboy to the woman curled up on the bed in a black evening dress.

Lyssie Powell, the blond in the bed, plays the corpse in apartment #17.

The dead body is a symbol out of time and out of place. The story returns to it more than once. So what does it indicate?

Often, David Lynch casts characters who are stand-ins for ideas. The dead body is no exception to this. Therefore, it may represent guilt, or regret. This regret comes in to play towards the end.

link2source - Mulholland Drive Explained - "Everybody's pretending they get it!" - Nightloop @ VKX - Mulholland Drive (2001) is David Lynch’s surreal neo-noir mystery about Hollywood desire, fractured identity, and the violence beneath the dream of becoming a star.

references

link2source - bfi DOT org DOT uk - film - - Mulholland Dr.

Mulholland Dr. (2001)

Naomi Watts and Laura Harring, doubled up, playing out two contrasting narratives, each potentially and mysteriously the psychic B-side of the other.

Lynch. Oscar nomination for Best Director (for Mulholland Dr.).

seductively interpretable but, ultimately, Lynchianly resistant to final readings

True creation keeps creating.

The canvass is there for you to cast your story, or, your interpretation of the director’s cut. It’s going to be however you want. But, you’ve been warned about the gremlin and his box. However, you have the key to use or discard. There’s no going back after you make your decision.

link2source - The Terrible Secret of Mulholland Drive - Twin Perfect @ Twin Perfect ---

David Lynch

link2source - 'Mulholland Drive' Is The Greatest Film Of The 21st Century - Where'dYouGoMatt @ where dyou go matt -

David Lynch was an American filmmaker, artist, and musician born on January 20, 1946, and he died on January 16, 2025. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential filmmakers of his era, with major works including Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, and Twin Peaks. - link2source - His films are often characterized by a distinctive surrealist sensibility, giving rise to the adjective "Lynchian"

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