If I had watched it myself I would have left dejected, mumbling to myself that I was too "thick" to appreciate what the fuck Lynch had just dropped on me. Thankfully, in the delicious post-film discussion my friends began piecing it all together for me and this is the highly fragile understanding I have of the narrative thus far.

Courtesy of my friends Nick Cvercko and Crystal House

Ok, here is what I (allegedly) figured out about the movie Mullholland Dr. by David Lynch. I will be the first to admit that the major idea of fantasy/reality didn’t come completely from myself. I was getting there but had much assistance from a friend of a friend. I will break it down into a character-by-character basis at this point as it is the easiest way to understand it in one sitting. First, there are two major parts of the movie, the first part is a fantasy world. The second part is reality. I will start with the characters in the reality portion, as again, it is easier to understand this way

REALITY----------------------------------------------------------

Diane – Is the main character in the whole movie. It is her life that is unfolding before our eyes. She is a failed actress who is madly in love with a successful one (Camille). Camille isn’t in love with Diane but seems to be in this thing for occasional sex. Diane imagines a different life, one where she is named Betty which is a name that she randomly gets from a waitresses name tag. She imagines herself in a world where all of the things actually work as she sees they should or do work. She decides to have Camille killed when she doesn’t have her way (which is when she launches into her fantasy at the sight of the name “Betty”) At the end, she kills herself when she realizes that not only is her fantasy so very far from the truth, but that she killed the one person that she cares for in the world.

Camille- Is a successful actress who decided to have a little fun with this failed actress. Doesn’t have any emotional attachment to Betty instead falls in love with the director of her film. While Betty is on the set one day, Camille’s and the Directors feelings for each other come into plain view. Betty flips out in a jealous rage and causes quite a scene on her set (no pun intended). To save face around her associates, she invites betty to a cast party and pretends like there is nothing wrong between them and that nothing at all is going on between them. There she announces her engagement to the director. A hit man tries to kill her in the opening scenes of this movie but teenagers racing their cars do it instead.

The Director- Simply picks Camille instead of Diane for a part, launching Camille’s career. He is a general figure to which Diane focuses her resentment.

Hit man – Just some schmoe that Diane finds and pays to knock Camille off. Tells her that when the job is done, he will place a blue key where he can find it.

Blond Actress (who’s name escapes me) – This is the personification of jealousy or betrayal in Diane’s mind. She kisses Camille just as Diane feels most violated. Right when Diane feels most violated, when Camille announces her engagement to the director, the actress comes up and kisses Camille further enraging Diane. She is one of a few characters that I don’t consider characters as much as symbols for turning points.

Cowboy – I listed the Cowboy last because he is one of the few characters that transcends the Reality/Fantasy boundary with no visible change. This is because I’m actually disregarding him as a character and making him more a visible symbol. In the Fantasy World, he talks to the Director about choosing the other blonde actress for the part. He says something about how attitude depicts the outcome of life. He becomes this philosophy personified. When he wakes Diane up, he is basically slapping her and telling her to snap out of it. He is telling her that this reality is her fault caused by her negative attitude and that no fantasy is going to change that. He also tells the Director earlier on that he will show up once if he did the right thing. He then walks casually through the party where Camille and him announce their wedding plans. When he shows up this one time, he is not so much saying that what was done was right in the right/wrong sense of the word, he is saying that the actions taking place are right as in true. This is what happens when she approaches life with the attitude she has. These are her consequences.

Ok, from here, we must go back to the beginning of the movie where the fantasy starts.

FANTASY----------------------------------------------------------

Betty – Is Diane as she sees herself in her fantasy; an innocent, talented actress who loves the woman in her life dearly and is loved back. She decides to help this person out and when this happens the romance is started. Later on, they attend a theater in the middle of the night that strongly forces the thought that this whole world is fake. During this performance, her fantasy is drawing to an end and she starts to realize it as she cries and goes into minor convulsions.
Rita - This is Camille as Diane wishes she were. She gets in a car accident, which was actually her assassination attempt that she didn’t survive. In the fantasy though, she not only survives but forgets everything from her past life, most importantly she forgets about Hollywood and everyone else that Diane thinks that took her away from her. She only knows about her new found friendship with Betty that quickly turns into love.

Diane – Ok, here’s the tricky part. In the fantasy, Rita sees a waitress while on a search for a clue of her former life. The waitress is wearing a name tag that says “Diane”, this is not the Diane that we are talking about here. But just as the name “Betty” gets the Diane in the real life fantasizing about how things could have been, the name “Diane” lets Rita
Remember a name from her life…the real life. Then, when they track down this Diane and go into her apartment, they find a body that obviously died of a drug overdose some time ago. They are both shocked but Rita just flips out. This is Diane being bitter and suicidal in her fantasy. This body is the real Diane. She kills herself and Rita is heartbroken. This is Diane’s way of saying “when I’ll be gone, she’ll be sorry!!!” And if you remember, when the cowboy wakes Diane up from her fantasy showing her the real world, she is in exactly the same pose in the same apartment as the dead body. Yes it’s confusing but very keen.

The Director – This is one of the only characters that is essentially the same in the fantasy as he is in reality, the only difference is the people around him and how they affect his actions. He is the director of a new picture. He wants it his way but the big wigs tell him that it will go theirs, guess who wins. He sees Betty while auditioning for the main women for his new movie, he instantly likes what he sees but his hands are tied.

The Mysterious Midget Producer guy in the suit – This is the invisible somebody that gets in Betty’s way. She sees herself as a wonderful actress as shown by the audition in her fantasy. Obviously, the only reason that she wouldn’t get the part that she wants is that someone has unfairly cut past the audition process and pushed his favorite actress into the spot. This, to Diane, is the only reason that she is not successful, it’s not her fault, it’s “the system”.

The Blonde Actress who’s name still escapes me – Once again, she represents jealousy in Diane’s life. When Betty goes to the audition, she catches the eye of the director right after a stellar audition a few minutes earlier. But because the director was told by “the system” that he had to cast this other girl, Betty gets nothing.

The Creepy Neighbor lady who comes to Betty’s door – Unfortunately, this one eluded me. All I really see her as is a symbol for trouble coming into the relationship or trouble in Rita’s life that comes between them eventually. But for the most part, I think she just moved to plot along and gave it some danger.

The old people who turn out to be really creepy - These are the people who at the beginning of the movie say their goodbyes to Betty and send her on their merry way. They are overly happy but this doesn’t really matter. What matters is when they come back during the real world as tiny, scary versions of themselves. They are basically showing Diane that she is delusional, that she made her bed and has to lye in it. They symbolize her fantasy coming back and haunting her, showing her how it could have been until she fucked it up. This drives her to suicide.
The really really creepy dark character - This person is closely related to the box that he sometimes holds. He shows up whenever fantasy and reality suddenly switch positions. His appearance at the beginning of the movie was simply an explanation for who he is and what he represents.

Assassin – This is the same person in reality as in fantasy. His appearance in the fantasy is a short one but shows Diane’s rationalization. She dreams up this little slapstick filled scenario looking down on the assassin, showing his light attitude towards killing. This justifies her use of her services in her mind seeing as though so many have died by his senseless killings anyway. Eventually though he delivers the key to her, the key represents guilt for her actions.

So you see, when at the end of the fantasy, Betty starts to realize that she is Diane and that nothing around her is real, this box appears in her purse. When this box is opened with the blue key, the same blue key that the assassin leaves for her when he completes his job. This key is a symbol for Diane’s guilt. When it appears in the fantasy world, it ends it. This is her realizing what she has done to her only love and this kills her fantasy, letting everything get sucked up into the box. When she sees it in her apartment, she also realizes what she has done to her love and instead kills herself.

Well, that’s it… I think. I might have left something or somebody important out but I think that this brings the movie together pretty well. I’m open to suggestions and or questions. Later on.


"The task of philosophy is learning how to die." - Socrates

"If you live day to day then you probably live life more than a cat who got a Benz bankroll and a wife cuz yo I've seen a lot of folks who's so called success = depressed and look up to broke peeps who hold the mik now." -Evidence

"Socialism...let's hear that dirty word."-Jay Bulworth