By Eddie Davis
“It’ll be just like in the movies. Pretending to be someone else”
– Diane Selwyn
An addicted nerd for all things David Lynch, my view of his films changed when I watched his well-received and fondly remembered film at the cinema. The atmosphere of watching a movie changes your outlook on things. It’s much more frightening in the theatre and much more special when you’re watching it on the big screen, so. Without further notice.
“Silencio” – Blue
Mulholland Drive is about a woman who loses her memory after a fatal car crash, she meets with an up-and-coming actress, whom she befriends. A down-on-his-luck director is taken control of by something unearthly and mysterious. And what the hell is that thing at the back of Winky’s?
Watching the movie is an experience that I’ve never felt from watching his other projects. The film is fast-paced and the story is coherent, to the extent where, by the mid-part of the movie, you start to piece up the confusing events from start to finish.
The best part of the film is the side characters, which is a Lynchian hallmark. They are weird and pointless, some funny and many feel out of place. The side characters are much more enjoyable to watch, humour is mainly derived from them which is a good breather from the intense scenes.
The last 35 minutes feels irrelevant to the plot, but it adds some sort of tension hanging by the end of the film. As I mentioned about it being coherent, its structure is what makes the tension real. We all start to realise by the end, the true story of what or how the situation is played out.
It’s a film that started the career for Naomi Watts of course. If it wasn’t for her, then this movie wouldn’t have gone anywhere, with the exception of artistic direction from David Lynch himself.
Feature image: ‘This is the Girl’. Artwork: Eddie Davis
