This post explains the 10 clues of David Lynch to his Mulholland Drive movie
Some basic assumptions:-
- I am following the most widely acceptable explanation of the plot, which is that the movie consists of two main parts: the first part is the dream of Diane Selwyn where she acts as Betty as her alter-ego, and the second one is where she wakes up to reality. The second part in itself consists of two interleaved time segments, one of them occurs in the past (before the dream) and another is a short dramatic finale. The reconstructed time sequence, then, goes as follows:-
a. Diana switches apartments with the neighbor.
b. The romantic relationship of Diana is ruined by what she thinks of as Camilla’s betrayal.
c. Diana orders a hit on Camilla in Winkie’s.
d. After Camilla’s murder, Diana goes into a dream where she dreams of herself as Betty, imposing different imagery from real life onto the dream.
e. After she wakes up, the neighbor gathers her leftover belongings.
f. Shortly after, at the moment of insanity induced by overwhelming guilt feelings, she shoots herself. - The first dream-part of the movie, builds almost entirely on Lynch pilot for a television series. Its artistic transformation into a dream sequence was a latter edition. The original pilot has laid foundations for TV series, and introduced some plot lines with some mystic elements that were intended to be developed later. That’s the reason why the “dream” part of the movie, feels partially too realistic for the dream (which is particularly confusing) and has many loosely connected and under-developed plot lines. Furthermore, the “dreamy” details like the overacting elderly couple in the airport and “Club Silencio” scene were added later, to emphasize the “dream effect” of what was originally intended to be happening in real life (as “real” as D. Lynch could afford). That basically means that we shouldn’t look for the perfect fit of every part of a dream sequence into some well-thought chain of events where every element has its place. Take the botched hitman scene for example. I even think that originally Lynch planned the actual hitman behind Rita’s murder to be Ed, and Joe was there just to clean up the mess Ed caused. Anyway, they were not there from the beginning to fit into some complicated, well-structured puzzle.
- Though, the Diane’s dream as an explanation for the plot line of the movie can be clearly seen. David Lynch was compelled to draw audience attention to some hints for the European audience. He decided to concentrate on three main areas. Pay attention that though there are many more clues for the above, the choice of D. Lynch was subjective according to what he felt was important, meaning again that the clues are not the only ones and subjectively not most important ones for understanding the movie plot:-
a. The clues revealing that the first part of the movie is the dream. They are all based on hardly reconcilable differences of same event description – in the dream and reality.
b. One clue revealing time sequence jumps in the second part
c. The clues in regard to metaphor for subconscious “lust” or rage used in the movie, like “Bum” for example. In general, Lynch’s idea is to show how the “lust” is the engine that moves the plot parts, specifically the lust of Camilla for career which betrays Diana’s love for her, and Diana’s lust for Camilla which repays her for the betrayal. - I am taking the simple approach into plot explanation, so I have to take for granted some facts that are not explicitly stated in the film, for example that the woman leaving the apartment is indeed Aunt Ruth.
The following table summarizes the clues’ explanation, but they are reordered so that clues that belong to the same areas be adjacent.
| Clue And Its Number (By D. Lynch) | Clue to What ? (Area) | Clue Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Pay particular attention to the beginning of the film: At least two clues are revealed before the credits | “The first part is the dream” – clue. | Different description of the same event as the hint that one of them is not real. 1. Diane explains, during the pool party, that she won The Jitterbug contest, while we clearly see Betty as the contest winner. Direct hint that the following part of the movie is someone’s dream. 2. We see someone falling into the bedsheets. |
| 3. Can you hear the title of the film that Adam Kesher is auditioning actresses for? Is it mentioned again? | “The first part is the dream” – clue. | Again, different description of the same event. The movie name is “Sylvia North Story”. Diane explains during the pool party that she lost the role to Camilla, though in the first part, the unrelated actress (also seen in the pool party) is winning the role for the same movie. |
| 4. An accident is a terrible event … Notice the location of the accident | “The first part is the dream” – clue. | Again, different description of the same event. It is not the specific place, which is important, but the fact that the car accident takes place in the same place where Camilla meets the Diana for the pool party. Both scenes unexplainably starting with the same phrase. In both cases, some tragic events start from there. |
| 10. Where is Aunt Ruth? | “The first part is the dream” – clue. | Again, different description of the same event. It is not where exactly she is (Canada?) but the fact that we see her leaving in the first part alive and well, but in the second one Diana tells everyone that she’s dead. |
| 5. Who gives a key, and why? | “The first part is the dream” – clue. | This is more of imposing real time events onto dream imagery. The same object blue key appears in the different forms. Similarly, for example, to “Ed’s black book” (which could also serve as the clue). The key is given by the hitman to Diane as indication that Camilla is dead. Previously, the key re-appears as the blue key in Diana’s dream. In general, in the movie (might not be directly intended by the director), anyone dealing with the keys is dead. Aunt Ruth is taking the keys from the apartment, later revealed being dead. Betty, as Diane’s alter ego, is given the key by the Coco, and then shoots herself after waking up. Rita (Camilla) which finds the blue key is killed by the hitman ordered by Diana. |
| 2. Notice appearances of the red lampshade | “The first part is the dream” – clue. | That is can be explained if we compare it to the pilot cut. In the pilot cut, the phone chain ends with the call to some mysterious office. Only the hand and button of the communication device can be seen, but they leave the impression of something or someone powerful behind the scene. In the movie, it was changed to a red lampshade that we learn later belongs to Diana’s room. The hint here is that she (Diana) is the one powerful entity behind the scenes “controlling” the dream. The men in the middle do not serve any special purpose in the theatrical movie, though they D. Lynch may have had some ideas for them in the upcoming series. |
| 7. What is felt, realized and gathered at the Club Silencio? | “The first part is the dream” – clue. | This also was added in the theatrical version, to emphasize the dream effect and give us a hint that everything that happens is not real. Again, the director added a lot of mystical elements into it to create the atmosphere, which I don’t think serve any concrete role in particular other than inducing into the spectator the feeling of “unreal-ness” of everything that happens. |
| 6. Notice the robe, the ashtray, the coffee cup | “Time sequence jump” – clue | All these elements are hints that in the second part there’s a time jump to the past events. The robe disappears, the coffee cup turns into a whiskey glass, and the piano ashtray reappears, though it was taken by the neighbor. All this indicates that the plot jumped back in time. |
| 8. Did talent alone help Camilla? | Clue explaining why Diana was so enraged. | No. In the pool party, it seems like Camilla wins the role due to the romantic relationship with Adam. Diana’s love is betrayed for the sake of Camilla’s “lust” for career development. Her interest in Adam seems particularly phony, after a suspicious kiss with the actress. That fact that her love was betrayed for pure career interests, is what especially painful to Diana, and that what starts the unfortunate chain of events. |
| 9. Note the occurrences surrounding the man behind ‘Winkies’ | Bum as Diane’s “lust” part metaphor clue | The “Bum” is the metaphor for Diane’s lust that she lost control of. In the pilot, the Bum appeared in the end after the pile of money shot, linking it to the greediness symbol. The Dan on the other hand is a metaphor for Diane’s naive part succumbing to her “Bum” part, which blinded by the revenge. In the movie’s real (second) part, the Dan is seen looking into Diane eyes the moment she exchanges the money for the hit, indicating the point of no-return. In the dream, Dan as representing Diane’s lost-for-good part is trying to face the Diane’s bad “Bum” part (“the one that controls it all”) by walking behind the Winkie’s with the shrink (strengthening the psychological aspect of the metaphor), ultimately losing the battle. |