Mulholland Drive is one of those movies that makes your head hurt after you watch it. The plot is convoluted and, in my opinion, may not make any sense at all. The acting was, at times, distant, strange, and it wasn't until the end of the movie that i actually started feeling for any of these characters. But I will give the movie one thing... the direction was awesome!
If there has been one thing that this course has taught me is that direction is about 75% of what makes a movie great. This film is the prime example. Let us start out with the opening scene, watching the black silhouettes dance along the blue backdrop. We later realize that this scene what brought Betty/ Diane (Watts) to Hollywood. But at the start of the movie we know nothing other than this is an awkwardly beautiful scene, ended with the stunning face of Naomi Watts.
What is key here is that we learn later, when the story goes topsey turvey on us, that these silhouettes are dancing along the surface of the "blue box" that is the Oedipus for the plot twist. This is probably, in my opinion, the most important realization of the movie for it does exactly as the reading proclaims Lynch to do. It creates an "onslaught against the very stability on which time and space depend" (38).
But why is this important? Since the movie starts off in this unknown dreamscape image, that we later learn is both a mix of reality and fantasy, we are placed in an awkward position... do we believe the events that are about to take place or do we question each action to find the truth? Now obviously we are not limited to those choices but i believe a combination of both will lead the viewer down the line that Lynch has drawn for us.
Your intuitions are sound here--especially the 'topsy-turvy' part. He's flipping around the conventional but illusory cinematic relationship between 'image' and 'reality' like a photographic negative.
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