What is "Mulholland Drive" about?

After finishing "Mulholland Drive", I took a breath! It's not that I haven't had similar nightmares, but I didn't expect that someone could show nightmares so realistically on the big screen. Experiencing other people's nightmares may be more terrifying than experiencing one yourself. I'm amazed that David Lynch could conceive such a nightmare. If he hadn't studied Freud's "Interpretation of Dreams" deeply, then his IQ would be at least 160 or above, or maybe this is David Lynch at all. Your own nightmare? The reason why I say this is because when I tried to use Freud's dream interpretation method to analyze this seemingly absurd nightmare, I found that I could interpret some quite reasonable factors from this nightmare, some bizarre dreams In fact, they are all solvable! So I almost doubt the fiction of this nightmare! Next, I boldly try to use Freud’s dream interpretation method to analyze the nightmare of “Mulholland Drive”.

First of all, let me briefly introduce some relevant psychological concepts and Freud’s theory about dreams:

1. Freud believed that dreams are wishes of satisfaction. The formula for dream analysis is: Dream = repressed desire + disguised satisfaction. In other words, a certain dream is always used to express a certain wish of the dreamer, but the fulfillment of this wish may be disguised and not so clear at a glance.

2. Identification: Simply put, it is the psychological phenomenon in which one person substitutes himself into another person for some reason. This occurs several times in the dream "Mulholland Drive."

Now, I will disrupt the narrative sequence of the film to explain the background of this dream, which is the reality part of the film. (The reality I describe may be far from what you understand, but please listen to me patiently. I will explain many details step by step later.)

The real world

Diane grew up in Ontario, Canada, under the care of her uncle and her aunt, who was an actress. Probably under the influence of her aunt, she always hoped that she could become an outstanding actor and make a name for herself in Hollywood. She won the first prize in a jitterbug dance competition, rose to prominence, and has since entered the entertainment industry. After her aunt and uncle died, she came to Hollywood alone. Like many other girls who came to Hollywood to pursue their dreams, she rented a simple house and participated in auditions, waiting to be selected by a director one day and become famous in one fell swoop.

Soon, a movie called "Silvia North Story" was looking for a heroine. Diane went to audition. She failed, but a woman named Camilla relied on her near-perfect performance in the audition. WOW the judges, get the part, and become famous instantly. Diane and Camilla met and became good friends. With Camilla's help, Diane appeared in small roles in some of Camilla's films. During this time, Camilla has become the darling of the film company, and Diane and Camilla have become gay partners. In order to hide her from others, Camilla often wore a blond wig and came to Diane's house to have trysts with Diane. Although Camilla seems not to care about their relationship, Diane regards Camilla as her lover. Then there was a casting call for a heroine for a big-budget movie. On the set, director Adam and Camilla fell in love at first sight, and Camilla naturally became the heroine and Adam's girlfriend. Diane also plays a small role in the film. But Diane, who loves Camilla deeply, cannot accept the close relationship between Camilla and Adam. Diane had a big fight with Camilla at home because she saw Camilla and Adam flirting on the set.

The devastated Diane cried and masturbated at home. The phone rang. It was Camilla. Camilla sent a car to pick up Diane and took her to Mulholland Drive. The car suddenly stopped on Mulholland Drive. Diane was a little scared. He asked the driver: "What are you doing? Shouldn't we stop here?" The driver turned around and said, "I have a surprise for you." Camilla appeared next to the car. She took Diane through a mountain road to a mansion. It turns out that this is Adam's house, where a party is being held, and many people from the film company and crew are there. Diane exchanged a few words with Adam's mother, Coco, and then entered the party.

At the party, Diane continued to endure Camilla and Adam's flirting. At this time, an actress came over and whispered a few words to Camilla, and kissed her in front of Diane. Diane felt desperate. She thought that her position as Camilla's gay girlfriend might have been replaced by someone else. It wasn't until Adam said, "Camilla and I are getting married," that Diane finally couldn't bear it anymore.

Dian was driven to a dead end by jealousy and hatred. She hired a killer in a cafe and asked him to kill Camilla. The killer gave her a blue key and asked her to get something from a beggar behind the cafe that could prove Camilla's death. Diane came to the beggar, and the beggar threw her a blue box, which seemed to be open with the blue key. Inside was Camilla's remains? ! Diane began to collapse. She seemed to see her aunt and uncle running out of the box (hallucination). She was so frightened that she ran back home, went to bed panting, and had a nightmare (this nightmare is the nightmare described in detail in the first three quarters of the film). After waking up, Diane stared at the blue key on the coffee table. Thinking of what she had done, she collapsed completely, and she saw her uncle and aunt chasing her fiercely. She fled to the bedside, took out a pistol, and shot herself.

The above is the realistic part of the story, and it is also the background of the dream created by Diane, the dreamer. This dream is quite complicated. The names, identities, and experiences of many characters in the dream are different from reality, or even overlap and interchange. Therefore, before I explain this dream, I will first explain the relationship between the characters in the dream and reality and the main background. You can also go back and take a look at this character association table after reading my explanation of dreams.

Character Relationship

Character:

Diane In reality: As mentioned above, in the dream of the heroine of this film: Betty (the incarnation of Diane, is the ideal The perfect Diane, but sometimes the incarnation of Camilla)

Camilla In reality: Camilla as mentioned above In dream: Rita

Diane’s aunts In reality: Diane’s Aunt (deceased) In the dream: The stranger Betty met on the plane. In the dream, Betty's aunt (the person who left her the house) is Diane's idealized aunt.

Adam In reality: Director In dream: Director

Coco In reality: Adam’s mother In dream: Betty’s landlord

Adam’s wife and her lover In reality: Adam's wife and her lover In dream: Adam's wife and her lover (their images should be fictional.)

The blonde woman kissing Camilla at the party In reality: maybe One of the actresses in the crew had a dream: The name in the dream was Camilla! It was the actress that the film company forced Adam to choose.

The man who spit out coffee: showed up at a party, maybe one of the crew members. In the dream: a member of the powerful forces behind the film company threatened Adam to choose the actress. The Camilla they recommended was the heroine

The old man with the white beard In reality: One of the performers at Silent Theater In the dream: The cowboy who owns the hotel where Adam was staying when he was in trouble In reality: Appeared at a party, maybe He is an actor (does he have other identities?) In the dream: The boss of the power behind the film company once threatened Adam and woke up Diane with a smile

The waitress in the coffee shop (her name is only different in reality and in the dream) , but the identity is the same.

) In reality: Name: Betty (this is the origin of Diane's name in the dream) In dream: Name: Diane (the name of the waiter in the dream became a clue for Rita to trace her identity)

"Passer-by" Reality Middle: Diane had an encounter with the killer when she was making a deal with him in the coffee shop. In the dream: He sought help from a psychiatrist in the coffee shop because he dreamed of the beggar.

In reality: The beggar replaced the killer. In the dream of the person who gave the color box to Diane: the devil behind the wall (scaring "passerby A" to death)

In the nightmare

In that cafe, two men were talking , one of them is a man Diane met in the coffee shop when she was dealing with the killer (let’s call him Passerby A for now), and the other one seems to be a psychiatrist. A passerby said he saw the devil behind the wall behind the cafe. They walked out of the store, and a devil appeared behind the wall - the beggar.

Analysis: The beggar in reality is the person who delivers the blue box to Diane on behalf of the killer, and is a witness to Diane's crime. Deep down in Diane's heart, she was very afraid of seeing the beggar. However, because the beggar was a witness to Diane's crimes, Diane did not want to mention the beggar. Therefore, in the dream, Diane imitated herself as a passerby who did not know her crime, and put herself in the shell of the passerby to indirectly vent her fear of the beggar.

Dream Paragraph 4: Director Adam was looking for a heroine for one of his big-budget films. However, the forces behind the production company sent someone a photo of Camilla, a blonde woman, to force Adam to choose her as the heroine. main character. Adam left angrily, and when he returned home he found his wife fooling around with the cleaner. Adam destroyed his wife's jewelry in anger, but was beaten up by his wife's lover and kicked out of the house.

Analysis: (1) Adam is the key person who caused Camilla to leave Diane. In addition to the hatred for Camilla leaving her, in Diane's consciousness, of course, there is also the hatred for Adam's love. Therefore, he ruthlessly retaliated against Adam in his dream. He was coerced by the company, his wife was fooling around with others, and he was kicked out again. Adam did get divorced in reality. He mentioned at the party that he got the swimming pool and his ex-wife got the pool cleaner. But with Adam's character, he would not mention to others his disgraceful experience of being repaired by his wife and the cleaner. Therefore, this dream and the image of Adam's wife and her lover should be fictionalized by Diane. (2) The meaning of the very crucial "casting controversy" here and why Camilla was replaced by a blond woman will be analyzed after the entire dream appears in its entirety.

Dream Paragraph 5: The killer appears: He killed a long-haired man. He accidentally discovered the female secretary and wanted to kill her. After finally killing the female secretary, she was discovered by the cleaner and killed the cleaner. , and fired at the vacuum cleaner because it was noisy, causing the alarm to go off. Analysis: Diane knows that Camilla has been killed by a killer. Will anyone know this? This strong doubt and fear manifests itself in the dream as the killer trying to cover up the murder but repeatedly failing. The more he tries to cover up the fact of the murder, the more self-defeating he becomes. Dream Paragraph 6: Betty came to the apartment left by her aunt. The landlord Coco came to welcome her. The apartment was luxurious and comfortable, and Betty was very satisfied. Analysis: (1) Diane’s aunt used to be a Hollywood actress, and later went to Canada and passed away. This is what Diane said at Adam’s ball. In the dream, she made up an ideal aunt who had connections in Hollywood (because in the later dream, the person in charge of Betty's audition was her aunt's friend), and also left her a pretty good place to live. . In reality, Diane was actually very lonely and helpless. She came to Hollywood alone and could only afford to live in a simple house. And the image of this aunt should also be what Diane's aunt used to look like in reality. (2) The image of the landlord Coco comes from Adam’s mother in reality. At the dance, Diane had a simple conversation with Coco. Coco was quite sympathetic to Diane's situation. On the contrary, when Adam said, "Camilla and I are going to get married," Coco showed a look of disdain.

Coco's "kindness" to him made Coco become a landlady who was quite enthusiastic about him in his dream.

Dream Paragraph 7: Betty found Camilla hiding in the bathroom. She thought Camilla was her aunt's friend. Camilla actually lost her memory in the car accident and completely forgot her name and identity. She could only refer to herself as Rita. After Betty understood what happened to Rita, she decided to help Rita find out the truth. They found a large amount of cash and a blue key in Rita's handbag. Analysis: (1) The image of Camilla in reality and in dreams are completely different. In reality, Camilla gives people the impression of a cold, aloof ice beauty. In the dream, she became the helpless and melancholy Rita, which is actually Diane's temperament in reality. The strong and weak relationship between Camilla and Diane was reversed in the dream. Diane hopes that she (Betty) will become the strong one, while the weak Rita must rely on herself to survive. Let Camilla stay with her forever - this is one of Diane's strongest wishes. And Camilla can only do this if she becomes a weakling. Therefore, in the dream, Camilla lost her memory and became a weakling attached to Betty. (2) The intention of the money comes from the money Diane paid to the killer. In reality, Diane only used a bunch of banknotes to hire the killer, but in the dream, Rita had far more money in her bag. Because Diane has a very hidden wish that even if Camilla is dead, she will not die by the cheap killer she hired, but should die more "valuably"! (3) This blue key is the key used in reality to open the blue box containing the thing that proves Camilla's death.

Dream Paragraph 8: Director Adam checked into a cheap hotel, and the hotel owner told him that his bank account had been blocked. Then Adam was threatened by a mysterious cowboy, who was obviously the force behind the film company. The boss. Analysis: The cowboy said to Adam, if you do a good job, you will see me again. If you do a bad job, you will see me twice. See you once means see you in heaven. Seeing twice means seeing once while alive and once after death.

Dream Paragraph 9: Betty is going to audition, and she first checks lines with Rita at home. During the audition the next day, her perfect performance conquered everyone, and he was taken to the set to prepare to meet the director Adam. At this time, the blonde Camilla, who was highly recommended by the film company, was auditioning. Adam reluctantly gave in. He said, "This is the girl I'm looking for." But he noticed Betty next to him, and they made eye contact. At that moment, both people seemed to be electrocuted. But Betty fled the set inexplicably on the pretext of helping Rita. Analysis: (1) This is a very crucial dream sequence in the film. As mentioned before, the statuses of Diane and Camilla are interchanged in dreams. In addition to being the ideal image of Diane, Betty also has many qualities of Camilla in reality. This is not difficult to understand. Camilla is better than Diane in every aspect. Of course, Diane wants to be like Camilla. This dream happened in reality, but it was not Diane who successfully auditioned, but Camilla! Here, Betty's identity becomes more of the incarnation of Camilla in reality. (Here Diane has transformed herself into Camilla. Of course Diane hopes that she can audition successfully like Camilla.) In reality, it was Camilla who fell in love with Adam at first sight on the set. Adam's words "This is the girl I'm looking for" were indeed a sign of love for Camilla. Said. But how much Diane wished that this scene had never happened, how much she wished that Adam had chosen another girl instead of Camilla, so that Camilla would always stay by her side. Therefore, in her dream, she invented a "casting controversy" in which Adam chose a girl who had nothing to do with her under the control of the forces behind the film company. Adam chose Camilla, a blond girl whom she didn't know at all, instead of her own. That Camilla (Rita). This is the fulfillment of Diane's wish "It would be great if Adam didn't choose Camilla during the audition" disguised as a casting controversy.

This is also the significance of the casting controversy. In reality, if Diane is given a chance, she will be successfully selected and will be favored by director Adam. However, contrary to the real Camilla, she would rather lose the casting than leave Camilla. The one who succeeds is Camilla's new lover, the person who replaces the protagonist's homosexual status in reality. She is considered the ultimate winner by the protagonist. (2) In fact, in reality, there were two castings. The first time was "Silvia North Story" by director Bob Broker (the director who auditioned for Betty in the room in the dream). Camilla and Diane both went to audition and they met at that time. Camilla got the part and became famous ever since. The last time was an audition for Adam's film. Dreams have the function of condensation, and here, Diane condensed these two experiences together.

Dream Paragraph 10: 1. Rita saw the name tag "Diane" of a waiter in the cafe, and she remembered that her name might be Diane. They found the apartment where Diane lived and found a woman rotting on the bed! Analysis: Diane’s deep fear finally appeared in her dream! That apartment is indeed the apartment where Diane lives in reality, and I wonder if you have looked carefully at the rotting corpse: black pajamas, shawl black curly hair - that is what Camilla looks like in reality! This is actually how Diane imagined Camilla's death. And her death is linked to the name Diane. "Camilla has been killed by Diane!" Diane's consciousness is the cause of this dream. 2. In the dream, when they were approaching Diane's apartment, they saw several men who looked like bodyguards. One of them also picked up a blonde woman. Out of fear, they avoided these people. Analysis: In reality, Camilla is at least a well-known star, and she seems to be the darling of the film company. Therefore, when she came to Diane's house, she always wore a blond wig and was escorted by bodyguards to hide her from others. This is the source of the image of the bodyguard and the blonde woman in the dream.

Dream Paragraph 11: Betty and Rita fled home, and Rita deeply felt that she would also suffer the same fate. Betty helped her put on a blonde wig. Betty invited Rita to sleep with her, the two had sex and expressed their love for each other. Analysis: (1) Camilla’s desire to return to herself is temporarily satisfied. But Diane still subconsciously realizes that Camilla is no longer here, so the soundtrack of this section has a bit of a sense of death. (2) Rita finally put on a blonde wig, which should be the image Camilla looks like every time she appears at Diane's house in reality. Only when Camilla wears blonde hair does she completely belong to Diane.

Dream Paragraph 12: Rita kept calling the word "silence" in Spanish in her dream. Betty woke her up. They came to a theater called "Silence" to watch a performance. The theme of the performance was "What you see and hear are illusions and phantoms." Betty kept sobbing and even trembling violently in the audience. Rita found the blue box in her bag. Analysis: This nightmare is almost over! The "Silence" Theater is actually a place that Diane and Camilla have been to in reality. This can be seen from one of the actors in the "Silence" Theater - the old man with a white beard. In the previous dream, he was the owner of the hotel where Adam stayed when he was in trouble. The actor of "Silence" theater is his true identity. The theme of the performance is to reveal illusions, which corresponds exactly to the fact that dreams are illusory and cruel reality is about to come. So Betty (Diane) realized this and kept twitching. At the same time, the blue box also appeared, the most prominent contradiction in reality appeared in the dream, and everything became more and more "real". The "Silent" theater appeared in this dream because of the special theme of its performance, and became the union point between dreams and reality.

Dream Paragraph 13: They returned home, Rita took out the blue key, and then Betty disappeared. Rita opened the blue box alone, and the camera entered the box, and it was dark. Analysis: The dream is coming to an end.

Betty disappeared. At this time, Rita was almost completely the incarnation of Diane. It seemed that Rita (actually Diane herself) was the only one left in the world, helpless and fearful to bear the sins she had committed (blue box).

Dream Paragraph 14: End of the dream: Betty's aunt looked around her apartment and then left. The camera suddenly moved to Diane's apartment. The person sleeping on the bed was the intact corpse in Diane's apartment in her dream. The cowboy opened the door and said, "Beauty, it's time to get up!" The camera returned to the bed, and the body was already rotting! The nightmare is over. In the next scene, Diane is lying on the bed in the same sleeping position as the corpse. The friend who swapped rooms with her comes to pick up her things. Her knock on the door wakes Diane up. Analysis: In this section, Diane is already in a half-dream and half-awake state. "Beauty, it's time to wake up!" Is this what people often said to Diane before? Is it a cowboy? In reality, the cowboy only appeared once at Adam's party, and never showed his face. If it was the cowboy who said it, is it possible that the cowboy is Diane's lover? What is more reasonable is that this sentence was often said to each other by Diane and Camilla, or it was just said by the friend who knocked on the door, but why did the image of the speaker in the dream become a cowboy? This is actually an illusion formed by the intersection of Diane's dream and reality. The real person who wakes Diane up is the killer who comes to place the key, but the role of the cowboy in the dream is the killer, so it is the cowboy who wakes her up in Diane's dream. (Modified by Tock) The above is my analysis of the nightmare "Mulholland Drive". I would like to say that my understanding of dreams is very superficial. In the above analysis of this dream, some are just my speculations, and some are just the more reasonable of my several speculations. My interpretation of dreams in this way may make people laugh in front of experts. But I hope to use this movie review as a starting point, so that some psychology professionals who read this article can use professional dream interpretation methods to analyze this nightmare. The cowboy should be the protagonist's imaginary father, and in reality he may be the person who cares about him most sincerely. But I think cowboys may represent the strength that the heroine desires in her heart. For example, you can make the director give in. Calling her to get up represents the heroine's desire for a powerful force to help her and achieve her.