Blog #6

Mulholland Drive is classified as postmodern due to its unconventional narrative structure and emphasis on consumerism. As the movie is revealed to be a product of protagonist Betty’s dream, director David Lynch defies traditional story arc by tricking the audience into watching a fantasy created by the character for the film’s majority and then presenting what really happened near the end. As Betty and Rita enjoy a perfect night out at the opera, the viewers are sucked into a blue box where the film explains that Betty is really a washed-up actor who is envious of the stardom her ex-lover, Rita has gained. The movie was just a delusion of Betty, who wishes to start anew in Los Angeles, where she can build herself up to be a perfect celebrity and create the perfect relationship upon meeting Rita for the first time. In this relationship, Rita would be helpless and dependent on Betty, the only person or thing in the city she cares about. Throughout the film, we get hints that the characters may not be living a dream-like state, such as the monster, the cowboy, and the way people talk, but in the end the director challenges our  modernistic ordeg by presenting an alternate version of the characters and letting the viewers determine who they represented in the fantasy. In the final scene, Betty is unable to distinguish between reality and fantasy, as little people, representative of her self-doubts, invade her room and begin to torment her. She ends up taking her own life, once again rejecting our perception of traditional story-telling and leaving it up to the audience to interpret what really happened. The emphasis of consumerism comes into play with the scenes taking place inside Hollywood studios, as the portrayal of executives is taken to extremes as they are showcased as greedy, inhuman-like figures who ignore the director’s vision to focus on profit. They report to a shadowy corporate dictator, playing a role in Betty’s dream and presenting Hollywood as a dark organization conspiring to oversee her failure and Rita’s success in making it big.