Devious Dreams: Reimagining David Lynch's Mulholland Drive

Puzzling and elusive, David Lynch's Mulholland Drive (2001) refuses easy interpretation. Critics have said the film is "outside logical explanation," that it lacks "any semblance of rationality," that "people who try to work out what is 'really' going on in it are wasting their time." Given Mulholland Drive's unorthodox narrative-Is the story a dream? The visions of a dying mind? A depiction of alternate realities?-it's no wonder audiences struggle to make sense of it.

In Devious Dreams: Reimagining David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, John Thorne argues that a simple story hides beneath the film's chaotic surface. Through a study of Mulholland Drive's production documents, shooting script, and original configuration as a television pilot, and through analysis of David Lynch's approach to editing, sound design, scene arrangement, and camera movement, Thorne offers compelling evidence that the first part of the film is an exaggerated reflection of the latter-that a dream interpretation is the most coherent way to read Mulholland Drive.

Supplementing Thorne's analysis, Devious Dreams features in-depth interviews with Mulholland Drive's lead performers: Naomi Watts, Justin Theroux, and Laura Elena Harring. Each actor shares vivid memories of making Mulholland Drive (both as television pilot and film) and offers personal interpretations of the film. Originally published in Wrapped In Plastic magazine in 2001, these interviews enhance our understanding of Mulholland Drive and provide a rare glimpse into its unusual creation.

Mulholland Drive is a film that warrants in-depth interrogation. Here, in these pages, it gets due consideration. Cogently argued and meticulously researched, Devious Dreams is an unprecedented look at this landmark film.