Mulholland Drive Vs. Pretty Woman; Women Protagonists

@masterraalkivictorieux Master Ra’al Ki Victorieux

The magic of cinema confronts us with hidden realities. 🎬✨ Let’s reflect: do we seek sweet dreams or raw realities? 🤔 #Cinema #Reflection #DavidLynch #PrettyWoman #MulhollandDrive https://wp.me/p3JLEZ-8be

I originally published the following article in 2006, under the pseudonym Iris México. Promotion was through “Lengua lengua”, an electronic newsletter and blog on contemporary art from arT&+. Documenting previous publications is part of the digitization of the Atma Unum archive.

Well, there are many kinds of films. Most of them, nowadays, don’t demand much thinking. That makes me very, very upset. It makes me upset that they think the audiences have grown unused to thinking and that they only want things spelled out for them, in a platter. That’s bullshit, and a big one. People love to think. We are all detectives. We love to observe, we love to deduce. It is great to pay attention. We have a lot of fun this way. David Lynch

Mulholland Drive is a classic in contemporary cinema, as is Pretty Woman; however, they represent different attitudes and perspectives of cinema and Hollywood. It is said that cinema is a dream machine; David Lynch’s work is a realistic nightmare, while Garry Marshall presents a sugary daydream. I am captivated by Lynch’s enlightening critical cruelty, whereas Marshall offers a snack for family entertainment and pleasure on Sundays.

The starting point is the princess and the star; the archetype of innocence and hope, embodied in these films by a young maiden arriving at the mecca of cinema filled with illusions: The prostitute Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) in Pretty Woman, a film from 1990. The blonde Betty Elms, Diane Selwyn (Naomi Watts), and the brunette Rita, Camilla Rhodes (Laura Elena Harring), in Mulholland Drive, 2001. Women who want it all; love, sex, fame, and success. “Fame, it’s not your brain, it’s just the flame. That burns your change to keep you insane” (1).

It must have been love, but it’s over now
It must have been good, but I lost it somehow
It must have been love, but it’s over now
From the moment we touched till the time had run out (2)

In the fairy tale of the nineties, Hollywood Boulevard is the meeting point for our protagonists. After spending the night in the penthouse with the melancholic millionaire, Vivian confesses that she came to the city following the good-for-nothing number three, as she had a talent for falling in love with losers, and when abandoned by that slacker, she unintentionally ended up on the streets… She cried a lot the first night she practiced the world’s oldest profession; however, she got used to it and had clients. Edward Lewis, the wealthy client (Richard Gere), comforts her. Where is it seen that a client consoles a companion for hire?! He assures her that she has a lot of potential; she just needs to believe in herself. After various glamorous anecdotes including fancy sports, jacuzzi in the penthouse, fashion shopping, and jewels on Rodeo Drive, and other delights like limousines, private jets, and opera, we are treated to the scene with the necklace… Yes, Vivian does not try on a slipper; the metaphor transforms the penetration of the foot into the shoe by the incursion of her gloved hand in the jewelry case… The wonder and the smile. Of course, we await the Cinderella-style ending where the hero marries the prostitute. Ah, yes, we had agreed on the dreamy princess. The film’s ending is given to the narrator who assures: “This is Hollywood, where people come to fulfill their dreams. Some years they come true, others not. Believe in your dreams!”, something like that.

It must have been love, but it’s over now
It was all that I wanted, now I’m living without
It must have been love, but it’s over now
It’s where the water flows, it’s where the wind blows (3)

While Mulholland Drive presents the city-machine that for some coins or for your virginity (sexual, emotional, intellectual, etc.), returns to you a dark dream, equated to the mafia; corruption, drugs, and, why not, revenge and death. There is no princess victim and brave rescuing consort climbing to the tower or balcony with a burning heart. Lynch prefers to gift us tragedy, unexpected twists, mystery, doubt, and perhaps the survival of a tempered soul increasingly strong and disillusioned. He undoubtedly explores various ways of seeing reality, identity, and multiple personalities. The blonde lands a role, the blonde finds a brunette who has lost her memory, wants to help her, and thus finds herself, confined and rotting in a claustrophobic apartment. Does Rita invent Betty or vice versa? Which of them is the director’s lover, the star of the movie, the owner of bundles of dollars in her night bag, the daring bisexual who enjoys Hollywood soirées and the possible victim of a murder on the road? It’s so easy to lose the illusion and find oneself abandoned, masturbating, locked away, frustrated, and suicidal… Months may go by before our body is found in sexy lingerie, rotting in the depression-bed from which we could no longer get up… Or simply one must pretend to be someone else thanks to the wonders of dye or wigs, gathering, like a late-night cabaret act, the scraps that the past leaves in the present, and recover the possibility of a future through crime or madness… There is a blue key.

Fame, “Nien! It’s mine!” is just his line
To bind your time, it drives you to crime
Fame
(What’s your name?) (4)

“You and I are similar people; we screw others over for money,” Edward tells Vivian in Pretty Woman. But deep down, Edward Lewis confronts the death of his father and a slow but steady transformation from a wild capitalist who destroys companies prioritizing dividends to a personality seeking to build rather than destroy, to form alliances beyond appearances; even when this means breaking with relationships that offered him security. He seeks love like a madman and takes risks.

Adam Kesher (Justin Theroux), although he is a film director in Mulholland Dr., is a puppet in the hands of the producers, finds his wife in bed with another… He lacks the control he desires and is willing to go over anyone or anything necessary to consolidate his career. Hungry for power, he uses the appearance of love or seduction merely as another tool. Love for power justifies forgetting everything else, whether pride, love, or any other consideration. There are no regrets; it’s Mulholland Drive, in Los Angeles.

Pretty woman, walking down the street
Pretty woman, the kind I like to meet
Pretty woman
I don’t believe you, you’re not the truth
No one could look as good as you (5)

Pretty Woman was on the top box office list of 1990. Julia Roberts received a Golden Globe for her role and was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. Screenwriter J.F. Lawton was nominated for an Academy Award and a British Academy Award. The necklace Vivian wears in the film was actually worth $250,000, so an armed security guard was on set during filming to ensure it was not stolen.

Mulholland Drive won the Palme d’Or for Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival in 2001 and the César for Best Foreign Film in 2002. In the closing credits, David Lynch dedicates the film to Jennifer Syme (1972-2000), Keanu Reeves’ ex-girlfriend who had given birth to their son in late 1999 before they broke up and worked for a record company. She died tragically in April 2000 in an accident when she crashed her Jeep Cherokee into a row of parked cars in Los Angeles. Jennifer Syme had worked for David Lynch as an assistant and had played a junkie girl in the film “Lost Highway.” Beauty, snobbery, and capitalist nods inhabit the imagery that begins on Hollywood Boulevard. The grotesque, the everyday, and critical swipes at the system are the weapons of Mulholland Drive. Streets, boulevards, love and death are portrayed in these films. Women are protagonists, and like their urban settings, they can appear peaceful and beautiful, or completely mysterious and with a very clear element of terror.

It’s hard to understand
But the touch of your hand can start me crying
I thought that I was over you
But it’s true, so true
I love you even more than I did before
But darling, what can I do?
For you don’t love me
And I’ll always be crying over you, crying over you (6)

References:

1. “Fame”, David Bowie. Soundtrack of “Pretty Woman”.
2. “It Must Have Been Love”. Roxette. Soundtrack of “Pretty Woman”.
3. “It Must Have Been Love”. Roxette. Soundtrack of “Pretty Woman”.
4. “Fame”, David Bowie. Soundtrack of “Pretty Woman”.
5. “Oh Pretty Woman”. Roy Orbison. Soundtrack of “Pretty Woman”.
6. Crying. Roy Orbison. Soundtrack of “Mulholland Drive”.

Comment:

Ingramn Pratt said… True, very true. Mulholland Drive is already a jewel of contemporary Hollywood cinema. A fantastic soundtrack, a tremendous twist and a scene in the theater where the woman sings “crying”, wow, this movie kills me. Very Cool Blog.

Original publication:

Iris Mexico. (September 19, 2006) Mulholland Drive Vs. Pretty Woman. Lengua lengua, electronic newsletter and blog on contemporary art. arT&+

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