This is topic mulholland drive in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Joe Beres (Member # 678) on 10-14-2001, 11:40 PM:
David Lynch's films often seem to polarize people, they either love them or hate them. I have to admit that I am always on the love side of the equation. Something about his films really strike a nerve with me. This one is no exception. In fact, I think it may be one of his best. I caught a sneak preview the other night, and it really blew me away. The story is somewhat difficult to discern, to a degree, and is open to interpretation, again to a degree. Basically the film is centered around a pair of actresses, a director and the Hollywood power structure surrounding them all. I'll let you figure out the rest. The cinematography is quite wonderful, but the sound is what really blew me away. More than any other film in my memory, the sound work really stands out. Many films attempt to blow you away with their high-powered, bass-pumping soundtracks. Mulholland drive sucks you into the film, emotionally and viscerally. David Lynch did much of the sound design himself, contributing eerie and atmospheric music and sounds, much like he did in Eraserhead, and as always, Angelo Badalamente's music works perfectly with the images and tone of the film. If you are interested in sound design, this film is a must.
If you enjoy Lynch's films, I think you will enjoy this one quite a bit. If Lost Highway infuriated you, then Mulholland Drive might also. Personally, I think this is an incredible film. I hope to catch another preview this week, so perhaps I will be able to add some more opinions. I look forward to hearing what others think.
Posted by Larry Davis (Member # 609) on 10-15-2001, 11:06 PM:
What a strange film. I loved Lost Highway and I guess, all of David Lynch's films, but this one really threw me for a loop. Sometimes it was a comedy, sometimes it was sexy and a few times it was very scary. Lynch knows how to build tension and fear. He knows what fascinates our subconscious and he knows how to manipulate that. There is a scene towards the very end of the film that really scared me. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more perverse I thought the film was. I don't mean that in a bad way, but in a kind of... sick way. Some people absolutely hated this film and when the film was over, they said so, loudly. I think someone finally explained to Roger Ebert how to enjoy a David Lynch film and these people could have used that advice. Accept what you see without judgment or analysis - just like your consciousness in a dream accepts the bizarre as normal. It works for me. 
I agree that the soundtrack was integral to the film and its impact on the audience. I walked out of a theater (got my refund on the way out) that wasn't playing this in digital. It sounded like mono and the volume was so low, I could hear people breathing, several rows behind me! I complained to the manager and he told me "this print isn't digital". I offered to show him the digital soundtrack on the print and he did one of the funniest 3 stooges type double takes I've ever seen. "No customers in the booth!" Ok, no problem. I wrote down the film-tech URL on a piece of paper. Hopefully he will learn a few things here. I went to the AMC Empire 25 on 42nd St in Manhattan, where they had a much better presentation, but their ambient light was way too high. It cut down the contrast too much.
Mulholland Drive was supposed to have SR, SRD, DTS and possibly an SDDS soundtrack. I would like to know the soundtrack info for US prints. Please post the info if you have it.
Posted by Neil Hunter (Member # 1005) on 11-18-2001, 12:19 PM:
I enjoyed this film. I liked how they had you thinking that everything was real, then all of a sudden they changed it. Then you thought that everything they were showing then was real, then they change it again. It was more like you can't always believe what you see, for what you think is real, might not even be real at all. I saw this with a friend, and she hated it, and was very vocal about it when we left.
Posted by Melany Lowe (Member # 1084) on 12-29-2001, 04:53 PM:
how long has it been out ther in the states? because it hasn't hit New Zealand shores yet,or is it one of those films that isn't going to come here? I would love to see it so much..david lynch is a legend!!!
Posted by Paul Cassidy (Member # 951) on 12-29-2001, 05:18 PM:
Saw the Teaser trailer before "LOTR" no title but I guessed it was the film as it showed the Crash and Bash of the Helicopter and lots of guns blazing . Sorry mind in 2 places at once ,thought we were Talking about "Black Hawke Down"
Posted by Brad Haven (Member # 954) on 01-19-2002, 02:27 AM:
WOW, another great lynch experience!.
you could sit this film quite close to lost highway with it's themes.
it was great to see 3 aussie actors in the film, mellissa george, marcus graham and naomi watts!.
even at two and a half hours i wanted more, i would have loved to have seen this as the series that it was meant to be, the film had a definite sudden ending.
i over heard another staff member saying ,"it was really bad, and that everyone kept jumping dimensions!" she sounded quite confused about the whole film, as i can imagine alot of people will be.
as the other guy's said enjoy it for what it is and let youself go!
start's in oz, 31 jan.
Posted by Miguel Angel Martorell (Member # 1110) on 03-08-2002, 09:15 PM:
Here in Spain today was the opening day and I´m still amazed and with my mouth opened and whishing my next day off to see it again in a better cinema (I don´t care if I had to pay).I´ve just ordered the upcoming dvd. Anybody can confirm the DTS track and the spanish subtitles?.
This is cinema, this is art.
------------------
Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 04-28-2002, 10:33 AM:
What the Hell was that?
I just got the DVD and about a minute before it was over I said to the wife..." I hope it doesn't end anytime soon, I don't know what the hell is going"....
I really like David Lynch's works but this one was a bit too disjointed. The best I can figure is that a wannabe starlet goes to Hollywood and fails. But don't quote me on that.
The soundtrack was interesting. My subwoofer was dancing all over the floor and I thought it was going to blow.
My impression of Lynch films is that he makes vignettes which are tied together (loosely) to form a story. This collection was a little to loose for me.------------------
Greg Mueller
Amateur Astronomer, Machinist, Filmnut
http://www.muellersatomics.com/
Posted by Jacob Huber (Member # 1138) on 05-09-2002, 05:35 AM:
This is by far the strangest experience I've ever had. Then again, I haven't seen any of his other movies, but I plan to ASAP after seeing this. Whatever he was on, I'll take two.
Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 05-12-2002, 10:25 PM:
I didn't get a chance to see Mulholland Drive in the theater (since it never came to Lawton), but I finally got around to renting the DVD and watched it late last night on my home theater system (from about midnight to 2:30am). What a freaky, circular movie!Going in, I knew this was not a conventional kind of movie and was prepared for that. Others expecting a totally linear plot with everything happy and wrapped up at the end will be very disappointed. In some kind of sense, I feel this film would play better in an art gallery or museum rather than a standard movie theater.
It is agreed that Lynch did a good job with the sound design on this film. There's not very much noticeable happening in the surrounds, but the soundtrack (at least the DTS track I used) got really really loud on some parts.
Watching this show when you're just a tad bit sleepy kind of helps the drama, IMHO. The dream state is really what the film is about, and really has little to do with plot or even anchoring characters into the same identities. I'm still scratching my head trying to be sure if some other person not even mentioned in the film (or perhaps that one young guy in the restaurant with the really bushy eyebrows) is just dreaming all of it.
Part of the David Lynch legend is how he supposedly sits in a Bob's Big Boy (or Shoney's Big Boy) restaurant eating sugar loaded foods and caffiene loaded drinks and just brainstorming out wild visual ideas on notepads or table napkins. I think he had to have a hell of a sugar rush coming up with some of the imagery in this film.
Whether anyone can make sense out of it or not, the images themselves are memorable and entertaining. Some of the scenes are pretty cool, others scary and some are just downright disturbing. I've come to expect that from David Lynch (even if he does surprise you with a great G-rated film like "The Straight Story"). "Mulholland Drive" is one of his better efforts. I liked "Lost Highway" (when in the hell is the DVD coming out??), but I liked this show a good bit more.
Posted by Brad Haven (Member # 954) on 08-12-2002, 01:00 AM:
I saw mulholland drive again, this time on DVD.
I still really love this film!. On the DVD extras he admit's that A: this is a love story, and B: it's a film of ideas, and thats pretty much all he said, although he had to repeat himself as the interveiwers kept asking.
On the oz release we only got dolby digital , while sounding good, i still don't feel that it matched what we had in the cinema with just dolby sr, that soundtrack made our crap sound system sound great!. I felt that the image transfer was very good on this release.
Bobby , Lost highway was released on DVD in oz this year, however the image and sound was appalling and no extras!------------------
currently (relief)chief projectionist
at Luna Leederville cinemas
also cheerleader for john wilson (gooOO JOHN!)