Mulholland Drive [Édition Collector-4K Ultra HD + Blu-Ray]

Mulholland Drive (2001) is a typically strange David Lynch film about a woman ‘Rita’ with amnesia (Laura Harring) who has been in a car crash and a naïve actress Betty (Naomi Watts) fresh to L.A. Before buying this remaster on Amazon Video, it had been so long since I last saw the film that my memory of it was vague.It’s a fascinating neo-noir film and one of Lynch’s best. He typically refuses to explain the story in interviews and there’s been a lot written about it since its release. My interpretation is that the bulk of what we see in the film takes place in Betty’s imagination/dreams as she is high on drugs and suffering from depression after failing as an actor and losing the attentions of her one-time mentor and lover ‘Rita’ who is actually an established Hollywood actor. Some of the characters she encounters are simply metaphors for dangerous machine of Hollywood.Naomi Watts, who was ready to pack up and go home after finishing filming (but persuaded to stay by Nicole Kidman) is outstanding in this film. To begin with her performance looks dreadful but this is because the story exists in a hyper-real version of reality where her innocence and joy is amplified. When she engages her true acting chops, in a scene where Betty is doing a seedy feeling audition, she is very impressive.Then what we’ve come to expect from Watts shines through in the gritter ‘realer’ scenes toward the end of the film where at least one veil is lifted by Lynch. Performances by other actors are quite wooden (as they generally are in Lynch’s films) and that sadly includes Justin Theroux, as a golf club wielding director manipulated by the mob in his choice of lead actor, despite getting (or ad-libbing) some of the best lines.

Star ratings are irrelevant at the best of times, never more so than with a film that can only really be enjoyed by subscribing to its writer-director's modus operandi. After that it's a process of unravelling. On a surface level Mulholland Drive, looking like a Sunset Strip murder melodrama, seems shallow and schlocky. Which is, of course, half the point.A film set in an ostentatious city of extremes, the action shifts from mystery, through horror and farce, to tragedy with unshowy elegance. Lynch's techniques might be bamboozling, but this can be seen as a simple, sad tale of a starstruck loner, Diane (Naomi Watts), spurned by love, and now in love with an impossible dream. What emerges from Lynch's seductive, oneiric aesthetic is a powerful, angry attack on the poisonous hierarchy of celebrity. This is about the obliteration of the individual; the destruction of one woman's sense of self.Diane, as her imagined alter-ego Betty, conjures a dreamworld in which she arrives, starry-eyed, in the City of Angels, and finds a fallen angel: "Rita" (Laura Harring), a beauty in the classic Hayworth mould, who has lost her memory after a car accident. In her fantasy, Diane/Betty not only lives a life of intrigue and wealth, but also retains her integrity - both in terms of her acting ability and in the grace she shows toward her secret roommate. In her fantasy, Betty is as strong as the jealousy that sucks the life from Diane. Those she hates - specifically, Rita's director and lover, Adam (Justin Theroux) - are condemned to squalor and emasculation. Betty satisfies Rita sexually. Betty makes Rita whole, and Betty is loved for it.There's dread in droves. A blind woman comes to the door, but she cannot wake Betty. There is a "monster" lurking behind Winkie's Diner, which could be the embodiment of Betty's fear. Fairy tale motifs abound: keys to open curiosities, and dangerous red in abundance. But poor Betty is blinded by the stars.Lynch dallies once more with the Moebius strip narrative. Is this what hell looks like - to relive our life on the fragments of memory, shattered like a skull by a self-inflicted bullet? Or is Lynch simply shuffling the narrative pack, portraying these dreadful events as an abstract artist envisions the horror of death, in a way that movies will never quite manage?As the camera explores the catacombs behind the façade of the boulevard like a prowling creature, Lynch's sense of space and light has never been better. We are guests in the grey area between waking and sleep, only to find it's been painted all gaudy. Scenes - such as when Adam is summoned to a ranch to take counsel with a sage cowboy - are seemingly conjured by Betty in the way one recalls a conversation in a dream: rationalised, making purposeful the philosophical, retrospectively plotting a narrative, writing our own film. Perhaps that's the delight of Mulholland Drive: in filling the gaps, we are allowed to make the film our own.

The reason I ask is, I'm pretty sure both the rear channels are pretty damn silent all throughout the movie. There's nice activity on the dialogue and 2 sides front speakers, but none on the rear channels. Now, this is not a very action heavy movie, but I'd say I'd expect sound coming from there, even if it's just mild ambience or something.

Arrived on time and as description. Haven't watched it yet, but I'm sure as a David Lynch film it'll be fascinating.

As a David Lynch film, this is great, one of my favorites. What I really was hoping for in getting the Blu-ray from the UK (it's region B btw, so you'll need a player that does that) was that maybe, just maybe, that little bit of censorship in the scene with the two lovely ladies would not be there. Alas... the stunning Laura Harring drops her towel and that big blurry triangle is still there, and on Blu-ray it just looks ridiculous (why even do a full frontal nude and then censor it like that??). So, basically it's the same as the US release ever since I saw it on DVD... And in following up on the whole issue apparently it was Laura who requested that DL do that for the DVD release... so we can stop looking for an HD format that doesn't have it.The other thing I find rather annoying (which might have been in the DVD too, don't remember) is there's no proper scene selection - it's totally random, and the chapter cue buttons are disabled, too. WTF.The transfer looks AWESOME though, great color and resolution - going back to the scene when Laura Harring takes off the towel, after that there are nice shots of her face close-up and the detail of her lovely features is amazing. Also, this disc features four language selections (I think it's French, Italian, Nederlands, and UK) right up front and tailors the UI from that point based on your selection. It will ask again each time (at least it did on my player) so I actually checked it out with UK and again in French.

The film is still a masterpiece in spite of the poor quality remastering. Get the DVD.