Mulholland Drive at the George Eastman House

Date published: February 24, 2005

Going into this final installment of Lynch films at the George Eastman House's Dryden Theatre, I was expecting the crowd to be huge. Before each showing of the previous films, the theater showed a trailer for Mulholland Drive. So I figured that the added publicity would draw a larger crowd. This didn't seem to be the case. In fact, I think there may have been fewer people at this showing than there were at any of the other film showings.

Mulholland Drive is Lynch's most recent film. Though it came out in 2001, it had been worked on for several years previously. The movie has quite an odd past. Originally it was created as a pilot for a new TV series, but ABC (who originally aired Twin Peaks) rejected the film, so nothing happened with Mulholland Drive for two years. Then David Lynch came up with an idea to alter the pilot a bit and make the film into a self contained film. So two years later, he brought all the cast back and refilmed some scenes.

Unfortunately tho, I think this chop job is a bit apparent when watching the film. About an hour and a half into the film, it takes a turn and becomes less plot driven and more "let's wrap this up in some weird way." I'm not saying I hate the film, just that there is a clear point in the film where it changes style and pace.

My one sentence summary? A tragic event and it's connection with a love story in the city of dreams.

Because this is the most recent Lynch film, the print was quite good. Unfortunately though, about one sixth of the left side of the frame was cut off! How ridiculous! Right at the beginning of the film, I noticed that all the centered credits were not centered right, and thus throughout the whole movie I was annoyed that things were off. Obviously it was most noticeable when the shot was intended to be balance on the left and right. I mean, if you're going to cut off some of the film, at least center it so you cut off equal parts on the left and right so centered stuff is at least still centered! Anyway, it was VERY annoying. I've attached an image below to show you about how it was misframed. I specifically remember this shot and how bad it was. The left image was how it was projected, the right was how it should have been.

Oddly enough, at the end of the film I noticed Mike Fisher there again and I mentioned it to him. He said he didn't even notice. But then again, I'm not sure if he had ever seen the film before, so he didn't have anything to compare to. While talking with Mike, he also mentioned that like me, he likes Lost Highway better. It's definitely my favorite Lynch film, and it's a bummer that the Eastman House didn't show it. Of course, it's also a bummer that just about every DVD release of Lost Highway is fullframe (which cuts off even more than one sixth of the film...it's more like half of the film being missing).

On the topic of DVDs, if you're going to purchase this film on DVD, don't get the US release. Though the picture and sound quality are great, there is nothing else on the disc. There is a Korean release that has equally great picture and sound, and it's even got a bunch of extras, including interviews with Lynch and all the main actors. Some even talk about how weird it is to leave a character and then come back two years later to refilm stuff as the character again.

Regardless of it's misframing, I still enjoyed Mulholland Drive. There are two specific scenes in the film are beautifully executed, and they do a great job of causing the viewer to just take in the moment. For those that have seen the film, the two scenes are the scene with the two men at Winkies, and the Club Silencio scene (which by the way, I consider the break in the film where it is no longer plot driven and linear).

So, thus ends my stint going to the Eastman House every Wednesday. The marathon was ok. Nothing spectacular. I will say that it was cool to see all the other Lynch fans in Rochester. Though I didn't talk to many of them, I saw many of them return for each new film. My biggest gripe? Well, as you must know if you've read this and the past 3 posts, it's that they really need to look at calibrating their projection system because the picture quality was all over the place. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my analysis.