Vanilla Sky/ Mullholland Drive

[Sugar Smack]

I've seen them both about 20 times each. I wanted to understand them so much that I went out & bought them. Could someone out there please tell me what's going on?

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Never figured out either one of them.

They were entertaining...but totally indecipherable to me.

[onager]

2. Heck, just do a google on "Mulholland Drive"

You'll find entire boards doing nothing but analyzing the movie. I did that after I saw it the first time. Interesting experience.

I saw it in a hotel during January while working in Cairo, Egypt, where the movies were in English but with Arabic subtitles. I had fun wondering what the hell the Egyptians thought of THAT. ;)

One reason "Mulholland" is so strange...I guess...is the way it came about. AFAIK, it was originally intended as a TV series on ABC. When ABC pulled out, Lynch took the footage he had and shot new "linking footage" to make it a movie.

Like most of his movies, individual scenes are stuck in my head for their sheer beauty and weirdness. The Silencio sequences, the movie auditions mimicking the Sixties recording studio, etc.

I could personally care less about "Vanilla Sky," which I saw once but immediately dismissed as Cameron Crowe trying to be all arty and symbolic and crap.

[Sugar Smack]

4. Wheeeeeeeeeee!

I'm far too lazy to google it, and wondered what the Democratic impressions were! I will not trust a republican impression.

SO, what you're telling me is that you saw the movie with Arabic subtitles???? Damn!!!!!!!!!!

:D

[onager]

6. Yes, but...

I had already seen it twice...at least...in English. Saw it on cable, then rented the DVD so I could re-play and stuff.

I live in Los Angeles, so it was a hoot seeing the local locations, too. Well, actually I live in the San Fernando Valley. A lot of "Boogie Nights" was shot right around my neighborhood.

Yep, seeing it with the Arabic subtitles was neat. One night the hotel cable showed a French movie. They left it in French, and showed both English AND Arabic subtitles!

[Dancing_Dave]

27. Yeah, it's like googling The X-Files or The Lone Gunmen

Mystery attracts commentary...;-)

[Warren Stupidity]

3. didn't see mullholland

but vanilla sky was at least superficially understandable. It was an exploration of the 'reality is a dream' theme via the sci-fi vehicle of a company that provided a sort of tech-assisted eternal dream state for people ready to exit from the real world. Then it goes bad, as in what if your perpetual dream world becomes a nightmare?

Good movie. But the original was better than the Cruise remake. Not that TC did a bad job, but the original was a bit less hollywood, less dressed up, grittier.

[Sugar Smack]

5. Then tell me,

was that annoying Penelope Cruse the real thing, or was the real gal that poor, sad girl holding a martini?

[onager]

7. "Annoying" is the word...

My name for Penelope Cruz is "The Human Chihuahua."

Unfortunately, that's an insult to chihuahuas, who are cuter and probably smarter.

[Sugar Smack]

8. you are right on target with that statement-

see-all that capering about annoyed me. His real girlfriend was driving me MAD because she loved him so much and he couldn't reciprocate!!!!!!!!

:(

[Warren Stupidity]

9. he was in a nightmare

that is the way bad dreams go. They go badly. That was the point.

[Warren Stupidity]

10. Ok, but Carmen Diaz is Big Bird.

[Sugar Smack]

13. WELL, I loved her but I think you're right.

You are4totally r5ight.


:bounce:

[Warren Stupidity]

16. except of course it si cameron, not carmen

I am such an idiot sometimes.

Everytime I see her, and she certainly can be quite sexy, I have this image of big bird superimposed on her. It makes it very difficult to watch any movie she is in.

[Sugar Smack]

20. LOL!!!!!!

It's those super-huge lips!!!

I am such an idiot sometimes too!

[ghostsofgiants]

11. Well Vanilla Sky explains itself pretty well at the end I think...

Which I also think kinda ruined the movie. Half of the fun of a mindfuck movie is trying to figure it out.

Haven't figured out Mulholland Drive all that well yet.

[Placebo]

12. ABRE LOS OJOS ('Open Your Eyes')...

which is the movie Vanilla Sky is basically a total carbon copy remake of, is far better.

And it stars Penélope Cruz too.

For those interested: Abre los ojos

[Warren Stupidity]

17. yeah I agree completely

Much gritier and distrubing and mysterious. But other than it was a complete clone-job VS is ok too.

[On the Road]

14. Best Thing I Read on Mulholland Drive

Is this article in Salon:

http://archive.salon.com/ent/movies/feature/2001/10/23/mulholland_drive_analysis/

In Vanilla Sky, it is explained that the last real thing in the plot is when Tom Cruise drunkenly chases Jason Lee and Penelope Cruz and collapses in the street. Everything after, beginning when Penlope wakes him up, is a dream. He went to the cryo people and had everything after that point erased.

I saw Open Your Eyes as well, and it's a slightly better movie. What I don't understand is that the few changes that were made should have improved the film, but they didn't.

[ghostsofgiants]

18. Good article...

Definitely helpful in understanding the movie.

[NV Whino]

15. My take on Muholland Drive

It is the history of Hollyweird told in cliché. It helps if you know some inside stories about Hollywood. What finally clued me in was the "Howard Hughes/Terry Moore" scenes.

Still a lot of stuff I don't get, but it's just detail of the overall history.

[Sugar Smack]

21. I figured that there were about a million references

I wasn't getting. When I saw Woody Allen's Manhattan for the first time, I was 18. I took notes. Every name he dropped- well, I made a list and looked eveyone up just so I could get his !@#$%^&*( jokes!

[NV Whino]

26. A million sounds about right

LOL

[fluffernutter]

19. you're supposed to understand them?

;)

[progressor]

22. Vanilla Sky sucks and Mulholland Road is great?

That's what I came up with.

Just kidding. I think with Mulholland Road, which I also own, it's been a long time, but I believe that the ultimate concept is that Naomi Watts' character is, for the first 90 minutes or so, in a sort of orgasm-induced fever dream.

She was a failing actress and had a crush on the other woman, who was involved with the director of the movie within the movie. She got so jealous she hired a killer (the whole blue key left on the coffee table) to get rid of the brunette. The "reality" part starts when she's masturbating on the couch and sees the blue key.

The whole beginning part is her fantasy - think about it - the brunette with amnesia wanders around and stumbles on Naomi Watts, the bright-eyed aspiring starlet, who's so picture perfect and sweet and lovable (this is such a fantasy...) and they are thrown together by fate into a murder mystery and love affair. Tell me that isn't straight out of some film noir Hollywood fantasy.

Also, recall that the director (in her fantasy part) gets shit on, over and over - his wife, his car, his job - what else is that but a manifestation of her REAL jealousy that the director was sleeping with the brunette.

So, after she masturbates and finds the key and all that - she gets tormented by the little elderly people, who I think symbolize her idealism turned into jealousy and finally, her guilty conscience, which gets the best of her and she commits suicide.

That's basically what I got from it.

[ghostsofgiants]

23. It's Mulholland Drive, not Road

And read the salon.com article posted above. Really good analysis.

[progressor]

24. Whoops! Silly me...

Can't believe I did that. Told you I hadn't seen it in a while. ;)

I'm pretty sure I've read the Salon article in the past.

EDIT: Yeah, I have - it is a really good analysis and it goes right along, basically, with what I said.

"Well, it seems that Diane had her girlfriend murdered. Then, in a masturbatory fantasy cum fever dream in the moments before she commits suicide, she reimagines her ruined career and failed relationship with the woman she loves.

The dream begins with Camilla/Rita miraculously escaping the hit Diane had taken out on her. From there, Diane, a product of Hollywood, imagines the story in cinematic fashion: She sees herself as the naive wannabe starlet Betty, who succeeds on sheer talent and solves whatever problems are thrown her way. She even gets the girl!"

[NoSunWithoutShadow]

25. The music was great in both of those movies.

Even bought the Sound Track CD's for both, which is unusual. Like many others, I had to read about Mullholland Drive on the internet to try and figure it out. Then rented the video to see it again. Will check out the Salon article.