Spoiler Warning:
Please note that if you haven't seen Mulholland Drive as yet, the author recommends that you don't read this paper, as it involves a discussion of some of the key plot points in Mulholland Drive.

Mulholland Drive: A Philosophical Treatise: FAQ
By Vanessa Long

Since putting my philosophical analysis of Mulholland Drive online, I have received lots of feedback from visitors to this site, and have fielded many interesting questions from fans of Mulholland Drive. For the benefit of future visitors, a selection of those questions and answers can be found below. Thanks, V.

Who do you think the Cowboy represents?

I tend to think that the Cowboy assumes the role that he does in the first 2 hours of Mulholland Drive as a result of Diane's experiences at the party in the second half of the film. At that party, three important events occur in this respect: Adam speaks of his separation from his wife, we see that Adam is now with Camilla and on the brink of announcing his engagement to her, and we also spot the Cowboy as another guest at this party.

It is my guess that it is this chain of events which makes Diane associate her negative feelings towards Adam (having taken Camilla away from her) with the shadowy figure of the Cowboy, and turn him into Adam's fantastical tormentor during the first two hours of the film. In a certain light, the mayhem visited upon Adam by the Cowboy and his ex-wife during the first 2 hours of Mulholland Drive can be seen as Diane's revenge fantasy against him.

This kind of free association is not uncommon in Mulholland Drive. Another prime example of it is how Diane's character becomes known as Betty during the first part of the film as a result of Diane's chance sighting of the name tag of a waitress at Winkie's during the latter part of the film.

In terms of David Lynch's body of work, the character of the Cowboy in Mulholland Drive is somewhat reminiscent of the Mystery Man in Lost Highway, who is a similarly misleading and menacing character (both for the audience, and one of the film's antagonists).

Why do you think the two old people are Diane's parents? They speak to one another on a first name basis at the beginning of the film.

While it may not be the norm, some people are on a first name basis with their parents, but in any event, I tend to think that the old man and woman that we see at the beginning and the end of Mulholland Drive are parental figures in Diane's life in a figurative rather than a literal sense.

Their importance in Diane's life is supported by the strangely formal, and almost familial, interaction that occurs between them at the beginning of the film, and also by fact that they are the last two people to see Diane prior to her suicide. Diane's violent reaction to them at that point suggests the existence of a steeped and turbulent history between them - of a kind that we usually reserve for those we have known best and longest - the members of our family.

At the diner, there is a man who dreams about the face of another man and says, ' I hope I never see a face like that again'. I wonder what the hell that thing was?

When I first read the screenplay for the Mulholland Drive tv pilot some years ago, I felt that the scene with the two guys in Winkie's was the scene that stood out from the entire screenplay, primarily because of its ability to introduce a strong mood of menace into the script. In the finished film, I believe that this scene introduces a terrific sense of menace into an overly rosy narrative and essentially operates as a kind of warning, i.e. that our darkest fears and nightmares can come true (which is, in a sense, what happens to Diane).

Just after Diane shoots herself, you see a superimposed image of Diane and Rita smiling as if they were true Hollywood stars. Do you think this scene represents death in the view of Diane? ( as this whole segment is present reality, so it can be suggested that Diane dies and is joined with her lover Camilla (who was killed in reality) but as it was Diane’s state of mind, Camilla’s identity is replaced with Rita – as this is the visual of how Diane wants to see Camilla...) Also, after this superimposed scene, the film goes back to the theatre where the woman with the blue hair echoes “Silencio”, which is Spanish for “Silence” – so this would then compliment the suggestion that Diane dies and lays to rest in the afterlife with the knowledge that she is with Camilla again (but in the memory of Rita). Thus silence = peace?