Mulholland Drive : Reading Sign Language…
Re: Reading Sign Language…
The Mulholland Dr. sign after the pillow is perhaps a “sign” that can suggest we should be on the lookout for other “signs” on the dark twisting road ahead
Not long after the MD sign we are shown Sunset Boulevard.
I think going from MD to SB is meant to convey something as well.
Re: Reading Sign Language…
Medinensis,
I am uncertain exactly what you are referring to about going from MD to SB in this context. Maybe you mean HH? But there can be a journey from MD to SB in the full film too so maybe you are thinking bigger? In a sense the entire film can be seen as one big "warning sign" filled with separate related symbolic "signs" that connect to a larger "total picture". I tend to see both SB and MD as symbols filled with an oppressive feeling of negativity, but shown differently...the same but different.
The scene where Laura Herring ignores the light up ahead at the crash, looks up at the dark night sky and decides to "descend" into the darkness and bushes (and weeds) and "down" the hill to West Hollywood, passing Franklin and Sunset Blvd, can suggest ignorantly (amnesia) deviating from the intended "path" and "going down" a different "direction" into a "dark place". Note as Laura is in the weeds, the image of distant lights with cars headlights that seem to be moving too fast. (Perhaps recalling an earlier shot looking out over LA where headlights are symbolically moving "backwards"). First at Franklin Street we see Laura's frightened face brightly illuminated by some "headlights" from a passing "blue van"...a "warning sign" symbol...be careful! Notice how the back of the STOP sign is visible (unseen "stop"). At Sunset Blvd., red flashing lights from a passing police car are another but more intense "warning sign" (notice the "No Trucks" sign that can relate to the blue van/blue box). She continues down a towards a distant "glow" to eventually hide and rest outside the "closed" gate of Havenhurst. There had been some distant but noticeable red stop lights (warnings) in the background too during this sequence. In the POV I have tried to describe, these warning signs are sometimes missed, ignored and/or misunderstood.
I do not intend to necessarily suggest that "Laura's character" is being "warned" but only that symbolic warnings can be portrayed and decoded in a symbolic film "language" that might be understood by the viewer. This sequence (and all) has more that can be analyzed from this POV. There are seemingly endless connective details. In my view I interpret Laura as a symbolic embodiment of "physical desire" that leads to suffering. Perhaps it could be imagined that "desire wants to lead to suffering...the "desire of desire"...though I have not yet focused on that.
I tend to connect all of the locations together as like different symbolic elements within a mental landscape. We think we want the MD dream/desire but it was not what is expected when beginning the journey. It becomes a symbol of dark negative suffering, not the wonderful happy experience dreamed/desired for.
The sign at Sunset can of course suggest the film "Sunset Blvd." a film Lynch is known to enjoy. It portrays an aging silent film star living inside a self-centered, sad and desperate crumbling world of fantasy and self illusion that I can relate to MD. Additionally the word "Sunset" can easily suggest a coming of darkness that repeatedly returns in a cycle. It s another element that relates nicely for me in MD (as well as describing both Norma Desmond and Joe Gillis). Shortly after this we see another "warning sign" at Winkie's as a siren can be heard wailing and a palm tree is reflected in the sign.
ogt
"Not long after the MD sign we are shown Sunset Boulevard.
I think going from MD to SB is meant to convey something as well."
I am uncertain exactly what you are referring to about going from MD to SB in this context. Maybe you mean HH? But there can be a journey from MD to SB in the full film too so maybe you are thinking bigger? In a sense the entire film can be seen as one big "warning sign" filled with separate related symbolic "signs" that connect to a larger "total picture". I tend to see both SB and MD as symbols filled with an oppressive feeling of negativity, but shown differently...the same but different.
The scene where Laura Herring ignores the light up ahead at the crash, looks up at the dark night sky and decides to "descend" into the darkness and bushes (and weeds) and "down" the hill to West Hollywood, passing Franklin and Sunset Blvd, can suggest ignorantly (amnesia) deviating from the intended "path" and "going down" a different "direction" into a "dark place". Note as Laura is in the weeds, the image of distant lights with cars headlights that seem to be moving too fast. (Perhaps recalling an earlier shot looking out over LA where headlights are symbolically moving "backwards"). First at Franklin Street we see Laura's frightened face brightly illuminated by some "headlights" from a passing "blue van"...a "warning sign" symbol...be careful! Notice how the back of the STOP sign is visible (unseen "stop"). At Sunset Blvd., red flashing lights from a passing police car are another but more intense "warning sign" (notice the "No Trucks" sign that can relate to the blue van/blue box). She continues down a towards a distant "glow" to eventually hide and rest outside the "closed" gate of Havenhurst. There had been some distant but noticeable red stop lights (warnings) in the background too during this sequence. In the POV I have tried to describe, these warning signs are sometimes missed, ignored and/or misunderstood.
I do not intend to necessarily suggest that "Laura's character" is being "warned" but only that symbolic warnings can be portrayed and decoded in a symbolic film "language" that might be understood by the viewer. This sequence (and all) has more that can be analyzed from this POV. There are seemingly endless connective details. In my view I interpret Laura as a symbolic embodiment of "physical desire" that leads to suffering. Perhaps it could be imagined that "desire wants to lead to suffering...the "desire of desire"...though I have not yet focused on that.
I tend to connect all of the locations together as like different symbolic elements within a mental landscape. We think we want the MD dream/desire but it was not what is expected when beginning the journey. It becomes a symbol of dark negative suffering, not the wonderful happy experience dreamed/desired for.
The sign at Sunset can of course suggest the film "Sunset Blvd." a film Lynch is known to enjoy. It portrays an aging silent film star living inside a self-centered, sad and desperate crumbling world of fantasy and self illusion that I can relate to MD. Additionally the word "Sunset" can easily suggest a coming of darkness that repeatedly returns in a cycle. It s another element that relates nicely for me in MD (as well as describing both Norma Desmond and Joe Gillis). Shortly after this we see another "warning sign" at Winkie's as a siren can be heard wailing and a palm tree is reflected in the sign.
ogt
Re: Reading Sign Language…
I am uncertain exactly what you are referring to about going from MD to SB in this context.
I wasn't going anywhere in particular, just thought that the mention of signs -- in any context -- must include mention of Sunset Blvd. As you observed, there are definite connections between MD and SB in theme.
The MD sign bookends the story of the two women. But so do other things surrounding the appearance of the sign. Rita is a stumbling mess, without an identity, descending to SB (even Hell as the sign indicates on the way to Club Silencio). Later she reascends the mountaintop with her sacrificial lamb in tow, appearing quite victorius. Dianne descends right after Rita, only fast tracking it using an escalator. One interpretation is that they are both already dead at the beginning of the film and we are viewing their journey in the spirit world. A bardo journey, some have suggested, perhaps.
Your observations nicely serve to delve deeper into what lurks beneath (within) the story, that which we connect with subconsciously (at least for those who feel the connection). Whether it is lost innocence, unfulfilled desire, betrayal, etc. Lynch isn't telling us a simple story, he's mapping out areas that tap into our subconscious without our realization. The illusion of a story is meant to draw us in slowly so that when we come out the other end we'll feel a whole lot more than we'll ever understand.
I enjoy the thought of Betty, the innocent, dressed in apple red, a temptation for Rita in the beginning of the film. With her red sweater on, Betty is tempting Eve (the naked Rita). But what is Betty offering Rita? What is Rita offering Betty?
In ancient myth that represented trouble.
If there's trouble -- get rid of it!
Not a bad warning to echo in our minds at all times.
Reading Sign Language…
"We" are confused and mistakenly believe the physical/material world provides the "roads" to "happiness" but can lead instead to "inner negativity"...all depicted symbolically as an artistic composition within the film. The physical characters (and narrative) are simply abstractions used to symbolize the concept. The "real reality" is "inner" and the "solution" is to recognize and understand that in the film as well as our own lives.
I have not seen IE or LH but I expect these also have symbolic meaning having to do with the road to a happy life as a "lost highway" and Inland Empire referring partly to the inner mind. Also Eraser Head etc.
Another small "sign" example is an interpretation of the character name “Coco” as a “sign” referencing a “coconut”. The reference is portrayed in two ways…first when Betty arrives at Havenhurst and meets Coco, and later when she is at the dinner party sitting with Coco...The “same”…but different. ..like many things inside the film, the most obvious perhaps is the two different readings of the audition lines. “Coco”’s last name (at Havenhurst) is Lenoix which is French for “the nut” and “Coco” takes a “nut” when speaking to Diane at the dinner. In both cases it can suggest “coconut”. (I have read various interpretations but none of those connected for me though I don’t think any symbol has to have only one meaning even within a single interpretation.) I am not the first to make the “coconut" connection but I have a view as to how to understand it.
COCONUT:
One possible “sign” that works wonderfully for my POV is to understand what perceiving “Coconut “ can suggest as a “symbol”. Below are two links that describe related interpretations for a coconut. I have cut and pasted the relevant text and how I fit that to the film. These symbolic meanings also seem so simple and logically derived from the coconut itself. This simplicity and logic is something that can become more evident throughout the entire film when exploring the film using this approach.
http://www.mydreamvisions.com/dreamdictionary/symbol/2376/
http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/coconut/
From the second link...
I am not suggesting the character of Coco is necessarily representing these concepts but rather the connections made in the film "language" can lead to a "reading" that creates a "sign" that then can be related to the entire film...Signs that are easily missed and misunderstood, our own minds leading us away from where we think we are going. There are other ways viewers see this though IMO not as well developed.
ogt