Mulholland Drive (David Lynch 2001)

I have viewed the introduction to the the Thriller film Mulholland Drive (David Lynch 2001) and have taken notes on the conventions used in this introduction, here is my analysis.

A long to mid shot of numerous people dancing together layered over each other combined with Jazzy 60's music and the dancers' 60's costumes conveys to the audience that it is set in the 60's and creates some confusion due to the amount of people dancing, as well as some questions such as: "Who are these people dancing?" and "Why are they dancing?".

Slowly, three very over exposed people walk towards the screen, as if they were accepting an applause from an audience. They appear to fade in and out in a blurred manor and occasionally shake from side to side, this creates confusing for the audience as they do not know who these three people are and why they are there yet. The creation of these questions is a typical convention of thriller films.

A fade to black takes the audience into a new scene where a point of view shot is used as an unknown person is investigating some bed sheets whist breathing rather heavily. This suggests that they may be a rapist or possible stalker as heavy breathing in this manor is commonly used with such characters. Again the lack of information causes questions to be raised such as: "Who is this person breathing heavily?", "Why are they breathing heavily?" and "Why are they creepily inspecting these bed sheets?". The person who is breathing heavily then moves closer and closer into the sheets as if to grab what looks like a body underneath the sheets. as the screen goes black the audience is taken into the next scene.

The sign for Mulholland Drive appears with some flashes of white lights on the sign. This suggests that something most unfortunate is about to happen to Mulholland Drive. This combined with eerie and slow music creates tension and again portraying questions to the audience such as: "What is going to happen?".

Afterwards it fades into a dark scene following a car on a winding road, the shot is a very high angle and so this makes the car and the person(s) inside is insignificant and disempowered. The opening credits begin to sppear on the screen in the same font and colouring as the Mulholland Drive signpost. This continued theme gives the film a symbolic trademark as now when the audience sees this font and colour combined they will remember the film. The long notes in the music in this scene combined with the long take that this scene is, creates tension for the audience.

The high use of tension and creation of many questions as well as the use of many mysterious and unknown characters throughout the introduction to Mulholland Drive makes the film a typical thriller and it suits the codes and conventions of such a genre.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1WLWJw9b0HY