Mulholland Drive

After watching Lynch's Mulholland Drive, aside from feeling completely baffled, I was impressed by the continuous intensity and unexpected twists to the plot. As the story unfolded I became more and more confused, yet simultaneously more and more interested. Now the only thing left for me to figure out is, is Lynch a lunatic, or is there a method to his madness.
If the auteur theory (464) applied to Mulholland Drive, I think it would be safe to say that Lynch is legally insane, but possibly a savant. I enjoyed the way that hallucination and reality beared no clear difference between one another, and as far as the details go, ended up being closely related. Everything that you thought was going on, was never what it seemed, but reflected what was really going on. In order to fully understand what was happening you have to relate things that were going on, the book calls this intertextuality (471).
Aside from lurking behind Winkie's Restaurant, the dirty rugged man has been lurking in my mind. I still can not grasp the symbolism, if any, that was behind his character.What the hell was he doing there? I suppose it is left to the viewer to decide, but even the best of imaginations would have a run for their money trying to create Lynchian puzzle piece that fits the scrambled plot.
Because of my lack of understanding of this film, I decided to discuss the one scene I did fully understand, you guessed it, the Camilla and Diane sexual encounter. Not only was this my favorite scene of the movie, but to me it seemed like the whole film revolved around this one scene, or at least their relationship with each other. Diane was in love, maybe obsessed, with Camilla who was a fellow, but more successful actress. Her love was accompanied by jealousy and envy and throughout the film you get glimpses of this. Even when Camilla tried to break it off with Diane, she was almost seduced into, what would have been, my second favorite scene. I also found it interesting how the role Diane tried out for, was very similar to what actually happens when Camilla tries to break up with Diane, both start with " what are you doing here, you don't belong here", yet another example of intertextuality.
Although the film may lack clarity and realism (481), it is without a doubt a masterpiece. When I was walking out of class the day we watched this my first initial opinion was that I did not like Mulholland Drive. But after a day or two of marinating I realized that whether it is easily understood or just plain ludicrous, Lynch and his film do exactly what they are intended to do, grab your attention and keep it.