Film || 5 Reasons Mulholland Drive is Post-Modernist

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1. There is a postmodernist Schizoid approach to this film that is an underutilised aspect of cinema; it is the work of the director's vision that paints the canvas of the mind. Understanding how this is done is essentially screenwriting at its core, methods to convey thoughts and emotions without directly iterating it is an important principle of good writing.  The same can be said of older films with successful plots, Psycho (1960) brings the viewer to a new state of tension at each step, an attempt to manipulate the mind to assume. Unpredictability is a foundation of good storytelling because it echoes real life, and it has been present since cinema's genesis.

2. The content of the film is like a dream, scattered, and inconsistent, with many simulacrum introducing themselves and sometimes never reappearing. Someone can watch Mulholland Drive (2001) in any way like they want, but they will never reach a sound conclusion because of numerous conflicts. Some may say this is the exacting of hyperspace on screen, a simulation of the sub conscious mind for each viewer in order to reach the most personalised experience per head. 

Montage is a previously popularised technique in film that has been used most notable in Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin (1925), in the steps scene. Despite it being a more versed film in comparison to our subject matter, the point is to encourage speculation based on matter. combination of knowledge to an end is a postmodernist idea.

3. On the front, the film uses poster girls to generate interest in order to appeal to the mainstream interest in women. Including the lesbian sex scene was also a key draw for a lot of people as well for a lot more reasons than you'd think especially considering the times. This use of interest extracted from the general public is a matter of publicity rather than an artistic endeavour, also it is a self-propagating tactic to encourage people to see it. Capital endeavour is an accurate method for consistent cinema.

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4. Usage of a decentered narrative between two individuals is a way of changing up pacing. It has been used over many examples of film because it is important to pursue the activity on screen, whether it is essential to the characterisation or not, a visual aspect cannot be forgone in place of a meaningful plot.

5. It is certainly a pastiche of Noir, more specifically Neo-Noir, a currently prominent style that began in the 1950s. It is a style of cinema that contains themes of pessimism and menace. It retains these features as part of its Hollywood theme, which seems to be the biggest contingency throughout in which the film draws upon for many events. Examples of the Hollywood Noir style are Sunset Boulevard (1950), and Blade Runner (1982).

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Figures

fig 1. Lynch, D. (2001). Mulholland Drive. [poster]

fig 2. Lynch, D. (2001). Mulholland Drive. [film still]

fig 3. Lynch, D. (2001). Mulholland Drive. [film still]