In threads and tatters: Costume, identification and female subjectivity in Mulholland Dr

• Published in: Cultural studies review 2011-03, Vol.17 (1), p.320-338
• Main Author: Chapple, Lynda
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Actors; Costume design; Females; Identification; Identity; Memory; Motion pictures; Subjectivity; Themes, motives; Women
• ISSN: 1837-8692; 1446-8123; 1837-8692
• DOI: 10.5130/csr.v17i1.1730

David Lynch's cinematic vision is always disturbing, exploring the darker sides of American life and the individual psyche. Mulholland Dr. is no exception. Although it has a contemporary setting, in style and reference the film recalls much from Hollywood's past, offering at times a homage, albeit rather a dark one, to this legacy. This is not only evident in the production design, including costumes, which reflects the contemporary world of Hollywood aspirations, but also in retro accents quoting previous eras. Central to the film's vision is an exploration of the nature of identification, examined through some complicated splitting and doubling of characters. The doppelg nger is not a new interest for Lynch. Throughout his career it has been explored in many ways, often through such strategies as character opposition, as in the Sandy (Laura Dern) and Dorothy (Isabella Rosellini) characters in Blue Velvet (1986), or through character merging, such as the conflation of the Fred Madison (Bill Pullman) and Andy (Michael Massee) characters into (perhaps) one persona, or the casting of Patricia Arquette as two characters, Renee and Alice, in Lost Highway (1997). Mulholland Dr., therefore, represents a development in Lynch's exploration of the multi-faceted nature of the human psyche and the ontological instability of identity by evoking a complex web of disguise, performance and antithesis.