Mulholland Drive Essay

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Mulholland Drive is a creative and thought provoking film that presents a powerful work of postmodernism through the use of pastiche and readymade. The film shows how Hollywood is the epicenter of American cultural imperialism. It depicts how the heart of Hollywood radiates a sort of pervasiveness into our lives that alters our personal identities. As seen with the main character, Betty, the pervasiveness destroys her unconscious. Mulholland Drive the film itself, resists the idea of pervasiveness but its first aesthetic half exceeds the idea of pervasiveness. Hollywood is the source from which American cultural imperialism radiates across all corners of the globe. The cultural imperialism deeply penetrates other cultures traditions and colonizes…show more content…
The film itself rejects the Hollywood formula and shows the horrible truth of reality. The first part of the film accepts the Hollywood pervasiveness while the second part rejects it and shows the horrible truth. The two halves of the film are an excellent juxtaposition example that comment on the pervasiveness of Hollywood. The two main examples of postmodernism within this film are the use of pastiche and readymade. The use of pastiche is prevalent throughout the film, from the beginning with the copies of the dancers to the cookie-cutter Hollywood actress to the fake reality. The use of readymade was seen with Jasper John’s readymade flag and the readymade style of the Hollywood film formula. Within in the film, we saw how the pervasiveness of Hollywood damaged Diane’s unconscious. It showed how some realities are so bad that we are not able to face them so we attempt to live in a fantasy world. There are times also when our dreams invade our realities and alter them, a sort of dedifferentiation. From this we can see that the pervasiveness of Hollywood can shape us, just like it shaped Diane. With the two aesthetics, Mulholland Drive is a prime example of resisting the Hollywood formula and proving it’s a critical postmodern piece of

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