film

Naomi Watts put in a stunning breakthrough performance in what many have called David Lynch's finest film, 2001's sumptuous, surreal and densely layered Mulholland Drive. Watts plays Betty Elms, an aspiring actress with an innocent, sunny disposition, new in Hollywood and following her dream of stardom. She encounters Laura Harring's Rita, a mysterious amnesiac woman who takes her name from a poster for the Rita Haworth film Gilda.

Betty and Rita embark on a quest to discover Rita's true identity that sends them into the dark heart of tinseltown, with Lynch's nonlinear stroytelling and symbolic imagery keeping the line between reality and fiction deliciously blurred. Part of this swirl of ambiguity comes from Mulholland Drive being initially intended as a TV show, with Lynch coming up with an ending and turning it into a movie after it had been rejected by TV executives. Lynch is the master of this kind of narrative style, of course, and with the help of stellar lead performances he turned this ad-hoc situation into a Best Director Award at Cannes in 2001, and a Best Director Oscar nomination. A movie to immerse yourself in again and again.