An Aesthetic Exploration of Sound Illusion in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive

Abstract

Mulholland Drive is the masterpiece of American independent director David Lynch; whose unique sound design constructs an illusory yet real soundscape. Transcendental meditation, polysemous themes, open text, uncontrolled narrative, and disorienting imagery are the keywords to understand the aesthetic characteristics of Lynch's films. However, so far there are few comprehensive and in-depth interpretations of this movie from the perspective of cinematic sound. Therefore, this study analyzes the film from the perspective of sound design and concludes that the unique sound effects in Mulholland Drive can suggest danger and subtly manipulate the audience's emotions. In addition, the human voice in Mulholland Drive has the characteristics of mixing and breaking, and the human voice can establish a new relationship between sound and picture through the audio intervention, and it can also make the character's identity "out of focus" and other artistic effects. Finally, the jazz music in Mulholland Drive can foretell the unknown and create a strong contrast with the narrative of the movie, and other styles of soundtracks in the movie can create a dreamy and perverse ambient space.