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Blue box (micro cosmos) |
Silencio (macro cosmos) |
If the blue box is "personal" to Betty/Rita, the Club Silencio is the box writ LARGE, it's for all of us. It's open to the public and we, humankind, are the public whether we know it or not. In it, the Magician/MC, Lynch's alter-ego, is explaining to us how it's done and what's going on but at the same time keeping the trick up, almost as to prove how our eyes can be so continuously fooled by what is happening in other dimensions we cannot see or understand. And the artist is the Magician who straddles the dimensions and knows how to use beauty to fool the human eye. When we erroneously assume the Magician's act is over, Rebekah Del Rio's rendition of her Llorando is indeed one of the surprisingly beautiful and intense moments in the film just before... So in film, so in life, we are fooled. Note, the French expression for nightclub is "Boite de Nuit" - Box of night. (brazilnutfox)
When we see
Club Silencio at the very end, it starts out drenched in blue light. Some
think this, by itself, makes the theater a blue box akin to the other one (and
possibly other blue boxes- there are a couple blue
vans, there is Diane's entire apartment, there
is a blue box in Diane's nightstand, next to her
gun, plus there is a blue
box phone in the pilot.) - (dropkick23)
Silencio is the club of the knowledge of good and evil, the place where life's curtain is pulled back to reveal the movie's core horror: No hay banda. Club Silencio is a paradox, a surreal entertainment, a self-consciously un-live cabaret that trumpets its artificiality. It's a Milli Vanilli fanclub - surreal, unreal, yet evocative.
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Stage at Club Silencio |
Club Silencio is essentially the Red Room for Mulholland Drive. Note that red drapes are in the background, and there's always music in the air. It seems to have more a psychological reality than a physical one - although this is still Diane Selwyn's dream, in which case Club Silencio is a kind of dream with in a dream, or as Lynch would probably put it, a deeper level of her consciousness (or subconsciousness). - Wrapped in Plastic #57 |
Red room in Twin Peaks |
Clue #7: What is felt and realized in Club Silencio? - (BriteLite)
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VISUAL AND ORAL CLUE FOR THE DREAMER AND FOR THE VIEWER : WHAT YOU SAW IS A DREAM
Reminder for dreaming Diane Selwyn that all these beautiful things she constructed are illusionary. "Llorando" spells out the truth about Diane's unrequited love. If we look at Club Silencio at the narrative angle, the first, almost obvious significance of the sequence is to indicate that everything Diane dreamed so far is not real. The smooth flow of a noir mystery is broken, so at the same time Club Silencio is a neat little addition to further remind the viewer that what s/he is viewing is not real. -
ILLUSIONARY NATURE OF CINEMA
The Club Silencio scene is preceded by the mimick of Bergman's famous shot from Persona to prepare us for another implication of the sequence, Lynch's statement about the illusionary nature of cinema. (That theme is very strongly present in Bergman's movie as well.) Lynch is both vividly demonstrating the importance of that combination of sound and image, making an absolutely devastating and cruel statement about the art of acting, and is emotionally manipulating us - unusually, though, he informs us at several points that he intends to manipulate us, but we fall for it anyway. -
THEME OF EMOTIONAL MANIPULATION
The blonde-wig scene that also precedes the Club Silencio sequence well prepares this theme. We can manipulate things as we will. We're here to play with your emotions. You cannot trust your senses. You can't remember who you are, and if you could, you can't trust your memories. What is dream? What is real? Betty? Rita? Diane? Your identity is a construct. As is your sexual persona. -
PHILOSOPHICAL LAYER: LIFE IS AN ILLUSION
Reality is relative. Perception is reality therefore everything we see is a construct of our eyes. This philosophical theme harmonizes very well with the Eastern philosophical thought (Maya = illusion). Please note, Lynch is a yoga practitioner! The theme also goes extremely well with the post-modern thought. Post modernists can have a field trip on this movie (Baudrillad, Focault etc.).
Club Silencio - Entrance to afterlife
The club Silencio is more of an entrance into another dimension (afterlife) and within the Club, the stage performers echo through Diane's consciousness that she is no longer alive. They perform, suggesting everything is an act, that nothing is real. The singer performs, but during the performance, she falls to the floor but she is still heard singing, suggesting that the body dies but the spirit still lives on! The club Silencio is considered a form of non-reality (like a realisation on death itself) the empty stage with the microphone in the centre representing the "light"! Furthermore, considering that Silencio is Spanish for
"Silence" suggests the representation that this location is a symbolisation for the silence of death!
- (imagineuk)
Related: Dying Moment / Afterlife theory
If you notice to the right hand side of the screen
when Betty and Rita are outside at 2 in the morning trying to get a taxi,
there is a pole/street light that has a sign that says "HELL".
That sure makes it clear what Silencio Club is all about.. and I saw that after I read
a lot of comments about Silencio being symbolic of
death/the Master of Illusion
being the devil. Note: The entire message reads: Hollywood is Hell!
Related: The Magician = the Devil?
Club Silencio - The dream version of Adam's dinner party?
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In both scenes there's music in the air.
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Rita is requesting Betty to follow her to the club. Camilla is inviting Diane to Adam's party.
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Betty and Rita are shown cab riding to Silencio. Diane is taken up Mulholland Drive in a black limousine.
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Betty and Rita are holding hands at Club Silencio. Camilla and Diane are walking hand in hand up to the dinner party.
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At Club Silencio the girls learn that everything is an illusion. At Adam's party Diane learns that all she once wished for and dreamed of is, in fact, a shattered illusion.
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Betty and Rita start to cry. Diane starts to cry.
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The song Rebekah Del Rio sings on stage sounds pretty close to what happened to Diane at the party. »The Lyrics
Club Silencio - A reminder of Diane's sexual abuse
MD is about Diane, who was sexually abused as a child by her grandmothers male companion. Her grandmother was aware of the abuse but remained silent as did Diane.
The
name of the club "Silencio" refers to the silence of Diane's
grandmother regarding the abuse. The Magician represents the abuser and the
blue haired Lady Diane's grandmother. The Magician says in various languages
that there is no band, there is no orchestra, it is all an illusion. This is
him telling, and Diane realizing that the jitterbug contest isn't real, it is
just an escape. Once the Magician establishes this, with the grandmother
watching in silence, he says "listen" and raises his arms causing
thunder claps (similar to the raised arms and thunderclaps that drove Diane to
suicide). If you listen closely, you will hear feminine gasps, the sound of
sex and a male grunting. If you watch, at the same time you will see terror in
Betty/Diane's face, her body shaking, but not in a normal trembling fashion,
but kind of an up and down movement. The Magicians face shakes along with her,
and the sights and sounds end with a thrust from the Magician and the grunting
male sound. The Magician gets a devilish evil look on his face, as the blue
haired Lady still looks on in silence, and he then disappears.
- (richdubbya)
Related: Sexual Abuse
When
I first saw Mulholland Drive in the theaters, when the Club Silencio scene
came up, I would think to myself that for sure I saw Sheryl Lee sitting in the
audience of the scene. Each and every time, I saw the movie, I was sure that
it was her. However, she was nowhere on the cast list, nor did Universals
publicity make any mention of this. I dropped it after a while, however,
knowing the DVD was going to be released soon, I asked Lynch in his chat room.
Here is his response:
dugpa_: In the Club Silencio Scene sitting in the theater, on the left side of the screen there is a lady that looks a lot like Sheryl Lee. Was that just my imagination?
DAVIDLYNCH: YOUR IMAGINATION DUGPA
However after seeing the DVD, I can’t help but wonder if this isn’t Sheryl Lee, then it has to be her twin sister. I mean what are the chances…
Link: Sheryl Lee among the audience? - (dugpa)
Blue lightning
The principle reason for the thunder and lightning comes from its association with the 16th Tarot card: the Tower. The thunder and lightning scene at the Club Silencio is related to the thunder and lightning just before Diane kills herself, so it's natural to imply a fatal effect.
It is also connected to Fred Madison's obsession with his impending electrocution in Lost Highway: there's a lot of electrocution-related imagery in that movie. A more obscure connection is with the electrocution of the trespassing replicant in Blade Runner, a movie that also uses the Tower card symbolism and that also associates the electrocution with a lightning strike. (Blade Runner was directed by Ridley Scott, who preceded Lynch as the director of Dune, and has a number of Mulholland Drive elements.)
- (jro)
Related Theory: Electro-shock Therapy
Trivia
Without reference in the screenplay, the surrealistic Silencio sequence was shot in late 1999 as a finale to the original TV-Pilot. The idea around Club Silencio is a results of a deal between Disney's Touchstone Television and David Lynch. The company contributed $2.5 million more to the Pilot project (to a total budget of $7 million) with the proviso – which Lynch grudgingly accepted – that he shoot extra footage to be used as a "Closed ending." Disney's Buena Vista International intended to recoup the company's money by releasing the longer version as a film in Europe.