Mulholland Drive | 2001
Filmed around Los Angeles, Mulholland Drive was intended as the pilot for a TV series, à la Twin Peaks, and though hurriedly wrapped up to become a feature film, it’s still David Lynch at his nightmarish best.
Betty (Naomi Watts) arrives, with that charming old couple, at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) en route to an acting career in Hollywood.
The strangely old-fashioned courtyard apartment complex, presided over by Coco Lenoix (Ann Miller), in which Betty stays, is supposedly ‘1612 Havenhurst Drive’ in West Hollywood. That’s a fictitious address, of course, but the apartment is real enough. It's Il Borghese, 450 North Sycamore Avenue at Rosewood Avenue, south of Hollywood toward the upscale Hancock Park.
Il Borghese also housed the apartments of radio vet Janeane Garofalo and model Uma Thurman in Michael Lehmann's romantic comedy The Truth About Cats and Dogs.
The motor accident, which causes Rita (Laura Harring) to lose her memory, occurs on Mulholland Drive itself, winding east-west along the crest of the Hollywood Hills, which divide Hollywood from the San Fernando Valley.
The hitman is seen at Pink's Hotdogs, 709 North La Brea Avenue at Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, which has been, since 1939, the coolest hot dog stand in the universe. You may have to stand in line for upwards of half an hour to sample the legendary chili dogs, but there’s always a chance you’ll get to see one of the many Hollywood names who bolster their cred by turning up here. I found myself waiting behind the late Chris ‘Nice Guy Eddie’ Penn.
The office of ‘Ryan Entertainment’, where director Adam Kersher (Justin Theroux) is instructed who must star in his film at a meeting with espresso-obsessed Castigliani brothers, is the Banks Huntley Building, 634 Spring Street. The silent brother is Angelo Badalmenti, the composer of the haunting jazzy scores of many of David Lynch’s movies.
The entrance to ‘Club Silencio’ is directly opposite the Banks Huntley Building. It's the modest the rear of the Palace Theatre, at the far end of Joe's Auto Parks, 640 South Spring Street, downtown Los Angeles. The interior is the Tower Theatre, 802 South Broadway, the offices of which also supplied the interior of the dingy ‘Park Hotel’ in which Kersher stays when he’s chucked out of his home. Both the Palace and the Tower are seen in Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige.
The fictitious ‘Sierra Bonita’ apartment, in which Betty and Rita search for the mysterious Diane Selwyn and discover a body, is 2900 Griffith Park Boulevard, off St George Street, part of a cutesy cottage complex behind the ever-popular John Marshal High School, Silverlake (seen in many films, including the original film of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and A Nightmare on Elm Street).
‘Winkie’s Diner’, where Dan (Patrick Fischler) dreams he sees the scary face behind the wall, isn’t on Sunset Boulevard at all or even close. You’ll find it way to the south of Los Angeles in Gardena.
It’s Caesar’s, 1016 West El Segundo Boulevard at Vermont. If you want a coffee here, make it early. Caesar’s closes at 2pm. When I visited, it was closed and deserted. Ideal.
Behind the restaurant, if you dare, are the steps and the wall. There was no-one behind it when I checked – but, who knows, you might get lucky.
