Università degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia

Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia

It′ll be just like in the movies ­

we′ll pretend we were someone else

Identitity construction in David Lynch′s

Blue Velvet

and

Mulholland Drive

Seminario di Letteratura Inglese

,,Border Crossings: Constructing Personal and Social Identity in Film"

2007-2008

Ina Brauckhoff

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Flowers blossom in front of brightly white garden fances, the fireman driving past waves

cheerfully ­ the US-american small town Lumberton, in which the movie

Blue Velvet

directed

by David Lynch who has also written the screenplay was made in 1986, presents itself like in

a picture-book. The idyll gets disturbed when the protagonist Jeffrey Beaumont, a well-

educated college student, finds a human ear that he hands over to the local police. Out of

curiosity he decides to investigate on his own. Sandy, the daughter of the policeman whom

Jeffrey has given his find, makes him pick up the trail of Dorothy Valleys, a night club singer

who is involved into this affair. Jeffrey gets into her world and an ambivalent sexual

relationship between them comes into being, which turns out to be masochistic as on the one

hand Dorothy craves for Jeffrey, but on the other hand turns him back brutally. At the same

time Jeffrey takes up a love story with the innocent Sandy. Jeffrey is confronted with two

universes: pure sex and desire versus the declaration of true love.

"An ambiguos film", the

Lexikon des internationalen Films

says, "that during the crass

penetration into dark human abysses also deals with the questionableness of traditional world

views."1

With a car crash on the winding Mulholland Drive above Los Angeles the movie

Mulholland

Drive

written and directed 2001 by Lynch starts. The only survivor is a young dark-haired

woman who has been threaten by two men directly before. Having lost her memory due to a

head injury she seeks refuge in a vacant house. At the same time the naive Betty, a young

blond woman dreaming of making a film career in Hollywood, arrives in Los Angeles. Full of

optimism she moves into her aunt′s house in which the brunette has taken refuge. The two

women become friends. In search of the identity of the amnesiac who calls herself Rita they

fall in love with each other. The story of the two is thwarted by different sub-plots that

gradually fall in place into a main-plot which then is appreciably tangled up again. Abruptly a

break: Betty turns to Diane, a crossed in love and therefore depressed woman who has failed

in Hollywood. Rita impersonates Camilla, a successful actress and Diane′s former lover who

is now engaged to a famous movie director. Driven by jealousy Diane instructs a killer to

dispatch Camilla. After the offense is accomplished Diane gets insane because of having a

murder on her conscience and commits suicide.

As the different levels of reality are in juxtaposition to each other it is the spectacor himself

who has to unlock the identity of Betty and Diane respectively. There is no only solution:

1 Koll, Messias: Lexikon des internationalen Films: Lexikon des Internationalen Films. Filmjahr 2001.

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"Viewers will feel as though they′ve just finished a great meal but aren′t sure what they′ve

been served. Behind them, the chef smiles wickedly."2

In the two selected David Lynch movies a shared motif becomes apparent: the question of

identity. Therefore I define border crossing as the crossing of a psychological border within a

person making possible to live out different (part-) identities. Jeffrey in

Blue Velvet

as well as

Betty/Diane in

Mulholland Drive

have two different identities, i.e. they are presented to us in

two different roles, a psychological border crossing takes place. In either case the concepts of

identity and identity construction which were current at the date of the movies′ origin are

represented. Framing these concepts in relation to the time they were made it becomes clear

that we are dealing with innovative groundbreaking ideas. Thus I want to compare the films

relating to how they express identity construction and the therewith combined border

crossing. Hereupon I will relate this analysis to the history of identity to make clear in which

sense the dealing with the identity discourse is innovative in both of the films.

Finally I will discuss the question if the presented border crossings are still border crossings

today or if they have already become habits. To find an answer I will classify the movies

within the film history and explain how the film socialization determines the spectators′

readings. I suggest that both films despite all their differences actually tell the same story,

only that there are sixteen years of (film-) history between them causing the different ways of

narrating. A second border crossing becomes apparent, a border crossing between the two

films.

Before analyzing the films with regard to the protagonist′s identity let me begin by answering

the question what identity is in general and giving a survey of the current identity discourse.

Conceptions of identity depend on social developments. Therefore they can only be explained

considering their historical background. Thus I want to give a summary of Stuart Hall′s

studies regarding the conception of identity in the changing times.

Identity stands for "a relatively constant unity in the regard of oneself or of others based on a

comparative stability of attitudes and intentions of behavior"3, characterizes consequently the

self-awareness of a person, the picture someone draws of himself on condition that there is a

difference to another thing: "Without the other or the outside identity cannot exist."4 The

border between identity and difference is not determinated, but depends on context and

perspective. Accordingly identity itself is not definite, but a process of becoming. To

2 Online: http://www.metacritic.com/video/titles/mulhollanddrive/

3 Bierhals: Identitätskonflikt im Film ,,Memento", p. 4.

4 Supik: Dezentrierte Positionierung. Stuart Halls Konzept der Identitätspolitiken, p. 51.

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plagiarize Hall, identity has to be figured "as a `production′ which is never accomplished,

which is always in process"5.

In contrast identification signifies the acceptation of oneself as constant by the social and

cultural environment, it describes how one is perceived by others.

One′s self lastly means the whole of all attitudes towards oneself and the personal relations to

the environment. Therefore identity includes a coherent self-concept.

Stuart Hall describes the positioning of the subject as an identity political action always taking place in

a given setting: On the one hand the subjected

is positioned

historically, socially and culturally by the

surrounding circumstances, on the other hand it positions

itself

. Thus positioning consists always of an

active and a passive aspect [...].6

In this he distances himself from the idea that identity would be something that could be

freely chosen and changed any time: "The decentered subject is always already positioned

somewhere, it is historically, socially and culturally positioned from without and contributes

on his self to his own positioning."7

Hall emphasizes relevant attributes for the identity concepts of the Age of Enlightenment, the

Modern and the Post-modern. The Age of Enlightenment (17th/18th century) is effected by the

autonomy of the human reason. A solid inner core in the nature of the human being is

assumed. It results the idea of a centered unified individual. The head note to this concept is

articulated by Descartes:

Cogito, ergo sum.

The modern society implicates large changes and upheavals that result in a high complexity.

The abolishment of the class system leads to the transition to a functional differentiated

society that is charcaterized by the "increase in rationality (Enlightenment), the development

of strict organizations (bureaucratization) and the scientification and mechanization of the

whole social life."8 These movements come along with the civil individualization, "the

individual as a free corporate body is now considered to aspects like self-determination and

self-development."9 Through different decentrations the subject fragments. In spite of these

processes of estrangement it is further on assumed that in the inside there is hidden a `true

ego′ that guarantees authenticity."10 Into this true identity core part-identities can be

integrated. All in all Hall sums up the western histority of ideas in the following way:

The Humanism of the Renaissance has put the human being into the spotlight of the universe, and the

Cartesian subject with its rational abilities becomes the center of mind. The Age of Enlightenment

stressing reason and mind further promotes the self-confidence. The Modern Age is affected by the

5 Supik: Dezentrierte Positionierung. Stuart Halls Konzept der Identitätspolitiken, p. 69.

6 Supik: Dezentrierte Positionierung. Stuart Halls Konzept der Identitätspolitiken, p. 13.

7 Supik: Dezentrierte Positionierung. Stuart Halls Konzept der Identitätspolitiken, p. 70.

8 Schmidt: Modernisierung, Kontingenz, Medien: Hybride Beobachtungen, p. 177.

9 Schmidt: Modernisierung, Kontingenz, Medien: Hybride Beobachtungen, p. 177.

10 Supik: Dezentrierte Positionierung. Stuart Halls Konzept der Identitätspolitiken, p. 18.

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