Assignment 4

Mulholland Dr.

Woman entering Hollywood
Reality-I have an audition tomorrow.
Simulacra- I will do so well at this audition they will have no choice not to sign me as the role.

Man having nightmares (subplot)
Reality- No one is around the corner behind the diner
Simulacra- There is a strange spooky man waiting to greet me around the corner.

The simulacra can be so profound of an illusion it can replace reality.


Media surrounding film is promotional media aimed at human desire, because the film is not essential to natural survival, meaning, cinema & tv exists because people enjoy consuming in the movie watching experience.  It has a lot to do with why people watch movies, for entertainment.  How are people entertained?  Through seeing, feeling, hearing attractive (or unattractive) things.  This is the case for the lead (blonde woman).  The Hollywood media has brainwashed her reality, and turned it into a sick and deceiptful fantasy.  Where she is adored by Hollywood big shots for acting before she even auditions.  This is a two part strategy used by the lead in her process of illusion.  The first part is to convince herself that she is a good actress by imagining herself nailing auditions and being welcomed into the acting community.  She tries to belong to move past her low self esteem.  So the question is how did the lead get so brainwshed in obsession of the Hollywood lifestyle.  I hypothesize it has to do with media and how they portray the humans behind the faces on the big screen.  I think the media tries to attach too much glamour to acting (as an occupation).  The glamourous portrayal is a promotional tactic the media uses to hype a film so more viewers attend, so more money is earned.

The second part of the strategy is to capitalize off pop culture stars.  Film (& t.v.) actors are identifiable at a large fraction of households in the U.S.  So, popular actors become a prime target for media images.  The media sells actors to be important to us (cinema audience) off screen as well.  An example of commodifying actors is celebrity magazines, which are simply updates on actors and their off screen affairs.  As a result, the lifestyles of actors become monitered and censored, so actors change their lifestyles according to what pleases or displeases the public.   So in truth, most actors end up acting off screen, too.   This sadly artificial life is downplayed by A-list parties and such, which the media makes sure we hear about.