By: Jimena Inda

David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive (2001) exemplifies Steven Shaviro’s concept of post-cinematic affect, which marks a shift from coherent narratives and character-driven emotional identification toward immersive moods, sensory intensities, and bodily responses (Shaviro, 2010). The film deliberately fragments its storyline, deploying non-linear timelines, character doublings, and unresolved enigmas to thwart conventional comprehension. Rather than resolving meaning through plot or causal logic, it immerses viewers in confusion, longing, and disquiet. Significance emerges instead through atmospheric density and visceral experience, embodying what Shaviro describes as a post-cinematic “structure of feeling” that privileges sensation over representation.

This affective orientation is amplified by the film’s stylistic choices. Mulholland Drive generates meaning through a orchestration of sound, music, lighting, and performance that operates semi-autonomously from narrative progression. Such an approach aligns with notions of transmedial cinema, where cinematic elements draw on and extend across media forms—as seen in Lynch’s broader oeuvre spanning film, television, and experimental sound (Casetti, 2015). Sound design and score, in particular, dominate the sensory field, channeling affect directly to the viewer and constructing an enveloping, often unnerving audiovisual space that exceeds diegetic explanation.

Central to this analysis is the distinction between emotion and affect. While characters display intense feelings, these remain opaque, unstable, and resistant to clear attribution or viewer empathy. Identification is thus undermined, redirecting attention to raw sensation. The pivotal Club Silencio sequence epitomizes this dynamic: through layered sound, repetition, gestural performance, and the revelation “No hay banda,” it provokes intense affective surges—felt physiologically before any intellectual grasp—directly supporting Shaviro’s claim that post-cinematic works engage spectators via modulation of the body and senses rather than mediated emotion (Shaviro, 2010).

Finally, Mulholland Drive lends itself exceptionally well to audiovisual video essays, as theorized by Catherine Grant (2016). Its recurring motifs, sonic loops, visual rhythms, and non-narrative intensities invite performative criticism that mirrors the film’s own logic. Works in this vein (including those echoing “Chaos Cinema” sensibilities) engage the film’s affective register through montage, sound recombination, and image layering—rather than solely through prose—thus enacting a parallel mode of post-cinematic meaning-making and advancing innovative forms of scholarly expression.

Bibliography:

Casetti, F. (2015) The Lumière Galaxy: Seven Keywords for the Cinema to Come. New York: Columbia University Press.

Grant, C. (2016) ‘The audiovisual film essay as performative research’, Necsus: European Journal of Media Studies, Autumn. Available at: https://necsus-ejms.org/the-audiovisual-essay-as-performative-research/ (Accessed: [insert date]).

Lynch, D. (dir.) (2001) Mulholland Drive. Film. USA/France: Universal Pictures.

Shaviro, S. (2010) ‘Post-cinematic affect: On Grace Jones, Boarding Gate and Southland Tales’, Film-Philosophy, 14(1), pp. 1–24.