SunsetBlvdConnection

Parallels

    Paramount Gate in "Sunset Blvd."

    Scenes at gate to Paramount in Sunset Blvd. & MD
    Paramount Gate in "Mulholland Dr."
    Ornaments at entrance to Sunset's mansion

    Ornaments at Sunset's mansion vs. Havenhurst

    Ornaments at entrance to Havenhurst apartment

  • The similarity of the movie titles (Sunset Blvd. and Mulholland Dr.) right down to the use of the abbreviation of the titles.

  • The similar title sequences - credits rolling with a car driving up a road.

  • In MD, Rita walks past the Sunset Blvd street sign and Lynch makes a point to focus on it. In fact, both Sunset Blvd. and Mulholland Dr. are long east-west streets in Los Angeles. They run roughly parallel, while Mulholland Dr. is at the top of the Hollywood Hills and Sunset Blvd. at the bottom.

  • The first half of MD appears to be set in the glamorous early 1950s-ish of Hollywood movies.

  • Joe ends up at Norma's mansion after a car accident on a highway above L.A. - Rita ends up at Havenhurst after her car crash on Mulholland Dr and so the story begins (Lynch mentioned in an interview that he loved this idea in Sunset Blvd.)

  • Norma's and Diane's narcissism/delusion; both are living in a "dream world" which they cannot distinguish from reality.

  • Norma and Diane's violent and psychotic obsession - Joe and Camilla's aloofness.

  • Norma Desmond attempts suicide in Sunset Blvd. 

  • Norma Desmond kills her lover in Sunset Blvd. 

  • Both movies feature a young ingénue named Betty.

  • Norma buying a gun which we first see in her bed while Diane has one in her bedside table and shoots herself in bed. 

  • The critique of people who have been destroyed by Hollywood and the movie industry.

  • Both movies have a director featured in a role within the movie (MD - a director on his way out; Sunset Blvd - a retired director).

  • Norma Desmond goes back to Paramount studios in an old car. Lynch used the same car (which he allegedly got hold of in Vegas) in a shot where Betty exits the cab in front of the Paramount Gate.

  • Joe is giving Betty Schaeffer a phone call to summon her to his house at 10086 Sunset Bldv. where Betty learns that Joe had chosen Norma over her. Diane is being called by Camilla to come to 6980 Mulholland Dr. just to learn of the cruel truth of the engagement.

  • Some of the decoration in Aunt Ruth's apartment, particularly the helically carved ornamental posts around her door are similar to what we see at the mansion in Sunset Blvd.

  • Finally, if you believe the dying dream theory, the fact that Sunset Blvd is narrated by a dead person is significant also.

  • Btw, Lynch has often said Sunset Blvd to be one of his favorite movies. There's a character in SB named Gordon Cole. That's where Lynch got the name for the character FBI Regional Bureau Chief Gordon Cole he played in Twin Peaks.

I remember reading an interview with Lynch where he talks about Sunset Blvd. and what intrigues him about it, and it has to do with the delusion of Gloria Swanson's character Norma Desmond and he says how people like her really exist. People who live in their own fantasy world and do not realize it, and so they no longer live in the real world, they live in la-la land. - (outofthewoods)