It’s no secret that one of my favorite flicks in the world is the bizarre David Lynch dreamy feature Mulholland Dr. One review I read of the film describes it as a movie that will ”get under your skin” and that is exactly what it did to me. On the surface, if you care to check it out, you may find it utterly confusing and completely repulsive, so enter with caution. But as I say, I like it…so I was very interested to visit one of the locations from the film during one of my trips to California.
In fact, my friend Jimmy and I first planned to try to get there during my visit during October 2005, but we simply ran out of time. Then during February 2007, I again added it to my checklist of things to see, but our schedule filled up too full too fast during that trip as well. So when I had a bit of spare time during my most recent visit this summer, it was the first place I thought to head toward. And so finally, I was able to see Winkies restaurant, a place that is featured in three key scenes in Mulholland Dr. I ordered up some hash browns and enjoyed the surroundings.
Since the visit was off the cuff, I didn’t have any still shots to match up, so I tried to take a few from memory to compare with what is seen on screen. Here are the results:
The actual restaurant was formerly a Denny’s, now under new ownership as Caesar’s
Me in front of Caesar’s
Dan in the film
Jimmy and his breakfast. Not sure if we had the exact booth used in the film or not – but it was pretty close.
The doctor pays his check
Dr. Brad pays his check
The assassin’s key
The ass’s key
The stairs behind Winkie’s
The same stairs
The dumpster and wall, home of the monster behind Winkie’s
They were fake, but the lot is the same. There are no such things as real monsters.
Return to my day in Los Angeles…
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