David Lynch's Mulholland Drive proves that lesbians are being allowed out of the closet in Hollywood movies, writes Rachel Armstrong. As long as lesbians don't try directing the films themselves...

David Lynch's Mulholland Drive has at its centre something sorely missing from mainstream films - a lesbian relationship. This is not a study in voyeurism and gratuitous sex, however, as the relationship between Betty and Rita is passionate, loving and very real.

The relationship begins when a woman is involved in a car crash which leaves her amnesiac. She stumbles into an apartment where she meets Betty, a wide-eyed innocent who has moved to Hollywood from Hicksville to become a famous actress. Our victim gives herself the name Rita, from a movie poster, and the two delve into the mystery of finding her real identity.

In typical David Lynch fashion, they meet all manner of weird and wonderful characters on their quest. They also fall in love.

When the film turns on its head a third of the way through, the relationship between Betty and Rita, now Diane and Camilla, is as different as the characters they have become. In place of the idyllic, loving affair they had, is a situation in which Diane loves an emotionally untouchable Camilla. What results is not only an excellent film, but also a chance for lesbians everywhere to see themselves on screen portrayed wonderfully by Naomi Watts and Laura Harring.

So, after years in cinematic exile, it seems lesbians are acceptable, but with one stipulation. Films by women about lesbians or lesbianism are shoved into the closet of film festivals and "specialist" screenings. However, if you are a straight male director the multiplex world seems to be your oyster.

Considering that lesbians could have been used only for titillation purposes, we have been extremely lucky. Some cynics in the ranks may baulk and say the only reason we're in these films is so that hairy-handed men can have a good stare, but even if that is the case, we've been in some excellent films.

Unlike gay men, who seem to have been labelled as only necessary for comedic or AIDS-related storylines, these past few years the straight male directors who have chosen to put lesbian characters in their central roles have been some of the most exciting directors around. As well as the extraordinarily talented Lynch, the Wachowski brothers immediately come to mind.

In 1996, well before any tinkering around with The Matrix, Larry and Andy Wachowski made the film Bound. Their take on the film noir genre didn't involve a whiskey-swilling, stubble-chinned method actor as the saviour to the femme fatale, but a tattooed, butch lesbian.

JUST a couple of years ago the fabulously quirky Spike Jonze gave the world Being John Malkovich, in which Cameron Diaz falls in love with a woman. Not only that, you want her to "get the girl". The film was a revelation to lesbians everywhere. Finally, it seemed, the movie world could see us as interesting characters. Interesting not for our coming-out stories or the sudden realisation of our sexuality, but interesting because, clichéd as it sounds, we're just like everyone else - we can be the goodies as well as the baddies.

To Hollywood's amazement, the straight cinemagoer was cheering on the queer. The result, hopefully, is that as we enter the 21st century, the movie industry drags itself into the 20th century.

Hollywood, however, is still run by very conservative, straight, white men and is notoriously chauvinistic, so let's get things in perspective. Every year there are thousands more challenging and interesting roles for men than women. So, characters who are lesbians (and Black women, Asian women, Hispanic women, disabled women, etc.) are the minority of a minority.

We'll always be the exception as opposed to the rule.

On the other hand, things are certainly looking up. As Hollywood seems to be embracing more intelligent scripts and giving independent films wider distribution, lesbian characters will be seen more often. Kissing Jessica Stein, directed by Charles Herman- Wurmfeld and coming out here in April, is the next to look forward to.

Few films with lesbian characters are likely to be on the same artistic level as Mulholland Drive, and few lesbians are likely to be played by such wonderful actresses.

However, Lynch, Watts and Harring deserve awards and excellent notices - and maybe this will send a message to Hollywood.