My interpretation

Rating: 8/10 (10 June 2002)

This is a difficult movie. I didn't get it at first, but upon watching parts a second time I felt like I had a better understanding of what happened. I think a lot of people don't want to commit ANOTHER 2 1/2 hours of their time to see if they can make sense of it. I think you can watch it once and then just watch the first 5 minutes and the last 45 minutes or so to get it.
The movie to me feels like when you wake up after a real jarring, vivid dream. You think how amazing the dream was, but then you have all these pieces that don't fit together. Nonetheless, you think of it as a great dream and you enjoy thinking about it the next day.
***SPOILERS AHEAD!*** Here is what I think the story is in a nutshell (then I will explain from where these conclusions come): Diane is in a relationship with Camilla. Camilla breaks it off with Diane because Camilla got involved with the director. Diane is crushed. She was already depressed being a struggling actress in Hollywood and playing second fiddle to Camilla. Now she lost Camilla and if she can't have her, then neither can he. So she hires a hit man with the money she inherited from her aunt. Camilla is killed by the hit man. The cops are on to her. She is having a nervous breakdown and the film chronicles the night (her horrid dreams) and day before she kills herself.
Where I got this: Once you can put together the timeline, it makes sense. At about 2 hours into the movie when Diane wakes up, that is a moment in the present. Everything else is either a dream or fantasy.
Diane is woken up by her neighbor wanting her belongings. The neighbor takes her ashtray from the table. Notice there is an almost empty glass on the table in an otherwise clean apartment. It looks like it is there from the night before. Diane starts having flashbacks from the days before while she is making coffee as well as some delusions about Camilla (now dead) coming back.
Then there is the lesbian sex scene flashback that, hilariously enough, distracts everyone from the clues on the table. The glass and the ashtray (no key) are there telling you it happened before in time.
Then there are other scenes she remembers from that day(s). Camilla urges her to come to the dinner party. That's where much of her dream imagery comes from - the characters (Cowboy, the Italians), the stories (pool boy). And she is stating how she feels like a nobody to everyone at the table. She is starting to unravel. When Diane sees at the party she has lost Camilla, she hires the hit man out of jealous rage the next morning (or sometime right after). Then she gets the key that signifies Camilla was killed.
Then she has her breakdown and must get drunk or something. Because at the beginning of the film it looks like Diane getting off the floor and climbing into bed (the red pillow). Then she has her nightmare (the 1st 2 hours of the film).
In her dream she is prettier, has it all together and is a killer actress. Many things from reality crop up in the dream in distorted form. The blue key, her couch, the names and people are all skewed.
I could go on into how the dream uses many Freudian concepts of dream images - both where they came from and what they represent in her life, but at this point I think it would make you sick. And you could always watch it again to have some more fun.
Finally she sits in her apartment all day lamenting over the situation. She had Camilla killed. She has no money. She has no career. And she knows the detectives are after her. She hears the knock at the door and runs to the bedroom and shoots herself.
I gave the movie an 8. I think it is a brilliantly made movie. Incredible imagery, great editing, frightening at times, and an amazing portrayal of a person's delusional thinking after experiencing great loss and their desperate attempts for a solution to what seems like an impossible situation.
I don't think this film is for everyone. The reason I didn't give it a higher rating is because it loses most of its audience and requires a second viewing. I don't think that is fair to an audience. If you pay to see it in the theater, you should only have to see it once to get it. Nonetheless, an amazing achievement worth watching if you can commit the time to it.