A Young Woman's Disintegrated Mind

Rating: 9/10 (25 September 2013)

To understand this great movie, discount nearly all of its first three- fourths, and maybe more, as most of the earlier scenes after the opening credits are imaginary. This fact is very disconcerting to viewers, who generally like a clear-cut narrative. But when one views a David Lynch film, he/she must be prepared and understand that the director's work is often non-linear and sometimes non-chronological, and symbolic (especially metaphorical). For instance, just after the jitterbug dance, the movie camera focuses on sheets and a blanket, and we hear deep breathing, the significance of deep sleep, a dreamlike state.
The first three-quarters: "The Dream" (Illusion):
 The ESCAPE of Brunette "Camilla Rhodes" (Laura Harring) from her murderers and her consequent amnesia never happened.
 Coco (Ann Miller) is not the Havenhurst apartment manager (explained later).
 "Betty Elms" does not exist; she is merely Diane Selwyn's alter-ego, possibly a dominant personality.
 The Winkie diner scene with the semi-human creature lurking behind an alley is unreal. Could be taken as representative of Diane/Betty's evil persona.
 The Hollywood meeting with the hooligan brothers, who insist upon blonde Camilla Rhodes, never happened. It is Betty's excuse for failure, and she hates Adam (Justin Theroux) the director. Lynch is probably castigating Hollywood for its countless sins, like tyrannical moguls (Mr. Roque), despotic directors, and infamous casting couches.
 Hatchet-man Joe Messing's rather clumsy murder of three people is escapist Betty's imagination.
 "Rita" never found "clean" cash in her handbag (explained later).
 Blonde hooker Laney's scene with Joe as a pimp at Pink's is fantasy, as Betty considers brunette Camilla's promiscuity as helping her career (dreamed as a prostitute).
 Adam Kesher, who lives at 6980 Mulholland Drive, is an insufferable director with a cheating wife. Betty detests him and would delight in his misfortunes.
 "Betty" remembers the waitress' name tag at Winkie's restaurant as "Diane" (incorrect, explanation later).
 The enormous tough-looking guy (acted by Tony Longo) who barges into Adam's house (inquiring about the damaged limo) is imagined.
 Adam Kesher, after evacuating his house, perhaps stayed at the seedy Park Hotel.
 Louise Bonner says that "Someone is in trouble!" (a premonition, but delusional)
 The cowboy is strange, polite, and unreal (flickering light). Obviously speaking in the deadpan way as directed, he convinces Adam to say, "This is the girl." Old-fashioned cowboys were Hollywood's good guys, and this one even wears a white hat initially. He represents reality.
 The audition with Jimmy Katz (Chad Everett) really happened but not in the manner that Betty desired. Actually she failed.
 Blonde Camilla Rhodes screen test: A blonde gets the main part for "The Sylvia North Story" (imaginary). The rock 'n' roll songs are of the early 1960s (nostalgia for then teen-aged Lynch?). Betty flees when she spots Adam (his rejection of her).
 2590 Sierra Bonita, apt. 17: Partially factual, but the dead woman on the bed isn't Camilla, nor was it found by "Betty" or "Rita."
 The two lesbian sex scenes really did happen between Diane and Camilla, not "Betty" and "Rita" (explanation later).
 Club Silencio, is the page-turner in the movie, when the truth is revealed. The magician says, "It is an illusion." Betty shakes uncontrollably because she is awakening from her pleasant fantasy dream to the awful truth.
A significant flaw in the first part is Betty's imperfect memory. Betty's true self is exposed when Camilla opens the blue box, revealing that reality has surfaced. The blue key represents the murder. Now the real story as told in the opening setting and as elucidated in the last quarter.
The Truth (Lynch pulls the plug and divulges the real characters of earlier scenes):
Pretty, wide-eyed but naïve Diane Selwyn (Naomi Watts), who won a jitterbug contest (jitterbug = a popular swing-dance in the 1930s and 1940s, less so in the 1950s), has won a Hollywood audition. Like countless others she dreams of being a great movie star. With the cash inherited from her dead aunt Ruth, she bids goodbye to her (skeptical?) guardians and departs Deep River, Ontario (NW of Ottawa - in other words, from nowhere). But duplicitous La-La land is more often one of nightmares. Disappointingly, she never succeeds, and ekes out a living from small movie roles. Diane, a homosexual, has a relationship with brunette Camilla Rhodes, bisexual and promiscuous. Camilla Rhodes catches the attention of now divorced director Adam Kesher, who wants to marry her, a situation disconcerting to jealous Diane. At the party, we learn that Adam is the son of Coco, who was never the apartment manager. While drinking an espresso ("SOS" cup), Diane spots a man whom she later imagines as a hooligan (Castigliane means "punishing liana," {vine}; Castigleone would have been a better name as leone = "lion"). Director Lynch may be castigating Hollywood (or Betty's mind may be stereotyping Italians). The engagement announcement agitates Diane, who is further enraged when Camilla kisses the unnamed blonde (not really Camilla Rhodes). So, in Diane's dream, Camilla becomes "Rita." The engagement is the last straw, and at Winkie's, Diane with "dirty" cash hires hit-man Joe to murder Camilla. The waitress' name tag reads "Betty," not "Diane." Diane, tormented, is going insane; she even fantasizes deceased Camilla's return in her drab apartment. The Cowboy wakes up "Betty" (not a corpse) to reality. The semi-human creature, Diane's evil persona, holds the empty blue box (her future). Detectives search for ragged and despondent Diane. Haunted by bizarre images of her mocking guardians, whom she has failed, she reaches for her bedside pistol, aims, and fires.
Unlike the fictional Diane, Naomi Watts became a big star, and deservedly so. The film features fine set-pieces and music score.