Post by MechAngel on Sept 18, 2004 2:55:09 GMT -5
Wow, what an amazing film. I have just watched this Lynch masterpiece for the third time and on every pass through I find little symbols and plot elements that I hadn’t noticed before. So, if you are as confused as I was after watching the film for the first time, read this and hopefully it will clear up some things for you on your second viewing. This is also all my opinion (and I am not in anyway saying that this is what the film is really all about. It is all just my interpretation!) and I encourage you to make your own conclusions about this film, but if you do, please share them with me: gareth_graham@yahoo.com . I think that sharing ideas and discussing them is what films like this are all about.
I divide this film into two very definite parts. The fantasy and the reality of Diane / Betty.
The first part of the movie is her fantasy.
The story begins with the starry-eyed actress, Betty (Naomi Watts) arriving in Hollywood ready to hit the big time and get her acting career off to a kick start. She has arranged to stay at her aunt’s apartment while she is off working on a movie. Meanwhile, Rita (Laura Harring) has been involved in a horrible accident and wakes up with no memory of her past. Rita sneaks into the apartment the night before Betty arrives and Betty finds her in the shower. Rita’s bag is also loaded with hundreds of thousands of dollars and an obscure prism-shaped key. They decide to do the best they can to determine Rita’s identity. Meanwhile, The Director (Justin Theroux) , is in trouble because he is under massive pressure from Hollywood’s deep, dark underworld of nepotism and bribery to recast Camille Rhodes as the new lead to replace the old one that went missing. He is very upset with this but, feeling the pressure anyway, he cast’s her at the audition. It is my interpretation that Rita was the original lead in his movie and the drivers of her limo were trying to kill her so they could give their bosses the opportunity to cast Camille into the film, but the plan goes a little pear-shaped when they get hit by the car in the beginning of the film. Betty and Rita begin a lesbian relationship in which they both love each other (very important). This is directly after they come across the corpse of Diane Stevens, a name that popped into Rita’s head while the two were out for coffee. After their night of lesbian lovemaking, Rita wakes up saying the word “Silencio”. So, at two in the morning the two women head out to a very surreal club called Club Silencio. When the performance is over, the two find a blue box that has been lift in the seat adjacent to theirs. They rush home and Betty disappears right before Rita opens the box.
This second part is the reality.
Diane Stevens (Naomi Watts) is an actress living in Hollywood, but is not nearly as successful or starry-eyed as she was in the fantasy sequence. She has fallen madly in love with Camille Rhodes (Laura Harring) after they had what seems to be a little bit more like a casual fling than a serious relationship. Things turn really bad when Camille announces her engagement to the now rich and successful Director. So fuelled by rage, Diane hires an assassin to kill Camille. Whether the assassination was successful or not is anybody’s guest, but it is my opinion that it was, and I will discuss my reasons why later.
She begins to get hounded by the police. The mysterious old couple climbs under her door and begin to torment her which eventually drives her to killing herself.
My Thoughts:
Diane created this fantasy world in her own mind, so you could say that everything leading up to their opening of the box was what Diane wishes had happened. Note how, in her fantasy, everyone that lead to her downfall was made to look like a bit of a loser or some other kind of low-life. Take the Director character for example. In her fantasy, his wife left him for the pool guy (played by Billy Ray Cyrus) and he is nothing more than a slave in the corrupt world of his Hollywood puppet masters. In reality, however, he is rich, happy and successful. The club was a very surreal sequence because it, to me, symbolizes her beginning to snap out of her fantasy world. The cowboy character is still a mystery to me though. To me, the old couple symbolizes her conscience and good Christian values. It is them that eventually drove her over the edge. The reason why I thought the assassination to be successful was because, in Diane’s fantasy world, she made him to be a useless killer and a bit on the thick side. This would be consistent with the way the rest of the characters are portrayed.
All in all this is a very sad, very beautiful story. It is the kind of thing that will stick with you for MONTHS after your first viewing. It is a very enjoyable film and I hope that my short essay helped clarify a few things for you. Enjoy this fine film!
Gareth Graham
gareth_graham@yahoo.com
I divide this film into two very definite parts. The fantasy and the reality of Diane / Betty.
The first part of the movie is her fantasy.
The story begins with the starry-eyed actress, Betty (Naomi Watts) arriving in Hollywood ready to hit the big time and get her acting career off to a kick start. She has arranged to stay at her aunt’s apartment while she is off working on a movie. Meanwhile, Rita (Laura Harring) has been involved in a horrible accident and wakes up with no memory of her past. Rita sneaks into the apartment the night before Betty arrives and Betty finds her in the shower. Rita’s bag is also loaded with hundreds of thousands of dollars and an obscure prism-shaped key. They decide to do the best they can to determine Rita’s identity. Meanwhile, The Director (Justin Theroux) , is in trouble because he is under massive pressure from Hollywood’s deep, dark underworld of nepotism and bribery to recast Camille Rhodes as the new lead to replace the old one that went missing. He is very upset with this but, feeling the pressure anyway, he cast’s her at the audition. It is my interpretation that Rita was the original lead in his movie and the drivers of her limo were trying to kill her so they could give their bosses the opportunity to cast Camille into the film, but the plan goes a little pear-shaped when they get hit by the car in the beginning of the film. Betty and Rita begin a lesbian relationship in which they both love each other (very important). This is directly after they come across the corpse of Diane Stevens, a name that popped into Rita’s head while the two were out for coffee. After their night of lesbian lovemaking, Rita wakes up saying the word “Silencio”. So, at two in the morning the two women head out to a very surreal club called Club Silencio. When the performance is over, the two find a blue box that has been lift in the seat adjacent to theirs. They rush home and Betty disappears right before Rita opens the box.
This second part is the reality.
Diane Stevens (Naomi Watts) is an actress living in Hollywood, but is not nearly as successful or starry-eyed as she was in the fantasy sequence. She has fallen madly in love with Camille Rhodes (Laura Harring) after they had what seems to be a little bit more like a casual fling than a serious relationship. Things turn really bad when Camille announces her engagement to the now rich and successful Director. So fuelled by rage, Diane hires an assassin to kill Camille. Whether the assassination was successful or not is anybody’s guest, but it is my opinion that it was, and I will discuss my reasons why later.
She begins to get hounded by the police. The mysterious old couple climbs under her door and begin to torment her which eventually drives her to killing herself.
My Thoughts:
Diane created this fantasy world in her own mind, so you could say that everything leading up to their opening of the box was what Diane wishes had happened. Note how, in her fantasy, everyone that lead to her downfall was made to look like a bit of a loser or some other kind of low-life. Take the Director character for example. In her fantasy, his wife left him for the pool guy (played by Billy Ray Cyrus) and he is nothing more than a slave in the corrupt world of his Hollywood puppet masters. In reality, however, he is rich, happy and successful. The club was a very surreal sequence because it, to me, symbolizes her beginning to snap out of her fantasy world. The cowboy character is still a mystery to me though. To me, the old couple symbolizes her conscience and good Christian values. It is them that eventually drove her over the edge. The reason why I thought the assassination to be successful was because, in Diane’s fantasy world, she made him to be a useless killer and a bit on the thick side. This would be consistent with the way the rest of the characters are portrayed.
All in all this is a very sad, very beautiful story. It is the kind of thing that will stick with you for MONTHS after your first viewing. It is a very enjoyable film and I hope that my short essay helped clarify a few things for you. Enjoy this fine film!
Gareth Graham
gareth_graham@yahoo.com