Good stuff Charles! Although, just to defend my interpretation a bit, what do you make of the fact that "Silencio" is present in both parts of the film--and, even more importantly, that Betty & Rita see Diane dead before this tableau can possibly have taken shape in "real" life? I don't think there are any definite answers to this question, and there certainly is a lot of textual evidence to support the Diane-is-real/Betty's-a-dream interpretation... Still, even if that's what Lynch intended, he can't (as you say) seem to help undermining himself with stuff that doesn't fit with the rational explanation, and I love that! It doesn't suit me at all to believe that the only thing in that box is one paltry crime of passion!

Couldn't the correspondences be more of a comment upon the fact that, no matter what "mode" we think we are dreaming in, we always dream according to certain patterns? And we're never quite able to dream (or live or think!) our way past the moment of ultimate fulfilment/catastrophe? If this were merely the story of one woman's disillusionment, it could never have held my brain in its thrall for this long! I prefer to think of the film as a breathtaking expresson of my own personal credo--the universe isn't broken, it is a break-up!
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Ian Brill:
I don't mind MH talk, it really is one of my favorite films. On the subject of Lynch undermining so there is no rational explanation: I think Lynch has created a sort of mystery that isn't meant to be solved as much as it is meant to be admired for being such a mystery. Not that trading interpretations isn't fun and stimulating but it seems once someone thinks they've got "the answer" you'll find Lynch put something in the film to throw a theory off. What of the clues Lynch includes in the DVD package? I don't think those help anybody solve anything as much as they are just more red herrings to throw you off. That Lynch, he's such a trickster! *******************
Abhay Khosla:

mullholland drive has a structure, but is it a "tight" structure? well, its rigorous to itself-- the wacky hitman scene and the director versus the pool boy scene both share the same comedic tone, the bit where the underlings communicates with the single-word speaking midget-y boss occupies the same sense of dread as the Cowboy scenes.

but while i know you dislike considering authorship questions (which... may be oversimplifying or mis-stating and i apologize), the thing i'm always stunned by at the end of mullholland drive is its origin as an ABC television pilot and that sense that he found the movie after that experience had been completed. early on in the movie, it does have a television aura to it (that robert forster cop scene, say)(its what i like about the movie, that so many scenes have so narrative point besides their own texture and, i don't know, sensation), but for an organically created work ... the logic of it feels inescapable. and that organic feel sort of emphasizes the dream like quality in a way. i have a hard time divorcing myself from that knowledge, i guess, is basically all i'm saying here.