(for interest re: the pilot, the tad friend article from the new yorker is a fun read(though likely not one useful for your purposes at all)... i like friend's entertainment writing in the new yorker so i was happy when i found this: http://www.lynchnet.com/mdrive/newyorker.html)

and as for "Diane is real"... given the last image of the movie or second to last (the bit with the old people i need to watch through my fingers), even accepting that premise she can only be real to a point. but again, i'm not sure i watch with that same interest as the more interesting character to me is the Lynch Los Angeles, and Diane and Betty-- neither of those are the real Los Angeles, they're both just opposite poles. though i've never really grasped how the Cowboy fits into Diane's Los Angeles but i overfetishize the Cowboy who's really not that interesting a character probably (besides on the surface — that guy's cool!- level)... and just that idea that whichever universe you occupy, the other one winds up in your dreams whether you want it there or not... its hard to get wrapped up in the Diane-Betty question since both those Los Angeles's are ... equally unreal places (well, Diane maybe slightly less so)...

geez, sorry, i'm not sure i have much coherent to say about it, but its a fun movie.

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Charles Reece:

Regarding 'silencio': I'm pretty sure that Lynch got that from Fellini. Unfortunately, I can't remember which movie: it's either LA STRADA or THE WHITE SHEIK where the word figures prominently (I think it's the former, which is about surviving crushed dreams, after all), but I'd have to go back and rewatch both to make sure. That and his blue-haired lady are allusions to one of Lynch's favorite directors. I'll have to watch the film again, but it's my memory that the word appears every time Betty/Diane (and the audience) is awakened a little more. Consequently, it's the last word of the film. Just so we're on the same page, Dave, there's 3 narrative realms in the film: the dream, reality and the flashback. The last is embedded in the second, and the second follows the first. Lynch seems to be fixated on destiny figures, such as the White Witch in WILD AT HEART and the Bum and/or the Blue Haired Lady here. I'd argue that the mechanical bird at end of BLUE VELVET functions similarly, namely as a medium between the diegetic and the audience, questioning the reality of the story and of the audience's reception. Anyway, the dream characters are brought back at the end, which suggests to me, not that everything in the diegesis is pure dream, but that anything within the film is artifice ("dream"). But, as the emotive power of the film should indicate, Lynch is a real believer in the artifice.

Anyway, to Ian, 'silencio' is one example where those dvd clues aren't red herrings. What I'd recommend is coming up with a hypothesis of the film and then testing them against those clues. At least, that's what I did, not reading them until after I'd come up with some possible explanations. Another example is the key on the table. It's the "key" for for understanding the difference between what's flashback and what's present in the final 3rd. Anoher is the opening sequence containing the jitterbug (Diane's past) and the subjective shot going towards the red pillow. I either can't remember or haven't worked out some of the others, but I'm inclined to think all are actual clues to the authorial intent.