All of which is why I think the walk up the wooded path to the party is the most stunning scene in the movie, and is filled with an almost unbearable sadness. Although the bubblegum-love-song audition scene is also pretty spectacular.

Of course, I haven't even mentioned the 'dream of Hollywood', which is the dream of being loved by the world, and so reappropriating the world by becoming the central object in it. This seems to be secondary to the love story (although of course they're similar existential stories): Betty chooses to return to Rita in the midst of the audition scene, when she clearly 'could have had it all' right then.

Wow, this turned out to be really long. Anyway, thanks for the many interesting thoughts.
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Dave Fiore:

thanks for the input folks!

Adam:I really like your manner of distinguishing between the two narratives--it's the difference between screwball comedy (in which the protagonists seem to have the freedom to make anything they wish of their lives/story) and film noir (in which powerless figures of desire are pulled by their heartstrings toward an inevitable doom)...

But don't forget! Betty isn't nearly as "free" in her storyline as she (and you) are claiming!

1. if this is a dream (and of course it is), then all of it--including the Adam parts--are expressions of Betty/Diane's plight... "This is the girl!" is not merely a nod to weird Hollywood politics, it's a statement about romantic obsession. Wouldn't you consider the Cowboy's whole speech a judgment of Betty? (the Flak guys interpret it as Diane's vengeance upon/castration of Adam, and there may be something to that--but I don't feel it myself! One of the reasons the audition scene hits me so hard is that, right there, we realize, without quite understanding it, that, in the context of the Betty narrative, Betty is Adam!)

I agree with you about the power of the walk up the hillside. Perhaps it sounded dismissive when I described the "Diane is real" interpretation as reducible to the statement that "this is a story about one woman's disillusionment", but I assure you, I do feel the emotional weight of the Diane sequences (although I don't want to choose between feeling the film and thinking about the structure--I'm compelled to do both!)... I think both aspects of the film are part wish-fulfilment and part self-torture/castigation/admission of powerlessness... "This is the Other I must love" isn't so different, after all, from "this is the Other I must kill"... Each of these hard-determinisms force an ending, an opening of the box, and a silence...

keep 'em comin'!!!
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Adam Pound:

Regarding the compulsion to both 'feel the film' and 'think about it's structure', I couldn't agree more! Of recent films, only Magnolia inspires the same degree of both compulsions.

So, then... You're right, Betty isn't entirely free-- sorry if I implied that. It's Diane, the narrator, who has the power in Betty's narrative: Betty is how Diane wishes she were, and, as such, Betty is an object for Diane. To steal some more terms from Sartre, Betty is the positional self and Diane is the non-positional self (though only in Betty's narrative). But, as far as I'm concerned, even the non-positional self, the 'pure' self isn't really free, though it has power; and this is especially true in Mulholland Drive. Diane has no control over how she views herself, either in her wishful thinking or in her self-loathing-- she has no control over her own narration. The only person who has any control is the 'man in back of this place'.