Finally watched this: some thoughts & discoveries & insights
Lynch is either crazy or genius. Still can't decide.
I think one theme hinted at in the film is Mind control (MKUltra) being one of them. The presence of twins further emphasizes this theory. After watching an unrelated youtube video that just happened to discuss psychogenic fugue, I watched a David Lynch interview about this movie a day later and damned if he didn't bring up psychogenic fugue too. I never hard of it before that.
Dissociative fugue, formerly fugue state or psychogenic fugue: It is a rare psychiatric disorder characterized by reversible amnesia for personal identity, including the memories, personality, and other identifying characteristics of individuality. The state is usually short-lived (ranging from hours to days), but can last months or longer. Dissociative fugue usually involves unplanned travel or wandering, and is sometimes accompanied by the establishment of a new identity. It is no longer its own classification or diagnosis as it was in the DSM-IV, but is now a facet of dissociative amnesia according to the DSM-5.
Here is the video where Lynch discusses it. See 13:20, but all of it's intersting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rcv1W146Gs
The scene where Alice is laying on her back giving him instructions how to get to Andy's house and take him out is hypnotic. The Mystery Man appears to be a handler (among other things). This could be induced or natural I guess, but I'm leaning to induced Manchurian Candidate type stuff like a lot of movies allude to. Alice also is doing/did snuff porn and hung around these shady people and was probably mind controlled (if it's reality). She may be an Alter persona too. Characters seem to get pulled into doing things, that go way against their nature. The whole thing could be a set up with Fred/Pete/Alice all being pawns.
Interesting movie anyway. Better than I expected with no real knowledge about the film going in. Requires more viewings for sure. A key point for certain is the lines Fred speaks I like to remember things my own way. and"How I remembered them. Not necessarily the way they happened." Fit's with most interpretations.
This is also an interesting explaination. Not sure it's 100% right (or any interpretations for that matter), but certainly plausible. Less interesting and more pretentious, but convincing. Could just be one of several themes/interpretations/subplots.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0038R4DBlw