He's in Hell right? Forced to have his psyche break apart because he can't cope with the reality he killed his wife .He will do this over and over again for eternity. That's why the film begins and ends in a loop. Fred is doomed to run in a circle forever in the afterlife.
In a sense, yes, but it’s not a Christian hell and unlikely to be an afterlife. Fred’s still alive but he’s gone mad.
It’s a psychological and emotional hell, or a ‘psychogenic fugue’ resulting from his crippling jealousy and refusal to accept that he murdered his wife.
It’s widely speculated that his pulsing, bloated, electrified, screaming head in the final moments is in fact his head being fried in the electric chair in the real world.
Watched this film again last night. I still stick with what you've described above as what the film is "about," but there is one thing . . .
The detectives.
Particularly at the very end of the film when they are in "Mr Dent-heads" home.
I could interpret the other scenes involving the investigators as manifestations of Fred's paranoia that he will be apprehended for his crime (which has already occurred), but at the very end when his escapism has collapsed and he's turned back into Fred what exactly do we make of a detached scene in the aforementioned home?
I suppose it could still be interpreted as I suggested. But that particular scene really sticks out.
Well, in the original script the two detectives are the same duo in both the Fred and Pete storylines, they only became a different pair for Pete later in the production.
Then there’s the fact that Lynch has said that he doesn’t want everything to add up, airtight. He likes to leave some questions even after you’ve ‘solved’ the film, to keep the brain alive and haunt you into watching the film again.
Incidentally, what is it about the cops being in Andy’s house that confuses you?
I don't know that I am confused by anything. Just curious about the scene with the detectives. Why? I suppose it's because it seems like a detached scene. In other words, all of the rest of the film centers around Fred, or Pete. But neither are in this scene, but only the detectives observing the photo of Rene and Alice morphing into one, and Mr Dent Head of course.
If this is a psychogenic fugue all in Fred's mind, he (or Pete) would be in every scene. Otherwise, we are to assume Fred broke away from his mental construct and imagined this scene with the detectives at Mr. Dents crime scene. For what purpose would that serve to his goal of escapism?
That Lynch has stated that he doesn't want everything to add up, as you report, is a good enough answer.
I’ve always thought that the psychogenic fugue kicks in when Fred becomes Pete, prior to that we have a mix of reality and Fred’s increasing murderous jealousy - represented by Mystery Man ‘invading’ his normal existence.
Pete-world is pure happy delusion, but that starts to collapse as reality reasserts itself. I see the Fred-cops as figures associated with objective reality. Having them point to Alice/Renee as now a single person is Fred’s mind realising that Alice is Renee.
"I’ve always thought that the psychogenic fugue kicks in when Fred becomes Pete, prior to that we have a mix of reality and Fred’s increasing murderous jealousy - represented by Mystery Man ‘invading’ his normal existence."
I guess that's one area we see it differently. I see the film opening with Fred already in the fugue. He hears himself buzz in a message, he meets this supernatural-type Mystery Man at a party, etc. Seems like we aren't suppose to take these things at face value (i.e.,as reality), but come to realize later that it's all in his head. When he dives into the Pete character, he is just diving deeper -- desperately trying to "remember things his own way, not necessarily the way they happened."
As for the cops I suppose one could just write that off as Fred's mind dealing with the paranoia of having the cops always on his tail, that is, having then catch up to him at one point after having murdered his wife.