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[quote]Do you consider Diane to be a continuation of Betty and Camilla of Rita?[/quote]
I'm still thinking about this. If anything, their roles seem to reverse. Initially, Rita was the one who was emotionally disturbed. After Club Silencio, Diane became the emotionally disturbed one. In fact, it's the whole change in the characters and the setting that still has me a bit confused.
[quote]This I find pretty interesting. The Dreamer is fantasizing about not having an ego, so that she can create her own? Her lost object is perhaps her ego and she is trying to get it back?[/quote]
Well, that's something I hadn't thought of. The dreamer wants to make a new start with a clean slate.
"An open mind. You're in the process of recasting your lead actress, and I'm...we're asking you to keep an open mind."
--Are you talking about the persona Rita or the Dreamer?--
As far as which one lost their mind, both. Rita is not simply a figment of the dreamer's imagination. She must have some connection to the dreamer.
--You say it could be a lucid dream, but does it have to be that?--
No. It's just a hypothetical argument. But, I still think that a clash of egos is taking place.
--Could it be that the Dreamer has pondered about this assasination (whatever it might be symbolising) and wished it hadn´t happened? Therefore she fantasizes about it and since this is occupying her mind, she incorporates this in her dreams.--
Yes. One way or the other, the dreamer either killed someone she loved, or at least she wanted to at some time. The dreamer may feel so guilty that the wants to kill herself too. According to Lacan, moreover, an act of aggression against someone else can be an expression of self hate.
[quote]Do you believe that the Dreamer has lost the mother or do you think that the lost object is indeed something the Dreamer has identified with the lost mother / person?[/quote]
Both are true. Bearing in mind, Freud says we marry people who remind us of our parents. So, another way to lose one of your parents is to lose your spouse.
[quote]Maybe it is silly of me to say this, but Rita isn´t trying to recover her earring, is she? Do you believe the earring is a metaphor?[/quote]
Jacque Lacan calls it object a. The picture of Camilla Rhodes is object a. Betty is object a. If it's provactive, it's object a. Lacan's point is that object a is not really what you want. You can't get it. And, even if you do, it won't make you happy.
Remember that song by the Stones? 'I Can't Get No Satisfaction'. That's object a. Likewise for one of my personal favorites, 'Start Me Up'. I like the line at the end, 'You make a dead man cum.' And, 'slide it up' is yet another Freudian metaphor. It's masturbation.
So, to sum this up. The dreamer is not looking for an earring, per se. We spend all our lives looking for that special 'thingy' that will satisfy our insatiable desire. And, according to Lacan, we are all going go die in vain.
https://ulozto.net/file/lzINO1Ng9Kpy/mulholland-dr-la-llorana-mp4
If you Google 'La Llorana' you'll find it's and interesting Latin American folk tale. So, we have another supernatural element in this fucked up dream.
[quote]Do you think the accident is what really happened to the dreamer and that this is what she / he is trying to suppress?[/quote]
No. I think the accident is a dreamwork reenactment of what Freud called the primal scene. Basically, junior witnesses his parents having sex. Since Junior does not understand sex, he things Daddy is beating up Mommy. The collision between the white and black cars represents sex. In yin-yang terms, white is male and black is female. I think the event at Club Silencio is also a dreamwork reenactment of the primal scene. The magician is Daddy, Betty is Mommy, and Rita is Junior. However, I'm still trying to figure out who the woman with the blue hair is. At the moment, my best guess is that she's the dreamer's anima. Whereas, the boogie man is the dreamer's shadow.
Notice, the similarity between the name Dan and Diane. Notice Dan's buck teeth. Notice how skeptical Herb sounds when Dan decides to tell him about his dream. Later in the film, Diane will be telling Coco about her dream, and Coco will seem sympathetic but unimpressed. Notice that Coco was hungry at Adam's dinner party. Notice that Herb ate his eggs at Winkie's. Notice that Dan's dream became a reality. Likewise, for Rita's dream about Club Silencio.
However, the Dan & Herb version of the scene does not quite match the Mulholland Drive version. There were three people in the limo, but there were only two people in Winkie's (ignoring the bystanders). When the Winkie's incident is over, however, we see that Rita is still dreaming in Aunt Ruth's kitchen. Then, Mr. Roque dials his telephone and says 'the girl is still missing.'
The event at Winkie's is the yang version of the accident at Mulholland Drive, visualized through Rita's dream. In Freudian terms, this is an inversion.
Winkie's diner represents the limousine, except it's flipped front to back and from left to right. The cash register represents the back of the limo, where Rita had been seated. The boogie man represents the small black dot within the yang half of the symbol. Whereas, the blinding glare of the headlights that Rita saw during the accident on Mulholland Dr. represents the white spot inside of yin.
At Winkie's, Rita's mind is split into conscious and subconscious divisions, represented by Dan and Herb, respectively. Dan's collapse parallels the ego death Rita suffered during the accident (represented by the death of the drivers). Dan, the ego, has to expend psychic energy in order to repress the image of the boogie man, which I call the dreamer's shadow. Herb, the id, is the one who actually has to provide this energy. When Herb goes to the cash register, he's not paying for eggs and coffee. We don't see a lot of money in Herb's wallet, and that's why Dan is forced to confront his own shadow. This is also the psychoanalytical explanation for why Adam is broke. Adam has been repressing the image of Camilla Rhodes for far too long, and he is 'spent' from the effort.
[quote]You state that the scenes of the Winkie diner, the murders, Adam finding out his wife cheating and Club Silencio are all Rita´s distorted recollections of the accident. How do you interpret these scenes in this light?[/quote]
First of all, you have to notice that Rita is sleeping under the kitchen counter in Aunt Ruth's apartment at the same time incident occurs at Winkie's.
https://thumbs2.imgbox.com/a6/28/Bc2msGi5_t.png
All we have to do is infer that she's dreaming, and what we see at Winkie's is her dream. We know that Rita just went through an experience so traumatic that it caused her to suffer from amnesia. However, even though Rita has no conscious recollection of what happened, the memory of the event is still in her subconscious, and she is recalling the event in her dream. According to Freud, however, the manifest content of our dreams is obfuscated by a process he called dreamwork. In other words, what we actually see in our dreams looks very different than the way it happened in real life.
Secondly, you have to be acquainted with yin-yang.
https://thumbs2.imgbox.com/14/77/QB9aydRk_t.png
Basically, any two things in opposition form a yin-yang dichotomy. Female vs male, even vs odd, South vs North, night vs day, life & death, etc. Notice also the small white dot in the yin (black) part of the symbol and the small black dot in the yang (white).
[quote]I believe that it is possible to have multiple interpretations of a movie or a work of art simultaneously.[/quote]
There are as many interpretations of a work of art as there are people with an imagination. But how do we know which one is most valid? We get inside the head of the person who made the artwork. In the case of David Lynch, you would simply have to look at more of his films and look for common denominators. As for myself, I'm using psychoanalysis as a CONVENTION. It simply provides a straightforward way to explain what seems to be a rather bizarre film.
[quote]So if you believe Rita to be the alter ego of the Dreamer than what does Camilla´s death signify to you?[/quote]
The realization that the 'lost object' can never be retrieved.
[quote]So when you state that the alter ego of the Dreamer is Rita and not Betty, it explains the reason why Rita is upset and Betty not.[/quote]
I believe that both Betty and Rita are alter egos. This idea comes from Jacques Lacan. When we are in our neonatal state we imagine ourselves and our mother joined as a single entity. At some point in our development, we begin to see ourselves and our mothers as separate individuals. During the 'mirror stage', we get our sense of identity from our mother. That is, we imagine ourselves to be a mirror reflection of our mother. This is what Jacques Lacan called our ideal ego, which in this case is Rita.
https://thumbs2.imgbox.com/7f/33/Jrn3Jv7J_t.png
The ideal ego is what you think others see when they look at you. Whereas, Betty is the dreamer's ego ideal, the person who serves as Rita's role model. She represents ideal traits or characteristics that will eventually become part of Rita's personality. Rita needs Betty for personal growth.
[quote]So, Betty is Rita´s wishful mother, while Aunt Ruth is her real mother? If this is so, why would Rita hide from her mother? And why would she disappear in that later scene? I think the idea is fascinating, I´m just trying to figure out how it fits.[/quote]
According to Freud, your first love is your mommy's breast. Then, comes the dreadful day when you have to be weaned on creamed spinach and apple sauce. At this point, a child either does or does not accept that he/she must live without what Freud termed the 'lost object' and what Lacan called 'object a.' According to Lacan, object a is anything that provokes desire. It can be a person, a thing, an idea, or even one's own ego. An clear example of object a is Rita's lost earring.
https://thumbs2.imgbox.com/58/c9/N4EtwSHN_t.png
https://ulozto.net/file/aGKBUThO94Ly/mulholland-dr-pearl-earring-mp4
Fantasy stems from the subconscious desire to recover this loss object, and dreams are the means to fulfill this desire.
https://thumbs2.imgbox.com/04/6c/a8tXa74N_t.png
Object a, however, reflects your subconscious desire to be reunited with your mother, not as lovers, but as one single entity.
https://thumbs2.imgbox.com/c4/a2/zhWLKtba_t.png
Finally, we get to the symbolic phallus.
https://thumbs2.imgbox.com/fa/49/nQTr2jDj_t.png
This means that the individual ACCEPTS the fact he/she cannot have the lost object. According to such and such a French psychoanalyst, the upward orientation is important. Have a look at these:
https://therapeia.org.uk/ttr/2016/04/12/depression-and-the-lost-object/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIq5zN7rNlI
[quote]This means that we have gone back in time. Maybe Club Silencio has something to to with that?[/quote]
Rita is the reason they went back in time. When Rita was sleeping, she was in the process of RECALLING the events that happened before she lost her memory.
https://ulozto.net/file/QZ359czUKTnR/mulholland-dr-rita-s-dream-mp4
Don't you get it? Because Rita is recalling the event through her own dreams, they appear different from her point of view. Club Silencio is Rita's dreamwork reconstruction of the accident on Mulholland Drive, which presumably occurred sometime after 2 am. The really clever part is that somehow Betty became part of it. Somehow Rita's dream became reality. Except Rita's reality is simply part of someone else's dream.
The event at Winkie's (the one where Dan and Herb meet the boogyman) is another one of Rita's dreams, which is also another dreamwork reconstruction of the accident. The same goes for the murders that happened in the apartment building. They are all just different perspectives of the same event as seen through Rita's dreams. The Club Silencio version allows you to see the sexual nature of the event. But the other events represent the same thing. Recall that a gun is Freudian metaphor for a penis.
[quote]Interesting. So you think it might be about Adam, or at least the `indifferent´ that gets hooked by Camilla? What do you think that this tells us or the Dreamer?[/quote]
Adam seems like a typical male, who's obsessed with material possessions. He has a fancy car, a big house and a pool, etc. Moreover, we have reason to suspect that he bangs up lots of babes. What was he doing in that dingy motel? Evidently, he frequented the place, since even his private secretary, Cynthia, knew the proprietor as 'Cookie'. Yet, what I'm seeing is some sort of gender reversal. Normally, guys chase after girls, not the other way around. Cynthia seemed delighted to offer him a place to stay, which he politely refused. Remember the conversation between Adam and the Castigliani brothers?
Ray: "We'd be happy to put her on the list for consideration. You'd be pleased to know that there's quite a bit of interest in this role."
Adam: "Interest? There's six of the top actresses that want this [i]thing[/i]!"
When Adam finally gets nailed, I score it as a victory for the subconscious. From a Freudian perspective, Adam represents the ego and Mr Roque represents the id. Quite simply, the id shows the ego an image of something it desires, and the ego's task is to fulfill this demand. As a film director, Adam is in the business of making dreams come true. In reality, however, the only thing he can produce is a fantasy, and it's clear that the Castigliani brothers are not happy with his work. So, this is the reason Mr. Roque says 'The girl is still missing' earlier in the film, which also explains why they are recasting. The subtle point is that Mr Roque is really acting as Rita's agent.
https://ulozto.net/file/NvfK6X9WNm1m/mulholland-dr-red-lamp-1-mp4
While she's asleep, Rita somehow contacts Mr. Roque, and few phone calls later, Betty magically appears.
'The girl is still missing' = 'I still miss her.'
[quote]So you see the Dreamer working through her own problems by creating this fantasy? And is she than in control of every persona in this fantasy or do you believe that her subconscious is interfering with this control?[/quote]
There definitely seems to be a clash of egos. For example, the white car could represent the conscious and the black car could represent the subconscious. The collision could represent a conflict between the two divisions.
https://thumbs2.imgbox.com/17/4f/Pf3GZh0c_t.jpg
Notice that the accident conveniently interrupted what looked to be an assassination attempt. That is, we could be looking at a lucid dream. The dreamer may realize that she's dreaming and be trying to change how things turn out.
It seems to me that the subconscious is trying to bring the truth to light, but the conscious mind can't cope. In other words, Rita did not completely lose her memory simply because of a concussion. She lost her mind, because she could not face the truth, which is metaphorically represented by the blinding glare of the headlights. Ever hear the expression 'blinded by the light'?
https://thumbs2.imgbox.com/5e/be/xdBa0Zn0_t.png
Rita suffered from ego death. That is, her conscious mind was completely wiped clean, leaving only her subconscious. She then had to reconstruct a new ego. It's not really clear whether she really was a movie star before the accident. That's just the person she imagined herself to be.
"And, I raise my head and stare into the eyes of a stranger. I've always known that the mirror never lies. People always turn away from the eyes of a stranger. Afraid to know what lies behind the stare."
"In fact we never see any interaction between Aunt Ruth and them (except for the phone call with Betty, but we never hear Aunt Ruth´s voice there, do we?) and both of them seem to be afraid of her for some reason. It seems like they cannot coexist, like Aunt Ruth isn´t real. Like a untruth."
As for being afraid, it's Rita who seems to have the phobia.
https://ulozto.net/file/sR9BJ0fnHWYl/mulholland-dr-phobia-1-mp4
She just had a nasty accident. Obviously, she needed help. She didn't ask the police, and she ran away from a couple of pedestrians. Ok, the cops could frighten anyone, but what was so threatening about a young couple in love?
Later, Betty and Rita find a ton of money in Rita's purse. So, we suspect that Rita was in some trouble with the law. But, if Rita was suffering from amnesia, she wouldn't have been the wiser. So, at the time she passed those people in the street, there was no reason she couldn't have asked for help. Unless, she was only pretending to have amnesia. But, Rita sure looked terrified when she saw the corpse in apartment 17. And, the girls would never have even gone to the apartment if Rita hadn't have brought up the name Diane Selwyn.
Interestingly, DeRosa tells the girls that Diane hasn't been around for a few days. So, we surmise that the corpse is Diane Selwyn. DeRosa also says that Diane still has some of her stuff. We eventually learn that DeRosa won't collect her belongings for another 3 weeks, but at that time Diane will still be alive.
[quote]The dishes are tied in with the breaking of the dishes at the diner....When ultimately the drumroll makes way for the sound of broken dishes: the fantasy has been smashed to pieces by reality.[/quote]
We agree on this one. There is Possibly even a connection to the crash on Mulholland Drive. So, even though the events seem out of order, you can still tie them together by looking for connections.