The story actualy starts with Diane Selwyn (Watts) not Betty, in the limo when they stop and she says "we don't stop here" then Camilla (Elena Harring) not Rita comes out to greet her, this scene was the exact same as the first scene in the film. They go up to the party where a number of confusing but relevant things happen, confusing as we've allready seen contradicting things earlier on in the movie: Coco is there, she says that Aunt Ruth died, the girl in the photo (Melissa George) is there, but she isn't Camilla, the cowboy passes in the background, Adam Kescher is there. We learn that Camilla beat Diane to a part, altho it may have been genuine, what we will find out about Diane is she's paranoid and cracking up so this maybe just her opinion. Remember this
The next part is where we see Diane, in her real house, where she and Rita go in the dream. Camilla comes round to appologise nd begs Diane to let her in, Diane does so, and makes them both coffee, she goes over to the couch where Camilla is now lying naked (my God what a sight), Camilla tells Diane that they can't do this anymore, which pisses her off as she is in love with Camilla, all this, plus she screwing her over to get that part, and the flurting at the party with Kescher and the girl in the photo (Melissa George) makes Diane a very pissed off woman, pissed off enough to commit murder. The next part is Diane in the cafe, where she notices the waitress and her name "Betty", she is talking to a hit man, and she shows him a photo saying "this is the girl" as in the one she's paying him to kill, (Camilla) he tells her that she'll know when it's done as she'll see a blue key on her coffee table, but something goes wrong, just as they're about to shoot her, a bunch of joyriding kids beat them to it, killing the men in the process, this is an accident altho the job is done. Diane goes home and goes to sleep, cue that start of the film: Diane starts to dream about the crash, probably guilty nightmares, but in her dream Camilla gets out and stumbles down the hill from Mulholland Drive. The fact is for 3 quarters of this film Camilla (Harring) is dead. And so she goes in to the houes and hides, we see Aunt Ruth, this is just Diane dreaming, a common characteristic of dreams. Diane (Betty in the dream, a name we know she saw in Winkies) gets off the plane into LA with 2 old people, who are her parents in real life, the parents she so wanted to be proud of her but she failed by not getting the part and not keeping up with the success enjoyed by her late Aunt Ruth
Anyway she goes to the flat, Coco is there, who she's seen in the party (another common characteristic of dreams, people you are familiar with popping up in different places) she goes in, sees Rita in the shower they meet, chat, then establish that she's lost her marbles and needs to remember who the hell she is. Other points include the meeting, the whole "this is the girl thing" only it's not Harring in the photo but Melissa George, this I think happens as again it is a dream but because she saw them kiss at the party, she knows Camilla screwed her for the part but she wants to blame that girl as she is more than likely jealous of them kissing.
Other points in the dream that are familiar are when she sees Kescher after her audition, we first wonder how the hell she knows him, the fact is she hates him for what she saw at the party, him and Camilla fondling eachother and announcing their love for eachother.
This is all Diane dreaming what she wanted to be, but in reality she doesn't have the stardom she wants and to add insult her lover Camilla, who now feels she is too good for her has the stardom and got it unfairly. Diane hates herself, which is why her mind changes her name in her dream, she hates who she is and what she has become. Camilla's name changes as Diane's feelings for her border both ends of the extreme, as much as she loves her, she hates her, and in her dream doesn't want to believe she is Camilla, instead she gives her another name. Another point which you all may feel way out there is that Diane and Kescher were also once lovers, this I get from the way she looks at him in that audition, and the fact that in her dream she sees it as not his fault for casting Camilla, and that someone else had forced him into the decision, when in reality it was his fling with Camilla that swayed the part her way.
Probably the only point of reality during this dream is when we see the hitman talking to some guy about the accident, he then shoots the guy, and is then forced to shoot the cleaner and the guy with the hoover to cover his tracks, this is happening simultaniously as Diane is dreaming.
During the dream they go to Diane's house, dreams pick up on familiar images from real life, she's been in there, the neighbour is there, she comes round for her stuff later on in the film so she's again familiar with her. Eventually Diane awakens from the dream, she's in her house, she sees the key on the table which reminds her of what she has done. She makes coffee, she then sees Camilla all dressed up and she says, Camilla, you came back, she's seeing things, by now she's cracked up, by "you came back" we can gather back from the dead. She then goes to the couch and she's naked, this is flashbacks of the morning after the party, all of a sudden she starts cracking up, seeing her parents in tiny form coming under the door then charging towards her laughing, this again is Diane cracking up, this symbolises the pressure her parents put on her to do well, she then reaches for the gun and bang, end film.
, but god damn, im so fucking confused.
