"Secondary" moments in MD

Hello

There are several moments in MD that either don't fit very well with
many popular explanations of the film or have no meaning in the context
of these explanations and, for this reason, are simply ignored by the
authors of these explanations or get more or less distorted in order to
fit better with the proposed theory. It would be great to hear other
people's opinions about the importance of the following portions of the film

1. Betty's sudden disappearance after her return from Club Silencio with
Rita. Note, that's Rita who opens the blue box, not Betty. (I've read a
couple of "explanations" that say that its Betty who opens the box in
the movie, which is clearly an error.) This scene strikes me as very
similar to a scene in "The Lost Highway", when after finding the third
videotape Fred discovers that his wife (who was there just a minute ago)
has suddenly disappeared and is nowhere to be found. Just like Fred,
Rita makes an attempt to find Betty by looking around the apartment. In
case of TLH this is usually seen as an indication that Fred's imaginary
world is quickly falling apart. I wonder what could this (very similar,
in my opinion) sequence mean in MD. Initially I even thought that, just
like in TLH, this scene clearly indicates that we are seeing
Rita/Camilla's dream, not Betty/Diana's dream. However, I could not find
any additional evidence to support this theory, which suggests that in
MD it should probably mean something else.

2. The first scene after the "flight into the box". The box falls on the
carpet making an audible thunk. Aunt-Ruth-looking woman peers into the
room like she heard the sound and came to see what happened. Everything
seems to be in order and there's no box on the floor. Is there any
importance to this sequence? I'm inclined to think that this is a mere
joke intentionally put into the movie - just a funny way to stitch two
parts together.

3. The elderly couple's behavior in the taxi (after parting with Betty
at the airport). They smile and seem to exchange looks full of secret
meaning. What is this supposed to mean and what's the point of having
this sequence in what is presumed to be Diana's dream?

--
Best regards,
Andrey Tarasevich

Andrey Tarasevich wrote:
>
> There are several moments in MD that either don't fit very well with
> many popular explanations of the film or have no meaning in the context
> of these explanations and, for this reason, are simply ignored by the
> authors of these explanations or get more or less distorted in order to
> fit better with the proposed theory. It would be great to hear other
> people's opinions about the importance of the following portions of the film
>
> 1. Betty's sudden disappearance after her return from Club Silencio with
> Rita. Note, that's Rita who opens the blue box, not Betty. (I've read a
> couple of "explanations" that say that its Betty who opens the box in
> the movie, which is clearly an error.) This scene strikes me as very
> similar to a scene in "The Lost Highway", when after finding the third
> videotape Fred discovers that his wife (who was there just a minute ago)
> has suddenly disappeared and is nowhere to be found. Just like Fred,
> Rita makes an attempt to find Betty by looking around the apartment. In
> case of TLH this is usually seen as an indication that Fred's imaginary
> world is quickly falling apart. I wonder what could this (very similar,
> in my opinion) sequence mean in MD. Initially I even thought that, just
> like in TLH, this scene clearly indicates that we are seeing
> Rita/Camilla's dream, not Betty/Diana's dream. However, I could not find
> any additional evidence to support this theory, which suggests that in
> MD it should probably mean something else.
>
> 2. The first scene after the "flight into the box". The box falls on the
> carpet making an audible thunk. Aunt-Ruth-looking woman peers into the
> room like she heard the sound and came to see what happened. Everything
> seems to be in order and there's no box on the floor. Is there any
> importance to this sequence? I'm inclined to think that this is a mere
> joke intentionally put into the movie - just a funny way to stitch two
> parts together.

Both of these seem to indicate the transition from the dream to reality.

Most of us have experienced the 'double' reality when a dream is still
in progress but we're also beginning to wake up and are aware of both.

> 3. The elderly couple's behavior in the taxi (after parting with Betty
> at the airport). They smile and seem to exchange looks full of secret
> meaning. What is this supposed to mean and what's the point of having
> this sequence in what is presumed to be Diana's dream?

This is more difficult to explain. The way the two actors perform the
brief scene is (deliberately, I'd assume) ambiguous. It's not clear
whether their knowing, mutual smiles are benign and friendly or possibly
somehow malicious. The latter is a possibility when you consider their
role in the movie's finale.

Does anyone know if this scene was in Lynch's original pilot, or was it
added when the pilot eventually morphed into a feature movie?







C.