you can argue that Wells is Wally in a sense. Hollywood power people were always against Wells, Citizen Kane was perceived as a protest film against Hollywood elites that control the city, he was forever snubbed by them ever since. Kane was a character that changed the course of his career. in his later film "Touch of Evil" a walking cane plays a part in the script

Ann Miller is more than alluded, she plays Coco, she was good friends with Hayworth, maybe wells directed her also I'll look it up.
Judy Garland was famously involved with Wells and Wizard of Oz is heavily referenced also

[quote]...when Betty arrives in LAX, the whole sequence in which she crosses the terminal, goes down the escalators and outside the airport...[quote]

Here's my interpretation of Betty arriving at the airport. My first impression is visual. Betty is walking arm in arm with an elderly lady, who is obviously her mother. Notice, that while Betty appears to be the apple of Irene's eye, Betty is avoiding Irene's gaze.



Notice the vacant stare on Irene's face when she is looking forward.



This is in clear contrast to Betty, who is beaming as she tilts her head upward with confidence as she looks towards her future. Irene sees nothing in front of her. At her age, Betty is the only future she has. Notice that for most of the scene the 'father' is out of sight. This implies that Betty has a closer relationship with her mom. However, Betty does not shy away from her 'dad'. In fact, she seems to have genuine affection for him.



Notice that she maintains her warm gaze even after they go separate ways.



You may have noticed that the embrace between Betty and Irene seemed forced. This also suggests that the relationship between Betty and her mom is not as warm and friendly as it may have seemed at first blush. Quite simply, Irene likes Betty, but Betty does not really return the same sentiment. However, even though he's not always there, Betty likes her 'dad'.

Next, we have to come to grips with the fact that, even though they are the spitting image of her parents, we are to understand that the old couple are just friendly people that Betty met purely by chance. So, how can the old couple be Betty's parents and perfect strangers at the same time?

Perhaps we are to understand that the relationship Betty had with her parents was not as intimate as it should have been. Interestingly, my interpretation fits well with your Orson Welles theory, because Orson's parents died when he was young and Maurice Bernstein (who nurtured Orson's artistic talents) became Orson's guardian.

There is one last observation worth noting. After Betty and the old couple go their separate ways, the old couple drive off in a black limo, much like the one we saw on Mulholland Dr. An eerie sound track plays and Irene begins to undertake a sinister appearance. The old man looks good-natured enough, but there is something creepy about Irene.

https://ulozto.net/file/LZPS6FHGBdiH/mu ... couple-mp4

Ok, at the moment I've got 6 actresses that were somehow represented in the film and also clearly connected to Orson.

1) Rita Hayworth (first wife)
2) Dolores del Río (mistress for many years)
3) Marlene Dietrich (part of his magic act)
4) Oja Kodar (Olga Palinkaš). Oja was a close collaborator with Orson. She lived with him in Hollywood, while at the same time Orson also was still living in Las Vegas with his wife Paola Mori. Possibly a reference to the two addresses in Mulholland Dr., Aunt Ruth's Hollywood apartment and Diane's in Sierra Bonita (Reno, Nevada?) Perhaps Diane Selwyn's neighbor?
5) Paola Mori - A failed actress who was married to Orson for 30 years. Possibly an allusion to Diane Selwyn. She died in a car accident, possibly a reference to the car crash in Mulholland Dr.
6) Judy Garland - One of Orson's many romances. Possibly a reference to the Wizard of Oz, notably Winkie's and the lady with blue hair, who could be the wicked witch from the west. Judy had a serious drug problem and died of an overdose.

What can you tell me about 7) Caroll Baker, 8) Ann Miller, 9) Gloria Swanson and their relationship to Orson?

Other incidental facts that connect Orson Welles to Mulholland Drive:

1) Critically acclaimed and awarded, Orson Welles never had a box office hit in his life.
2) Orson was a magician
3) Orson spoke Spanish & French
4) Orson had mob connections
5) Orson played the piano as a child

Any men who were well connected to Orson? The trumpet player, Bob Brooker, Wally?

good analysis on Betty and the elderly couple.

You may have noticed that the embrace between Betty and Irene seemed forced.

the director in Betty's audition, Bob Brooker, uses that term regarding the scene. notice the clear resembles between the cab driver who picks Betty from the airport and Bob brooker. that cab driver took Betty's suitcases without her consent.


Irene's smile looks forced during the scene and later in the the black limo, the casting agent in Betty's audition, Linney James, also has a forced smile on her face during the whole scene.
btw
the other cab driver, the one that takes Betty and Rita to Sierra Bonita looks like the magician.

regarding Bob Brooker's assistant, the blond woman, she is a big mystery, Wally introduces her as Judy Chadwick, in the final credits, that character is credited to Lisa Ferguson, which is also credited as one of the dancers in the jitterbug dance and she is also credited as assistant director for Mulholland Dr.

Wally also introduces Martha Johnson, the woman with the purple blouse , "..oh, and the ever lovely, Martha, Martha Johnson who we met in the front" - this is a clear reference to the jitterbug dance with the purple color in the beginning of the film.

i wrote a post about Betty's audition and how it's an hommage to Stanley Kubrick's work in 2001: a Space Odyssey.
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=580


there's a lady with purple outfit also in the airport scene, again, this refers to the jitterbug dance at the beginning of the film


the airport scene, as a whole, with the moving characters and colors is a references to the jitterbug dance - there are asian characters, twins, redhead girl with a blue shirt, a guy with a brown jacket, there's a lady with a hat that enters the airport exactly when Betty and Irene come out. a lot "suspects" in this scene for representing either aunt Ruth or Betty in different stages of Betty's life.
notice that Betty starts this scene with her brown jacket on but takes it off later in the scene.
according to the sign behind the cab driver - Gate 5 is for incoming flight from: Mexico, Peru, Tahiti, China and switzerland.

Blue signs and boxes in this film are a nod to Kubrick in a way that they represent the exact scene they appear in. wrote a post about it -
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=578

a few more relevant details about Hayworth's life:
she is spanish, born as black haired girl name Margarita Carmen Cansino, she also later changed her hair color.
she got into movies through dancing
she was a child victim of incest and was abused by the men in her life.
she was fat as a child.
she had alzheimer's disease, though it was not very known back then and for many years she had a false reputation in Hollywood for being drunk/dosed when in fact it was the disease - this fits with Rita's memory loss.

Wells was also a painter and admired art, aunt Ruth's apt is full of pictures and art.
Wells was friends with politicians and world leaders, he was good friends with President Roosevelt and his army commanders back then - General Marshall, Patton etc. he was acquainted with Churchill.
i'll look up what connection wells has if any to Casablanca, that remark in the dinner party scene is interesting clue. there's a good chance he was in Morocco, he traveled all over the globe, i'll look up who's Luigi, could be related to the castigliani bros

there's a lady with purple outfit also in the airport scene, again, this refers to the jitterbug dance at the beginning of the film

You're referring to the purple background we see in the opening dance seen. At times it looks like purple splotches spilled onto the dancers (red arrows).



Upon careful inspection, we get the impression that the purple background is a curtain that the dancers (and their shadows) can pass behind and disappear from view. It could be a metaphor for conscious vs subconscious, or even life, death, and rebirth.

Notice, that what looks like a room full of dancers is really only three couples in duplicate/triplicate. We hear a swing soundtrack that reminds us of the 1940's as does their style of dance, the jitterbug. I also have the impression that I'm hearing cars honking their horns. Eventually, Betty/Diane comes into focus. The spotlight is so intense, she is almost pure white.



In my view, what we don't see is probably more important. We don't see Betty dance and we don't see her partner. Instead, for brief moments, we see a blurred, semi-transparent image of her standing between an elderly couple.



Some believe that they are judges, others believe that they are her parents. Both ideas can be true. For example, we can imagine that Betty has judgemental parents. As for my overall impression, I get Shakespeare:

"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

Betty is the candle, and the walking shadows loom larger than life behind the dancers. The purple background is the curtain from the performers makes their entrances and exits.

good stuff :)
you've found Shakespeare.
this movie takes you through all the history of storytelling.
i begin to wonder how much of it is concrete or am i projecting..

The primal scene is the day when junior walks into the bedroom and sees mommy & daddy having sex. Junior does not know what they're doing. From his point of view, it looks like daddy is assaulting mommy. The psychological shock is so traumatic that junior represses the event. As an adult, he has no recollection of any such occurrence, but the memory persists in his subconscious, and he relives it when he dreams. Except, because of what Freud called 'dreamwork', the images have been dramatically altered so that the event is almost completely unrecognizable.

when Adam Kesher goes home after the meeting with the Castiglianis, he discovers his wife Lorraine in Bed with another man, Gene Clean, Adam looks in shock when he see it, the man in bed tells him:
just forget you ever saw it, it's better that way, Lorraine acts as if Adam is not even supposed to be there, he proceeds to take her jewelry box and covers all of her the jewelry with wet pink color, afterwards he even attacks Lorraine, they both get stained with pink paint before Gene kicks Adam out of the house.

observations:
this also appear to be a representation of The Primal Scene, Adam is junior, Lorraine and Gene are mommy and daddy.

the color stains on Lorraine Adam and Gene are like the color stains on the dancers in the jitterbug dance



when Adam goes to the service room, he could have picked from a few color options and he chose pink. this could mean that the dreamer uses pink color for repression, and this color-logic could follow through the whole movie -
Betty wears pink when she lands in L.A, later on in the movie, Diane Selwyn wears a faded pink robe, the prostitute and Joe and his friend eat and talk behind Pink's hotdog place.

notice the bottom paint can on the bottom shelf, it says Prime, this could also hint that this is a Primal scene.



this could all mean that the jitterbug dance represents Betty's repressed childhood memory/ies involving sex (dancing).

when Adam Kesher goes home after the meeting with the Castigliani brothers, he discovers his wife Lorraine in Bed with another man, Gene Clean, Adam looks in shock when he see it, the man in bed tells him:
just forget you ever saw it, it's better that way, Lorraine acts as if Adam is not even supposed to be there

AGREED!!! Only now we're calling this the Oedipus complex. It's a similar idea, but there is a difference in how the child perceives the event. Read this abstract

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16581584

In the scene you mention, it's almost as if Junior (Adam) imagines himself to be the husband and Daddy (Gene) is the guy Mommy (Lorraine) is cheating with. Some psychologists think this may lead to infidelity when the person becomes an adult. We see suggestions of this idea when Adam is having auditions for his film. We see evidence of an oedipal revenge fantasy when the mafiosi show up at Adam's house, and a really big guy punches out Gene.

https://ulozto.net/file/XziwYv4XELgo/mu ... p-gene-mp4

Finally, at the end of the film Adam says "So, I got the pool, and she the got the pool-man." Laughing, Adam continues "I couldn't believe it. I wanted to buy that judge a Rolls-Royce." Immediately after he says this, we see one of the Castigliani brothers. The one who spat out his espresso in disgust earlier in the film. Finally, while necking with Camilla, Adam says "Sometimes good things happen."

https://ulozto.net/file/MWZcxBXLgl3Z/mu ... losure-mp4