Club Silencio

Xav wrote:"Diane's true story" is now at: http://www.xaverius-empire.comze.com/mul/mulhollanddr.html

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kmkmiller wrote:Hey, realizing I'm sort of spamming the forum these days, but I can't get MD out of my head for the time being.

I know what you mean here, saw this again 2 weeks ago and still juggling ideas in my head.

Let me throw this one out there for comments - (and if this is mentioned elsewhere, no plagierizing intended...)

The Park Hotel doesnt exist - its analagous to Sierra Bonita apts....

So, Cookie / PH landlord / SB landlord = Coco / Havenhurst landlord. Cookie = Coco.

And, Room 16 at PH = Apt 16 at SB

With these predicates, lots of deductions could roll off -- #16 is possibly used as the bordello type place, where Diane does her prostitution..., maybe managed by Adam...., to entertain Hollywood bigshots (ie., Luigi...)

And this is why Cookie appears at Club Silencio after Diane/Betty has the being abused flashback brought on by the magician -- then Cookie arrives to remind her of her true reality.... (being manager and overseer of the action at #16)

And more could roll off that -- (maybe Diane and neighbor really did switch apts. - neighbor didnt want to be next to the action anymore, and Diane was part of it.....)

Any thoughts?

I think the park hotel exists but it is also a doppelgänger of SB 16, yes the numbers link them.

I also think Coco and Cookie are kind of the same only one wears white and red all the time while the other wears black and red all the time.

But I don't think ph16 and sb16 are places where bad things happen. Remember the our lady of Guadalupe painting in ph16, Cynthia says he should stay at her place. He calls her doggie, there's dog poop in havenhurst.

Bob wrote:

Xav wrote:"Diane's true story" is now at: http://www.xaverius-empire.comze.com/mul/mulhollanddr.html

Your website doesn't show properly in Internet Explorer.

It is a z-index bug in IE . Made a fix (by-pass).
Thanks for reporting, Bob.

Meanwhile back on topic... What are we to make of the fact the Lamplady is a doppelganger of Rita?

a) Coincidence?
b) They're one and the same person
c) ... I just came across this on the main site:


"Camilla not Diane's lover?

I think that the relationship that Camilla had with Diane was purely based on friendship. Camilla and Diane met and became friends. Camilla helped get Diane some parts in some movies. Soon Diane idolized Camilla and put herself in a fantasy relationship with her. Diane's real love relationship was with the woman from apartment 12.
(Ref: Craig Stasila)"


Nice one Craig! Somehow I'd never really considered this option clearly:

c) They are doppelgangers because in Dianes mind they are conflated.

Suddenly these coincidences aren't so troublesome... Diane and Camilla are not lovers. And Diane has lashed out at the wrong person. Maybe, maybe it's all about...

I love the idea that De La Rosa and Carol are doppelgangers of Camilla/Rita, and it's also possible that Diane was only in a misunderstood platonic relationship with Camilla and her mind sends all the signals she desperately wanted something more.

It would make her hit on Camilla even that much more deranged. Bordering on unrealistically so.

If Carol is some central character of the movie, like Mr. Kesher I would ask "Where is this going?" Pull back the camera and give a wide shot of this interpretation so it all fits together.

Yes the hit is much more scary if Camilla is just a platonic friend! But it could be the hit is also a fantasy? This has been suggested before, in relation to this idea on the main site.

For reference, a wider shot of Carol and how other elements fit around her is discussed on this thread.

The lamp lady character really isn't very complicated at all. Her role in the film is to demonstrate:
a) Diane is a lesbian
b) Diane's life before meeting Camilla was not glamorous
c) Another failed relationship in Diane's life
d) Reality (see a, b, and c)

Lamp lady does NOT look like Camilla. She is plain, homely, masculine... the opposite of Camilla, who is gorgeous, feminine, moviestar-esque.

Diane was in a relationship and living with Lamp lady (settling for 2nd best) until she met Camilla, her dream girl. Diane's new affair caused the break-up with Lamp lady and she was forced to move out of their shared apartment.

I think that's all there is to it. Lamp lady merely demonstrates another reality layer of Diane's depressing life.

Lamp Lady might not seem complicated when we see her for the second time, but her presence in the dream suggests that she was not at all suspicious when she didn't see Diane for weeks, as if she barely knows her. And why does her telephone ring, preventing her from seeing Diane's corpse? Does it have anything to do with the telephone that rings right before we see Betty for the first time? Why don't we see her figure walking past the kitchen windows after Diane shuts the door when she takes her things? Is this just a continuity thing or something else?

I don't personally think she's ever been Diane's girlfriend or is even real -- I wrote in my own theory that I think she in reality is the blonde-Camilla Rhodes who has replaced Diane, and Diane is just making her less pretty and spurning her in this fantasy dream. Much of the second part of the film is also a dream -- there are two dreams.

I just really hate the classic theory because it's so unquestioning of all the minor characters, but I also don't think brunette (real) Camilla Rhodes = Lamp Lady, because that would make the film completely unintelligible to me since so much of both dreams revolve around a hit on someone of a higher social status than Diane, and LL or whoever LL is lives in the same apartment/cheap condo complex Diane does. That would completely eradicate any sense I have of characters like the Castigliane brothers, Adam and Coco. Camilla Rhodes = Carol is a more sensible theory. I love the conversation that went on in that thread between kmkmiller and Siku that explains her as being in the box during the audition scene, symbolizing a murder victim.

woolfspersona wrote:Camilla Rhodes = Carol is a more sensible theory.

So I'm not alone in the universe. Rejoice!

Cheers woolfspersona

don't celebrate yet, siku. take it from a bardo thodol whako, having only one other person in the world who agrees with you is kind of fun at first, but never quite lives up the to hype.

I have my doppelganger too. I passed him in the hallway yesterday but he won't be there until tomorrow. So that makes four of us, I think. No wait...