When Rita drops the box, she was holding it over the bed. From the bird's eye view of the drop inside the box, the bed would be toward the top of the screen. So if the camera were to pivot up, we'd be looking toward the bed. So why--then--after the box falls--and the camera pivots up---do we see the door & closet instead? In that moment of entering the pitch black void, there's a change of perspective. The POV shifts to the opposite side of the bedroom. Holy crap ideas are flooding in!!!

When Betty has the box in her hands, she walks up to the bed and the camera turns a bit to the right to show her place the box on the bed, and then she turns around to look at Rita who's @ the closet. The camera turnsa bit left toward Rita and that is how Betty disappears, in that spot. Standing near the bed, blue box & facing the closet & door. When Rita opens the box, she is standing where Betty was standing when she disappeared!... facing the opposite direction. If we image Betty as "invisible" and standing in this spot, Rita would be standing "inside" her. A merger, similar to the effect the wig creates, maybe? Anyway, the fact they would be facing opposite directions is important because...

Do you see what I see? That shift in perspective I'm talking about in the first paragraph. Rita is facing one way when she opens the box, Betty is facing another, standing in the same spot.... so this gets reflected in the camera movements in the scene. So after the blue box falls we're seeing "invisible Betty" 's POV now, that is why we see the door/closet instead of the bed when the camera pivots upward. Do you see? This could shed light on what happens next.. POV shot of Diane's apartment "creeping in". It could be like that "invisible Betty" walking into Diane's world in order to wake up as Diane? Maybe not quite that, but these ideas do seem to be leading somewhere REALLY important, at least in my mind.

TL;DR:

So-called Rita faces the bed when she opens the blue box. Before so-called Betty disappeared she was standing in the same spot but facing the opposite direction--toward the door & closet. When the blue box falls, the POV shows the door & closet. So what if that's so-called Betty's perspective?

Thoughts?

I understand what you are saying. Imagining it now but I will watch it again and pay close attention to that scene. Just as I'm responding to your observation it struck me at just how many times beds appear in the film and how integral they are to the story in many ways. Thinking about the scene you mention here and the opening scene with the bed it's possible the spot where the blue box falls as it hits the floor is the exact same spot in reference to a bed that the camera begins to move from in the very beginning of the film as I seem to recall the camera, blurry, begins panning from a spot on the floor as it moves across the bed and into the pillow. See what you started!! :)

Just re-watched the scene, and you're absolutely right. I also noticed that the hat box seems to disappear mid-scene. When "Rita" puts the hat box on the bed and removes the purse from it, she sits the purse *right next to* the hat box (literally like it's almost jammed between the hat box and the blue box. Then, as she looks for and calls out to Betty, she wanders over to the doorway. When she returns to the bed side and looks back down at the blue box and the purse, the hat box appears to have vanished.

Significance? None of which I'm aware. But an interesting tidbit I hadn't noticed before. :)

derekfnord wrote:Just re-watched the scene, and you're absolutely right. I also noticed that the hat box seems to disappear mid-scene. When "Rita" puts the hat box on the bed and removes the purse from it, she sits the purse *right next to* the hat box (literally like it's almost jammed between the hat box and the blue box. Then, as she looks for and calls out to Betty, she wanders over to the doorway. When she returns to the bed side and looks back down at the blue box and the purse, the hat box appears to have vanished.

Significance? None of which I'm aware. But an interesting tidbit I hadn't noticed before. :)

Yep, I've noticed the disappearing hat box. Its significance could be related to the other disappearances: The bowl of peppers, Betty, the magician, Rita. For some reason the line "Could be someone's missin' maybe" popped in my head, and now I find myself thinking about the pearl earring and the sparkle of Blue-Haired Lady's earring being the very last thing we see in the film. Where it all leads... that's the never-ending mystery of this elusive film.