No they are not the same actresses.

I don't think Diane is a thematic extension of Laura. Diane is more the thematic extension of Leland. And Camilla is the thematic extension of Laura.

Maybe not visual counterparts, but Camilla and Laura are the victims of the brutal f-ing murders in each work.

Yes, the Sylvia North Story is Twin Peaks.

Oh, remember that mulholland drive was originally conceived as a story about Audrey horne, imaging her as a struggling actress in Hollywood, so the original idea may have been to cast Diane as a brunette.

Just watched Blood Simple. (1984), the Coen bros feature debut. Very MD-esh, surreal atmosphere and gripping suspense. Plus something I rarely pick up in films: a terrific sound design. If you haven't seen it yet, go and get your hands on a copy.

Stuff I noticed (spoilerless):

• The film starts off with a nocturnal limo ride and blinding lights of oncoming cars. There's no ambush, but we learn that the car is being followed.
  
  
• There's a creepy cowboy who's driving the bug... ehmm .. plot. He seems like a composite character of MD's cowboy powerfigure and Joe, the hitman.
  

  

  
  
• [spoiler]a[/spoiler]
  
• At some point a "There Is Only One Bed" situation arises with both characters ending up in the same bed...
  
  
• The main character's getting ready to split town, his apartment packed with moving boxes.
  

  

  
  
• MD's phone
  

  

The Coen bros have been channeling the same energy in all of their movies.

Is Killer BOB Anton Chigurh from No Country For Old Men?

That phone is in loads of movies. It must have been a really common in the US at one time. I tried to get one but American phones aren't compatible in the UK.

I remember when everybody in the UK had this phone. Everybody.

Watched The Day of the Locust (1975) and found some iffy parallels to MD. The film is based on a novel of the same name, the story is set in Hollywood in the late 1930 where aspiring actors and filmmakers struggle to make a living. No spoilers ahead:

The film pays homage to classics like Chinatown and Sunset Blvd., e.g. here the Paramount gate scene:

A visit is being paid to the site of the Hollywood sign and we hear a tour guide recounting the tragic events surrounding Peg Entwistle's suicide leap in 1932. To my surprise the guide has her name as Camille McRae (no google results), a funny connotation from our POV. And, if I am not mistaken, that's Mulholland Drive in the background.

The protagonists live at an apartment complex called San Berdoo (officially San Bernardino Arms) which looks and sounds much like Sierra Bonita in MD. The heroin is a blond wanna-be actress with only bit parts under her belt, but daydreaming of making it big. Like Camilla in MD she knows how to play people (the hero mostly).

Donald Sutherland's kitchen looks familiar too. Here's a fun fact: The name of Sutherland's character is Homer Simpson (as in the novel of 1938), which had me the first time I heard it. Apparently, this was coincidental and had no bearing with Matt Groening's choice for his cartoon character.

wow all those screenshots are quite striking. Especially the kitchen. I'll have to remember to order that movie.

I just watched Day of the locust. Great film. Lynch definitely watched that movie A LOT. I see bit of MD, Lost Highway and Twin Peaks in that movie.

Mind sharing your findings?

man where do I start! lets brainstorm (NO SPOILER):
- the wooden shed by the canyon (LH)
- the shots walking down the canyon (MD)
- the military board game with wooden figures (TP)
- the clown make up (LH)
- how she goes "he drives me wild" after hitting her father (MD)
- The dwarf (TP)
- The factory-like wood chopping atmosphere under the stage at the movie set (TP)
- How Homer climbs into his own house through the window (MD)
- There is a mirror scene almost identical to the one where Rita looks in the mirror at the poster (MD)
- Virtually all indoor shots: the arched door frames, the yellowish walls, the metal window frames (MD)
- The "madam" reminds me of Coco

I could go on....

I'll have to watch this again.

"La Llorona" made an appearance on this weeks THE KILLING.

no screenshot because it was in the dialog. It was by a river and they did talk vaguely (a crazy bum dude sort of speaking in tongues) about a woman who killed her own children.

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2561973273/

this is a really good one, and I always meant to post it here.

skip to the 2:35 mark.

It didn't strike me as relevant at the time but seeing it now ... with the phone in the background ...

i can see how it might not seem a very tight MD reference, but I take into account a bunch of other things I see from JJ Abrams's Bad Robot films and TV.

also the director does say don't play it real, and she does ask how she did after a performance that makes everyone totally speechless.