In MD, Betty/Diane is a reincarnation. She was brought to Hollywood for a second chance at life because in her previous life she discovered that she had a talent for acting (in the 'street' sense). Hence a desire to 'act' was born, symbolized by the conception of Betty that we see in the opening scene. In her previous life this girl was a victim of sexual abuse, which contributed to her troubled life. In Hollywood, her story repeats.

Arriving at the dinner party, Diane is led up the hill like a child. Camilla and Adam represent her parents. Throughout the entire second part of MD (not just the dinner party), Camilla takes on the role of the father. Rita/Camilla takes advantage of Betty's sexual innocence and breaks her down emotionally, the same way that a parent whom you rely on for love and support is also sexually abusive. The on/off attitude of Camilla towards Diane depicts this process and creates hurt and confusion in Diane like it did to the sexually abused teen.

Adam represents the mother, who hardly noticed the girl's existence. Wilkins is the bother who once walked in on dad in bed with the daughter and was told it is better to forget he ever saw it. CoCo plays the grandmother who the girl once told about what her father did, but she didn't belive her or chose to ignore it. Notice the reaction of Wilkins when CoCo says "I see" and pats Diane on the hand. They know, but turn the other cheek. Dad was a respectible person in the community and any leak of such rumors would tarnish his reputation and have bad consequences for the family. Luigi plays a family friend (Dad's best friend) who shoots a knowing glance at the girl and later confronts her after the party to try to blackmail her for sex. He knows that she has been working nights at the brothel in town.

Through the perspective of the character that this girl reincarnated into (Diane), we see how terrible her upbringing was in her former life. Rita/Camilla's sexually manipulating and emotionally abusive attitude towards Diane and the lack of support that she received from others at the party replays this girl's family upbringing (in a Hollywood setting) and the end result of her story is very much the same.

So whose is the story that we don't see? The previous life ...

And what's the connection between Diane and Betty. If Betty is a reincarnated soul, what process/transfer is being undergone into the Diane character?

~

These are terrific ideas, dk23. I find the idea that Camilla could really represent a male abuser (her father) intriguing.

There is an interview in which David Lynch said that the film is like an abstract painting and that what we see on the screen is not what is really there. So my assumption is that what we see are just representations of reality. If that is the case, then there will be significance in almost every detail that we see. This will include the numbers, colours and lines of dialogue.

Thanks marksman.

The first part of the movie may be a dream of two characters combined. This is represented symbolically when Betty and Rita sleep together on the bed as one person - resembling the famous shot from the movie Persona depicting the symbolic merging of the two women. I think this has functional significance in how the movie works. Many have pointed out before that Betty and Rita represent two parts of Diane Selwyn and I agree to an extent, however what I see is that Betty and Rita come from different places and each bring a different story to the table. The Rita half contributes the Adam/Camilla Rhodes storyline while Betty is a representative from an older story about a troubled teenager who was sexually abused, involved in drugs, prostitution and the police/jail. Those two storylines come together to build the Diane Selwyn story in the final act - which is like a movie within a movie - staying true to the overriding theme of movie making (which IMO is symbolic of souls building their own reality).

The opening scene seems to depict a conception (a new soul fertilized and emerging from that 1940s landscape) so Betty could actually be an unborn baby from that time period brought into the world of Hollywood by the old couple. My thinking now is that she was either aborted or died in the womb - perhaps her mother died in a car accident in the 40s (in an 'unrelated' story). Perhaps that old couple also died in the same accident and they are using Betty - not to give her a second chance at life, but for their own selfish reason. Maybe they were on their way to getting MARRIED (picture that couple laughing that Rita hides from) and were killed, just as we see Camilla and Adam's MARRIAGE never happening presumably because of the hit.

A story for Betty may then be scripted from the actual dream itself if we consider her a blank slate upon arriving. Rita arrived a different way - it seems that she/he was being FORCED to dream because she/he saw something (perhaps a mafia crime and she/he is being threatened to say "this is the girl," ie identifying a girl in a police lineup to get the mafia guys off the hook). I say "she/he" because Rita may in fact BE Dan after death. He saw something terrifying and he's being chased around and threatened by mafia guys. His dream merges with the dream of this new soul and they wake up as one character. So we see both stories depicted in Diane's reality - including elements from the Betty part (sexual abuse, etc) and the Dan part (hiding out from people after him, etc).

Sorry, that is a lot to take in. I'm still trying to come to terms with everything myself and it is helpful for me when I write things out.