People have always questioned whether or not there is more than one reality in existence. David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive presents this idea by illustrating two different realities but using the same actresses to play different characters in each reality. In the first reality, Betty and Rita randomly meet because Rita sneaks into Betty’s aunt’s house. Betty then decides to help Rita figure out her past and identity. Although they make some progress uncovering Rita’s past, they do not succeed in uncovering the whole truth The failure to find Rita’s identity is one of the things that connects the two realities.
In the second reality, Rita and Betty are both actresses. Although the actresses are the same ones who played Betty and Rita, they are now named Diane and Camilla in this reality. Camilla seems to be a huge success as an actresses, but Diane appears to be a complete failure. Diane is also in love with Camilla, but Camilla does not love her back. Their relationship connects the two realities because Betty/Diane loves Rita/Camilla in both realities. The presence of their relationship in both realities brings up the idea of fate because they are somehow connected across separate realities. However, the two drastically different realities concerning their relationship indicates the idea of choice. Betty has a good friendship with Rita, but Diane has a terrible relationship with Camilla. One reason that explains the differences between the two realities is the freedom of choice. Diane gets trapped by her love for Camilla and it eventually leads to her suicide. Meanwhile Betty embraces her love for Rita and develops a meaningful and positive friendship with her. Diane chooses to keep going after Camilla even though it is leading her down a destructive path. Betty chooses to help Rita without knowing who she is or what kind of problems she can bring into her life. Betty makes selfish kind choices whereas Diane makes selfish evil choices. The second reason why the realities differ so much is due to the issue of identity. In the first reality Rita does not know who she is and is completely dependent on Betty. In the alternate reality, Diane loses herself in her love and worship of Camilla. Since Diane does not know who she is, she ends up being miserable. Her entire life including her relationship with Camilla is destroyed because she does not know how to be on her own or her own person. Although Rita and Diane have no sense of identity, they experience the harsher fates in their respectively realities.
FASTER THAN THE WRITTEN WORD 
Tony,
This post puts forward an interesting theory about the events we see in David Lynch’s Mulholland Dr. Upon your interpretation, Lynch shows us two different universes, ones that bear several similarities (including the same settings and people, though most of the latter have different names) while also exhibiting discrepancies. Several elements of the film do seem to point toward this interpretation. Along with the evidence you include, there’s also the blue box; Lynch suggests that when Rita turns the key, she opens up a different, alternate universe, the one we see in the second half of the film.
I wonder: Do you think that one of these universes is more “real” than the other? Or do you think they are equally “real”? Your post implies that you think the Diane/Camilla narrative is the “alternate” reality, with the first being the primary reality. … Could this actually be flip-flopped? What do you think?
Interesting post,
MT