Sunset Boulevard Screengrabs - Dr. Thompson

 

Joe is a Hollywood burnout, disillusioned with the compromises and disappointments of the movie-making business. He can't even pay for his car, a longtime symbol of mobility in LA, both literal and figurative. He becomes Norma's kept-man, and at this point, neither hides it.

Betty tells Joe she's third-generation Hollywood, was supposed to be an actress but the studio first didn't like her nose, so she changed it. Then they didn't like her acting. While Joe has become jaded and given up, Betty is now actively pursuing a career as a writer.

Norma does everything she can to regain stardom in a new movie. At moments like this, we see she still is a star of sorts, recognized at the studio by a veteran grip that turns a spotlight on her. She's surrounded by adoring fans--for a moment.

Through most of the film, Joe treads water with Norma and not committing to writing the script with Betty. When he finally decides to talk straight to Norma about how little Hollywood actually cares about her, it is his most dramatic move.  It also means Norma will make her most dramatic move, to maintain (and maybe achieve) the possibility of stardom.

Do they or don't they? Norma manipulates Joe and gets him back on New Year's Eve by attempting to kill herself. Still wearing the expensive overcoat she bought him, they kiss as shot fades to black. (They definitely do.)

In contrast to Joe, Norma's former director/first husband/current butler maintains the illusion that she is a star up to the end. "The cameras have arrived" and Norma is again a star. She has succeeded—it just took murdering Joe.

Mulholland Drive Screengrabs - Dr. Thompson

The first scene in the diner introduces two marginal characters, but also directly addresses a theme of dreams and nightmares. The naturalistic style of the scene contrasts with much of the film, yet the events in the scene suggest that sometimes monster do indeed lurk in the "real world." That, or it is impossible for us as film viewers to determine if what we are watching is "real" or a dream in the "world" of the film.

Naomi Watts' character Betty/Diane arrives in Los Angeles, smiling at the sign welcoming her to the city alongside an elderly companion. This and other early scenes exaggerate the sunny, optimistic side of Los Angeles and the dream of success in Hollywood. This stands in stark contrast to the dirty street and graffiti-covered dumpster outside the diner in the previous scene, as well as sharp, dark turn Betty/Diane's story takes.

Visibly disheveled and mentally deteriorated, Betty/Diane meets and hires a hitman who had appeared in an earlier scene in the film. Set in the diner that appears multiple times, the scene offers some bits of comprehension and closure to a number of narrative and thematic strands raised elsewhere.