Me and a mate were having a drunken chat the other night about this aspect of Mulholland Drive. We both subscribe to the view that the end is really the start and the start is really the end and the blue box part is the point where the figure-8 'time-loop' is completed. This is obviously assuming the afterlife theory i.e. that the first act is some kind of pergatory for Diane, which is debateable in itself. Any body else subscribe to this view?

There was also a mini-discussion about how the first 2/3 was like the fat bottom part of the figure eight and the second 1/3 was like the smaller top part of the figure-8 which sounded quite revelatory at the time but kinda sounds bollocks now that i'm sober...

I'm just happy to see CCC has come around to believing in Heaven!

Susan 

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

Ha Ha! I'm eagerly awaiting Erwin's response to that !

 *munches popcorn* 

 "There are no hereditary kings in America and no powers not created by the Constitution."--US District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in her ruling against the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program

"My French is poor, but my heart is rich.  I love France- the art-making, art-loving, and art-supporting people of France." -David Lynch

That god damn trailer's more popular than Uncle's Day in a whorehouse!

The reason Cooper isn't seemingly possessed by Bob for no reason is because the series has explained the logic that's at work. Lost Highway does the same thing. The ending doesn't come out of nowhere - it's the culmination of all the events that have gone before it. Fred/Pete is rejected by Renee/Alice a second time. We're given enough information to understand the cycle may lead to more identities and more violence but due to time restrictions we only get a glimpse of a much larger picture. Lost Highway is also a mobius strip world so the end must connect to the beginning to complete the 

8 

That god damn trailer's more popular than Uncle's Day in a whorehouse!

You have to bear in mind the film isn't supposed to have a conventional narrative structure. You start with the idea of the psychogenic fugue (http://psychogenicfugue.com/definition.html and here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugue_state) then you think about the fugue as a musical composition. According to Wikipedia

It begins with a theme stated by one of the voices playing alone. A second voice then enters and plays the same theme, while the first voice continues on with a contrapuntal accompaniment. The remaining voices enter one by one, each beginning by stating the same theme. The remainder of the fugue develops the material further using all of the voices and, usually, multiple statements of the theme.

That ties in with what I wrote about the film ending before further identities can be added. The multiple statements of the theme are jealousy or rejection. If you want a literal explanation of how Fred can phone himself at the beginning of the film there isn't one. It's like asking how Santa fits down chimneys, or how reindeer fly! If you want realism you've strayed into the wrong genre lol! As for the Mobius strip, look here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobius_strip.

 And now it should all make perfect sense!

That god damn trailer's more popular than Uncle's Day in a whorehouse!

Totally agree Erwin!

So really it's not that you don't get the ending LWAPOM, it's just that you don't like it. I don't get why anyone would cast Balthazar Getty but that's just another way of saying I don't like him. As David Lynch films go the Dick Laurant is dead aspect of the narrative isn't particularly challenging. Fire Walk With Me and Mulholland Drive have much more complex endings. At the end of the day nobody can say they're 100% certain what Dick Laurant is dead really means so it's muda ado about nothing really. I think I understand the film perfectly, and maybe I'm totally wrong, but it works for me and it adds to my enjoyment of Lost Highway. That said, I can't think of another film with an ending that connects to the beginning in such a satisfying way so maybe I have the advantage.

It's just one small aspect of Lost Highway and I don't suppose it's even that important in the scheme of things. Do you like the film other than that?

That god damn trailer's more popular than Uncle's Day in a whorehouse!