The open-ended narrative of Mulholland Drive, coupled with Lynch’s surreal technique, lends this movie a hallucinatory quality. It makes this scene even more jarring because Lynch’s use of music is so beautiful. At a pivotal point in the film, lovers Betty and Rita visit the ghostly, near-empty Club Silencio. A performer announces “No hay bander”: there is no band. And yet we hear one. Then Rebekah Del Rio performs her Spanish, a cappella version of Roy Orbison’s Crying (renamed Llorando). I have watched this film more times than I’d ever care to admit but Del Rio’s voice, a cloudburst of emotion, always knocks the wind out of me. Any further description of what happens would spoil it for those (shame on you) who haven’t seen it.
