Why David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive is the greatest film of the 21st Century

There is no doubt that the film is a challenge. Interesting plot tangents are cut off like limbs; Characters appear and disappear. Late in the running time, after a scene that appears to show her waking from a dream, the protagonist transforms, without explanation, from optimistic Betty to a haunted-looking failed actress named Diane.

“There is no band”

But it’s the small, self-contained moments that stick the longest in the memory, and are what give the film its mosaic-like texture. The greatest is the famous Club Silencio scene, a truly memorable part of the film. It is a sumptuous sensory experience and a self-reflexive exercise, lifting the lid of the film so we can examine the moving bits and pieces inside.

In the scene, a surreal nightclub manager takes to the stage. “No Straw Panda!“He shouted: ‘There’s no band.’ This means that all the sounds the audience hears have been pre-recorded; they sound real, but they’re an illusion. However, viewers are drawn to the rousing Spanish rendition of Roy Orbison’s Ballad – beautiful, heartbreaking and enchanting – before the singer drops Suddenly dead and being dragged away.