Questions in a World of Blue (Julee Cruise/Twin Peaks Fire Walk with Me/David Lynch)

Julee Cruise — Questions in a World of Blue Tee

There are scenes in David Lynch movies that feel less like scenes and more like something you remember happening to you. Julee Cruise singing “Questions in a World of Blue” in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me is one of my favorites.

Released in 1992, Fire Walk with Me takes us back to the final days of Laura Palmer, with Sheryl Lee giving an extraordinary performance that turned a character who had originally been a photograph and a mystery into the emotional center of the entire Twin Peaks world.

Late in the film, Laura enters the Roadhouse/Bang Bang Bar and Julee Cruise is onstage singing “Questions in a World of Blue.” Written by Angelo Badalamenti with lyrics by David Lynch, the song is impossibly beautiful and sad—exactly the kind of dreamlike music that Cruise’s voice made inseparable from Twin Peaks.

As Cruise sings, Laura sits watching her and begins to cry. There’s no big speech or explanation. For a few minutes, the music seems to express everything Laura can’t say herself. Knowing what is coming makes the scene even more devastating.

Julee Cruise was such an essential part of Lynch’s world. Her voice could sound romantic, eerie, comforting, and unbearably lonely all at once. From “Falling” and “The Nightingale” to this scene, she helped create a sound that immediately takes you somewhere else.