Blue Velvet
(1986)
|
A deeply shocking and insidiously funny film, David Lynch's offbeat vision uncovers the nasty underside of small-town America. When a young man finds a human ear in a field, he embarks on an investigation into the dark world of a dangerous psychopath, which leads him to a beautiful nightclub singer. Truly an auteur film, if there is such a thing, BLUE VELVET is a bizarre, disturbing work that stands as one of the best films of the 1980s. |
Screenshots
This is the most complete of David Lynch's films, made before his disturbing black vision of small-town American life veered into self-parody. The dark tone is set from the opening sequence, which starts with white picket fences and cheery firemen but ends with a man suffering a stroke in his garden while insect life seethes beneath the lawn. Lynch regular Kyle MacLachlan plays the young innocent who gets sucked into the bizarre sadomasochistic relationship between nightclub singer Isabella Rossellini and monstrous local crime boss Dennis Hopper. The latter resurrected his career with a crazed portrait of evil — legend has it that Hopper said “I've got to play Frank. Because I am Frank”. Once experienced here, listening to Roy Orbison's In Dreams will never be the same again.
Halliwell's Film Guide
Lynch's subversive film is a bizarrely stylish exercise, which involves his audience in the voyeurism of his protagonist.