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A controversial and beautiful film from a master
"Blue Velvet" is a take on film noir with typical Lynch weirdness, unique atmosphere and breathtaking cinematic work. Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) comes home from college to visit his sick and bed-ridden father who had a tragic accident. Having made a startling discovery (to be more exact, a human ear lying in the grass), out of sheer boredom and driven by passion for adventure Jeffrey decides to proceed with this mystery and gets involved with a night-club singer Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini) living in a shabby apartment building, which is somewhat incongruous to the sleepy suburban paradise of Lumberton.
Dorothy, a queer mixture, of "damsel in distress" and "femme fatale", is in a middle of a life and death situation involving her husband and son. She is subjected to sexual abuse and other forms of violence by a psychopathic man named Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper) and his demented associates. Jeffrey's further investigation reveals that one of the police detectives is also involved in the criminal activities of the gang, and that means that he will have to deal with these people using his own resources. He confides in Sandy, a good-natured and sweet blonde, whose father is a hard-working and honest policeman. Sandy is obviously fascinated by Jeffrey's recklessness, but her level-headed nature prevents her from becoming his full-time accomplice and ditching her boy-friend, at least, not until later on.
Stylistically, Blue Velvet is a precursor to Lynch's notorious collaboration with Mark Frost - TV series "Twin Peaks". These creations share a lot of elements including the small town setting, a dangerously attractive brunette, oldies often played under disturbing circumstances, dreamy angel-like singers (remember Julie Cruise in Twin Peaks), flame and even the famous red curtains. Although "Blue Velvet" is just a thriller without any supernatural context, somehow you expect the Dwarf to pop up and start dancing at any time.
The blue velvet is a leitmotif of the film. "Blue Velvet" is a song that Dorothy has to perform in a club every night looking straight in the eyes of her tormentors. Dorothy also wears a blue velvet gown at home, and Frank has a fetish for blue velvet using it in his perverted sexual games. Blue velvet is a symbol of mystery, obsession and hidden passions lurking beneath the exterior of men.
Lynch uses different colors for the scenes taking place in the normal world of American suburbia versus Dorothy's apartment or Ben's house. Lumbertown is depicted as idyllic joyful place with bright yellow tulips against the white fence and bright green grass. Everything involving Dorothy or the criminals is shot either in the darkness or unnaturally striking colors. The director makes an interesting application of the contrast between the two women in protagonist's life. Dangerous and seductive Dorothy is a voluptuous brunette wearing blue or red gowns, whereas Sandy is a slender blonde, your typical American next door cheerleader.
Kyle MacLahlan is cute, adorable and gives an incredibly convincing performance. His love-making scenes with Rossellini are tasteful, beautiful and disturbing at the same time. Rosselini was quite adequate, especially if we take into account the complexity of the character, but I couldn't get rid of this thought in the back of my head that Sherilyn Fenn would have been much more memorable. Perhaps, I am irreparably spoiled by Twin Peaks... However, Rossellini's was Lynch's favorite at the time, so we can understand being a little bit biased here.
Dennis Hopper is way over the top as Frank Booth, being psychotic, violent and pitiful at the same time. His every appearance on the screen is a an avalanche of emotions, swear-words and craziness. He is a dangerous man and Jeffrey who stepped in his way knows that the only way for him to stay alive is to eliminate Frank.
Lynch decided to end this flick on a joyful note. Everything goes back to normal in Lumberton, Jeffrey and Sandy will probably go on to have a long and wholesome life together with children on the way. Dorothy is hugging her son in the final moments of the movie, and the robin as the symbol of good is devouring the bug just as in Sandy's dream. However, despite the obviously happy ending and triumph of the good over the evil, the final scenes have such a dream-like and surreal quality that one cannot help suspecting that something bad is doomed to happen again. With Lynch you never know for sure...
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A Classic Modern Film Noir
Blue Velvet is my favorite David Lynch film, and one of my favorite films of all time. In many ways it's a disturbing film, but not so much because of the violence (compared to today's standards), but because of the characters and the darkness of the human condition that they expose. It's worth watching Dennis Hopper channel Frank Booth, the sociopathic drug dealer who pretty much owns the film. Also great are Dean Stockwell, Isabella Roselinni, Kyle McLaughlin, and Laura Dern, all great actors and actresses who make the film the classic that it is. A must for film students.
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Unmissible, nightmarish and unforgettable classic
The brutally honest performances, articulate and beautiful style, and the movie's sexual and violent shock value save the story from becoming too stale or uninspiring. Blue Velvet, all these years later, still seems completely original, invigorating and unsurpassed. It wouldn't matter if every film after Blue Velvet in David Lynch's career sucked, because Blue Velvet will always be his masterpiece. The things, along with Twin Peaks, will remember him for.
Everyone assumes that Blue Velvet opens with the infamous ear-in-the-grass scene, but the film's opening is even more disturbing than that. A suburban fantasia of white picket fences, blood-red roses, waving fireman, happy children and a man watering his lawn gives way to the disturbing moment when the watering man collapses and the camera pans down to dirt level where a number of horrific insects are scrabbling in the dirt at the base of the lawn. The soundtrack changes from Leave It to Beaver-style music to the loud, gnawing, electric saw-like noises emitted by the creatures. Only subsequent to this scene does Jeffrey Beaumont (a wide-eyed, snoopy Kyle MacLachlan) find the ear in a field of overgrown weeds.
The ear leads Jeffrey through a sordid underworld involving kidnapping, masochism, drug-dealing, and murder. But while there's a whole lot of plot in Blue Velvet, Lynch's more elemental concern is with unearthing the truth behind the façade (i.e. showing what lurks under the lawn). Even the blue velvet dress that chanteuse Dorothy Valens (Isabella Rossellini) wears hides a secret -- namely, the bruises on her body which are delivered by the vile Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper, in the role that brought him back to the limelight).
When Jeffrey asks the niave Sandy (Laura Dern), the prim girl on whom he has a crush, why there is so much trouble in the world, the answer is clear -- without it, our lives would be far duller. Jeffrey himself admits that he loves a mystery and the curiosity that his desire entails is the same one that fuels Lynch's own vision. When Frank says to Jeffrey, "You're like me," it could be Lynch speaking to the audience. We want to know more, even if what we find out hurts or is ugly. Like the scene of an accident, we cannot look away. Fueled by a vibrant and always-surprising surrealism, Blue Velvet reminds us that the dreams and fantasies of our subconscious are dangerous and thrilling; it's surface reality that is mundane.
This is definitely a film worth watching multiple times. It gets better and better on every viewing. There are so many questions, and at the same time, so many answers, which seem to bring up more questions. Blue Velvet is a timeless, unmissible film.
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This is "Blue Velvet"
What can you say?
All I have to say is that you had better not have any distraction's.
This is one movie that you can or should watch with a quality audio/visual center.
Say what you will, but it works very well with quality involved.
G
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Flawless. A genuine classic
Twin Peaks - The Definitive Gold Box Edition (The Complete Series)Mulholland DriveAmerican Beauty (Widescreen Edition)
When you watch the opening scene of the 1986 classic Blue Velvet, you know your in for something special, a completely original experience. The scene is that of an outwardly idyllic American town, a small white house with requisite garden and white picket fence, and a middle-aged man serenely watering his lawn. The man has a sudden stroke and falls to the ground. The camera moves in close on the man, then to the grass beneath him, then beneath the grass to the sight and sounds of black beetles gnawing and clawing their way through the earth. It's the movie's plot in microcosm. Like many another film, "Blue Velvet" explores the notion that life is not all that it appears. Under a veneer of respectability and innocence, evil lurks in the most seemingly harmless places. Just below the placid surface of every community lies the face of horror and evil.
For newcomers, here's a brief outline of the plot. All-American boy Kyle MacLachlan, fresh from Lynch's "Dune," stars as All-American boy Jeffrey Beaumont, a college student in the suburban setting of Lumberton, U.S.A., who, while walking across an open field one day, comes upon a severed human ear. He takes it to the police, specifically to a neighbor, Detective Williams (George Dickerson). The Detective promises to investigate, but it's Williams' daughter, Sandy (Laura Dern), who precipitates the intrigue. Sandy meets Jeffrey and suggests she has information about the unexplainable ear. The information leads to night-club singer Dorothy Vallens. Both Jeffrey and Sandy devise a plan to sneak into Dorothy's apartment and snoop. This goes awry, and Jeffrey cannot turn away from what witnesses in her apartment...
MacLachlan is in virtually every scene, and at times he seems wooden, but this is the character he's trying to convey. Slightly niave and wooden. We may question his character's actions, but we never doubt his integrity. He's an innocent lost in a corrupt world (well, we all are, really), and as we might expect, even he is infected by the corruption. But is he an honest seeker of truth, an obsessed intruder, or an outright voyeur? Sometimes he seems to derive more satisfaction from his observations than terror or pain...but later in the film, he breaks down and we know he's actions are good intentions. He really wants to save Dorothy from what he sees her go through. Dennis Hopper gives an amazing performance, it's a little worrying he's so accurate.
If your not a Lynch fan, you'll still enjoy Blue Velvet. Many attack (those that want their stories told in a tiresomly straightforward manner) for being confusing, weird and refusing to give explicit plot outlines. Lost Highway and Eraserhead are probably examples on why they have not become as well-known and as popular Blue Velvet, because the majority of movie-goers want an occasionally normal plot. Mulholland Dr., on the other hand, is a complete different story. For some reason, people went wild on the film. Perhaps they realized that they enjoyed have complicated stories. I like Lynch film's for different reasons. Blue Velvet remains the movie where all of the elements most exquisitely gel. It works perfectly as a character drama, a thriller, a mystery, a study of voyeurism, a look at the darker side of our own personalities and...hell, so much more. Ultimately, Blue Velvet is that rarest of beasts, a compelling entertainment that is also a brilliant work of art and probably one of the greatest movies ever made.
