Blue Velvet (1986) or, The Strange World

11/12/2013

Blue Velvet (1986) or, The Strange World

♥♥♥♥♥♥

A strong, expressionistic German poster for David Lynch's Blue Velvet with the disturbed white picket fences, a dark and menacing scene, a voyeur and the soothing and mysterious blue surrounding it all

A college student finds a severed human ear in a field in his hometown, and is attracted by its mystery into an investigation with the help of a fellow student. This leads them into an unexpected underworld of sex and violence.

Blue Velvet is written and directed by Montanan master filmmaker David Lynch (Eraserhead (1977)), whose 4th feature it is.
It is an American masterpiece and one of Lynch's best films, - although he has made several truly great films. Despite its mystery, it is a fairly straight story, at least compared to other Lynch mystery films like the good Lost Highway (1997), the great Mulholland Drive (2001) and the enigmatic, disturbing last feature he has made, Inland Empire (2006).
Kyle McLachlan (Twin Peaks (1990-1991)) plays the curious, latent voyeur youth with great intensity, and Laura Dern (Wild at Heart (1990)) is sincere and troubling as his helper. Isabella Rossellini (Joy (2015)) came out of the shadows of her ancestral roots (her parents are film legends Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini) with her stunning, subordinate performance, and Dennis Hopper (Apocalypse Now (1979)) got a career comeback as the menacing, perverse Frank Booth. Hopper is said to have been Lynch's third choice for the part, (perhaps due to his reputation as being unstable, an addict and ... well, crazy), but he eventually got the part, and he has said that upon accepting it, he said; "I've got to play Frank! I am Frank!" (Which is pretty disturbing, if you've seen the film.)
Blue Velvet is like a tightly composed rabbit-hole with its tagline, 'It's a strange world', looming largely over it. It shows how the surface of even the seemingly most normal, idyllic and wholesome little town is in truth as fickle as blue velvet, because it is inhabited by people, and people everywhere have weird stuff crawling all around inside of them, just waiting for the tiny snap somewhere that will let that stuff come oozing out.
The first half of the film pulls you in completely with its unusual crime mystery and eroticism, and from then on the brilliance of the tale has you in its firm grip until long after the last shot has disappeared from the screen. The songs of Blue Velvet and its score by Angelo Badalamenti (Secretary (2002)) also stays with you and resonates the film's universe, whenever you hear them again thenceforth.

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Inland Empire (2006) - Dern stands out in Lynch's nightmarish art film epic

Top 10: Best erotic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Dune (1984) - Lynch heads to space, with an (unsurprisingly) strange result

Top 10: The best biopic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

The Elephant Man (1980) - Lynch's deeply moving second feature

Eraserhead (1977) - Lynch's extraordinary, unconquerably strange and surreal debut

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 6 mil. $
Box office: 8.5 mil. $ (North America only)
= Uncertain but likely a box office success (projected return of 3.33 times its cost)

[Blue Velvet premiered 20 August (Montréal World Film Festival) and runs 120 minutes. Lynch's script had been around for some years, before Dino De Laurentiis agreed to finance the film. Shooting took place from August - December 1985 in North Carolina. The film opened #13 to a 798k $ first weekend in 98 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #12 and in 188 theaters (different weeks), grossing 8.5 mil. $. Regrettably the foreign numbers have not been made public online, but chances are that the film did good business, perhaps as much as 20 mil. $ total. It was nominated for 1 Oscar, Best Director, lost to Oliver Stone for Platoon. It was also nominated for 2 Golden Globes, won 1/7 Independent Spirit award nominations, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 1/4 star review, translating to 6 notches under this one. Lynch returned with The French as Seen by... (1988, miniseries) and theatrically with Wild at Heart (1990). Machlachlan returned in The Hidden (1987); Rossellini in Oci Ciornie (1987); and Hopper in Hoosiers (1986). Blue Velvet is certified fresh at 95 % with a 8.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Blue Velvet?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

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William Friedkin has died

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Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

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Wolfgang Petersen has died

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Philip Baker Hall has died

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Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (15-24)

11/12/2013