Blue Velvet
It has been quiet here on my blog for the past few weeks. We
have been moving into a new apartment, so movie watching has been taking
backseat while we are getting ourselves installed. To top that off, we spent
last week in Prague and visited, among many other things, a David Lynch
exhibition. It is therefore very fitting that the next movie on the List is his
“Blue Velvet”.
I like watching David Lynch’ movies. There is almost always
an underlying mystery and while I know I will never fully understand it, this
mystery provides a depth that goes far beyond the apparent story. In this
respect “Blue Velvet” is middle of the range. It is more complex than “The
Elephant man” and “Dune”, but not as obscure as “Eraserhead” and “Mulholland
Drive”. It is sort of on par with “Twin Peaks” and that is not the only similarity
with Lynch’ famous TV-series.
Young man Jeffrey (Kyle MacLachlan) has returned to his
hometown because his father had an accident. Left with little to do, he is sent
off on an adventure when he finds an ear near his home. The police detective
(George Dickerson) is a friend of his father, and this leads Jeffery to
Detective Williams’ daughter, Sandy (Laura Dern). Jeffrey is fascinated with
the mystery and when he learns that this may be related to nightclub singer
Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini), he finds a way to enter her home.
Soon, Jeffrey is in way over his head. Dorothy is at the
mercy of a brutal and rather unhinged man called Frank (Dennis Hopper) who
seems to have kidnapped her son to keep her submissive. Jeffrey is getting
close to Sandy, but also attracted to Dorothy whom he wants to help and in the
middle of this is Frank. It is a rabbit hole, and the deeper Jeffrey gets into
this hole the stranger and more disturbing it all get.
As a criminal mystery this is a slow burn with a plotline
that appears fairly straight forward, but things are happening that are
anything but straight forward. The world of Frank is a dark place, populated by
strange and awkward types and feels almost unreal. Not everything that happens
here makes sense and it seems to be spilling over into the outside world. Who
is inside it and who is outside? It is quickly clear that something else is
going on, something that may have little to do with the apparent story.
I make a point of not reading other viewer’s analysis of
what is going on before writing these reviews and you may want to skip the next
session if you want that mystery for yourself. On the other hand, my analysis is
far from complete and I may be totally wrong, so what is the harm?
Sandy and Dorothy seem to represent two opposites. Sandy is virginial
and pure, innocence personified while Dorothy represents the dark, fallen and
spoiled. She is sin, blood and sex, but she is also a victim. Jeffrey is
attracted to both as if they represent two opposing parts of him, the civilized
and pure and the almost bestial lust and craving. Dealing with these two women
is Jeffrey coming of age so to speak, finding himself. The Id and Super-ego in
Freudian terms.
Frank is a demon, the devil maybe. His world is depravity
and violence, breaking the rules and temptation. He has Dorothy in his power
and he is threatening to swallow Jeffrey. The place Frank takes Jeffrey is a
demonic parallel world disassociated from the surface world and the staircase
to Dorothy’s apartment is the entrance to this hell, but also a portal for
Jeffery to realize his subconscious desires.
With Sandy it is usually daytime and bright colours. There
is an ease and happiness to those scenes, while all scenes with Dorothy, and
particularly Frank, are night scenes with
a lot of red and heaviness. There is a lot of symbolism here that could be
heaven and hell, but is more likely the civilized consciousness versus messy
and dark subconscious. Where the two meet things get truly messy.
If this all sounds like Twins Peaks, I do not think that is
a coincidence. A lot of the imagery and themes are the same, the soundscapes
are similar and even the role of Kyle MacLachlan is almost the same. This is
truly Lynch territory.
I think there is something about the ambience of Lynch’
movies that appeals to me. As a viewer, I am placed in that mysterious and
ominous place that is scary but also strangely fascinating. I watched the first
season of Twin Peaks back in the day in the middle of the night on a hospital
and that totally works, for the record. “Blue Velvet” takes me to that place
and therefor it ranks pretty high with me.
Definitely recommended.
