Country:
USA
Recognizable Faces
Kyle MacLachlan
Isabelle Rossellini
Laura Dern
Dennis Hopper
Directed by:
David Lynch
Blue Velvet is one of my favorite movies. Last friday, as I wired up my DVD player, I thought it would be a good idea to watch it over again. The next day, Dennis Hopper checked out of life. OK, he was 74 years old and had his fair share of good moments, but still, when a great actor like Hopper dies, that means he will stop kicking our collective asses in movies.
As a tribute to one of my favorite actors and an (hopefully) incentive to watch one of the strangest movies Hollywood ever produced, here is my review of David Lynch's tainted fairytale...
STORYTELLING
Ready for this? Oh no you ain't. Local naive boy Jeffrey Beaumont (McLachlan) finds a human ear in a vacant lot while walking back from a hospital visit to his father. Like Alice in the Rabbit Hole, Jeffrey will fall into the underworld of Lumberton, a city he tought to be fun, warm and welcoming for everyone of its citizens.
Beaumont is tipped by one of his policeman neighbor daughter Sandy (Dern) that the ear has to do with a cabaret singer named Dorothy Vallens (Rossellini). Pushed by a macabre voyeur instinct, Beaumont starts investigating on Vallens and finds that she's prisonner of a depraved mobster named Frank Booth (Hopper). He hold Vallens' husband and wife in hostage and threatens to kill them unless she complies with his eerie sexual play. Jeffrey and Sandy will go down the dark path of Lumberton, in hope to help Vallens recuperate her son.
DIRECTION
I could write a five pages essay on this easy, but let's focus on the shining points. The most disturbing scenes of Blue Velvet happen inside appartments. Mostly Dorothy's appartment or Suave's (Dean Stockwell). Inside these, the cinematic world freezes for a moment and Lynch's movie becomes a dark stage play. The ethereal Lumberton goes down a dark needle hole to transform into a microcosm of the real.
The contrast in between these scenes and the overall licked, perfect Lumberton gives the movie a power of his own. The tale, similar to Alice In Wonderland in more than a few points will make you look at your neighbors with a good dose of paranoia. Everybody has a dark side. The Lynchian drama, taken to the green lawns of suburbia is a beautiful thing.
ACTING
I'm not big on Kyle McLachlan. Mainly because in every role he plays, he ends up looking like an old lesbian. He's a good fit at Jeffrey Beaumont though. He had that neat, polite, but slightly disturbing image of a good thinking small town boy. Rossellini gives a solid go to Dorothy Vallens, she embodies the woman falling into madness and despair. She would've made a good Blanche Dubois.
Rossellini would've got my nod for the best acting job in the movie if it wasn't for Hopper. He absolutely BLOWS THE FUCKING ROOF OFF as Frank Booth. His portrayal of mental issues and sexual pervertions is picture perfect. He's going to scare the wits out of you with his crazy eyes and explosive temper. One of my top 10 performances of all time. A quick salute to Laura Dern who's believable as the girl-next-door Sandy Williams, but gets overshadowed with that strong cast.
INTEREST
Lynch is one of these intellectual types. He's a fun intellectual though. Going to one of his movies is a challenge in itself. You will have different interpretations than your friends and will argue over it for months. Blue Velvet is my favorite because it's complicated enough to resist simplistic analysis and fun enough to remain entertaining.
Frank Booth is the main interest of Blue Velvet. His dark and twisted Oedipian needs will spark debates among your friends and scar you forever. You won't be able to watch movies the same way after seeing Booth's best moments with his Oxygen mask.
NOTE: A+
