Blue Velvet (1986)

User Review

• 

  BarneyNuttall

  9 / 10

  Lynch's brilliant Blue Velvet will forever remain a classic. What more is there to be said about this film? Its performances are groundbreaking, it's imagery iconic and its plot disturbing yet poignant. It feels hopeless to attempt to say anything more on Blue Velvet. Yet, I will try.
  
  The Bobby Vinton song of the same title famously inspired Lynch's film. Having listened to it many times, it becomes abundantly clear how the film links. The song on the surface is all smiles and candy but has a strange ethereal quality, a dreamy haze that flows through the melancholic lyrics. Much like the film's opening shots, beneath the picket fences, there is a dark undergrowth, a mystery.
  
  Roy Orbison's 'In Dreams' also plays a pivotal role in the film. The scene with Ben, played by an enigmatic Dean Stockwell, emphasizes the themes of dreams in the films; dreams as a place of mystery, wonder, and fear.
  
  On my second viewing, I realized that a significant amount of Frank's lines are quoted from songs such as 'In Dreams' or 'Love Letters' by Ketty Lester. Clearly the quality of music has an immense role in the film. It's no coincidence that Rossellini's Dorothy Valence is a jazz club singer. Perhaps this role of music is not only there for an establishment of tone but for a psychically transparent quality; one which seems to add a hazy blue mist over Lynch's perverted suburbia.
  
  It should be noted that earlier on I never intended to disregard the film's other elements. The performances of the film are truly exquisite, Rossellini particularly playing one of the most painful roles ever to be sen on screen. But, there has just been so much conversation on this piece that I would encourage you to follow up on writings. Or, simply, watch the film! It is timeless and will knock you away, repulse you and draw you back in, all at once.

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