Culture

Directed/written: David lynch

Jeffrey Beaumont (MacLachlan) makes an unexpected return home from university (or “college”, as this is set in the US) after his father suffers a stroke while watering the garden. On the way home from the hospital, Jeffery comes across a human ear lying in the grass. This strange find leads our protagonist on a quest to uncover what is going on. Jeffrey soon finds out that his seemingly innocent hometown of Lumberton has its fair share of twisted secrets.
 
Unsatisfied with the police response to his find, Jeffrey finds an (initially) enthusiastic ally in the detective’s daughter Sandy (Dern). With Sandy’s help, Jeffrey is lead to a nightclub singer, Dorothy (Rossellini), who we soon discover has been drawn into the violent sexual games of Frank Booth (Hopper). Despite Sandy’s warnings, Jeffrey’s curiosity and sense of justice draw him further into Dorothy’s turmoil.
 
The appeal of Blue Velvet, for me at least, comes from the way in which what starts out as a slightly odd occurrence moves into something very much out of the ordinary. As long as you’re willing to go along for the ride then it shall all be fine. There are some fairly brutal scenes, but they do not dominate the film.
 
My exposure to David Lynch has been minimal; apart from viewing this movie, the only other work I have seen of his is his TV series Twin Peaks, an incredible show from the Nineties that revolved around the mysterious murder of all-American gal Laura Palmer. In Twin Peaks we see Lynch return to the theme of a seedy underbelly in an outwardly friendly, quiet, American town. Lynch affords a more eclectic cast of characters and a more upbeat quirky tone in a series that moves in and around the more horrific aspects of the show. Blue Velvet certainly has its funny quirks but with a smaller amount of time and characters at its disposal, it tends towards the darker side. The long-running nature of the TV series also allowed Lynch to more thoroughly tease out several intertwining mysteries in the two seasons for which the Twin Peaks was on the air (but unfortunately not quite as satisfyingly as he had hoped for, due to certain interference from the television network). Nevertheless Twin Peaks is very good and despite its premature cancellation is still worthy of a watch over summer; more to the point so is Blue Velvet if you enjoy mysteries that are a bit off-centre.