Movie Club Edition Three: Blue Velvet - SPOILERS

RanzB

RanzB

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The discussion starts 23rd March 2015


Blue Velvet is a 1986 American mystery film, written and directed by David Lynch. The film stars Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper and Laura Dern. The title is taken from The Clovers' 1955 song of the same name. Although initially polarising some mainstream critics, the film is now widely acclaimed as one of the greatest 80s films and earned Lynch his second Academy Award nomination for Best Director.
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220px-Bvmovieposter.jpg


**A review is encouraged, and a star review out of 5 is preferred over a /10 score.

0 - Couldn't finish it was so bad
1- Horrible
2 - Very Bad
2.5 -OK <- just to be in the middle
3 - Good/Very Good
4- Excellent
5 - Perfect
 
[video=youtube;xi7XwfD6emY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi7XwfD6emY[/video]

:D
 
Didn't get to this on the weekend due to some PC nightmares I had to take care of. Will aim for tomorrow evening or maybe just load it up on my phone and view it over lunchtimes.
 
Let me just start by saying: Donner, that was hectic. This is my kinda fcked up. David Lynch is definitely not 10-4.

I enjoyed every aspect of this movie. The music, the eerie feel of it. Loved it.

My Score: 4.5/5

There was a lot of interesting aspects to this movie. The relationship between Frank and Dorothy almost manifested in Dorothy and Jeffrey. Sandy being the one that kept him going into that dark place in my opinion. Strange how Dorothy asked Jeffrey to hit her, as if that was the only way she knew to be treated??
 
4/5 for me.

Frank is one broken individual, and draws others into his world, enslaving them. This can be seen (as fanie mentioned) in Dorothy's way of approaching Jeffrey. There is still some parts of herself left (wants to be loved and helped), but she's also been broken and contorted into this sexual creature that Frank wants to exploit.

I felt Sandy and Jeffrey's relationship development was skipped over a bit. They start off on this cautious and curious route and then all of a sudden they're both madly in love, without us having seen where this really happened.

Roy Orbison's In Dreams was used in a very effective way. A kind of perversion of a more innocent sounding piece, when Frank uses it. Badalamenti's music is always excellent, though.

Really made me want to watch Twin Peaks again.
 
OrbitalDawn said:
4/5 for me.

Frank is one broken individual, and draws others into his world, enslaving them. This can be seen (as fanie mentioned) in Dorothy's way of approaching Jeffrey. There is still some parts of herself left (wants to be loved and helped), but she's also been broken and contorted into this sexual creature that Frank wants to exploit.

I felt Sandy and Jeffrey's relationship development was skipped over a bit. They start off on this cautious and curious route and then all of a sudden they're both madly in love, without us having seen where this really happened.

Roy Orbison's In Dreams was used in a very effective way. A kind of perversion of a more innocent sounding piece, when Frank uses it. Badalamenti's music is always excellent, though.

Really made me want to watch Twin Peaks again.
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Was Dreams the song that played in This Is It, when Ben pretend-sang? Very cool song. Frank got all obsessive at the singing at that point... Seems like certain songs have certain effects on him? Or what do you think?
 
faniedry said:
Was Dreams the song that played in This Is It, when Ben pretend-sang? Very cool song. Frank got all obsessive at the singing at that point... Seems like certain songs have certain effects on him? Or what do you think?
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This Is It?

Yeah, it's the song Ben mouthed. And Frank also says the words while the song plays when he's beating up Jeffrey.

Frank is a very obsessive person, yes, so perhaps like the blue velvet itself it also became a focus point of his obsessions.
 
I find it so difficult to rate this film. Lynch as always is such a symbolic yet unsubtle writer/director. I enjoyed his portrayal of the duality of the town, how Jeffrey almost gets sucked into being like Frank, and how Sandy (light) made sure he wasn't sucked into the dark (Dorothy).

Not a huge fan of the ending though, how much more Disney could Lynch have gone?

I have to say, being Lynch, this is probably one of his most accessible movies I've seen. Certainly compared to Mulholland Drive.

4/5
 
OrbitalDawn said:
This Is It?

Yeah, it's the song Ben mouthed. And Frank also says the words while the song plays when he's beating up Jeffrey.

Frank is a very obsessive person, yes, so perhaps like the blue velvet itself it also became a focus point of his obsessions.
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This Is It, the place where Dorothy's son was kept. As they pulled up, Frank said "This is it". LOL It was actually the joints name, there was a Neon sign in the window that said "This is it"
 
OrbitalDawn said:
I felt Sandy and Jeffrey's relationship development was skipped over a bit. They start off on this cautious and curious route and then all of a sudden they're both madly in love, without us having seen where this really happened.
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Sort of.. I think it's similar to so many portrayals of young romance in the 50s and 60s. Plus, sharing a secret helps cement the relationship I think, makes it exciting for Sandy, and lets Jeffrey know he can trust her.
 
faniedry said:
This Is It, the place where Dorothy's son was kept. As they pulled up, Frank said "This is it". LOL It was actually the joints name, there was a Neon sign in the window that said "This is it"
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This is the full This Is It scene, with them driving up at around the 1 minute mark. Video should start playing at that point (if the copy and paste works as advertised. edit: apparently it doesn't)

[video=youtube;oHL5F9i6mpY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHL5F9i6mpY&t=60[/video]
 
Randhir said:
I find it so difficult to rate this film. Lynch as always is such a symbolic yet unsubtle writer/director. I enjoyed his portrayal of the duality of the town, how Jeffrey almost gets sucked into being like Frank, and how Sandy (light) made sure he wasn't sucked into the dark (Dorothy).

Not a huge fan of the ending though, how much more Disney could Lynch have gone?

I have to say, being Lynch, this is probably one of his most accessible movies I've seen. Certainly compared to Mulholland Drive.

4/5
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Definitely. That ending was cheesy as hell. Although I kind of liked it. Pretty much everything else in the film takes place during the night, everything's dark, including the characters and so on. I liked the contrast.

faniedry said:
This Is It, the place where Dorothy's son was kept. As they pulled up, Frank said "This is it". LOL It was actually the joints name, there was a Neon sign in the window that said "This is it"
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Oh right, remember now. Hehe.

Randhir said:
Sort of.. I think it's similar to so many portrayals of young romance in the 50s and 60s. Plus, sharing a secret helps cement the relationship I think, makes it exciting for Sandy, and lets Jeffrey know he can trust her.
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True. How the relationships sets off was handled decently, just felt like it skipped over a step or two later on.
 
OrbitalDawn said:
True. How the relationships sets off was handled decently, just felt like it skipped over a step or two later on.
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Well, if I can comment on that without having seen the movie recently... in general David Lynch's movies inhabit a state of liminality where events have the impetus of a dream or pure consciousness, rather than linear storytelling. Skipping over transitional phases of a story can give the effect of characters being compelled by deeper currents of force than the rational strictures of narrative would be able to convey; which would also fit the theme of the movie overall.
 
On the ending, Lynch actually took a lower salary to have final cut over the movie. So it was completely up to him how he wanted to end it.

The movie started with painting this rosie picture (literally had roses in it) with white picket fences. In the end, it showed exactly the same type of scenes. Like everything came full circle. But yes, was a little disney.

At the beginning when Jeffrey's dad had the accident they should the bugs borrowing in the grass, and in the end they showed the bird, that Susan mentioned will bring light, with the bug in it's mouth. Very full circle disney stuff.
 
cerebus said:
Well, if I can comment on that without having seen the movie recently... in general David Lynch's movies inhabit a state of liminality where events have the impetus of a dream or pure consciousness, rather than linear storytelling. Skipping over transitional phases of a story can give the effect of characters being compelled by deeper currents of force than the rational strictures of narrative would be able to convey; which would also fit the theme of the movie overall.
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Yeah, that's true, but it was out of sync with the rest of the movie, I felt. As Randhir mentioned, this is by far his most accessible movie. He doesn't make as much use of those things you mentioned as he does in his later films. The relationship between Jeffrey and Dorothy was handled quite 'normally', in that way, and it worked well.

It's a relatively minor quibble anyway.
 
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