She Wore Blue Velvet

Rossellini

One of my favorite movie directors is David Lynch. His movies and television programs have a marked surreal quality, which can be off-putting or confusing at first. When I saw his magnum opus, "Blue Velvet" (1986), I found myself thoroughly offended. The movie had violence (sado-masochism, a dismembered ear), kinky sex (mostly implied), and dialog that was confounding -- at times trite, other times cryptic. The movie exposed the dark, turbulent side of a small serene, American town. It had a little film noire going, what with a murder mystery -- and maybe a little bit of Hitchcock too.

A young man returns to his hometown of Lumberton. He’s shocked to find a severed ear in a field. Together with a police detective’s daughter, he embarks on finding where it came from. What he finds is a seamy, bizarre otherworld where a beautiful young woman (played by Rossellini) is under the thrall of a drug-snorting insane sadist (played by Dennis Hopper).

With Lynch, every scene, every street sign, every camera motion is packed with some major import – either to convey the eerie mood or advance the mysterious plot along. Some things nagged at me the first time I watched it, so I decided to watch and be offended a second time. Upon second viewing, I decided it was an interesting 80’s twist on film noire, but something still nagged at me.

I watched it yet a 3rd time and – behold! - It struck me – this movie is a black comedy. Several of the scenes most wrought with irony are in fact, wrought with hilarity if you know where it’s coming from. Mind you – most people would never mine comedy from a psychosexual murder mystery; this is the darkest of dark humor. There are times when somebody is pulling your leg and you know it. Sometimes you fall for the gag. You find out you’ve been “punked” a while after you’ve overreacted in some way. This movie served murder on wry, and it took me three viewings to get it. Watch Lynch’s other masterpieces, particularly “Twin Peaks” and “Mulholland Drive”. You will find the same qualities at work. Lynch is a philosopher-dreamer, and humor isn’t always the angle. I really think “Mulholland” has another angle completely. His movies are like a picture by M.C. Escher – they challenge all your perceptions. But “Blue Velvet” made me cogitate dammit. Come to think of it, Alfred Hitchcock was a bit of a thinking prankster. “The Trouble with Harry” was more comedy than mystery. Lynch will probably never assume the station of Hitchcock, but his “Blue Velvet” is still a wonder some 20 years later.