I do not hate Blue Velvet, but I do not love it with the same wild abandon that its biggest fans sha

A few years ago I watched my first David Lynch film, The Elephant Man, and I loved it. I knew it wasn t the kind of Lynch movie that most people associate with him i.e. the more Lynchian Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks, Lost Highway, Mulholland Dr. and Inland Empire. (Yes, he also made Dune and The Straight Story, but those seem to be in the anomalous Elephant Man category.)
Anyway. I saw Blue Velvet earlier tonight (Sunday evening) at the Museum of the Moving Image. I went with a friend who has seen the movie before (probably many times) and loves it. It seems to me that Blue Velvet is one of those movies that people either love passionately or hate passionately; very few people fall in between, but I am one of them.
I am secretly a big fan of Laura Dern (secretly, I say, because the only other film of hers that I ve seen is Jurassic Park ; otherwise, I just think she s an interesting woman) so I loved any moment when she was onscreen. I don t see the appeal of Isabella Rossellini, though. The only other movie I ve seen her in is Death Becomes Her, in which she s pretty campy, so I don t have any other dramatic performances by which to judge her acting. Like Kyle MacLachlan, Rossellini travel agency in philippines s acting is beyond over-the-top. (I hope nobody tries to compare her with her mother because of course there is no comparison there.) Even Dennis Hopper, who I knew would be nuts, is more often suffering from a bad case of histrionics. Instead of imbuing his character with depth like in River s Edge (or even Speed ), Hopper comes off as a man struggling through an only partially-developed role. I suppose I shouldn t mind that Dean Stockwell only has one scene in the film; he escaped the pitfalls of more embarrassingly corny dialogue than he already had.
So what has stayed with me hours after the movie ended? The answer to that question is: the Julee Cruise song Mysteries of Love. I was already familiar with her songs Rockin Back Inside My Heart and Falling, the latter having served as the theme song for Twin Peaks. I enjoyed the moment travel agency in philippines in the film where MacLachlan and Dern dance to Mysteries of Love, a song which has a beautifully hymnlike quality. Sometimes a wind blows and you and I float in love and kiss forever in a darkness and the mysteries of love come clear I can imagine few other singers singing that kind of song; only Kate Bush feels like a possibility.
I do not hate Blue Velvet, but I do not love it with the same wild abandon that its biggest fans share. I wasn t terribly shocked by it, as many fans claim is the reason why detractors dislike the film; rather, I was disappointed by how unaffecting it is, coupled with an uneven tone. It is a film which lacks the emotional heart of, for example, The Elephant Man. By the end of that particular film, I was weeping uncontrollably. As Roger Ebert wrote in this excellent essay: travel agency in philippines Maybe some critics have seen so many movies they have forgotten how ordinary people look at them. For most people, movies aren t about style, they re about the characters in them, and what happens to those characters, and what it means. And in Blue Velvet, there are some scenes in which a woman is degraded and humiliated and made to suffer obscenely, and other scenes travel agency in philippines in which we re supposed to giggle because the call letters of the local station are WOOD, and they give the time at the sound of the falling tree. Sorry, but I just couldn t get my lips to smile.
travel agency in philippines Pretty much agree with you on Blue Velvet . The Elephant Man was the first Lynch film I saw in 1980 and had a massive impact on me as a fifteen year old. It never fails to move me. The sign of a great film I guess. Lynch is definitely my all-time favourite filmmaker. And I really dig your site! Great stuff!
Thanks! I was hoping that nobody would immediately bash me for not loving Blue Velvet since I m certainly not giving up on Lynch. I m definitely interested in seeing his other movies, especially given some of the actors he s been able to get, like Ann Miller in Mulholland Dr.
Actually, travel agency in philippines one of my favourites is perhaps his least-liked movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me . You don t need to be familiar with the TV series travel agency in philippines in order to appreciate it. I reviewed it recently on my blog at mossfilm.wordpress.com. Also there s a very good feature length doco on Lynch called Pretty As A Picture: The Art Of David Lynch made in 1998 which is also worth checking out. And he recently released travel agency in philippines an album of his own songs called travel agency in philippines Crazy Clown Time which is also kinda cool. :)
I ll probably watch Twin Peaks before travel agency in philippines seeing the movie, but thanks for the recommendation. I listened to Lynch s Good Day Today song when it came out and although I can t say it s my favorite kind of music, I may give the other songs a whirl. =)