Blue Velvet

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🎙️ EPISODE 154: 01.30.19 While I don’t necessarily think Blue Velvet is the best film of David Lynch’s career, it’s hard to argue that it isn’t the most important. It is the world from which all subsequent Lynch things are built. Following the creative and commercial disaster of Dune, Lynch’s fourth feature is a dark psychological horror that both expands upon and completely blows apart the aesthetic of Film Noir. And there really isn’t a single David Lynch film project after Blue Velvet which doesn’t also explore this form to a degree. The movie marks the debut of a pair who would turn out to be lifelong collaborators in the David Lynch cinematic universe: Laura Dern, acting here in one of her first “adult” roles at age 19, and the composer Angelo Badalamenti. Badalamenti would go onto write the scores for every subsequent entry in the filmography except Inland Empire, and his main theme to Blue Velvet remains one of the most memorable.

Blue Velvet is also notable as being a vehicle for Dennis Hopper’s re-entry into mainstream cinema. Relaunching his career, Hopper’s portrayal of the deranged Frank Booth remains as skin crawling as ever.

I think the fact that I have watched Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive more than any other of Lynch’s films had a lot to do with where I’ve placed them on this list (that they aren’t higher). But I swear I’m not being contrarian for contrarian’s sake. As I said a minute ago, all five of these films are worthy. When it comes to the movies of David Lynch, well, I guess you could say, “….HE PUT HIS DISEASE IN ME.” (Yuck. I'm sorry.)

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CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 153B - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 154B ⫸

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