Blue Velvet (1986)

From picturesque, small-town America, to the sadomasochistic imaginings of David Lynch, Blue Velvet is a cinematic powerhouse, revealing the repressed tendencies of a supposedly civilised community.

Set in the white-picket town of Lumberton, a young man called Jeffrey (Kyle MacLachlan) discovers a sinister world lurking in the shadows, when he discovers a severed ear on the walk home from visiting his father in hospital. After receiving very little attention from local detective, Jeffrey takes it upon himself, with the help of detective’s daughter Sandy, to investigate the ear. The trail soon leads him to the apartment of a lounge singer called Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini), where Jeffrey ends up spying on her, and witnessing some harrowing events.

Dorothy’s life is being controlled, and humiliated, by a sick and perverted sociopath called Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper), who has kidnapped Dorothy’s son in order to use the singer for his own twisted purposes. In order for Jeffrey to help Dorothy, he must come to terms with a despicable world of drugs, rape and murder, as well as his own dark impulses.

It is a truly artistic movie, one that is uncompromising in its approach, and shocking in its result. Lynch’s unwavering commitment to representing the awful and disturbing aspects of this small town, creates an aesthetic that is both beautiful and repulsive. With the tagline “It’s a strange world”, this is a movie of contrast, offering up both violence and tenderness, dreams and nightmares.

Kyle MacLachlan’s poster-boy image is the perfect fit for the character of Jeffrey, who is exposed to this terrible world before our eyes, and we witness his coming-of-age with a heavy dread. Hopper offers the most compelling performance though, his brutality and anger seem to emanate throughout the film, and his sick sense of humour and fascination with particular songs, make him a nightmarish menace.

One of the most popular Lynch films, Blue Velvet is an unyielding movie, one that only the hardiest of filmmakers attempt, and it shares similar themes to his other work: exploring our own voyeuristic tendencies, the darker side of human nature, our ability to try and repress our urges. Blue Velvet is representative of a director who wants to use the medium of cinema, not only to make us feel uncomfortable with our own insecurities and doubts, but to expose us to a horrendous and terrible world we don’t want to imagine, but can’t stop watching.