'blue velvet'

i had heard so much about this film in so many places, that today when we all evacuated college for fear of more flooding, i went straight to clixflix and picked it up to see. i hate scary films, i hate gruesome films. this was both. violent and frightening.

david lynch explores the dark side of the american small town when a young man discovers a human ear lying in a field and is drawn into a mystery that involves a beautiful torch singer and a sadomasochistic killer. he is assisted along the way by the quintessential girl next door. the two worlds- the perfect suburban homes and the manicured lawns against the dark corridors of high rise apartments and seamy beer bars- intersect and disturb the lives of all involved.

eric fischl's work

i am not so sure about the politics of the film that for me seemed to still stay safe within the moral bounds of traditional american family values and see everything that might be aberrant as evil. eric fischl’s paintings explore this sexual frission underneath the pretty brick facades of suburbia. so did the soundgarden video for ‘black hole sun’.

but in ‘blue velvet’ the dystopia is definitely the ‘other’ – the city, the foreign accent of the singer, the crimes at corners. yet somehow when jeffrey confronts the ease by which he is able to hit dorothy and cries, is he seeing himself anew- confronting his deepest desires? i don’t know but for me the dark side seemed more ‘real’ than the utopian suburban neighborhood. and though the first shot shows the worms that lie beneath the surcafe of the lawns, i don’t think we were able to penetrate below the facades of suburbia to gaze upon its dark secrets, as much as we were supposed to relish the disruption of the evils of the city.

extremely interesting film though and quite a thriller.. dark and scary.