In Lumberton, an idyllic village American, Jeffrey (MacLachlan) It is an ear cut off in a wilderness. This finding will stimulate your curiosity, leading him to become a sneaky detective helped by her friend Sandy (Dern). Both discover the plight of a nightclub singer, Dorothy Vallens (Rossellini), extorsionada by a psychopath (Hopper). Jeffrey dip at the darkest points of this mystery and its oscillating relationship with Vallens will bring out the ambient daytime family that has always lived to the shadier side of any daily paradise.
Many films of the Decade of the 80 they do not seem to have well endured the passage of time, at least aesthetically. Some that still not us have distanced enough to judge firmly, but this feeling is accentuated when we see works like “Velvet blue” What, No doubt, will not be so easily forgotten. This movie was for David Lynch a necessary support after his meteoric rise to the status of cult director after his well-known Eraserhead (Erasing head, 1977) and The Elephant Man (The elephant man, 1980). Since then came Dune, a project megalomaniac who wanted to be the answer to Star Wars and ended up being a critical and commercial failure, always qualifying caused by the lack of control that Lynch had on the final outcome: the commercial arguments prevailed.
Like this, and without that producer De Laurentiis had lost trust in him, He was offered the possibility of a lower budget film, but with total artistic freedom. Thus arose “Velvet blue”, an own script worthy of Alfred Hitchcock would have become what we see today as a paradigmatic cult film.
Lynch is one of those few filmmakers that, beyond the quality of the scripts or the media of his films, It has achieved a perfectly unique visual style: It is possible to recognize a film you just to watch five minutes. This is, In addition, a film that particularly original contributions are measured and well integrated into the plot, even frequent extravagances (as of its style) they are bounded within a framework of more traditional cinema. I mean, the trees let us see the forest, not as in other titles more exhibitionist, possibly the most original in the form, but with less force, as wild at heart (Wild at Heart, 1990).
And is that, in reference to the traditional film, many aspects of this film play with our subconscious parodying and satirizing many situations typically film (by their familiarity and recurrence) using an intertextualizacion that perverts the sense. Like this, It is not difficult to recognize numerous situation comedies and dramas for the years 50 and 60, as the convertible concept rides, the typical bar in which the protagonists drink a few shakes, etc: American archetypes of middle class. It is curious to check, because, How, Despite being a decidedly located film in the 80, There are not many details that would force us to be framed in these years: like Tarantino (or perhaps this had learned Lynch), the mixture of elements of different decades does not oblige to opt for one in particular. As the dressing of the superb soundtrack based on themes at the same time. Formally we also find references to the film noir or intrigue and suspense films; and it is not at all outside the influence of certain author cinema: I especially prefer a camouflaged look to the nouvelle vague and their precedents.
David Lynch tries to portray in his film the shadows that hide behind any idyllic world. In this sense, pop references are numerous (It is difficult to say cultural) American decades, that often seem to take us to the affable simplicity of a Norman Rockwell illustration. However, After this apparent quietness and harmony day, thousand times recognized in the first scenes of the film (the roses in the fence, Firefighter greeting, etc), hides a night underworld of suffering and violence. They are unrecognised nightmares of the conservative American dream are here portrayed: Vice, drugs, violence, sex, etc.
And, like an Alice in the Wonderland or as in the wizard of Oz, a teenager belonging to the world of joy and normalcy discovers a door to the sordid and insane, is this the ear or the Lincoln Street, canalizadose finally her curiosity through dichotomous indecision that feels for two women to attract their attention: the femme fatale Vallens and the very typical American girl Sandy. In this sense, and declaring discovered the duality that makes up the film (day/night, quiet/violence, sex/love), We find in the psychopath Frank Booth the evil own reflection of Jeffrey.
All of this, as we say, in an unbearably unreal scenario, Although built with a reflection as perfect as possible, reality, in which very significant elements, but secondary, So what, Therefore, fail to distract our attention from the plot, they are our own keys to dementia, as they are for Jeffrey. In this sense, It seems to be a speciality of Lynch to create memorable images, definitely unforgettable and make recognizable film in only an outlet: the cut off ear, Blue Velvet robe, Frank inhaler, the corpse's foot at home of Vallens, etc.
On the other hand, Lynch also provides a less traditional means in film practice: as well as a linear history, based on prose, and a background music favor narration printing, sudden flashes of allegorical scenes (insects, candles, posters) accompanied by noise, suddenly the reception of the story provides a violently poetic aspect, allegorical, US hits with the same effectiveness than the own narration, and complements it properly. It is true that this is not a new resource, but neither is it a plagiarism as it has been so many times and will be.
With Lynch worked some usual theater, as Kyle MacLachlan (Dune, Twin Peaks), Laura Dern (Go wild), but also actors like Dennis Hopper, a titan in the art of being a great secondary, only possibly equalized by Ed Harris or Willem Dafoe (in this sense, It is curious to see how approaching their interpretations of the first and the third of ‘ insane criminals obsessed by women’ in “Velvet blue” and “Go wild”. All the players deserve an outstanding in their respective roles, taking into account, For example, the presence of the “Rookie” MacLachlan compared to the dinosaur Hopper, or courage facing Rossellini to a role than the nude, humiliated, assaults, but it does show its versatility to show madness, Mercy, resistance and submission in a same and unclear role.
In summary, a disturbing film, dark and want to shake consciences, that makes us ask the typical components of concepts as well/badly, purity/dirt, dignity/punishment, etc. In my opinion, Perhaps the best film in a director showing even today have not accommodated with their own way of film's filmography, that researches new formats in television and that even we are expecting: Lost Highway, A true story or Mulholland Drive even know to snack… or maybe dessert.
