Blue Velvet

Blue Velvet (1986)

a film by David Lynch

with Isabella Rossellini

Tue., Oct. 12/10 - 10:00pm

TIFF Bell Lightbox

I don't know how David Lynch does it but works. Picked fences and flowers, firefighters saluting from the fire truck, colorful front gardens, all of them look really scary and without being dark this movie delivers the constant feeling of desolation and siege, that something is not alright in this town even before you reach the explicit scenes.

Blue Velvet is a the story of crime and obsession but there is more in the film than just the story. This film is more about the atmosphere of constant threat is about the feeling of distress that linger whether the crime is solved or not. This atmosphere is feed by a sort of theatrically in this film, like a layer of normality that lies on top of the darkness and that can be funny like the chicken walk or entertaining like the singing performances but that keeps only a facade.

This movie features brilliant performances. There is Isabella Rossellini as a club singer that is victim and tormentor, a masochistic character that seems to suffer from Stockholm syndrome. There is Kyle Maclachlan -from twin peaks- obsessed and in the edge of crossing the line between his quiet small town life and the world of depravation. There is Laura Dern, fresh and beautiful even with the 80s styling. And finally there is Denis Hopper playing a small time lowlife with such brilliance that becomes the incarnation of evil.

Blue Velvet is a memorable movie, and it is an example of pushing the limits of what movies can achieve and deliver. A visually disturbing and aesthetically brilliant film that will haunt you after the credits are over.