2011 Muriel Award: 25th Anniversary Award for Best Film of 1986

Why do I suddenly have Stevie Nicks singing in my head...?

Third place:



Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen) [112 points/18 votes]

Second place:



The Fly (David Cronenberg) [121/20]

And your winner...





Blue Velvet [243/33]

"Blue Velvet is a very personal movie for me. Not only because I own the soundtrack, the one-sheet poster, the VHS, the Blu-ray, the action figure set, and the collector’s edition amyl nitrate mask, but also because I saw it as an impressionable teenager of the Reagan/Bush 80s. To paraphase Seth Meyers of SNL fame, I attended college at the worst time: post-AIDS and pre-Internet. Almost by definition, my entire generation was sexually frustrated. So I suppose I can relate a bit to Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle Maclachlan), the student-turned-detective who naively discovers the violent and abusive world of lounge singer Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini) simply because he chooses to sneak into her apartment. The film itself certainly contains some elements of torrid titillation, but it’s more effective as a perverse cautionary tale against the pursuit of such desire. It’s a one-of-a-kind film: part mystery, part satire, part horror film. It’s both cerebral and pornographic, and it continues to shock, enthrall and disturb me every time I watch it. And in a twisted but sincere way, it’s all about the power of love.

If nothing else, the opening sequence of Blue Velvet stands as a warning. The undulating blue drapes under the titles give way to stereotypical snapshots of small town America (roses, a white-picket fence, schoolchildren, a crossing guard, a waving fireman with -- are you serious -- his trusty Dalmatian at his side) all to the strains of Bobby Vinton crooning the title song. These images are quickly followed by a man keeling over from a stroke while watering his lawn, and his now-errant hose attracting a small dog, who snaps at the water spray in slo-mo. Then, the camera travels down, down, down into and under the grass, where the largest, most terrifying beetles in the world fill the screen and loudly devour each other or scramble for survival. Yeah, I know, this ain’t Kansas.

In typical Lynchian fashion, Velvet is full of similar bizarre, nightmarish visuals and sound design. There’s Jeffrey Beaumont’s dream passage down into the fateful rabbit hole of a severed ear’s canal; there’s Dorothy Vallens’ damaged attempt at seduction at knifepoint; there’s Frank Booth’s (Dennis Hopper) twisted face jammed into a clear mask, with his wild eyes, spastic hands and unpredictable rage, all set to speaker-rattling, animalistic blasts of feedback. Sandwiched in between are odd flights of fancy like Dean Stockwell portraying an effeminate pimp with a penchant for Roy Orbison.

The gut-wrenching power of the visuals so famously disturbed critic Roger Ebert that he voraciously panned the film, mostly over David Lynch’s portrayal of Rossellini, disoriented in public while stark naked and bruised. Even after repeat viewings, Blue Velvet remains brutal viewing material that messes with your head and gets under your skin. A notorious scene of ritualistic rape raises many questions: For instance, why does it appear the incident placated the rapist yet also sexually stimulated the victim? Why does Jeffrey remain hidden in a nearby closet, watching impotently as it occurs? And why does Jeffrey return to the scene of the crime -- is it compassion or opportunism?

However, as previously stated, it’s also weirdly a story of overwhelming love. The film has room for not only the darkest depths of obsession that drive Frank Booth to madness but also the burgeoning love between Jeffrey and the police detective’s daughter, Sandy (Laura Dern). Dern’s character delivers a strange but ethereal monologue about her dream of love overcoming evil through the appearance of thousands of robins (yes, the bird kind). By the end of the film, the robins may or may not emerge victorious because it’s unclear how realistic or long-lasting any victory of this nature is. Still, the fact that Lynch’s vision allows for both lightness and darkness, and that both robins and beetles can co-exist within Jeffrey at all, remains cause for optimism. It’s a testament to the power of Blue Velvet and its ability to portray those extremes -- to simultaneously repulse and inspire audiences with every viewing.

P.S. For further reading, I recommend Nicholas Rombes’ The Blue Velvet Project online at Filmmaker Magazine. It’s more obsessive and completist than the DVD commentary David Lynch won’t provide. From the site:

Over the period of one full year — three days per week — The Blue Velvet Project will seize a frame every 47 seconds of David Lynch’s classic to explore. These posts will run until second 7,200 in August 2012. For a complete archive of the project, click here. And here is the introduction to the project." - Patrick Williamson

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