Latest / All The Right Movies / Blue Velvet (1986) | Ep. 54 - Part 1
Transcript
- 0:04All the right movies. So what do you know about the
- 0:06ear? Didn't my father tell you not to
- 0:09talk of that? Yeah, but you brought it up.
- 0:11You know anything? I don't know much, but bits and
- 0:14pieces I hear things. Yeah.
- 0:17My room is right above my father's office so.
- 0:19Above your father's office. So I heard a few things about
- 0:22the ear. Uh huh.
- 0:23And. Well, there are a couple of
- 0:26cases I get mixed up on, but one name that keeps coming up is
- 0:30this woman's singer. She lives in an apartment
- 0:32building that is real close to your house.
- 0:35It's also close to the field where you found the year.
- 0:38It's a strange world, isn't it? College kid Jeffrey Beaumont
- 0:44returns to his hometown to be the bedside of his eel and
- 0:47father after finding a 70 year Geoffrey tumbles into a dark
- 0:51void of pseudo masochism at the hands of torch songstress
- 0:54Dorothy Valens and psychotic Frank Booth.
- 0:58Blue Velvet established the late, great David Lynch as a
- 1:00uniquely singular voice in Hollywood, tackling themes
- 1:03rarely seen in mainstream cinema, helped in no small part
- 1:06by revelatory performances from Isabella Rossellini and Dennis
- 1:10Hopper. My name is Luke and the 2 candy
- 1:13coloured clowns with me are Matt.
- 1:15Man, I like Heineken. You like Heineken?
- 1:18And Westy. Shut up.
- 1:20It's Daddy, you shithead. Where's my bourbon?
- 1:23All the right movies are sending the love letter straight from
- 1:26our hearts. Hi everyone, welcome to All the
- 1:46Right Movies, a podcast on classic and hit films with
- 1:49something disturbing lurking beneath the surface.
- 1:51That's just mad, yes. It is this week.
- 1:59We're in the idealistic town of Lumberton, where there's
- 2:01something very weird going on. It's David Lynch's psycho sexual
- 2:05nightmare masterpiece Blue Velvet.
- 2:08It is. Oh dear.
- 2:09Oh dear. A long time coming it is.
- 2:12Yeah. Before we dive into the strange
- 2:15world of Blue Velvet is just a little bit of information on how
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- 3:41Yes, yes. Thank you everyone.
- 3:43Thank you so much guys. Right, back to business.
- 3:46OK, take a Blue Velvet. Yeah.
- 3:49Deep breath. Why?
- 3:51Why? OK, well, here it is.
- 3:53All right. My choice.
- 3:54Yes. And I feel like I need to
- 3:56explain myself because, you know, this is a very, very
- 4:00disturbing film. If you've just seen it for the
- 4:03first time because we're covering it on the show, then
- 4:06sorry, I suppose you're. Welcome, OH.
- 4:09You're welcome either. One.
- 4:11I'd go with that one. But we've had it on the Paul a
- 4:13few times and I don't think it's ever come close to winning.
- 4:16But with the side passing of David Lynch last month, yeah, I
- 4:19felt we had a unique opportunity to talk about the film in
- 4:22tribute to the great man himself.
- 4:23Definitely. Yeah, it's a disturbing film.
- 4:26It is with a lot of ambiguity about what Lynch is trying to
- 4:29say. And obviously that became his
- 4:31trademark. Yes.
- 4:32I mean, you may as well be talking in a different language.
- 4:35Yeah. And those are the things that
- 4:37kind of would often put me off a film, but this one really
- 4:39captivated me when I first watched it in my late teens.
- 4:42Much like Jeffrey, I was repulsed and intrigued by the
- 4:45darkness of the film and it turned me into a dividend, not
- 4:49leading to what at heart Mulholland, Dr. and of course
- 4:51Twin Peaks. But this is where the lynching
- 4:54nightmare started for me and I never want to wake up from it to
- 4:57be honest. Yeah, very nice.
- 4:59Yeah. There's so much to say about
- 5:00this film with great performances and spellbinding
- 5:03scenes, truly memorable scenes that really imprint themselves,
- 5:07burn them onto your brain. Yeah.
- 5:09We're headed for a Bombay ride. We are.
- 5:11Matt, why do you want to talk about Blue Velvet?
- 5:14I don't want. Can we do Mary Poppins again,
- 5:18please? That was a one and done, Matt.
- 5:21Yeah. Right, fair enough.
- 5:23No, for me, I've always had a list in my head if the directors
- 5:26really, really needed to cover on classic and Lynch was pretty
- 5:29much at the top of it. There was certainly no one else
- 5:32like him. And as he said, this film, it's
- 5:34been up a few times before, so it is a shame that it's taken
- 5:37Lynch's passing for it to finally win.
- 5:39But at the same time, that means there's no better time to talk
- 5:42about it and to celebrate the man himself.
- 5:44And I'm like you, Luke. This was my gateway to David
- 5:46Lynch. And I think gateway is the exact
- 5:48right phrase to use for him. And this, because there's no
- 5:51other director creates films where you truly feel you've
- 5:55stepped into a different world, where it looks similar and it
- 5:59looks familiar. But this something where the
- 6:01normal rules don't apply all the same, nothing is predictable,
- 6:04where very little might make sense.
- 6:06But if it doesn't make sense, that's also OK.
- 6:09And overall, this is a film. One of the things to find really
- 6:12interesting about it is you can come away from it particularly
- 6:15like the first time, think, Oh my God, the things I've seen in
- 6:17this, and actually you haven't. It's not that graphic a film.
- 6:21That's the suggestion of the darkness and the violence which
- 6:25filled us through everything, which we'll definitely talk
- 6:28about. Yeah, if we must, what about
- 6:31Westy Blue Velvet? Well, unlike you guys, this
- 6:33wasn't my introduction to the Lynch world.
- 6:35That was Lost Highway, which was, yeah, I know, right, which
- 6:39made us kind of kind of go, but is there anything else that I
- 6:42want to check out or do I have to?
- 6:44And I kind of just want, well, I have to.
- 6:45And then this came, I think Wild at Heart was after that.
- 6:47And then this came after that because I've got a VHS like, you
- 6:50know, the triple VHS as you get. I think there was, there was
- 6:53this, there was Wild at Heart and there was Lost Highway.
- 6:55And I watched Lost Highway first, and then I just didn't
- 6:57touch the rest of the Boxer for about four years, I think.
- 6:59Naturally. Touching this at all?
- 7:02Not going near that. But then when I did, I was
- 7:04pleasantly surprised because I was really put off by the front
- 7:07cover, by the artwork. It looked just a little bit too
- 7:10sexy for me. A little bit.
- 7:11Just a little. Bit just a little bit, just a
- 7:13bit sleazy. Blue velvet gas mask on the back
- 7:16with Hopper. And I thought, well, I've just
- 7:18seen Speed and I didn't really, I was terrified of him in that.
- 7:21So I don't know if I want to get into this.
- 7:23And it's just one of them films. The more you watch it, the more
- 7:26you appreciate his artistry. I think it was a direct reaction
- 7:28to June and the way he was trying on that film.
- 7:31And we'll get into that. I think it's brilliantly put
- 7:34together in the ways of its abstraction, which we'll talk
- 7:37about as well. Because he does say that he
- 7:39likes a concrete story, which is what this is.
- 7:42But it's littered with with abstraction, with distraction,
- 7:45with taking you away from the narrative and making you think,
- 7:47well, what's that bit about over there?
- 7:48And he makes you look across the street when you should be
- 7:50watching the road. And I think that's that's David
- 7:52Lynch all over. And this is one of them films
- 7:53that really nails at home. It's a difficult watch of times.
- 7:57It's a beautiful watch of times. Oh, yeah.
- 7:59It's heroin. It's everything there.
- 8:01It's a mix of everything. It's very David Lynch.
- 8:03It's a really good place to start.
- 8:04So let's go for it. Let's do it if we must.
- 8:07That was a pep talk, wasn't it? I felt like.
- 8:09Wasn't it? I feel great, yeah.
- 8:11It's about inches. Court Westie.
- 8:17I'm all in black for mourning for Lynch.
- 8:18You see, it's all working, it's all coming together.
- 8:20Blue Velvet was written and directed by David Lynch and
- 8:23produced by Fred Caruso for De Laurentius Entertainment Group
- 8:25and released on the 19th of September 1986.
- 8:29Filmed on location in Wilmington, NC, it stars Kyle
- 8:32McLaughlin as detective slash pervert Jeffrey Beaumont.
- 8:37For me, you know you can find out strange reaction to that
- 8:41question. Isabella Rossellini is Dorothy
- 8:46Valance Dennis Hopper as the scariest man in movie history TM
- 8:51So Frank Booth and Laura Dern as Sandy Williams.
- 8:55Atrm are headed to Lumberton, the town where people really
- 8:57know how much wood a woodchuck chucks.
- 8:59Yes, they do for that. The beginning.
- 9:07The opening, The Blue Velvet is uncertainly idealistic.
- 9:10Roses and white picket fences, gardening and fireman brick in
- 9:13the 4th wall. Matt, you're starting off our
- 9:16uncomfortable journey. Yes, I am.
- 9:19I mean, this is such a beautiful opening, isn't it?
- 9:21I mean. Isn't it just?
- 9:22This must be the best neighborhood in the world to
- 9:25live in. Just look how friendly that
- 9:26fireman is. He knows you and he's welcome.
- 9:28You're in. That's the bluest sky I've ever
- 9:30seen. the OR the reddest roses I've ever seen.
- 9:33I've never seen a more beautiful white picket fence and perfectly
- 9:36manicured on my entire life. Until you get up close and you
- 9:40see someone has collapsed and is dying on it.
- 9:42And then you really look underneath lawn and you see that
- 9:45squirm and massive insects that live underneath all the
- 9:49superficial beauty. Like everything you're going to
- 9:51experience and see in this film is summed up here.
- 9:54And it's also very David listen that he can drop in funny
- 9:57moments where they shouldn't really exist.
- 9:59Like the dog thinks it's a play time with a horse.
- 10:02Like Jeffrey's dad has dropped things.
- 10:03That's hilarious. What an opening.
- 10:06Lynch said on the opening. It's a real American film, and
- 10:09it starts with that first image of blue skies and picket fences
- 10:12and the roses and the angle looking up.
- 10:14It's something that had to be looking up because it's a
- 10:16childhood sort of image that taps just right into his
- 10:19childhood, his view of this ideal America.
- 10:22Yeah, so because of the tragedy that's folded out here, we have
- 10:26Jeffrey entering the scene, loves to throw stones for some
- 10:29reason. Just the bottles.
- 10:31Just that. Let's settle.
- 10:32How was he going to find the ear?
- 10:33I don't know, Pick throwing stones maybe.
- 10:35Yeah. OK, that's that'll do.
- 10:36That'll do. And I couldn't move away from
- 10:40hitting that. But even if I saw the ear, I
- 10:41would still. I've got to.
- 10:42I've got to smash that. I've started, so I'll finish.
- 10:46I have that kind of persistence where that's not going anywhere.
- 10:49But I think it's great. The sound design is great here.
- 10:51The ear doesn't necessarily look real, but I don't think it's
- 10:53supposed to. The answer crawling all over it,
- 10:56it's a great sound design. Here, it's a crickets and it's
- 10:58got that real kind of sense of the board and all of a sudden
- 11:01where you just think, well, don't pick it up what you're
- 11:04doing, you don't put it in a bag, Don't do that.
- 11:06This is ridiculous. Pick it up, get the bag and put
- 11:09it over your hand and pick it up.
- 11:10Don't pick it up with your hand. Use it with a stick, something I
- 11:15would tell us. I would have to go and tell
- 11:16somebody to come back with this to make sure I wasn't
- 11:18hallucinating. And then they'd help us pick it
- 11:19up because I would just lose me. I'm thinking that seeing an ear
- 11:22in the middle of a field, which is fine, but I think that's good
- 11:24because it foreshadows how he finds out about it.
- 11:27Sandy's overheard something, I've heard something about it.
- 11:30Everything's, you know, PSC, and there's nothing you've actually
- 11:33seen with your eyes until he sees it.
- 11:35And we're getting into all that now and rebels.
- 11:37But the thing that strikes me is how surrealist the police
- 11:40station is. It's like police squad and he
- 11:43goes in. Do you know when he's talking to
- 11:44him? And it's kind of like, that's a
- 11:45human. You're all right.
- 11:46You expect me to kind of just pause as he's pulling the
- 11:48coffee? Like the credit?
- 11:50Control. It's just so idyllic and it's so
- 11:53kind of over the top cartoonish with its color palette and the
- 11:57way it's all blocked in the ways and back in the other room, just
- 12:00staring at a map, bizarrely for no reason.
- 12:02And then again, once a little bit further on from the scene, I
- 12:05find it quite hilarious, but again, quite abstract, the way
- 12:08he's just getting so much information from this coroner.
- 12:11He's just standing there. Tell us about it.
- 12:12Yeah, my kid. Fuck off.
- 12:14Why is Jeffrey even in that room?
- 12:16He's like, oh, we'll go and see the current and then you show us
- 12:18exactly where you found it. And he's like, well, I can find
- 12:20out this and I can find out this.
- 12:21And he's like, oh, that's interesting.
- 12:23So like he's studying forensic science or something.
- 12:25Is it? He's like, you know, I've come
- 12:26back from school and I'm really interested in this.
- 12:28I wouldn't want to know. I'll just be like, can I just
- 12:30go? Yeah.
- 12:32It's just, it's the way that this builds everything up and
- 12:36you just think, well, what what is this?
- 12:37How playful is this going to be? And it's just the the tip of the
- 12:41iceberg before we start sliding down the other side, I think.
- 12:43Yes, very much. Yeah.
- 12:45We're talking about the IT obviously wasn't real, and it
- 12:47was created by makeup artist Jeff Goodwin and was initially
- 12:51supposed to be modeled on his own ear, but Lynch said that it
- 12:53looked like a child's ear, so he used the ear of producer Fed
- 12:57Caruso instead. Fred Caruso immortalized in a
- 13:0070. It looks disgusting with that
- 13:01mold on it. Yes.
- 13:02Horrible, horrible. The worst things we've ever
- 13:04seen. Yeah, a human ear.
- 13:07Anybody asked him that? I found it a human.
- 13:08You know, a dog's ear. I mean, of course it's a human
- 13:10ear. How would you know it's a dog's
- 13:13ear? Lynch said.
- 13:15I don't know why it had to be an ear, except it needed to be an
- 13:18opening of a part of the body, a hole into something else.
- 13:22He sits on the head and goes right into the mind so it felt
- 13:25perfect. Yeah, I mean, subconsciously it
- 13:26totally works for the story as well.
- 13:28Whether he meant it or not, or whether he's just being, you
- 13:30know, cryptic even further after the film, I don't know, but
- 13:33that's David. That is, I think that's his.
- 13:35That's his middle name, isn't it?
- 13:36Yeah, David. Cryptic Lynch.
- 13:40Well, after that scene, we delve into this mystery ear and into
- 13:44this fever dream of Jeffrey Beaumont and his manifestation
- 13:46of evil, Frank Booth, and everything changes.
- 13:50Jeffrey goes to Detective Williams house to follow up on
- 13:53the ear, but he's told, you know, ask no questions, tell no
- 13:55lies. Maybe in time later on when
- 13:57everything's all said and done, I'll tell you.
- 13:59But that doesn't stop his curiosity, and neither does his
- 14:02encounter with Sandy either. And just to talk about Sandy for
- 14:05a moment, expertly played by Laura Dern.
- 14:09Yeah. Oh, she's amazing.
- 14:10She appears in a very surreal manner out of the pitch black
- 14:14darkness. She's an innocent.
- 14:16Vision of hope. It really takes his time to come
- 14:19to the front of that. That's great.
- 14:20She just pops about of nowhere and she knows about Jeffrey's
- 14:23ear revelation without any hint of an explanation as to why.
- 14:27And I think this same thing feels very familiar.
- 14:29It feels like that archetypal scene where our hero returns
- 14:33back to his hometown and finds the girl that used to live next
- 14:36door, who's blossomed into a beautiful woman.
- 14:38Yeah, but this isn't Mary from It's a Wonderful Life.
- 14:40Definitely not. No, no, no.
- 14:42It's not far off though, and it's not tall and visioned.
- 14:45It's like it's there, but it's. Not far off.
- 14:47Dark. A bit behind it all, yeah.
- 14:49And I think Sandy almost acts as a guardian Angel to Jeffrey,
- 14:52shown in the light at the end of his dark, disturbing tunnel that
- 14:55he wanders down. And I think that's the
- 14:57archetypal spoiled town that Lynch is trying to revoke from
- 15:00It's a Wonderful Life. It looks the same, feels the
- 15:02same. Yeah.
- 15:03Well, feels the same probably. That's not true.
- 15:07It's got a similar tone, it's in the same key, it's a different
- 15:11song. And this starts off the whole
- 15:14investigation. It's so tantalizing and
- 15:16disturbing the way that the doom laden noir music kicks in as
- 15:19that apartment building looms over Jeffrey.
- 15:21Yeah. It's almost as if he's created
- 15:24this building in his mind and all of the sort of things that
- 15:27happened inside it are part of his twisted brain.
- 15:30But then we're brought back down to earth with Sandy and
- 15:32Jeffrey's little meat. Cue to that, they've got going
- 15:34on with him doing the chicken walk.
- 15:36Amazing. Have you tried to do that?
- 15:38Yeah. Absolutely.
- 15:40Not I tried do this morning. I look like RoboCop.
- 15:48Sandy says it's kind of interesting and of course what
- 15:50she means by that is never, ever do that again because it's an
- 15:53embarrassment, mate. Arm around the shoulder as well
- 15:56when he's finished. Really.
- 15:57Uncomfortable. Yeah.
- 15:58Straight in there, yeah. Yeah, knew the kid with the
- 16:01biggest tongue in the world. Yeah, what happened?
- 16:03You know, moved away, I guess. Yeah, great story.
- 16:06Yeah. Pillow Talk.
- 16:08Calm down. So we're talking about Sandy.
- 16:12Molly Ringwald was top of Lynch's pilot player.
- 16:14Sandy reports conflicted. But it was either her or her
- 16:17mother who turned it down because she'd build up this
- 16:19wholesome big screen persona and didn't want to mess with it,
- 16:22bearing in mind three years earlier with space on there.
- 16:24So I'm not surprised. Well, that's true enough.
- 16:27That's that the rough speaking, the opportunity West.
- 16:32Didn't want to spoil that legacy, did you?
- 16:34No, exactly. So that would be why.
- 16:35But Lynch liked Laura down so much that she didn't even have
- 16:38to audition. But Lynch did have a meet up
- 16:40with Midlaplan just to see if their chemistry would be
- 16:42believable. Yes, which of course it is very.
- 16:46So far then, a little light hearted mystery for Jeffrey and
- 16:49Sandy. Nothing to worry about it seems.
- 16:51Not yet. That'll change with Geoffrey
- 16:56settling back into small town life.
- 16:57He's captivated by the mystery ear and hatches a crazy plan to
- 17:01get into Dorothy Valens apartment to have a Snoop
- 17:04around. It's a pretty good plan, I
- 17:05think. Yeah, I mean, he's got some
- 17:07balls. Yeah.
- 17:08Yeah, I have to say that. So I'm going to pick up where
- 17:11Geoffrey masquerades as the bug man.
- 17:14An insane idea, but it just shows that Jeffrey has got this
- 17:18kind of unquenchable desire to get to the bottom of this
- 17:20mystery. It's almost as if there's a
- 17:22seductive power of Dorothy Valance has drawn him into this
- 17:25apartment, and he has to do by any means.
- 17:28The apartment block where Dorothy lives is called Deep
- 17:30River Apartments. Not too subtle warning sign that
- 17:33Jeffrey's getting well over his head.
- 17:35Yeah. When he knocks on the door, the
- 17:37camera pushes into heighten, the claustrophobia of the situation
- 17:40made worse as soon as that door opens and Dorothy is behind it.
- 17:44And she's immediately a woman on the edge, half of her faces lit,
- 17:48one eye bulging with the anticipated horrors of the other
- 17:52side of the door. What's what's behind there?
- 17:54She's wearing a red dress, worn and signed straight away.
- 17:57The living area is so unsettled, literally red, and the kitchen
- 18:01seems like it offers some kind of solace with its light
- 18:04colours. Despite the unease, Dorothy has
- 18:07a really funny line. When there's a knock at the
- 18:09door, she says it's like Grand Central Station, really funny
- 18:13like that. But then Lynch subverts our
- 18:15expectations here. We're expecting Sandy, and we
- 18:17get this weird feller instead. The yellow man.
- 18:19Yeah, it's great moment. It is, yeah.
- 18:22What's he doing there? He's there for maybe 5 seconds.
- 18:24Why does he show up? Very strange.
- 18:27I think it's just an exercise in sustained tension and intrigue,
- 18:30the start of a journey that Jeffrey.
- 18:32Shouldn't take. Yeah, because obviously at this
- 18:34point Jeffrey has taken the key. And then we get the scene where
- 18:37he breaks into the apartment. And it seems on the surface,
- 18:40while this is going to be a very straightforward, suspenseful
- 18:43Hitchcockian scene of trying to avoid detection, which it is to
- 18:46a degree. But the way it Lynch spins it
- 18:49and it becomes this dark pseudo masochistic seduction scene
- 18:53which turns to this gawk young man who still feels like a
- 18:55teenager to me in this film, doesn't feel like an adult.
- 18:58And it turns into this CD volume because as soon as he's in there
- 19:02on his own, I'm on edge. I mean, you mentioned the
- 19:04apartment, Luke. It's the layout to me because it
- 19:06doesn't make sense. You've got the couch and the
- 19:08chairs and the TV with the couch and the chairs on turn towards
- 19:11the face, the TV like the normally wouldn't anyone else's
- 19:14house. Nothing makes sense here.
- 19:16It's one of those aspects where it's so subliminal, but it gets
- 19:18into your skin and it stays there because we've gone from
- 19:21that open and sunny daylight to something truly dark here.
- 19:24It is again quite funny how Lynch can just drop in a little
- 19:27off here because it is quite funny that Jeffrey chooses now
- 19:30of all times to break the seal because that Heineken yard
- 19:33earlier that's come back to haunt them.
- 19:35Like it's the very definition of could you not have gone before
- 19:38you left the house? If you need the toilet, don't go
- 19:40do it in a stranger's house when you're snooping around.
- 19:43Yeah, it's still. Around the bathroom when you're
- 19:45finished, Like, yeah, what you're doing.
- 19:47Exactly. But that leads to the most
- 19:50Hitchcockian moment of the scene, which is when Sunday
- 19:52blasts the horn three times to 1.
- 19:54Dorothy's come back, but he flushes the toilet just to the
- 19:57exact time. So it could say that is
- 19:59brilliant and it's the scene shows how remarkable the film is
- 20:02shifting tones frequently within the same scene.
- 20:06This has started off quite exciting, like it's a detective
- 20:09thriller, but then Jeff is traps the tension ramps right up
- 20:12because he namely gets caught until the phone rings, which
- 20:15distracts Dorothy. Yeah, but now he's spying on 1/2
- 20:18naked woman and we are in there with him, so maybe he should be
- 20:21caught and then he is and he's got a knife.
- 20:24Just thought. And she's making him strip.
- 20:25Like where else can the film go at this point?
- 20:27Like it truly can't get any darker or weirder than this.
- 20:31That moment when Dorothy hears the noise and she kind of coolly
- 20:34plays it, but then goes and gets the knife and then creeps up,
- 20:37like against the wall so Jeffrey can't see what she's doing.
- 20:40That was one of the scenes that really stuck out to me.
- 20:43Her performance in that moment. It's unbelievable.
- 20:46He says. I just want to, I just want to
- 20:47leave. And she's like, no way you're
- 20:49staying. I want to see you.
- 20:50Yeah. It's horrible.
- 20:53He always uses that vantage point as well, doesn't he of the
- 20:55apartment, Like when you guys were talking about the layout of
- 20:57it, it's always that one camera angle throughout the whole film.
- 21:00That's what that's the angle that to make us should use for
- 21:03here just. I would.
- 21:06Have watched that. Yeah, I've got to see who's
- 21:08doing that. Yeah, do right.
- 21:09Right. I mean, you guys are talking
- 21:11about things getting weird. You were talking about getting
- 21:12really weird. We have to.
- 21:16Here he comes, the big man. You'll never forget it.
- 21:19If if you haven't seen the film, stop this now and go and watch
- 21:22it just so we can talk. You can just really appreciate
- 21:24what we're talking about here because this is so gripping but
- 21:28so uncomfortable. It's so hard to watch.
- 21:31The way he just sips the bourbon then downs it and then the way
- 21:35he talks to it is just disgusting.
- 21:36Don't look at me, Daddy. You like to call me daddy, calls
- 21:41on Mommy. Daddy, open your legs wide.
- 21:42I want to see it. I mean, you thought that is just
- 21:44into this. He is 100% committed to this
- 21:48moment in this scene. But it's one of them
- 21:50performances that just stays. When that mask first goes on,
- 21:53you just say what on earth is going on?
- 21:56What is that? What's he doing?
- 21:57And then he turns really childlike and just starts kind
- 22:01of like breaking down and everything's just installed the
- 22:04Blue Velvet references and it's all about that song, It's all
- 22:07about his. And then it's just all of a
- 22:09sudden ramps up to this madness and then he's gone and it's
- 22:13just, what did I just what? What did I just watch?
- 22:16And then the second time you watch it, you realise when she's
- 22:18on the phone, you think she's talking to her son, but she's
- 22:21saying, you know, daddy and Mommy, and it's saying Mommy's
- 22:24gay. And she's actually talking to
- 22:25Frank. Frank's on his way over and
- 22:27again, it's really sinister. So on the second time you watch
- 22:29it, it gets even deeper and it kind of just grinds a little bit
- 22:32more. I could not just watch that
- 22:34happen from a closet, and I don't know if I could.
- 22:37I would have to do something. But I just find that's all kind
- 22:40of difficult to sip through from all of the subtleties there from
- 22:43Lynch and all of the unsubtleties and all the right
- 22:45in your face. You just think that was really
- 22:48intelligently way to play the that's so original.
- 22:50I've never seen anything like it since, and I don't think I ever
- 22:52will. This is why I don't like
- 22:53watching this film with anyone else and that's kind of I'm like
- 22:57that with the Lynch films like Lost Highway in my Holland Dr.
- 23:00If it's first time watching this with someone else, they'll turn
- 23:02around you and they'll go. You like this you've seen.
- 23:05This wrong with you. And you want to watch it again.
- 23:08And then people start thinking you're weird.
- 23:09But the the genius of Lynch and the genius of Hot Wire is that
- 23:12they're not taught by this. They just go, oh, I know what
- 23:14you were trying to say. You.
- 23:16Yeah, you were. But we know what you're trying
- 23:17to say. We, we get that.
- 23:18But I think he pulls it off. Somehow this works.
- 23:21Somehow it's watchable. Somehow it's painful and really
- 23:24electric. And really terrifying and really
- 23:27wonderful actually, if you once you look at the acting that's in
- 23:30place here, the performance that's in place, it's it's
- 23:34wonderfully played out, which feels like you're watching
- 23:36something on stage. It feels like a real theatre
- 23:38production. Yeah, it does.
- 23:39I think that wide angle helps as well.
- 23:41It does, yeah. Yeah, they can probably set
- 23:43dressed and it feels like a stage.
- 23:45It does. Yeah.
- 23:46Well, the first scene filmed was this we have seen.
- 23:49And Rossellini said that was because Lynch wanted to get it
- 23:52off and done with and out the way.
- 23:53And understandably, she was very embarrassed when she was new in
- 23:56front of Dennis Hopper because this was the first time that
- 23:59met. She's having to spread her legs
- 24:00open here and she was naked under the rope.
- 24:03And she actually apologized off before the discomfort.
- 24:05But he just said, I've seen it all before.
- 24:07Which part of it is? I think he's seen most things
- 24:11before then. Yeah, you can't shock Dennis
- 24:13Hopper, I don't think. Not by this point in his life.
- 24:15Definitely. Not, as we've been seeing,
- 24:17really troubling this scene. Difficult to watch, harder to
- 24:20forget. Which is why, when filming
- 24:23Isabella, Russellini was slightly confused at Lynch
- 24:26laughing as the scene was being filmed.
- 24:29The mad bastard he's. Getting away with it.
- 24:31That's why it's like I'm actually filming it.
- 24:33This was in my head. It's now in real life.
- 24:35It's weird. He said that he found the
- 24:37strangeness of the scene very humorous, and Rossellini later
- 24:41said that now she can't watch the scene without laughing.
- 24:44OK. Right.
- 24:45Just two people in the world then, yeah.
- 24:47I was going to say I'm glad somebody can.
- 24:50And during this rape scene, Lynch cut out a moment where
- 24:52Frank hits Dorothy at the quest of the MPAA.
- 24:56He cuts the Jeffrey in the closet instead and move with
- 24:58with. Lynch claims made the scene even
- 25:00more disturbing. Yeah, I mean, if that's
- 25:02possible, but it's kind of goes back to what you were saying,
- 25:05Matt. The less you see, the more you
- 25:06make up in your head and the worse it is.
- 25:09Yes. Well, a horrific scene.
- 25:11And that brings us to our first question from an ATRM Patreon
- 25:15supporter. And that is another benefit.
- 25:17If you sign up to Patreon, you can get to ask us a question for
- 25:20the film that we're covering. This one comes from Dane de
- 25:23Josie. How are you doing, Dane?
- 25:24Hello. Dane Dane says Frank Booth drug
- 25:27induced introduction in the apartment is a memory that has
- 25:29been burned into my subconscious since my first viewing of Blue
- 25:32Velvet. Yeah, what other shocking or
- 25:35unexpected Mormons in film have stuck with you for years?
- 25:38Slash decades? Right.
- 25:40Where see are there any movie moments that have stuck in your
- 25:43head for years slash decades? Yes, many and unfortunately, but
- 25:48I mean, they're all for the right reasons and they're all
- 25:50from films that I really admire. Thankfully, none that have been
- 25:53put in there just for the sake of being put in there.
- 25:56I think the Murphy's death in RoboCop was one of the earliest
- 25:59ones for me that stands out. And recently born Tomahawk.
- 26:02I think that really that sequence, yeah.
- 26:07Two endings that really, really hit home would be the mist.
- 26:11I think that was just that's never going to leave good punch
- 26:14the end and that was a real good punch.
- 26:15And the ending of old boy as well.
- 26:16The original obviously that was that was that came from
- 26:21absolutely nowhere. And one that Florida's as well
- 26:23was the the shoe scene in Georgia Rabbit when he just
- 26:26looks to the side and the shoes are yeah, that's what was that
- 26:29stayed with us for a long time. You know that hits, right?
- 26:31Well, brilliant. But ones that don't necessarily
- 26:33go back too often, Let's be honest.
- 26:35No, don't need to see just like this one.
- 26:37Don't need to say this one. This is the thing that I really
- 26:40did avoid when I was watching. I must have watched this film
- 26:43about four times, but I've kind of like through one eye I've
- 26:46watched. This, yeah.
- 26:50There were moments in film that were notorious to me before I
- 26:53even got a chance to see them, and as such I still get quite
- 26:56nervous in the lead up to those scenes when watching the films.
- 26:59The crucifix scene from The Exorcist, All right.
- 27:02Right. And the first view of
- 27:04Leatherface in Texas Chainsaw Massacre when he smashes Kurt's
- 27:07head in. Yeah, I watch Pulp Fiction at
- 27:09the time it came out. So I would have been, I'd say,
- 27:1214. And I don't think I should have
- 27:14been subjected to Marcellus Wallace's rape scene at that
- 27:16age. No, that's correct.
- 27:17I remember that for a long time, Yeah.
- 27:19I think sure, we would have all been around about the same age.
- 27:22It's that saxophone blaring away that I think are first, yeah.
- 27:27It's the other guy's reaction as well.
- 27:28When it cuts that like split out there with Willis in the
- 27:30background. That guy is just, it's just
- 27:32horrible. Yeah.
- 27:35And I've mentioned in the past it's the same as what you've
- 27:38just said Westie. I got RoboCop on VHS when it
- 27:41came out. I think I was 7.
- 27:43And the same where Murphy gets tortured and killed by Clarence
- 27:46or almost killed. These sickening.
- 27:48It really is sickening. If you revisit it now, DMA.
- 27:51No, it's, it's stretched quite a bit.
- 27:53It's that end of meals death as well.
- 27:55I was kind of toying between the two, the acid meals, yeah.
- 27:58Don't touch me, man. Get away from me, man.
- 28:01Gets hit by the car just destroyed, which is more funny
- 28:04now? Let's be honest, we're laughing
- 28:05about it, but at the time. It is hilarious, a man
- 28:08exploding. But at the time, no, I didn't
- 28:13sleep for weeks. And Matt, any scenes that stand
- 28:15out for you? Yeah, I've gone for three here.
- 28:18The first one, Barbara's death, Night of the Living Dead, just
- 28:23the fact that it's her reanimated brother who comes
- 28:25back but just obviously doesn't recognize her because he's a
- 28:28zombie. And just the way she just gets
- 28:30pulled into the the crowd of zombies outside, just the
- 28:35thought of what happens to her is just horrific because.
- 28:38Miles worse, isn't it? It is miles West because as well
- 28:41you think well she's the damn Muslim stress she's going to get
- 28:43rescued at the end of the film. I thought another pack of
- 28:45zombies to be eaten and couldn't believe it when I saw that for
- 28:49the first time. Second one I'm going for is
- 28:52Funny Games, the Michael Hanneker film.
- 28:54Like the original 1. I mean, I don't mean nice.
- 28:57But yeah, well. Fair.
- 28:59Enough. Yeah, great.
- 29:01If anyone hasn't seen it, it's about.
- 29:02Two youths who terrorize this family.
- 29:04And the scene that I will never, ever forget is one of the use
- 29:07makes the mother do this really twisted version of like hide and
- 29:11seek, like hot and cold has got to find something.
- 29:13And she's getting closer and closer.
- 29:15And he just turns and he winks into the camera.
- 29:18He breaks the 4th wall and he makes you complicit in it.
- 29:21And I was like, what? The book the 4th Wall, and it's
- 29:25horrifically done and I won't spoil what she finds, but it's
- 29:28terrifying. It's not pleasant.
- 29:30It's. Definitely not pleasant.
- 29:32And the last one I want to mention is Wake and Fright, the
- 29:35Australian film. Because nice.
- 29:36Yeah, brilliant. This is film that comes.
- 29:38With a content one, because this comes with a kangaroo hunt scene
- 29:41which was 100% genuine. I'll never watch that film again
- 29:45because that scene is beyond horrific.
- 29:47Yeah, and it's disgusting. You know I.
- 29:49Suppose thanks to the. Question, dear Yeah, thanks for
- 29:52being I was. Hoping it was going to be a
- 29:53welcome. Break away from this scene to be
- 29:55honest, let's. See where we can go from here.
- 29:58Good grief. And this scene, I mean.
- 30:03Surely one of the most disturbing character intros ever
- 30:06committed to the big screen, Yeah?
- 30:13The director, the first time that we talked about David.
- 30:17Lynch on any of our podcasts. An absolute crime.
- 30:21But yeah, this is a hell of an introduction.
- 30:22Yeah, it is possibly. His greatest?
- 30:24Achievement in his own words. It's a film about things that
- 30:27are hidden within a small city and within people.
- 30:30Matt, your thoughts on his work as director?
- 30:34I mean, I don't mind admitting I.
- 30:35Think this is like the most difficult one we've had to do to
- 30:38kind of crack. What does Lynch do here and how
- 30:41does he do it? Totally.
- 30:43But then I kind of had the realization that trying to
- 30:45explain the how and the why when it comes to Lynch is a pointless
- 30:48endeavor because totally everything he's made apart from
- 30:51Straight Story and arguably Elephant Man is a puzzle box.
- 30:55And there aren't any easy answers here.
- 30:56But I think the reason a lot of people come to Blue Velvet first
- 30:59is because this isn't the type of Lynch film where it's like
- 31:02that stream of consciousness streamed from his head onto the
- 31:05screen. Like Lost Highway.
- 31:07This is a Lynch film where he loosely sets up the rules of the
- 31:10world but then turns everything on its head.
- 31:12Like the plot in the sense is quite straightforward.
- 31:14It's a kidnapping and there's a critical underworld that's the
- 31:17bare bones. But no one has understood dream
- 31:20logic better than Lynch. The feeling of things can happen
- 31:22that don't feel logical, but at the same time they do feel
- 31:25logical. And the thing about dream logic
- 31:27is all it takes is a little tweak and it feels like a
- 31:30nightmare instead. How many times have we all had a
- 31:33dream where it's something very innocuous on the surface, but
- 31:36something is just off about it and it doesn't feel quite right
- 31:40and you'd like it to stop? That's what David Lynch does.
- 31:43Yes, please. I want all this to stop please,
- 31:46because I don't. Like it?
- 31:47Yeah. When Jeffrey.
- 31:48Goes for that walk in the. Neighborhood.
- 31:50Why is it scored like a horror film?
- 31:52Just that tracking shot of him looking up at the tree branches.
- 31:56Yeah, like, say, innocuous, but incredibly creepy and disturbing
- 32:00for some reason. So they start to get out.
- 32:02Isn't. It it's very get out when they.
- 32:04Take Jeffrey for the ride in the car.
- 32:06Why does the woman stand on top of it and start dancing?
- 32:08Don't know, but that's the point.
- 32:10Sometimes life is inexplicable. When is this film actually set?
- 32:14Because so much of it Hawks back to the 50s.
- 32:17Equally, a lot of it is definitely the 80s.
- 32:20I think his use of transitions and fades and surreal glimpses
- 32:24of images like Frank Snarly to link scenes together.
- 32:27Frank literally blinking in and out of existence at one point.
- 32:30It is like coming in and out of consciousness and it's all
- 32:34subliminal and it all builds. Like I say, this feeling of
- 32:36dream logic, nothing I'm seeing as making sense and I can't
- 32:39explain it, but maybe I shouldn't even try to.
- 32:42No, you shouldn't, because no matter.
- 32:43How much we theorize and hypothesize about what this
- 32:46means and what this is about, and the central narrative we'll
- 32:50never. Know for sure, because Lynch.
- 32:52Just never explains, no. Could be something entirely.
- 32:54Different. Completely different.
- 32:56Yeah, yeah. I think it's just the.
- 32:59Fearlessness of all of this. I think his mind is just
- 33:01fearless. And I think he's at a stage in
- 33:03his career where he doesn't even need to prove himself to anyone
- 33:07else but himself. And I think that's what he's
- 33:09he's doing here. He's putting his ideas down as a
- 33:11screenplay and then working from that.
- 33:13I mean, how much of this abstraction that Matt's talking
- 33:17about that we're all talking about, you know, women dancing
- 33:19on the car, everyone inside this is it for a start, how how much
- 33:22of that is on the on the page is scripted or how much of that is
- 33:26just Lynch's mind, the cogs turning?
- 33:28It's like he's got a sandbox and he's got enough sand in it to
- 33:31build sandcastles, which is the plot.
- 33:33But it's not the sandcastles you're expecting them to build.
- 33:35It's something completely different.
- 33:37And you're saying, how did you make that?
- 33:38I was sand? Where did that come from?
- 33:40I'm just expecting this and I'm getting this, and it's just a
- 33:43really good way of throwing the audience off.
- 33:46But at the same time, he's really entertaining himself.
- 33:49And by doing that as a film maker, you really entertain the
- 33:51audience because they're looking for meaning, they're looking for
- 33:54reason. They're looking for What does
- 33:56reason mean? And he?
- 33:58Taps into that and he'd like Matt said he's just he's the
- 34:01king of the dreamscape. He's the king of the question
- 34:04and reality. All of lost highways just is
- 34:06that a dream or is that reality? All of this, even these bits in
- 34:09here like Robins the flowers at the start, firemen waving like,
- 34:13yeah, I hope he's not on the way to a job because you should be
- 34:15taking things a little bit more seriously.
- 34:17There's a house fire down the street and he's like, well,
- 34:20hello. Just Frank, as a character
- 34:23should. Be enough for any film, but this
- 34:24still has more layers than that. And even when Frank's there,
- 34:28you're still thinking about something else.
- 34:29It should be like Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight where it just
- 34:32completely rips the screen off and it's just that one singular
- 34:35guy. But the whole the squad is with
- 34:37him. I played really well.
- 34:39It's really well cast by, you know, Brad Durif's just perfect
- 34:42casting and Lynch knows what he's doing.
- 34:44Everyone looks right, everyone just has the place.
- 34:47And I think that's why his career is so celebrated and
- 34:50especially this film, because this is the first film where he
- 34:52went. I am in complete control of
- 34:54everything and everyone and this is what I'm going to do.
- 34:56And it's pure David Lynch. It is pure David Lynch.
- 34:59No, I like him. No, he's wolf in.
- 35:02An absolute. Maze here.
- 35:03It's easy to get lost in stuff full of context and sub context
- 35:07there. Toxic masculinity, Male gears.
- 35:10The wood industry at the centre of the film is full of phallic
- 35:13imagery. Strangely enough.
- 35:15Yeah. Yeah, Lynch.
- 35:17Seems obsessed with this. Norman Rockwell picketed fenced
- 35:2050s idealism of his youth. He must have seen some weird
- 35:23shit as a kid to then fill this dream like a deal of Americana
- 35:27with this horrendous Freudian nocturnal nightmare.
- 35:30Yeah, Freudian. Nocturnal.
- 35:31Nightmare. They should put that on the VHS.
- 35:38But being a fan? Of linear narratives as I am,
- 35:41and the genre itself. I do love the noir plot elements
- 35:44to Blue Velvet. Yeah, it's got all the classic
- 35:47beats. Sleazy plot cabinet for me.
- 35:49Obviously a sinister villain, femme fatale, a morally
- 35:53ambiguous hero with the majority of the plot existing at night.
- 35:57Perfect. It's Jeffrey's investigation
- 35:59that I really love. Following the car, taking
- 36:02pictures, building his case up to his neck in Vice.
- 36:04I love it. I think it could maybe have
- 36:07turned into pastiche, particularly with the music.
- 36:09But Lynch always keeps you on your toes.
- 36:11And just when you're being taken down this kind of very
- 36:14straightforward narrative investigation path, you brought
- 36:17right back into this perverse nightmare with scenes of sexual
- 36:20violence just to keep you on edge, just to mess with you.
- 36:23Yeah. Yeah.
- 36:23He never lets you settle in one particular genre, which always
- 36:27keeps me on edge. You can't categorize any part of
- 36:31this film. No, no, it's a Lynch film.
- 36:35And if a certain interaction with.
- 36:36George Lucas had gone a different way.
- 36:38David Lynch may never have made Blue Velvet.
- 36:41At the time, Lucas was in pre production on Return of the Jedi
- 36:44and he offered the directing job to a number of directors.
- 36:48David Lynch was one of them. He was.
- 36:51Never close though. Would have been obviously can.
- 36:54You. Imagine what those Ewoks were
- 36:56getting up to. Oh my God, the pit.
- 36:59I'm trying to think what that would have been a.
- 37:02Massive. Mask on it.
- 37:07Get my lightsaber, you fuck. Lynch met with Lucas.
- 37:15But said that he had next door to no interest in doing Jedi and
- 37:19he instead made June. June was a critical than
- 37:23commercial flop. It's not the Denis Villeneuve
- 37:26adaptation that we've got over the last few years.
- 37:28It had Sting in, it was in great nick in that nappy.
- 37:32Lovely. Yeah, no excuse.
- 37:34Yes. In that nappy.
- 37:36His hair is literally. Fields of gold.
- 37:43And it was a critical. And commercial flop which led
- 37:46Lynch to revisit some old ideas that he had more in line with
- 37:49his surreal visions from his debut feature a raise ahead yeah
- 37:53yeah so despite. Dune being a huge flop for Lynch
- 37:56and Dino De Laurentiis, Laurentiis was still convinced
- 37:59by Lynch to back his next project, and also because the
- 38:02studio had mauled Dune. Lynch wanted total creative
- 38:05control on Blue Velvet. Laurentiis gave it to him, but
- 38:08he slashed the budget from $10 million to $6 million, demanded
- 38:12a maximum 2 hour time and Lynch had to take a pay cut.
- 38:15And Lynch said after June I. Was down so far that anything
- 38:19was up. So it was just a euphoria.
- 38:21And when you work with that kind of feeling, you can take
- 38:23chances, you can experiment. Which is exactly what he's
- 38:25doing. Yeah, that's exactly what you've
- 38:27been. Saying that creative freedom,
- 38:29he's just let his mind run wild. 6,000,000 as well.
- 38:33He's probably thinking. Great.
- 38:34I can do that. That's not a problem.
- 38:35Yeah. Do you know June?
- 38:36Was about 20 million. Yeah, that's ridiculous.
- 38:39Crazy. Yeah.
- 38:41Despite the town in blue. Velvet being called Lumberton.
- 38:44It was actually shot in Wilmington, NC, right?
- 38:46However, there is a town called Lumberton about 70 miles away.
- 38:50Lynch had to contact the mayor of Lumberton to get his blessing
- 38:52for the using the town's name. Wilmington was ideal for Lynch
- 38:55because it had that idealistic, picture perfect small town that
- 38:59he was looking for. Yeah, it looks great.
- 39:01Looks like a set. Looks fake.
- 39:03I mean it looks. Fake.
- 39:04It just looks built. Yeah, so the original cut of the
- 39:07film came in at 4 hours. Need to see that and Ledge
- 39:10chopped it in half. I should have made like 2 films.
- 39:12I would have loved to have seen them.
- 39:14Yeah, the deleted scenes were considered lost, but there was a
- 39:16good chunk of them available on the Criterion release of Blue
- 39:19Velvet and they're also on YouTube so check them out.
- 39:21It was stipulated it. Was in his contract two hours?
- 39:25Why is he made a four hour film, maximum two hours?
- 39:29I've made. Twice the length.
- 39:30Is that OK? Dino No, definitely not.
- 39:32Definitely. Not This is not good enough.
- 39:34He's made it twice. As long on 1/3.
- 39:35Of the budget due. Yeah, and included.
- 39:41In those Saints is a lot more context about Frank and Don's
- 39:44relationship. Don worked as a mole for the
- 39:46police, but Frank kidnapped him and the son and also grew
- 39:49obsessed with Dorothy as a result.
- 39:50And there's also the introduction of Jeffrey's
- 39:52childhood sweetheart, a character completely removed
- 39:54from the final cut. Yeah, that seems complicated.
- 39:57Considering Sandys his childhood sweetheart or what?
- 40:01Seems like that's the role she's playing.
- 40:02Yeah, yeah. And you've got Dorothy as well.
- 40:05Adding a third woman into his life is what a player Jeffrey
- 40:09is. A three on the goal.
- 40:10Yeah, 3 on the goal player. Lynch has a reputation of being
- 40:16a bit. Of an Abraham Lincoln
- 40:17assassination obsessive and as such makes allusions to the
- 40:20great man in his films. The man who shot Lincoln was
- 40:24called John Wilkes Booth. Sharon Frank's surname, Jeffrey.
- 40:28Has to cross Lincoln. Street to get to the shady side
- 40:30of town. And at the end.
- 40:32The way that is shot references the way Lincoln was shot, the
- 40:36way that the yellow man's being shot, Ned.
- 40:38Right. OK, OK.
- 40:39Right, Yes, I. Got that?
- 40:40Yeah. And Lynch, obviously.
- 40:42He's a very enigmatic man, he said.
- 40:44Film or TV is like a magic act and magicians don't tell how
- 40:48they did their thing. He dislikes the idea of behind
- 40:51the scenes footage or making of films.
- 40:53Probably good job that he's not around, that we're doing it and
- 40:56I think he. Would get in touch.
- 41:00I think he'd be fine with it. We're being creative.
- 41:02He's happy with that, he said. People do it for sales.
- 41:04Or for money. But the film is the thing and
- 41:07should be protected. Fair enough, that's what.
- 41:09We were talking about on. The watch list a couple of
- 41:11episodes ago when we're talking about is the too much.
- 41:14I was seeing too much of Chris Nolan's new film already.
- 41:18Everyone before. Comes out.
- 41:19Just leave it alone, yeah? Yeah, the watch list, that's.
- 41:22Patreon podcast that we create exclusively, so sign up.
- 41:26Yep, listen, lots more available.
- 41:28Oh yeah, despite not. Being a fan of making off.
- 41:30Documentaries and interviews. David Lynch did allow someone on
- 41:33set to document his work. That man was Peter Bratz, a
- 41:36German student who'd written an essay on The Elephant Man and
- 41:39sent it to the producer of that movie, Mel Brooks.
- 41:41Bruce forwarded it to Lynch and then responded to Bratz saying I
- 41:44am interested, so he ended up inviting.
- 41:46Brats to the set To document the making of the film, Lynch
- 41:49introduced him to the cast and crew by saying there's a
- 41:52speeder. He wrote a poem about the
- 41:53Elephant Man and it took a while for that footage to surface,
- 41:56only being seen in 2016 when it was titled Blue Velvet Revisited
- 42:01and is a collage of still images and Super 8 footage.
- 42:03And it's also part of the Criterion package.
- 42:06Yeah, I've seen bits of. It it's nothing to really grab a
- 42:09hold of, right? OK, Bratz is trying to be.
- 42:11Surrealist on purpose because he's making things of David
- 42:13Lynch as anybody would. Yeah, yeah.
- 42:17Leave it to the. Artists.
- 42:18Yeah, I'm going to end on a quote from Isabella Rossellini
- 42:21about David Lynch, she said. David is a big artist and you
- 42:25don't get tired of Picasso and Michelangelo.
- 42:28So we don't get tired of David Lynch.
- 42:30He's an artist. Give him a.
- 42:31Fucking tuber to get you something out of it.
- 42:38The cast An unexpected cast. In Blue Velvet includes A
- 42:44sophomore effort, a fashion model, and the revival of a
- 42:47seasoned professional and seasoned hellraiser.
- 42:50We're starting with the fresh faced Carl McLaughlin as a
- 42:52Geoffrey Beaumont. Matt, he's your man.
- 42:56He is and I'm trying to make sense of him.
- 42:58Because I mean, he's obviously Lynch's go to guy.
- 43:00It's clear these who have such a harmonious working relationship.
- 43:04And I think it's interesting. Outside of his work with Lynch,
- 43:06has McLaughlin ever done anything particularly notable?
- 43:10I think it would be fair to say probably not really.
- 43:12I don't think that's really stuck outside Lynch.
- 43:15No, I don't think so, but. The reason he works so.
- 43:17Well, with Lynch is the understanding they have with
- 43:20each other. He totally gets what Lynch
- 43:22wants, and he totally understands what he wants in his
- 43:25films, and he delivers that because on the surface, Jeffrey
- 43:28could and should be such a typical handsome teen role.
- 43:31This could have been an early Tom Cruise role, for example, at
- 43:34that time. Yeah, Yeah, definitely.
- 43:36McLaughlin gives you something sort of different instead.
- 43:38I mean, some of those line readings are so stilted and
- 43:42wooden, but it has to be deliberate.
- 43:43That must be what Lynch wants from him.
- 43:45Yes. Yeah.
- 43:46And Jeffrey is such an oddball character to be the heart of
- 43:49this. I mean, we mentioned already,
- 43:50but bugging the ear up and taking it to the police, Just
- 43:53call them instead. Give them a call.
- 43:56Just walk away from it. The instant obsession he has
- 43:59with the case is bravado and taking the lead and doing his
- 44:01own investigation, but taking Sandy long for the ride like
- 44:05it's scooby-doo or something. Like none of this is normal, but
- 44:08it works in the context of the film, in that exchange he has
- 44:11for Sandy. I don't know if you're a
- 44:12detective or pervert. That's for me knowing you to
- 44:15find out. Like, who says that to a girl
- 44:17they're trying to impress? Yeah.
- 44:19She would be like bye. See you, see you later.
- 44:23I'd like to be the. Former, but I'm not the latter.
- 44:25Yeah, that's exactly. Yeah, you.
- 44:27Can't make that very clear. And that turned from a nerdy,
- 44:30geeky weirdo to someone who was pulled into some very dark
- 44:33sexual undercurrent with Dorothy.
- 44:35It is completely convincing, and it has to come from a
- 44:37performance. And the performance has to
- 44:39embrace all the darkness, all the weirdness, and is weird, as
- 44:43some of those line readings are. McLaughlin absolutely does that.
- 44:47I think it has to kind. Of play it a little weird and a
- 44:50little unremarkably to allow Isabella Rossellini and Dennis
- 44:53Hopper to grab the screen, which they do.
- 44:56Hello. McLaughlin had already worked
- 44:57with Lynch on June and became one of his go to guys.
- 45:01He wasn't first in line for the role of Jeffrey Beaumont.
- 45:03That was none other than Val Gilman.
- 45:06Yeah, who later said he turned. It down because the script he
- 45:08read was basically a hardcore porno.
- 45:11Brilliant. He said that if he received the
- 45:14script. Which ended up being the film.
- 45:16He would have taken the part. It's the same year.
- 45:19As Top Gun as well isn't it? What a tonal shift.
- 45:23Iceman double whammy. Yeah.
- 45:25And as we're on the big man. Himself, Kyle.
- 45:27We've got a second question from a Patreon supporter.
- 45:30This one. It comes from MB King.
- 45:32Hello, MB. Great name.
- 45:34Hello. MB He.
- 45:35Says. David Lynch found his old ego in
- 45:38Calm Clockland. What are some of the best
- 45:40director, actor, alter ego parents in cinema history?
- 45:44Right. Matt, what do you think?
- 45:46I think Michael Bean. In The Terminator and Aliens is
- 45:50how cool James Cameron would like to think he is.
- 45:53How good James Cameron would like I?
- 45:57Thought you said Sean Bean. For a second.
- 46:01Yeah, Sean Bean and Michael Bay. You know, yeah.
- 46:04That's what we need and that's what we need, yeah, I think
- 46:07Cameron would love to look as. Cool as Bean does in those two
- 46:09films, I think that's why he's got him in there.
- 46:12I think Richard Dreyfuss in close Encounters is absolutely
- 46:15Spielberg at the time. At the end of the film, when Roy
- 46:18Neary obviously leaves his family behind to go off with the
- 46:20aliens, that's 100% what Spielberg would have done.
- 46:24And I think it's it's probably the person in this film that's
- 46:26most like him. And the last one for me, John
- 46:28Turtero in Barton Fink manages to look like both the corns at
- 46:32the same time, which is quite a featuring.
- 46:35Yeah, yeah. Really good.
- 46:37I was thinking about the. Pairing of Clint Eastwood and
- 46:40Don Siegel, which more? Some very good films in the late
- 46:4360s, seventies. I think Eastwood is kind of that
- 46:46tough bravado that Don Siegel came from, like that he really
- 46:49came from. Yeah, Eastwood worshipped him as
- 46:51well. Didn't he talk about him a lot?
- 46:52Loved him. I mean, obviously Dirty Harry,
- 46:55come on, Iconic. But this gave Margatras as well.
- 46:57Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the.
- 46:59Parent that I couldn't get. Away from, and I thought about
- 47:01immediately, is Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski.
- 47:05Oh yeah, very nice. They had that tumultuous.
- 47:08Love, Hate Relationship, which bought the fruit of five films
- 47:11in one documentary. By then, Herzog Kinski was
- 47:15deranged and, as it turns out, a really despicable person.
- 47:18Yeah, but Herzog clearly saw something in his darkness that
- 47:21he liked. There's something Blue Velvet
- 47:23about their relationship. There is.
- 47:24Yeah. And.
- 47:26If you haven't. Seen Fitzcarraldo?
- 47:28Do yourself a favor. Yeah 2 right.
- 47:31What about? UST.
- 47:32Just 5. Just a 5, that's all.
- 47:36Just about trying. To be, I don't.
- 47:37Quite well Michael there yeah ones that were really obvious to
- 47:43me was good like Scorsese, De Niro that's that goes way, way
- 47:46back. Tarantino and Sam Jackson.
- 47:49I think he tries to get some Jackson and there as often as
- 47:51possible even if it's just a voice over.
- 47:53John Ford and John Wayne kind of stuck with me because I think
- 47:56they were just the same person basically.
- 47:59And when you exactly how to take Ford and vice versa.
- 48:01Hitchcock and James I'm Stuart Lovely resonated with.
- 48:04Me, especially Vertigo. I think that really shines, but
- 48:07the one most recently, it's totally flipped on its head a
- 48:10little bit, but it's unrecognized.
- 48:12One that you really look for it, I think is Nolan and Killian
- 48:14Murphy. I think their relationship is
- 48:17very so like Nolan sees a lot of himself and Killian Murphy put
- 48:21the put that role in there and just have them have him play
- 48:24that. So I think that for me is one
- 48:25that really sticks very good. Yeah, obviously.
- 48:28Five. I expected more Westy, but
- 48:30you've reined it in. Well done.
- 48:33Thank you. Thank you very much.
- 48:35I reined it in on a Lynch film. What am I doing?
- 48:37I'm doing this all backwards. It should have spiraled.
- 48:40Yeah, it should have, yeah. But thank you for the question.
- 48:43MB. Let us know what your best
- 48:45director and actor, all the Eagle parents are if you go.
- 48:47Yeah, we haven't. No, we haven't mentioned.
- 48:49Great question. Thank you.
- 48:51So Kyle McLaughlin, certainly. Was Lynch's muse Hard to believe
- 48:54that this was only his second feature and despite the chicken
- 48:57walk, he carries the film very well.
- 48:59Considering the larger than life performances around him.
- 49:01Yes. And he is the first.
- 49:06Larger than life performance that surrounds Kyle McLaughlin.
- 49:09It is Isabella Rossellini as Dorothy Valance.
- 49:12Normally. Now, I think this is an
- 49:14incredibly brave performance from Rossellini for a number of
- 49:17reasons. Yeah, firstly and simply, to
- 49:20literally and metaphorically strip yourself bare on the big
- 49:23screen takes a hell of a lot of guts.
- 49:26Yeah, Dorothy's not a heroic character.
- 49:29She suffers the indignity that Frank slams down on her.
- 49:32But because of that, this is an absolutely heroic performance
- 49:35from Rossellini. So because of.
- 49:37That it was important to Rossellini that her portrayal of
- 49:39Dorothy is that of a woman who has been abused and that the
- 49:42nudity wasn't exploitative, she said.
- 49:45You know the butcher shop where you see these carcasses of cows
- 49:47cut in the middle and open. You have these images of cows
- 49:51and flesh, and that's what I wanted to portray.
- 49:53Wow. Wow.
- 49:54That's. Really.
- 49:55In that yeah, I. Mean you can see that on.
- 49:57Screen it's it's UN flinching yeah she doesn't have the
- 50:00security of. It being like a true story or an
- 50:02Oscar turn or this has happened for a reason.
- 50:04It's like people might get this, they might not, but you've have
- 50:07to do it anyway. Yeah, you have to do it.
- 50:09Yeah, and I mean, she wasn't an actress.
- 50:11She appeared in a few films, but she was primarily a model and as
- 50:14such, just signed a contract with a modelling agency, a
- 50:18contract which was soon rescinded once they saw her in
- 50:21Blue Velvet. And they asked her to leave,
- 50:23Right? Wow.
- 50:24And they? Were the only.
- 50:25Ones. Aghasted Blue Velvet, The nuns
- 50:27who taught Rossellini at school, contacted her and told her that
- 50:30they were praying for her every day.
- 50:33What are nuns? Do you?
- 50:34Watching Blue. Velvet.
- 50:37And coming from a background in. Modeling.
- 50:39I think it's so brave of her to take this role, to put herself
- 50:42out there like this. Can you see anyone else from
- 50:44that background putting themselves in this incredibly
- 50:46vulnerable position, putting everything that worked for on
- 50:49the line? Cindy Crawford.
- 50:51Started in fair. Game, for goodness sake, we
- 50:54needed Blue Velvet I. Mean Dorothy's a Really.
- 50:58Complex character, really disturbing.
- 51:00She's desperate, she's living on the edge of reality, and I
- 51:03suppose she'd do anything to get her family back together.
- 51:05Anything including degrading herself at the behest of Frank
- 51:08Booth. But really weird, really
- 51:12complex. In doing this, Frank's
- 51:14potentially tapped into kind of like a masochistic side of
- 51:16Dorothy, one that responds with pleasure at the horrendous,
- 51:20sadist sexual deviances of Booth.
- 51:24It's. Cruel misogynist.
- 51:25Film with characters that don't have a place in mainstream
- 51:27cinema, but it's really compelling.
- 51:29And that's because of the believability that Russellini
- 51:32brings to the role. Yeah, and the scene.
- 51:34That I love. Is the scene of the star where
- 51:36she finds Jeffrey in a closet? Yeah.
- 51:40One that absolutely terrifies me.
- 51:42It's one of the most nightmarish things ever to happen because if
- 51:45you if somebody's hiding in your closet.
- 51:47I mean, it's classic horror trope, isn't it?
- 51:49Yeah, it is. Yeah.
- 51:50And she tackles it. With an almost deranged
- 51:52aggression, the way she's screaming at him with that wide
- 51:55eyed anger. What are you doing in my
- 51:57apartment, Jeffrey Beaumont? It's incredible stuff, this
- 52:00excitement as well there. Wasn't there's a little bit,
- 52:02yeah. So for the role of Dorothy
- 52:04Lynch. Wanted Debbie Harry for the
- 52:05role. She turned it down because of a
- 52:07part in Cronenberg's video drone, a film with a similar
- 52:10unsettling underbelly as Blue Velvet.
- 52:12She didn't want to be typecast. And then it's kind of weirdo
- 52:14apart. Don't vote for Cronenberg at
- 52:16Lynch then. Yeah.
- 52:17Yeah, exactly. Don't.
- 52:20Work for David Cronenberg. Whatever you do, just keep me.
- 52:23Stay away from the. Davids Ellen Mirren was second
- 52:27choice and. She actually played an active
- 52:28role in pre production working with Lynch to flesh out the
- 52:31character of Dorothy. Right?
- 52:32Yeah, the. Cook, the thief, the wife and
- 52:34the lover, that type of performance.
- 52:36I think for Mirren very similar but she did back out.
- 52:39And then after considering others for the part, including
- 52:41Sigourney Weaver, Jodie Foster, Sissy Spacek and Angelica
- 52:45Houston, he eventually cast Isabella Rossellini after they
- 52:48were introduced to each other by my mutual fence at a restaurant.
- 52:51He spoke to her about the part, but at this point still had
- 52:54Helen Mirren in mind. And he also said to her that
- 52:56because of her looks, she could be the daughter of Ingrid
- 52:58Bergman, which, of course, she is.
- 53:01Yeah, yeah, Yeah, I think he was.
- 53:02Surprised you could. Be Ingrid Bergman.
- 53:05'S daughter. Well, I actually am, yeah.
- 53:09That would explain it a. Remarkably brave.
- 53:11Performance from Rossellini Strip bare in more ways than one
- 53:15on screen. Incredible stuff.
- 53:16Yeah, yeah, fantastic. And finally, we have something.
- 53:22Quite incredible on our hands here, the ultra psycho
- 53:25performance from Dennis Hopper as the criminally deranged
- 53:28sexual fiend Frank Booth. And we have the very man to
- 53:33tackle that kind of character. Go for a Westie.
- 53:36Yeah, just before he arrives. I'll do it.
- 53:41So I mean. Most memorable performance?
- 53:45Many would say Easy Rider. I would argue that it was
- 53:48Apocalypse Now, because I think that's just a really original
- 53:50performance, but one that is quite forgettable.
- 53:52So for memorable, yeah, it has to be this one just sticks with
- 53:56you. It just sticks in your head.
- 53:57It's so powerful and it feels like he's just, like I said
- 54:02before, he's just absolutely has something to prove here.
- 54:05And I think this was the point where he'd done it all.
- 54:08He was surprised he was still alive and the roles he was
- 54:11getting were just a little bit. People are very wary of him.
- 54:14Like don't give it a hop, I thought.
- 54:15And I think this is this is like just totally embracing the beast
- 54:20going, this is who people think I am.
- 54:21This is I'm going to show people who they're scared of.
- 54:23I'm going to show people what I can do.
- 54:25And he absolutely just lets it go.
- 54:28He's despicable in every sense of the word, but very enigmatic,
- 54:32very electric. He has this real energy.
- 54:35He has this real presence. He just owns the screen, He owns
- 54:38the room. When he's on a wide shot, it's
- 54:39just feels like he's just pulling the camera wherever he
- 54:41moves. It doesn't feel like anyone can
- 54:44hold a torch to him. When the rhythm in a dialogue
- 54:47sequence. He's got control over every
- 54:49single person in that. Really tell somebody to do
- 54:51something and do it. You know how Lynch is fearless
- 54:53in his ideas of this. Copper is fearless in his
- 54:56execution of this. Without doubt.
- 54:58Absolutely amazing. I mean that last scene, I just,
- 55:02it has me in stitches. I don't know we'll talk about
- 55:04it. But when he's like, I can still
- 55:06hear your radio, you fuck. And he's just like he's.
- 55:12Just like yeah, you. Shit head.
- 55:13He's like taking all the mask on.
- 55:14It's it feels like he's just rehearsing for a scene and
- 55:17doesn't quite know where the camera is and he doesn't care
- 55:20when he's screaming Don't look at me.
- 55:22You completely believe that you shouldn't be looking at him.
- 55:25And he's just in his own private world.
- 55:28And it pulls you in to something that you don't want to be pulled
- 55:31into. But it's the curiosity that
- 55:33Jeffrey has. It's the curiosity that we have.
- 55:35Like, what is this guy going to? We've seen what he's capable of
- 55:38doing, but what else is he going to do?
- 55:41I've got to keep watching because watching it's.
- 55:44Yeah, it's watching a car speed across the road, and it's
- 55:47swerving left and right. You know, it's a car crash, but
- 55:49you can't take your eyes off it. And that's Dennis Hopper on this
- 55:51phone. He's incredible.
- 55:53He's. He's a force of nature.
- 55:56I think he is one of the scariest movie characters ever.
- 55:59But yeah, if you watch it as many times as we have for this
- 56:03episode, he becomes humorous. It becomes humorous because he's
- 56:07so at the top, I don't think. Anybody else could have.
- 56:10Done the popper. He was incredible.
- 56:12Definitely not. But there were a few people in
- 56:14the frame for. The role of Frank Booth,
- 56:15including William Defoe, who I think would have been good,
- 56:19could say that. Harry Dean Stanton.
- 56:21Stephen Berkoff and Robert Loggia.
- 56:26Michael Einside claimed that. Frank was written specifically
- 56:29with him in mind right? All of those guys name turned it
- 56:32down because it was too unsavory, which I'm amazed that
- 56:36I inside said that Yeah exactly. But the.
- 56:39Unsavory nature of the. Character that didn't put off a
- 56:41newly sober Hopper who begged Lynch for the parts in You have
- 56:45to let me pay Frank because I am Frank.
- 56:48Yeah, yes, he is. Yeah.
- 56:50And in the original screenplay, Frank's tank that he carries
- 56:53around was filled with helium, but Hopper obviously knew a
- 56:57thing or two about drug use and suggested nitrate instead.
- 57:01Now that's something used to treat angina normally, but when
- 57:04used recreationally, it has a psychoactive effect, which
- 57:07obviously Hopper knew about. So they did actually try the
- 57:10helium on set, but Hopper said he sounded like Donald Duck and
- 57:13Lint switched out the helium because he wanted to avoid any
- 57:16unintended hilarity in Frank's voice.
- 57:18That would have been ridiculous, Danny.
- 57:19What's the fuck? Yeah, Frank the tank.
- 57:25Yeah, I would have loved that to be.
- 57:26Written on in Sharpie. Just like Frank's tank written
- 57:28on the actual tag would be. Yeah, I do find it very.
- 57:33Humorous that there are 56 instances of the F word in the
- 57:37film. Yes, and.
- 57:39Frank says 55. Of them all right.
- 57:47Amazing. And the only other one.
- 57:48Is because Frank says it, isn't it because it's Ben says well,
- 57:51drink your fuck. Yes, that's right.
- 57:54Makes him say. It's almost like an echo.
- 57:56So he does, he says. All of them to your health.
- 57:59No. To your fuck doesn't make sense.
- 58:02Yeah, it's wonderful though, isn't it, on?
- 58:06Hopper, Carl McLaughlin. Said no one really knew what
- 58:08Dennis was going to be like when we met him, Rossellini said.
- 58:11Dennis Hopper, Yes. He'd been in rehab for three
- 58:13years. David Lynch described him as a
- 58:15ticking time bomb. You can feel that.
- 58:18Yeah. Oh God, yeah, Definitely.
- 58:19Will he get through the shoot? Who knows?
- 58:21Who knows? Well, to wrap us up on the.
- 58:24Cast and on Frank Booth, we've got our final Patreon question
- 58:27from Heath Hobbs. How you doing, Heath?
- 58:30Hello, Heath. Hello.
- 58:31Heath, Heath. Asks if frank.
- 58:33Booth hosted a dinner party. What gift would you bring?
- 58:36I wouldn't go. And what?
- 58:38Do you think would be on the menu?
- 58:41Right. So.
- 58:43I mean, there's such a very strange question.
- 58:45I loved it. As soon as I saw it, I thought,
- 58:47well, I'm choosing that one. It's great.
- 58:48Yeah. Yeah, it is great.
- 58:50Yeah, yeah. So I'd bring a case.
- 58:52Of Pabst Blue Ribbon, his beer of choice, but I'd house it in a
- 58:56Heineken box, just to stir the pot a little bit.
- 58:58Just to get Heineken. Feel like dancing with the
- 59:02death? Do you?
- 59:04Where's? My Pabst Blue.
- 59:05Ribbon furious with you warm as well.
- 59:11Makes me fucking puke. I make sure that.
- 59:15I'm as far away from him as possible on that dinner table.
- 59:18I don't want him getting the ammonitrate out.
- 59:22When you hear that fuck on the menu.
- 59:29I think it's something as white picket fenced as the town of
- 59:31Lumberton itself. So I think meatloaf.
- 59:34And because he's a creation of David Lynch and it'd have to be
- 59:36cherry pie for dessert. Lovely.
- 59:39What about? UST.
- 59:40Me, I've also gone for. Perhaps blue ribbon.
- 59:42So there'll be two, two cases, but I'll bring some bourbon and
- 59:46some extra ammo nitrate just in case he runs out because that'll
- 59:49be funny if we do play charades or something.
- 59:51Just want him on that. That'll be really hilarious.
- 59:54Have some more nitrate, man. We're going to do like 3 words,
- 59:57first word, right? OK, that'll be wonderful.
- 59:59And food wise, I think Frank would go for something very
- 1:00:02American, but very, very much down the line.
- 1:00:05T-bone steak, French fries, nice tomato ketchup smashing.
- 1:00:09Spot on. Yeah.
- 1:00:10I. Love it.
- 1:00:11What about? You, Matt.
- 1:00:12We've got a kind of similar thing going on, me and Westie.
- 1:00:14What about you? Yeah, I mean, I think Frank.
- 1:00:16Just needs to chill a little bit in general really, doesn't he?
- 1:00:19Good luck with that. Well, you bring up a fucking.
- 1:00:22Lasagna or something? One thing I'm bringing a load
- 1:00:24of. Xanax.
- 1:00:25Just a lot of tranquilizers. I'm going to listen.
- 1:00:28Frank, I think you just need. To chill out a little bit, just
- 1:00:30chill out, man, Frank. Maybe one of those, you know
- 1:00:33those squeezy stress balls you can get?
- 1:00:35I'll give one of those. Just try that, maybe buka Sudoku
- 1:00:39puzzles, something to take his mind off everything for a while.
- 1:00:42And then As for what he would serve, yes, I think we all know
- 1:00:48what Bee was on the menu. I think if he's serving a
- 1:00:51starter, he looks like the kind of man who would just demolish a
- 1:00:54plate of chicken wings with his bare hands.
- 1:00:56Yeah, just loads of BBQ sauce all over the place.
- 1:00:59I don't think that's a starter. There's no Imagine them on hot
- 1:01:01ones. That'll be.
- 1:01:02So funny. Oh, exactly.
- 1:01:03Yeah. That's it, you fuck.
- 1:01:08It's not urban soup here. Smashing.
- 1:01:11Smashing. The table up just eating the
- 1:01:14table. It's not even hot, man.
- 1:01:25Where's my milk? Shithead.
- 1:01:32Good Frank Booth and Hot ones. Oh, good.
- 1:01:35Make it up. Yeah, it's.
- 1:01:36Made for. Anything it's made for.
- 1:01:39Definitely is. Sorry man.
- 1:01:42It's. Good, though.
- 1:01:44It's actually Frank Good. Main cause to sticking on the
- 1:01:47meat theme, it's definitely going to be steak.
- 1:01:49It's definitely going to be rare.
- 1:01:50And again, he's Aziz now with his hands tearing inward.
- 1:01:52And then dessert, I think a flame and Baked Alaska.
- 1:01:55He just sticks his face right in it and it's still a light.
- 1:02:01It's me when I'd like the lipstick all over his face.
- 1:02:03Oh, fantastic. Well.
- 1:02:05Thank you very much for the question, Heath.
- 1:02:06More of those, please. Love that.
- 1:02:08Yes, more like this. That was great.
- 1:02:10And that thankfully brings. Us to a close on the madman that
- 1:02:13is Frank Booth, who rounds up an incredibly eclectic cast, all
- 1:02:16bringing something unique to the blue velvet table.
- 1:02:20Very well, that's funny. All the right movies, we'll be
- 1:02:28right. Back thank you for supporting us
- 1:02:30by listening to the sponsors for this episode.
- 1:02:34Thanks for listening to our sponsors.
- 1:02:36And now it's back to the show. The middle after Jeffrey's
- 1:02:45nightmarish. Walk on the wild side he meets
- 1:02:47up with Sandy where he's got a hell of a lot to talk about it's
- 1:02:52a strange world, Matt Yeah, this scene rather have the.
- 1:02:54Conversation in the car and she talks about her dream.
- 1:02:58I mean, this is when Laura Dern really shines me.
- 1:03:01She's particularly brilliant here.
- 1:03:03And it sums up one of the battles in the film, which is
- 1:03:06the battle between innocence and corruption, good and evil.
- 1:03:09And obviously, Sandy is everything innocent, everything
- 1:03:12good in the world. The fact that they've pulled up
- 1:03:14outside of church to talk. So the music from the church
- 1:03:18provides the soundtrack for this.
- 1:03:20I mean, so much of this is on the nose, but it works so well
- 1:03:23at the same time. It does.
- 1:03:25And I think this scene, despite the fact Jeffrey is about 2223
- 1:03:28in the film, I say there's this weird thing where he feels much
- 1:03:32younger. It's like he is still a kid.
- 1:03:33And this scene really emphasizes that.
- 1:03:35I mean, it's such a naive thing for him to do, to go off
- 1:03:38investigating on his own, and now he's seen something of the
- 1:03:41adult world that he really wishes he hadn't.
- 1:03:43But that's the thing. Once you've seen the reality of
- 1:03:46the darkness that comes with grown up, you can't go back.
- 1:03:49You know, as he says, why are the people like Frank?
- 1:03:51Why is there so much trouble in the world?
- 1:03:54Again, that sounds like something a kid would ask, not a
- 1:03:5622 year old man. It's really childlike, isn't it?
- 1:03:59It's really childlike. And the horrible thing is
- 1:04:01there's no answer to those questions.
- 1:04:03But then again, this is David Lynch, And provide no answers is
- 1:04:06exactly what he does and where this film derives a lot of its
- 1:04:10power from. So all Sandy can do is tell him
- 1:04:13about a dream. It's the only thing she can
- 1:04:14think that might comfort him in this situation because it's what
- 1:04:17she's holding on to because she is still this innocent in this
- 1:04:20world. She said outside the apartment,
- 1:04:21she hasn't seen what Jeffrey has.
- 1:04:23And this dream is such a dream of an innocent young girl, a
- 1:04:27vision of Robbins bringing love against the dark, which we'll
- 1:04:30talk about at the end of film. When it comes in the real there,
- 1:04:33it should shouldn't work this saying, this dialogue shouldn't
- 1:04:35work. It should be so cheesy.
- 1:04:37It should be so on the nose. When the music sauce up at the
- 1:04:39end, the description should be so OTT.
- 1:04:42But it works because Dern delivers it with such sincerity.
- 1:04:46You know there was trouble until the Robins come.
- 1:04:49And somehow it, I mean, the whole film is a balanced act.
- 1:04:52Let's just balance and taunts and performances and dialogue
- 1:04:56and attitudes. And the same works when reality
- 1:04:59dreams. And reality light.
- 1:05:00The Dark This same works when it really, really shouldn't.
- 1:05:04It's classic. Like David Lynch dreamscape with
- 1:05:08that lumen music over the top of it.
- 1:05:10Yeah, yeah. So going on from that.
- 1:05:13Scene. I mean, he's.
- 1:05:13Not known for subtlety. His David Lynch, let's be
- 1:05:15honest, comes down like a sledgehammer with most things.
- 1:05:18But this is great. When Jeffrey goes back to
- 1:05:20Dorothy's, the curiosity's got a hold of him again.
- 1:05:23It's again, we spoke about being childlike and innocent, and now
- 1:05:26he's childlike and curious and he's going to get himself into
- 1:05:29trouble. There's no repercussions for
- 1:05:30him. He doesn't know what the
- 1:05:32consequences mean yet, almost. And it's him kind of finding
- 1:05:35that out. Her reaction, you know, just so
- 1:05:37happy to see him. I looked in the closet for you
- 1:05:39know what you mental crazy just. Sitting staring at the closet.
- 1:05:44All night until he turns up at the door.
- 1:05:46It's absolutely crazy. And then we get to go to Slow
- 1:05:50Club and it's wonderful in there.
- 1:05:53This is, to me, this is where the whole film shifts and starts
- 1:05:57sliding downhill into the darkness, into the shadow, into
- 1:06:00the grime, into the grit of it. It's miles apart from when I
- 1:06:03spoke about the police station at the start, to be an old
- 1:06:05police squad and cartoon mission, brightly lit and that
- 1:06:09it's both blocked and very solid.
- 1:06:11This feels very loose and it feels like we're in some kind of
- 1:06:14nightmare, like a lucid dream, like we're slipping deeper into
- 1:06:17it, into the subconscious of David Lynch.
- 1:06:18And you got Frank Days drenched in the blue light, and you've
- 1:06:21got Jeffrey just sitting in the red light and the car and
- 1:06:25everything's just so obviously smacking in the face.
- 1:06:28Just these two different worlds that actually work together,
- 1:06:31blue and red. It's all just this emergency
- 1:06:33kind of light. We got close-ups of sirens later
- 1:06:36on. So it's all there as part of
- 1:06:37like a big warning for him. Great shot when all the guys
- 1:06:41come out of the slow club and it kind of just tracks them over
- 1:06:43the car park. I think that was fantastic.
- 1:06:44It really reminds me of Reservoir Dogs.
- 1:06:46Just a little wide shot, though. It's just like the alternative
- 1:06:49angle of that thing. Tarantino watches my I'm just
- 1:06:51going to move the camera to the front, but it's it's it's a
- 1:06:54similar kind of vibe to that. And when they actually get to
- 1:06:56the building, I love the silhouettes that are painted on
- 1:06:59there from the towers and the smoke and machinery and it's all
- 1:07:02just moving as if it's like a monster and it's just a
- 1:07:05mechanical monster and there's something going on inside of it.
- 1:07:08It's like a hive industry of nasty, shadowy industry that's
- 1:07:11awful, really creepy. And this is where we start
- 1:07:14getting a lot more shadows. This wasn't many shadows and
- 1:07:18open to this point. And everything starts getting
- 1:07:20drenched in. The contrast goes up and the
- 1:07:22blacks are really black. And you start having this
- 1:07:24mystery as he gets deeper into it.
- 1:07:26And I think the visuals here are really important, and I think
- 1:07:29that's what Lynch does as well. There's not as much dialogue in
- 1:07:31these sequences in the middle of the film, and I think it works
- 1:07:34really well with the ominous shift of colour.
- 1:07:36Torn, it shifts with his curiosity, but also this
- 1:07:39darkness of this machine that he's getting involved in.
- 1:07:41I think it's really well put forward.
- 1:07:43And to me, it's just a really exciting part of the film where
- 1:07:46you just, you need to find out more as Jeffrey needs to find
- 1:07:48out more. Yeah, it's absolutely.
- 1:07:50Incredible, great visuals. That's wonderful, yeah.
- 1:07:53And I'm picking up the action where.
- 1:07:54Sandy and Jeffrey have their debrief at Arlene's Diner.
- 1:07:59What I like about this is the detective story element of the
- 1:08:02film. Like I mentioned the noir
- 1:08:03elements, it plunges you deeper into the mystery where we don't
- 1:08:07know what the hell is going on, but we know that it isn't safe,
- 1:08:11Jeffrey says. You see that clock on the wall 5
- 1:08:13minutes from now, you're not going to believe what I've told
- 1:08:15you. Brilliant line.
- 1:08:16That's a brilliant. Line.
- 1:08:18That's so theatrical, it is. And I love the visuals as
- 1:08:22Jeffrey. Is telling this story.
- 1:08:24There are visuals of him outside Frank's building that are a
- 1:08:27cross cut with this scene. I don't know how he's made that
- 1:08:31shoebox camera contraption thing.
- 1:08:33That's wonderful, isn't? It I think the pulley.
- 1:08:36System. Brings much more attention to
- 1:08:38him than if he just used a normal camera.
- 1:08:40Just a normal camera, yeah. I've yet to.
- 1:08:42Try that out. I'll let you know how it goes,
- 1:08:44but it is very. Cinematic.
- 1:08:46Yeah, and it just throws up so many questions.
- 1:08:48Who is this well dressed man? Who is the yellow man?
- 1:08:51Where is Frank disappeared to? What's going on in that
- 1:08:54building, that hive of industry, like you said, that nastiness?
- 1:08:57Yeah, and the beauty. Of all of these.
- 1:08:59Questions Is that really none of it matters.
- 1:09:02The investigation is kind of the Mcguffin.
- 1:09:05It is overtaken by all the other sort of details in the plot
- 1:09:07later. Yeah, it's all abstractions
- 1:09:09like. He always points to it doesn't
- 1:09:11matter what Frank's doing. We know what kind of a person he
- 1:09:13is exactly. Doesn't matter the type of
- 1:09:15person he is, he's not what? He's doing.
- 1:09:17Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
- 1:09:19But it's so engaging. I think everybody loves a good
- 1:09:21detective story, but this one is done in a very lynching way,
- 1:09:24mixing the traditional with the esoteric.
- 1:09:27Yeah, so it lynched as Chinatown.
- 1:09:29Isn't it yes in? This scene, Jeffrey says I'm in
- 1:09:33the middle of a mystery that couldn't be more literal as
- 1:09:36we're just past the hour mark of a film that runs for two hours,
- 1:09:40which is clearly Lynch winking at the camera.
- 1:09:42Classic Lynch. Yeah.
- 1:09:44So. The mystery is beginning to.
- 1:09:45Unravel. We still don't know what the
- 1:09:47hell is going on, Really. Now will we find out?
- 1:09:50Does it matter? Jeffrey can't keep himself away.
- 1:09:55From danger and is straight back to the northeast apartment where
- 1:09:58he takes a deeper plunge Into Darkness and he starts a
- 1:10:02horrific series of events Yep, as soon.
- 1:10:06As this scene. Opens in Dorothy's apartment.
- 1:10:08I always let out this. I hope did it the last time I
- 1:10:10watched this. Groan of despair.
- 1:10:12Like Oh no, because there's just about to be some misery in
- 1:10:15there. Yeah.
- 1:10:16Oh God. This is where Jeffrey.
- 1:10:18And Dorothy have sex for the first time.
- 1:10:21They do the wild thing. Dorothy couldn't be any more
- 1:10:24clear that this is a place where bad things happen.
- 1:10:26She asks if he's a bad boy. Do you want bad things?
- 1:10:29She's wearing a red dress, Alarm bells going off everywhere.
- 1:10:33But this doesn't stop Jeffrey, who resists the first.
- 1:10:35He doesn't want to hit Dorothy, obviously.
- 1:10:38His urge is a just a little too great to suppress.
- 1:10:41The candlelight blows out heavy-handed from Lynch in the
- 1:10:44visuals, and Jeffrey has crossed over into the dark recesses of
- 1:10:48his psyche. He's now pursuing all the sexual
- 1:10:51desires he's been trying to keep it Be dear me Yeah.
- 1:10:55Lot to unpick, yeah? The lot to.
- 1:10:57Unpick. Does Dorothy crave the sexual
- 1:11:00violence because it's a link to her family?
- 1:11:02Has Frank tapped into her depraved sexual desires?
- 1:11:05Is this the only way that she's able to survive her life
- 1:11:08day-to-day? A lot of questions, no answers.
- 1:11:12And there's something animalistic at the end of this
- 1:11:14scene. Lynch moves to a slow mower, and
- 1:11:16the sound design is that of kind of like a lion's roar, almost,
- 1:11:20with an unearthly shriek. And now there's no Turner back.
- 1:11:24Dorothy confirms that when she says to you, you have your
- 1:11:27disease in me now, which is not a pleasant term to hear.
- 1:11:31It's not great pillow talk. It isn't.
- 1:11:33Sexy. That's not sexy.
- 1:11:36In the aftermath, when Dorothy. Is protesting that she's not
- 1:11:39crazy like when they're in the living room.
- 1:11:41She then follows that up with I still have you inside me,
- 1:11:45Jeffrey. Get out of this situation.
- 1:11:46Get out of it. Yeah, that's enough.
- 1:11:48We're nowhere on a knife edge from.
- 1:11:49Scene to scene in this film and when he leaves and Frank turns
- 1:11:53up terrifying, wonderful. Yeah, there's.
- 1:11:56Something magnetic. About Frank, do you want to go
- 1:11:58for a ride? No, thanks.
- 1:12:00No thanks. What does that mean?
- 1:12:01I don't want to go. Go where?
- 1:12:03For a ride. A ride?
- 1:12:06Hell, that's a good idea. Yeah.
- 1:12:08Yeah. Brilliant.
- 1:12:10What does that mean? Yeah.
- 1:12:13You go for a joyride. With very little joy in it.
- 1:12:17There's no joy. During the scenes where Kyle and
- 1:12:19Isabella. Are naked, they questioned
- 1:12:20Lynch. Do I have to go that far?
- 1:12:22And his reply was yes, yes. Further, if possible.
- 1:12:29Slowly no. Wesley mentioned police squad.
- 1:12:33Earlier and the next scene starts with a joke that could
- 1:12:36almost come from that when Frank goes this is it and then it cuts
- 1:12:40the place which is called This is it.
- 1:12:44It is that could be from. The.
- 1:12:46Naked Gun, it's great, but then. That's the.
- 1:12:49Only bit of light relief you get from this scene because one of
- 1:12:52the overall feelings I have with Blue Velvet and why it's so
- 1:12:55disturbing when it's not actually that graphic is it
- 1:12:57nails that feeling of someone being in a situation or
- 1:13:01replaced. This shouldn't be, but they
- 1:13:03can't escape from it. It's that helplessness, isn't
- 1:13:06it? It's the helplessness.
- 1:13:07Don't want to be there? You don't want to be there, you
- 1:13:09don't be in. Dorothy's apartment, but this
- 1:13:11entire section with Ben, and I mean, it's so weird because
- 1:13:16actually very little happens in it, but all the same, my skin
- 1:13:19crawls out the whole thing because it's the implicit threat
- 1:13:23under the surface of what darkness is going to happen in
- 1:13:27this scene. And you look at Ben and I've
- 1:13:29already said, you know, the film.
- 1:13:30I can't decide when it's set. I mean, what era has been fallen
- 1:13:33out of without loungewear and cigarette holder?
- 1:13:36Like he certainly doesn't belong in the AD certainly doesn't seem
- 1:13:38like he comes from the 50s even. No, no.
- 1:13:41And it's just. Question.
- 1:13:42After question like who is he exactly?
- 1:13:44What's the deal with all the overweight ladies hanging around
- 1:13:47with them? Who's the guy?
- 1:13:48Eating the big bowl of. I think it's pasta.
- 1:13:51These are the people keeping. Hold of.
- 1:13:53Dorothy's son. Why?
- 1:13:54And it's a scene that just exemplifies to me the dream
- 1:13:57logic I've been talking about, because nothing makes sense
- 1:13:59about this. But at the same time, it's got
- 1:14:02its root in some kind of reality.
- 1:14:04You know the fact that the set design is so symmetrical, but
- 1:14:07it's slightly off at the same time because of the lighting
- 1:14:10that comes in the lamps and the. Implicit threat that runs.
- 1:14:15Throughout this, the tors that they make the way that
- 1:14:17everything bends says to Frank has done with such lightness is
- 1:14:20if he knows how explosive Frank can be, but he also knows how to
- 1:14:23keep him under control by amusing him, taught him like
- 1:14:25he's a child. We'll have a beer with Frank the
- 1:14:28glasses. And because Dorothy and Jeffrey
- 1:14:31is so out of place and they're outnumbered, the whole scene
- 1:14:34just has this queasy feeling, and it just sits in my stomach
- 1:14:37throughout. And it's just summed up in that
- 1:14:40incredible moment where Ben uses that lamp light to mind to end
- 1:14:43dreams. Yeah.
- 1:14:45Why is this? Scene SO.
- 1:14:46Disturbing. Why is it even in there?
- 1:14:49Why is it in it? Why does that?
- 1:14:50That's why. Well, I know, but yeah, exactly,
- 1:14:53we don't. Have the answers, and we
- 1:14:54probably shouldn't mean. Why does the song have that
- 1:14:56impact on Frank? Did they do this on a regular
- 1:14:58basis or whenever it comes around?
- 1:14:59Because they've got a routine. Going, isn't it?
- 1:15:01Yeah, but this is what we've. Seen under the grass at the
- 1:15:04start of the film. Yeah.
- 1:15:05Oh yeah, of course. Oh.
- 1:15:06Yeah, definitely this. You know the.
- 1:15:07Surface are being pulled back now.
- 1:15:08I mean, Fred Derife just dancing with a snake in the background.
- 1:15:11Where do you get that from? You know, it's it's so.
- 1:15:13It's just so. Weird.
- 1:15:15Classic nightmare logic. It is.
- 1:15:17It's absolute nightmare. Logic I'm in this scene.
- 1:15:19It upsets me and it deserves me on a level where I've never been
- 1:15:23able to quite work out why. This is the scene in the film
- 1:15:26that most feels like a nightmare to me.
- 1:15:28Like it's brilliant, but I just want to wake up and I just
- 1:15:31wanted around one of the most peculiar scenes I've.
- 1:15:34I've ever seen. I was just captivated when I
- 1:15:36first saw it, yeah, but I didn't understand why.
- 1:15:38I still probably still don't, but there's something like
- 1:15:41primally seductive about the whole thing.
- 1:15:44I don't, I don't know why I'm attracted to this exactly.
- 1:15:46I don't know either. But yeah, it's true.
- 1:15:48Weird. Lynch didn't go directly.
- 1:15:51To Roy Orbison for permission to use In Dreams.
- 1:15:54Instead, he obtained license for the song by other means.
- 1:15:56She went to the record company. So you can imagine Orbison
- 1:15:59surprise when he sat down in a Malibu movie theatre to watch
- 1:16:03this new David Lynch Blue Velvet film.
- 1:16:05Yeah, let's watch it. And on comes one of the most
- 1:16:08revered songs in his back catalog, he said.
- 1:16:11I was mortified because they were talking about the candy
- 1:16:14colored clown in relation to a dope deal.
- 1:16:16I thought, what in the world? What?
- 1:16:20A gentleman he is. Yeah, the Big O.
- 1:16:22The big love him. Orbison later said that he
- 1:16:25watched the. Film again and appreciated what
- 1:16:27the song gave to the film and vice versa.
- 1:16:29The use of the song in the film is attributed to a resurgence in
- 1:16:31Orbison's popularity, leading to a successful greatest hits
- 1:16:34package and him joining supergroup at the Travelling
- 1:16:37Wilburys. Strangely, this made his.
- 1:16:39Popularity saw, which is unbelievable considering this
- 1:16:43Roy Orbison. It's just a new demographic.
- 1:16:46For the David Lynch mob. Well, this scene is what?
- 1:16:54Lynch called the eye of the duck scene, IE the most important
- 1:16:58part of the film. Lynch said the key to the whole
- 1:17:00duck is the eye and where it is placed.
- 1:17:02It's like a little jewel. If it's there, it's absolutely
- 1:17:05beautiful. What do you mean, David?
- 1:17:07I don't know what you mean the fact.
- 1:17:08That the club is called. This is it, I guess, is the
- 1:17:10cherry on that kind of obvious cake.
- 1:17:13This is the eye of the duck. Yeah, the light that.
- 1:17:16Stockwell uses as. A mic was not planned.
- 1:17:18During rehearsals, he picked up this construction work light and
- 1:17:21used it as a stand in mic. Lynch loved it so much that he
- 1:17:25kept the light and stopped, well, mime and the song when he
- 1:17:27originally was meant to sing it. Right, right, well.
- 1:17:30It's much better that way. It really.
- 1:17:31Does it's much? More sinister that way.
- 1:17:34It is so sinister. And I don't know why.
- 1:17:37No, on the way out. Of.
- 1:17:39This is it, yeah. It's one of the me favorite
- 1:17:41transitions in cinema history. I think I'll fuck anything that
- 1:17:45moves, man Bang. He just disappears from the
- 1:17:48frame. It's incredibly creepy and
- 1:17:52really powerful and just put straight into the car and you're
- 1:17:56like what what is going on? Like the the furious nature of
- 1:18:00that disappearance of that cut is so lynching.
- 1:18:02And then we're going to the car and then we'll see you know, the
- 1:18:05road and I'm thinking this is lost highway.
- 1:18:07This is must be where he gets the idea of lost highway from
- 1:18:09this this iconography of just this travelling to nothing to
- 1:18:12darkness. That's where Jeffrey is.
- 1:18:14He's in this hell in that this chariot, the hell with these
- 1:18:18horrible people. And nobody respects his privacy.
- 1:18:20No one respects his place. And he's just being exploited as
- 1:18:23a human being. The pullover and nothing.
- 1:18:26And then Frank just you hear the gas and then oh, God, there's
- 1:18:29just that incredible shot of the like, you know, yeah, you've got
- 1:18:33Dorothy in the front, you've got Frank in the front, you've got
- 1:18:34the other guy behind that shot. And it just turns around.
- 1:18:37You've just that Freeman of that is just so imposing on the
- 1:18:39viewer because you feel like you're in the back seat with
- 1:18:41them and it's like, and then there's the lever alone and he
- 1:18:44starts on and it's just that's really weird.
- 1:18:46But watch the guy behind Isabella Rossellini just doesn't
- 1:18:48know what to do even he's like, am I in the scene?
- 1:18:52I'm on the shot? What?
- 1:18:54Am I doing? He looks terrified.
- 1:18:56There's no ad Lib and whatsoever here because Hopper is just
- 1:18:58gone. Yes, he's just doing his thing.
- 1:19:01He snaps at this point. This is what he didn't do the
- 1:19:03first time he saw Frank act against Dorothy because he has
- 1:19:06more feelings for an hour. He has more understanding of who
- 1:19:08this is and he's going to stand up to this evil and he just gets
- 1:19:11punished for it. I love that fist just coming in.
- 1:19:13Brilliant shot where he punches and that's just wonderfully.
- 1:19:16Don't put Frank the way he snaps.
- 1:19:18You get him out the car, get him out the car, fuck, get him out
- 1:19:21the car. And it's just like curious about
- 1:19:23what's happened to him. He's like he's been touched,
- 1:19:25he's been violated and then he chooses to violate Geoffrey and
- 1:19:29just you're going to invade Myspace, I'm going to invade
- 1:19:31yours. And he's just all pretty pretty
- 1:19:33and he's just moved their lipstick on and then kissing
- 1:19:35him. And it's just a complete
- 1:19:36invasion of that privacy. And that emotion is disgusting.
- 1:19:40So you've got people in these crew, especially that woman
- 1:19:42who's gets on top of the car and starts to dance because she's
- 1:19:45really, she's just reassuring Frank that everyone's in on
- 1:19:48this. It's a good idea to feel this
- 1:19:49way. We are into the song.
- 1:19:51We are into the emotion. Dorothy isn't.
- 1:19:53She sat in the car to school. Leave him alone.
- 1:19:55What on earth is going on with Brad Durf?
- 1:19:57Again, amazed and casting when he's just stood with that knife
- 1:20:01against his throat. He is just completely committed
- 1:20:03to that, to that part of that role.
- 1:20:05You would think he is in that group.
- 1:20:07And it's just the way he's quoting the lyrics and his
- 1:20:11speech about a love letter is a bullet from a gun.
- 1:20:14And it goes into your heart and you got a love letter for me and
- 1:20:16you are done for. And that is it.
- 1:20:18And he's using love as a weapon. He's using emotion as a weapon.
- 1:20:21He's using happiness as a weapon.
- 1:20:23And this person just couldn't get any more despicable.
- 1:20:26And he does, and you're along for the ride 100%.
- 1:20:29And then he just starts going through and starts beating up
- 1:20:31Jeffrey and starts breaking them down.
- 1:20:33It's the worst possible behaviour towards another human
- 1:20:36being, how you can belittle them emotionally and then belittle
- 1:20:40them physically. And that's what he does all the
- 1:20:42way through this film to everybody, and especially a
- 1:20:44Jeffrey here. It's really tough to watch, but
- 1:20:46it completely reinforces Frank's character and makes you fucking
- 1:20:49terrified of him. That's one of the most
- 1:20:51terrifying. Scenes in any film, This,
- 1:20:54they've just this stretch. Dorothy and Jeffrey's psycho
- 1:20:57sex, this is it. And then this scene, the
- 1:21:01lipstick, the woman dancing on the hub of the car, it's like
- 1:21:03Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Yeah, it's the weirdest fucking
- 1:21:09scene. I think it's brilliant.
- 1:21:14It is so some of the. Most disturbing scenes of the
- 1:21:16decade of any decade in a stretch, which is strangely
- 1:21:20compelling. Yeah.
- 1:21:21Very compelling, yeah. The crew The crew on Blue Velvet
- 1:21:30brings. Some names to the podcast that
- 1:21:32we've never talked about in the past, and we're starting off
- 1:21:34with the singular vision that David Lynch brought Blue Velvet
- 1:21:37with his unique screenplay. Yeah.
- 1:21:41As it's written and directed. By David Lynch I think the lines
- 1:21:44are blurred between directing and writing, and sometimes it
- 1:21:47just feels like a sensation or an atmosphere that he's created
- 1:21:51with Blue Velvet. But the aspect of the right and
- 1:21:54that sticks out to me most is duality.
- 1:21:56It's a huge part of the narrative and of the characters
- 1:21:59as well, and I think that Lynch presents a kind of hyper reality
- 1:22:02at the start and the end of the films, complete with clunky
- 1:22:05dialogue and double entendre laced radio jingles.
- 1:22:09And then he flips. That right on its head.
- 1:22:10For the middle section, I think the genre bending nature of the
- 1:22:13film also fits into this duality.
- 1:22:15Is it a mystery? Is it a tongue in cheek drama?
- 1:22:18A coming of age film? A horror film?
- 1:22:20None of those, all of those. I like that Jeffrey has almost a
- 1:22:24dual personality, the kind of all shooks small town boy during
- 1:22:29the day and the disturbed sexual curious voyeur that prowl
- 1:22:33tonight, something that is reinforced by the two women in
- 1:22:36his life. Sandy during the day, Dorothy at
- 1:22:38night. He's at once repulsed by what he
- 1:22:40sees from Dorothy's closet, but also finds strangely illumorant
- 1:22:43and erotically charged. Just like we do, of course.
- 1:22:50He pretends to be somebody he's not.
- 1:22:51When he masquerades as the bug man, this is the bridge between
- 1:22:54his two personalities between the day and the night time.
- 1:22:56Darkness and light bugs in the film are representative of the
- 1:22:59darkness inheritance society in the fabric of everyone, even
- 1:23:03people as white picket fenced as Jeffrey and Sandy.
- 1:23:06And it goes into the dream that Sandy had that you mentioned
- 1:23:09earlier, Matt. And we can see this duality in
- 1:23:12the character Dorothy, who's forced into these horrific
- 1:23:15sexual situations with Frank but seems to get some sensual
- 1:23:17satisfaction from it. And she sees Jeffrey as someone
- 1:23:20who can help her get a son back, but also begs for him to display
- 1:23:23the same sordid behavior as Frank.
- 1:23:25It's so complex and compelling the way that these characters
- 1:23:29are written. And I do think it's interesting
- 1:23:31that Frank's Dorman is the night time.
- 1:23:32This is where he thrives. And generally the only time we
- 1:23:36see him during the day is when he's dressed as the well dressed
- 1:23:39man. Disguise.
- 1:23:40Yeah. Yeah, he's in disguise.
- 1:23:42Yeah. He also can't make his mind up
- 1:23:44whether he wants to be baby or daddy.
- 1:23:47No, the town. Of.
- 1:23:48Lumberton We discussed this. It's got this kind of Howdy
- 1:23:51Doody friendly exterior that he wants to portray, but there's
- 1:23:54something very evil looking just below the surface.
- 1:23:56I think Lynch makes the duality in the film a metaphor for the
- 1:23:59complexities of human emotions and impulses.
- 1:24:02And also towns and cities dotted all over the world.
- 1:24:05And, you know, I'm just scratching the surface here.
- 1:24:07It's outstandingly oblique writing from Lynch.
- 1:24:10It's something else, something that nobody would ever do.
- 1:24:13No, Wesley, what are your thoughts on the writing?
- 1:24:15It just has like you've said. Just this incredible sense of
- 1:24:17originality. And I think the dialogue as well
- 1:24:20reflects that because it's just so clunky and it's just so
- 1:24:23matter of fact at the start. And then you get these beautiful
- 1:24:25monologues, you know, from Sandy talking about a dream, how that
- 1:24:28evokes so many visions in your head.
- 1:24:29And then Frank's monologue that we've just spoke about, you
- 1:24:32know, love letters and how that's really important.
- 1:24:34But it's just the plotting of this as well.
- 1:24:36I think he plots it really well and it's really, really steadily
- 1:24:40done because there's always something happens that you don't
- 1:24:42quite expect. And I think he's got the plot
- 1:24:44down and that is licked and he knows exactly what he's doing
- 1:24:47with that. Like you said, he loves a
- 1:24:48concrete plot, which is what this is.
- 1:24:50It's very simple. It's a very small plot, but
- 1:24:53around that's what he builds on top of it.
- 1:24:55The foundations are there. And I think just reflect on what
- 1:24:58you've just said actually looked like.
- 1:24:59If someone else had directed this, what would that have
- 1:25:02looked like? Or if Lynch had directed
- 1:25:05something that was written by somebody else?
- 1:25:07But how much of it would he have laid on top of what's already
- 1:25:10there? You know what I mean?
- 1:25:11How how abstract would he have made Chinatown?
- 1:25:14How strange would he have made that?
- 1:25:16And what Lynch doesn't do is explain himself and never have
- 1:25:19and never will. And I think a lot of that's in
- 1:25:21the writing. And that's why, you know, Val
- 1:25:23Kilmer was put off by it. God knows what that draft was
- 1:25:26like. I think that's just him thinking
- 1:25:28down that line. And then he would actually
- 1:25:30wouldn't cross pollinate it and go down this line.
- 1:25:32And what about that? But I think a lot of this is
- 1:25:34down to Lynch kneeling down. A solid idea to get funding to
- 1:25:39then have fun with it on top of that to deal with the actors,
- 1:25:43actresses who are involved in every character that's in it.
- 1:25:45And then just say, why don't we try this to have Frank's
- 1:25:48character originally have helium to change that when Hopper
- 1:25:52suggested to change it shows me an incredible shift in that
- 1:25:55character that would have just been hilarious.
- 1:25:58It would have made no sense. High pitched sound like Donald
- 1:26:00the tried to do it. So how much of this was fleshed
- 1:26:03out on the page and how much of it was fleshed out as they were
- 1:26:05shooting? And I think it's down to David
- 1:26:07Lynch to say that this is written and directed by David
- 1:26:10Lynch as a package. It's kind of half written, half
- 1:26:13directed, smashed together. The writing is the direction,
- 1:26:16and the direction is the right because it's David Lynch, very
- 1:26:19similar, I. Think this is one of those cases
- 1:26:21where I can't really divide the direction and the right for the
- 1:26:25most part I. Think.
- 1:26:26The writing is part of the reason why the film fills you
- 1:26:29with so much anxiety, because it constantly sets up expectations
- 1:26:33of where film would normally go. Except it doesn't, and when it
- 1:26:37doesn't, it doesn't bother explaining why it hasn't done
- 1:26:40that either. So you know, why is Sandy sad so
- 1:26:43blouse about letting Jeffrey tag along on this police case?
- 1:26:46A murder case? Don't know, but it doesn't
- 1:26:48matter. Why is Jeffrey not more freaked
- 1:26:50out by the discovery of a 70? Don't know, Doesn't matter.
- 1:26:54It's a film of total contrast in the writing, not lying about
- 1:26:57Jeffrey. Is he a detective or pervert?
- 1:27:00He's both. It flips, contrasts all the
- 1:27:04time. It goes from lush romantic
- 1:27:06scenes of teenage love to dark sexual depravity.
- 1:27:10And it's just different sides of the same coin.
- 1:27:12Like, I always forget part of the ending of this film ends
- 1:27:15with a shootout between the police and Frank's gang.
- 1:27:17Yeah, but Lynch could not care less about that.
- 1:27:21No, because that's how any. And this was saying what would
- 1:27:23someone else do with this script?
- 1:27:25Anyone else would Ended with a big shootout.
- 1:27:28And it's so deliberately throw away by Lynch.
- 1:27:30He's going. There you go.
- 1:27:32That's the one bit you were expecting.
- 1:27:33And I've just had a really uneventful and it's it's the
- 1:27:35most boring part of the film. Yeah.
- 1:27:37See, you obviously can't separate.
- 1:27:39The right and. Direct and the pretty much one
- 1:27:40in the same. I think Blue Velvet just it
- 1:27:43filled us the way he views the world through this 50 style
- 1:27:45Americana, but it's still in the 80s.
- 1:27:48At the same time, in every aspect of the film, you just go,
- 1:27:51well, yeah, that's David Lynch and it's what he does.
- 1:27:53And the writing is no different. It's all about light and dark
- 1:27:56coexistent and it may not make sense.
- 1:27:59You just have to accept that unfortunately.
- 1:28:01Yeah, going to get no answers. No, Lynch's blue.
- 1:28:04Velvet screenplay had. Been passed around Hollywood and
- 1:28:07rejected by pretty much every major studio due to its
- 1:28:10disturbing nature and after he finished.
- 1:28:14The Elephant Man Lynch met up with producer Richard Roth, and
- 1:28:17he gave Roth an unfilmed script of his, which was called Ronnie
- 1:28:20Rocket. Roth read it, asked if he had
- 1:28:23anything else bubbling away, and then said, well, I told him I'd
- 1:28:25always wanted to sneak into a girl's room to watch it of the
- 1:28:29night, and that maybe at one point or another I would see
- 1:28:31something that would be the clue for a murder mystery.
- 1:28:34I've always wanted to sneak into a.
- 1:28:35Girl's room. I'm still there.
- 1:28:36Yeah, but do you have a? Script though, so I'm going to
- 1:28:39call the. Police if this goes.
- 1:28:41Any further? Yeah, write that down.
- 1:28:43Yeah. But oddly enough.
- 1:28:46Roth loved it and encouraged him to write a treatment.
- 1:28:48David Lynch went home and that's when he had the idea for the ear
- 1:28:51that came into his mind right then, he said.
- 1:28:54That he had three ideas. Which formed the basis of Blue
- 1:28:57Velvet, the Bobby Vinton song. He said the mood that came with
- 1:29:00that song. A mood a time and things that
- 1:29:02were of that time. He thought about being in a
- 1:29:04girl's closet at night, like Matt just said.
- 1:29:06And the third idea was the ear in the field.
- 1:29:08Because it would be like finding a ticket to another world.
- 1:29:10You know, it would change your life.
- 1:29:12I don't know if it would, David. It shouldn't.
- 1:29:16Change your life, David. Yeah, despite.
- 1:29:19Having a disturbed. Cinematic mind.
- 1:29:21If you've seen Lynch in interviews, he seems quite the
- 1:29:23wholesome chap. Yes, wonderful, Jimmy.
- 1:29:25Sealed for Mars. That's what I am.
- 1:29:27Well, books called him. Wasn't it brilliant?
- 1:29:31Jimmy sealed for Mars. Yep, that's me.
- 1:29:33Perfect. You'd.
- 1:29:35Expect him to emerge from the. Shadows, but he seems like a
- 1:29:37well adjusted mind. What a quiff as well.
- 1:29:40Great hair. Yeah.
- 1:29:40Wonderful. Yeah, on.
- 1:29:42Set despite having. Written the screenplay.
- 1:29:44He never uttered any foul language, something that Dennis
- 1:29:47Hopper found very amusing with Lynch would point at the script
- 1:29:50and say that word. He's even made direction.
- 1:29:57Like, difficult. You know what's?
- 1:30:00Interesting though, you know, like.
- 1:30:01Obviously when he died, all the tributes that came out, the
- 1:30:04amount of actresses he worked with who had nothing but praise
- 1:30:07from, considering how many like dark films about sex he's made,
- 1:30:11you would think is he a bit dodgy in real life?
- 1:30:14But it just seemed like an absolute gentleman, like the
- 1:30:16kind of soul you could ever meet.
- 1:30:18It's almost like an alter ego. Has written made his films,
- 1:30:22yeah. So this is semi.
- 1:30:23Autobiographical for Lynch, Jeffrey dresses like he did.
- 1:30:26His father worked in the Department of Agriculture, and
- 1:30:28as such he was always in the woods, he said.
- 1:30:31Lumber and lumberjacks. That's America to me, like the
- 1:30:33picket fences and the roses at the opening shot.
- 1:30:35It's all burned in that image and it makes me feel so happy.
- 1:30:39That's quite. Strange makes.
- 1:30:41Him feel so happy and I'll meet this nightmare underneath it,
- 1:30:44yeah. So a strange and disturbingly.
- 1:30:48Unique vision from Lynch and his screenplay.
- 1:30:50Everything we'd come to expect from the Quafford genius.
- 1:30:54Yeah, definitely. And next we have the unsettling.
- 1:30:58Sound of the Music and Blue Velvet There are some huge
- 1:31:01fifties 60s hits that punctuate the narrative at the beginning
- 1:31:04of an enduring cinematic partnership between David Lynch
- 1:31:07and Angelo Badlamenti. Matt.
- 1:31:10What do you think of? The music in the film, it's such
- 1:31:14an. Eclectic mixture.
- 1:31:15You've got the 50 standards. You go from the opening titles,
- 1:31:20which is this very Bernard Hermanesque for boarding score,
- 1:31:24very much riffing on vertical, I think in particular from his
- 1:31:28back catalog. And then you've got this the
- 1:31:30like slinky jazz in there that is very Twin Peaks.
- 1:31:34If you ever watch Twin Peaks, that was that kind of
- 1:31:36soundtrack. But again.
- 1:31:38It's one of the elements. Of the film where it's all about
- 1:31:40the contrast, because then you've also got that ethereal,
- 1:31:43almost angelic chorus that comes in the mysteries of love, you
- 1:31:47know, which is always associated with Sandy and the end.
- 1:31:50And that is so like blissed out. But it's also really, really
- 1:31:53honest. Like that kind of music.
- 1:31:55It could sound like a parody. It could sound like a parody of
- 1:31:58a John Williams type Scott. But it never does.
- 1:32:00And I think that's because Lynch has never parodied anything in
- 1:32:04his life in any of his films. Anything in his films he
- 1:32:06believes in. So he believes in the darkness
- 1:32:09and the CD underbelly of life, but he also truly believes in
- 1:32:12the heel and power of love. And he believes that those two
- 1:32:15things can coexist, and therefore they can coexist in
- 1:32:18the soundtrack as well. And that's what that represents
- 1:32:21to me, the contrast and the balance at the same time.
- 1:32:23So it's a mixed year that, like so much of David Lynch,
- 1:32:26particularly in this film, it shouldn't work.
- 1:32:28But the variety of music just works perfectly.
- 1:32:31Yeah. Classic Lynch again.
- 1:32:33Everything classic Lynch. Everything's classic Lynch.
- 1:32:35Westy Your. Thoughts on the music in the
- 1:32:37film? Yeah.
- 1:32:38I mean, it's very, very. Playful, I think, yes, Battle
- 1:32:42and he's. Having a great.
- 1:32:43Time here, he can just turn his hand to anything and it works.
- 1:32:47It's really sets the tone as it goes through the film.
- 1:32:50But not as sledgehammery. I think you need someone, Lynch
- 1:32:53needs someone like this, who has got a little bit of subtly, who
- 1:32:56is kind of stepping back a little bit and making you think,
- 1:32:59does this fit in this part of the film?
- 1:33:02Does that jazz make any sense right now?
- 1:33:04Does this real foreboding sense of dread really resonate with
- 1:33:09finding an ear in a field? Does this make sense now?
- 1:33:12I think that's what he does really well as he reads Lynch
- 1:33:14and gives you the opposite of what should really go with it.
- 1:33:18Like he's putting potatoes with pasta almost.
- 1:33:20He's kind of like going, well, you can't eat that at the same
- 1:33:23time, but it might not work. But it's not.
- 1:33:25You decide that. And it is like a Batman, Robin
- 1:33:28kind of thing for me with these two, Yeah.
- 1:33:31Lynch is kind of batting the ball.
- 1:33:32Over and going, this is the scene, right?
- 1:33:34Give us something that I'm not expecting and he gives him
- 1:33:37something that he's not expecting.
- 1:33:38And Lynch goes, we're using that.
- 1:33:39I mean, there's like double bass in there.
- 1:33:41Sounds like a jazz. Kind.
- 1:33:43Of. Comedian.
- 1:33:45Like just to fill the gaps of just thoughts.
- 1:33:47You don't have to think about it.
- 1:33:48There's no painful silences. It's just there just to chug
- 1:33:50along with the pace. And that's the thing I thought
- 1:33:53about the screenplay, with the plotting of it.
- 1:33:55I think with the score, it really helps with the plotting
- 1:33:58of the film, with the piercing of the film.
- 1:34:00Yeah, it helps it move, and it helps it move at exactly the
- 1:34:03right pace. Nobody's got a theme here, you
- 1:34:06know, it's not the imperial March when Frank turns up.
- 1:34:09There's no there's no big theme. Imagine that'd be great.
- 1:34:12That Just call me daddy. Yeah.
- 1:34:18Oh, I couldn't imagine it. That's.
- 1:34:19Even more terrifying? Then that's what I mean, it just
- 1:34:23mixes. Together perfectly.
- 1:34:24I think this collaboration here really, really works.
- 1:34:27And I think Battle and he's taking a backseat going yeah,
- 1:34:30I'm quite happy to make this as crazy as you want to make it.
- 1:34:33Let's do it. Yeah, he really started.
- 1:34:35Something here with Lynch, and I think is a major element of the
- 1:34:38term Lynchian. You get bad lament his work with
- 1:34:41David Lynch, dreamlike, floating, hazy music.
- 1:34:44It creates a kind of hyper realistic tone.
- 1:34:47We can never trust that we're in the real world when that music
- 1:34:49kicks in, especially when matched with the visuals.
- 1:34:52It's particularly noticeable during the like the romantic
- 1:34:54scenes between Jeffrey and Sandy, that dreamland quality.
- 1:34:58Linds must have thought like all of his Christmases would come up
- 1:35:00once when Angelo came on board. But this is only one element of
- 1:35:04his work. You've also got, like you've
- 1:35:06been talking about, overtly new arm music.
- 1:35:08It's the music of the 40s, where all the hip cats occupy the
- 1:35:11shadows. It's lounging jazz with lazy
- 1:35:15sacks, it sounds like. Who framed?
- 1:35:18Roger Rabbit. Dozen places, yeah.
- 1:35:22And it's. All done very.
- 1:35:23Tongue in cheek, given some much needed levity to the film.
- 1:35:27And then add to that the dramatic score he brings to the
- 1:35:29nightmare scenes. It's almost like he's made three
- 1:35:31different scores for three different films here.
- 1:35:34Yeah. Three or four, Yeah.
- 1:35:35And the 50s songs. Are a revelation.
- 1:35:38Songs that were from a bag on era of teenagers in love and
- 1:35:41milkshakes now took on a brand new lease of life.
- 1:35:43The film reveals a darkness in Blue velvet and in dreams that
- 1:35:46I'm sure were caught everyone by surprise.
- 1:35:49Oh absolutely. Those songs absolutely haunt me
- 1:35:53now, particularly in dreams. Yeah.
- 1:35:56Yeah, Isabella. Rossellini, actually.
- 1:35:57Sung her version of Blue Velvet, and because that's her voice,
- 1:36:01she had a vocal coach on set, but they couldn't quite nail it.
- 1:36:05So producer Fred Caruso drafted in his old buddy Angelo
- 1:36:08Badlamenti. He flew into town and worked
- 1:36:11with Rossellini on her voice. Arrangement of the song.
- 1:36:14Yeah, the arrangement is totally.
- 1:36:15Different. I love that slow build of like
- 1:36:18the first couple of lines and you just have to wait for it to
- 1:36:20kick in. Fantastic, She sounds almost
- 1:36:23like. Nico, the way that, like the
- 1:36:25internation, it's almost dull and it's not quite right.
- 1:36:28Yeah. It's not quite.
- 1:36:29It's not. Quite in time, it's not quite.
- 1:36:31Right. Yeah, something about it.
- 1:36:32Yeah, it's lovely. Lynch wasn't, actually.
- 1:36:34Blown away by this notion at first because Bad Lamenti was an
- 1:36:37outsider, but he loved the arrangement of the song that he
- 1:36:40did and the got along famously. So Lynch asked him to score the
- 1:36:42whole film. Yeah, and this was the start.
- 1:36:44As we've said, the start of a beautiful friendship with Battle
- 1:36:47Men in Lynch, working together on all Lynch projects apart from
- 1:36:50Inland Empire. He would refer to his
- 1:36:52partnership with Lynch as my second best marriage.
- 1:36:56Wow, nice. When Sandy.
- 1:36:57And Jeffrey are walking down the streets.
- 1:36:59Lynch played composer Dmitry Shostakovich music booming out
- 1:37:04the speakers as a walking down the street at night.
- 1:37:07He said that he listened non-stop to #15 and a major when
- 1:37:11writing the screenplay. And one of the atmosphere
- 1:37:13created by that song to pervade the set, right?
- 1:37:17Lynch also told Badlimenti. To make the music for the film,
- 1:37:19like Shostakovich, be very Russian, but make it the most
- 1:37:23beautiful thing, but make it dark and a little bit scary.
- 1:37:27Where do you go with that? Thanks, Dave.
- 1:37:30Hurry up, but take your. Time.
- 1:37:31Keep it. Loud.
- 1:37:32Keep it quiet. And bad lamenti.
- 1:37:36Appears in the film as the pianist in the Slow Club.
- 1:37:40All right, OK. In the middle of film and Lynch
- 1:37:42and McLaughlin. Were driving from New York to
- 1:37:44Wilmington and Crying by Roy Orbison came on the radio.
- 1:37:48Amazing. Lynch loved it and said he
- 1:37:50needed to include that song in Blue Velvet.
- 1:37:52He bought a copy of Orbison's greatest hits, but became
- 1:37:54enamoured with another song instead.
- 1:37:56That we've been talking about in dreams.
- 1:37:58Yeah, crying's already. Been used on it.
- 1:38:00Crying. It only fills in.
- 1:38:09Horses yet again. Yeah, there it is, every.
- 1:38:12Episode now and Lynch was inspired by the.
- 1:38:17Bobby Vinton version of Blue Velvet, he said.
- 1:38:20It wasn't the kind of music that I really liked, but there was
- 1:38:22something mysterious about it. It made me think about things,
- 1:38:26and the first things I thought about were lawns.
- 1:38:28Lawns in the neighborhood, right?
- 1:38:31I'm amazing there's £6 million made the film that's completely
- 1:38:34yours on Put Music and I don't really like sound.
- 1:38:38Why? Because.
- 1:38:38It makes me think of lawns. It made me think of gardens,
- 1:38:42yeah. Anything to do with the
- 1:38:44narrative? No, no gardens.
- 1:38:45And that just gardens, and that's great.
- 1:38:48Love it, but despite the gardens and.
- 1:38:55That that lament these imprint on Blue Velvet is undeniable.
- 1:38:59Yes, definitely. Finally, it's a collaborator.
- 1:39:04Of Lynch's since he started making films in DDP
- 1:39:07extraordinaire it is Frederick Elms Westie Yeah your thoughts
- 1:39:13on Fred Elms here I mean the way that this.
- 1:39:15Whole film shifts over its full runtime of two hours from this
- 1:39:20glossy, beautiful Sheen to then it seems to go from day to
- 1:39:24night, but then back today again, it seems like a stick, a
- 1:39:28complete tonal shift in the open, and it's just like a
- 1:39:31sunrise. And it's just got all of this
- 1:39:33great tonnage to it. The color palettes, absolutely
- 1:39:35amazing. There's a lot of contrast in
- 1:39:37there. And to me, it feels like Lynch
- 1:39:40needs somebody he can rely on. And we know that Fred Helms did
- 1:39:44a race ahead, so he's gone back to his roots.
- 1:39:46It's not overshadowed. It could be if someone was a
- 1:39:50little bit more heavy-handed. I think Lynch is heavy-handed
- 1:39:52enough and I don't I still don't think there's any subtlety of
- 1:39:55the cinematography, but it's definitely not over the top.
- 1:39:58And I think of anyone shown restraint on the set.
- 1:40:01I mean, we've already talked about the score.
- 1:40:02We talked about Angelo just running with Lynch and just I've
- 1:40:05just met him. Here we go.
- 1:40:06But I think Fred Holmes knew him a little bit longer and said,
- 1:40:08I'll tell you what, we're just going to draw this back
- 1:40:10slightly. And you can tell that with
- 1:40:12camera movement, with blocking, some of it's very considered,
- 1:40:15some of it's very intentional. Like we said about that shot,
- 1:40:17that always. Breaks me in the apartment, the
- 1:40:19whole Frank Booth scene, I think there's about 3-3 shots, three
- 1:40:23different cuts and it's all held on that wide and it's how
- 1:40:27important that why it is and how important the practicals are.
- 1:40:29But it never looks lit. It never looks over the top,
- 1:40:32looks very much part of the scene.
- 1:40:35It looks almost dark around the. Edges.
- 1:40:37Yeah, it's got a vignette. It's.
- 1:40:38Got that real. Just draws you into the center
- 1:40:40of the frame all the time. I don't think there's a lot of
- 1:40:43thirds in this film where you kind of go right.
- 1:40:45Well, that needs to be off to the side there.
- 1:40:46Even that great shot we're talking about with Frank in the
- 1:40:49car, when he turns around, you still got Frank on one side,
- 1:40:51you've got Dorothy on the other. It's all very symmetrical.
- 1:40:53It's all very framed. Everything has a place on the
- 1:40:56screen. And I think Frederick Helms just
- 1:40:58really knows where that place is.
- 1:41:00And you need somebody who understands Lynch.
- 1:41:02I think the police vision onto the screen as well as he does
- 1:41:04here. He needs somebody who he can
- 1:41:06trust, and he can trust Frederick Helms.
- 1:41:08Without doubt we've. Talked about a color and
- 1:41:10lighting plays a huge part. Blues and Reds.
- 1:41:13Whenever Jeffrey is contemplating the dark side of
- 1:41:15his wants and desires, he's usually under the spell of a red
- 1:41:18light. Dorothy wears a blue velvet
- 1:41:21rope. The blue represents an innocence
- 1:41:23which she uses to cover up the sin of her body.
- 1:41:25And equally, Frank uses swatches of that blue velvet, presumably
- 1:41:29to justify his actions. And they're all captured so
- 1:41:32stark and beautifully by Elms. It's very similar to what you
- 1:41:35were saying. Westie creates this very
- 1:41:37uncomfortable space in a lot of the sets.
- 1:41:39He sits on a wide shot for long periods of time, making it very
- 1:41:43uneasy. There's only about three shots
- 1:41:45in Dorothy's apartment. It's set up like anything can
- 1:41:48happen because this space just isn't filled, so something's
- 1:41:51going to come in at some point. Yeah, it's classic horror trope
- 1:41:54as well. It is.
- 1:41:55Yes, it is. Obviously failing.
- 1:41:56More specifically in Dorothy's apartment when Jeffrey first
- 1:41:59knocks on the door and he's hiding in the closet when he
- 1:42:01goes back in at the end and sees this strange formation of dead
- 1:42:04bodies. I've never been more unsettled
- 1:42:06by an apartment in movies. Ever see him?
- 1:42:09Yeah, every time. We go back to Dorothy's.
- 1:42:11I get this horrendous sense of on these, like I said, and
- 1:42:14that's because nothing good ever happens there.
- 1:42:16Lynch creates this sensation, but Elms has captured it
- 1:42:19perfectly. You can see it in This Is It
- 1:42:22scene as well. The original plan was to set up
- 1:42:25the block and then have close up shots, but during rehearsals
- 1:42:27this only complicated the scene. So Elms put it as a wide shot
- 1:42:31with all the characters in the frame.
- 1:42:32He said that he'd give the scene an intentional awkwardness,
- 1:42:35which put everybody on edge. Yeah, seeing everybody.
- 1:42:38Just you just don't know who's going to do what exactly.
- 1:42:41Yeah. It's the use of.
- 1:42:42Lightning, I think for me to go from that open and that I talked
- 1:42:45about to the darkness of the club to the darkness of the
- 1:42:48streets when Jeffrey and Sandy are just walking and that street
- 1:42:52just stretches on behind them into Infinity and think over
- 1:42:55there. But short of it's very brief,
- 1:42:58that chart where just pushes in on the trees and the streets are
- 1:43:01blank. That point of view shot from
- 1:43:03there. Like there by the POV shot jump.
- 1:43:06Out from behind that. Tree, it's a real Halloween.
- 1:43:09It's really Halloween. It's really.
- 1:43:10Unsettling. And it's just that one bit.
- 1:43:12I mean, everything is so carefully thought through, like
- 1:43:15Ben's place. It's lit to suggest all these
- 1:43:17dark corners where anything could be thriving.
- 1:43:20But again, it's like the music. It's about contrast scenes, like
- 1:43:23the first time Jeffrey C Sandy and she steps out of darkness.
- 1:43:27It's like a 50s melodrama or something like that.
- 1:43:32But then you. Can't last that to any scene.
- 1:43:34But Frank and they tried like a horror film instead.
- 1:43:36Like it's incredibly disturbing. Everything in this film is
- 1:43:39decided to put you on edge, to throw you off a little bit.
- 1:43:42You see, you don't know what's coming next to the sound design,
- 1:43:44the production design, same the cinematography.
- 1:43:46The whole film is about things being brought into the light
- 1:43:49that shouldn't be brought into the light.
- 1:43:51And that's really what cinematography is doing here.
- 1:43:54And Elms himself said it's a dark film because when he gets
- 1:43:57down under the surface and in over his head, he's in the mock
- 1:44:00and Maya of this of the world, but he doesn't want to be in.
- 1:44:02But he's still intrigued and caught up in it.
- 1:44:04So I tried to create a style that would fit that mood.
- 1:44:07Yeah, yeah. And he did that by.
- 1:44:09Me at the beginning and the end of the film.
- 1:44:10Overtly cheerful and colorful to give a stark contrast to the
- 1:44:14middle of the scene. The bulk of the film.
- 1:44:16The scene in the car wasn't. Actually shot in the moving car.
- 1:44:19Fred Elm said that because the car appeared to be moving faster
- 1:44:22than was safe for a movie, the best way to give an impression
- 1:44:24of speed was to have lights moved past the stationary car by
- 1:44:27crew members very quickly and silently.
- 1:44:30It was just running past the car.
- 1:44:31It was all choreographed very carefully to create the illusion
- 1:44:33of a moving car. Totally works for me.
- 1:44:36Yeah, they were just rocking it. And just moving those lights
- 1:44:39past it, it looks incredible. Looks great.
- 1:44:42Yeah, you don't. Question it at all?
- 1:44:44So a one in a million screenplay by David Lynch, who used trusted
- 1:44:47confidants old and new in his crew on Blue Velvet?
- 1:44:50Yep. The end Jeffrey has plunged to
- 1:44:59depths. He could never have expected.
- 1:45:00And now he has to. Chloe's way back and he starts
- 1:45:03by confessing his investigation to Sandy's dad.
- 1:45:07Westie, it's over to you. I'm going to go to the scene.
- 1:45:09Where he goes back to the police station.
- 1:45:11Yeah. And we'll see.
- 1:45:12The yellow man. Love it.
- 1:45:14I mean, this guy's not so Lizzy. Just change your jacket.
- 1:45:17Same jacket every day. Just.
- 1:45:18The same jacket all the time. And he's supposed.
- 1:45:21To be doing, you know, pretty shady things.
- 1:45:24And I think if he wasn't wearing that jacket, I think it'd be
- 1:45:26hard for the audience to recognize him because Gordon
- 1:45:28just looks very, very plain. Very, very, very plain guy.
- 1:45:32And this is a very, very stark contrast now to the police
- 1:45:35station that I mentioned earlier on.
- 1:45:37This is a completely different place.
- 1:45:39Not even. It's just like a different room.
- 1:45:40It's a completely different building all together.
- 1:45:43I think this is all just really intentional and I think it was
- 1:45:46really excellent when we get that alternative angle from when
- 1:45:50Jeffrey's remembering what Frank said about Gordon.
- 1:45:53Love it and you get that into the alternative and it's just
- 1:45:56like from the side when he's kind of remembering it and it's
- 1:45:59just you then feel it's probably the most in line part of the
- 1:46:03narrative in the whole film though.
- 1:46:05That makes perfect sense. That's how we saw Frank talk
- 1:46:07about Gordon. Oh my God, this actually works
- 1:46:10and I love it for that whole just the way it spins
- 1:46:13everything. It feels like I'm watching a
- 1:46:15different film than one I was watching an hour 1/2 ago.
- 1:46:18It's completely different. Everyone.
- 1:46:19The acting is miles better. The reaction shots are miles
- 1:46:22better. The cutaways are just really,
- 1:46:23really fast and everything starts to make a little bit more
- 1:46:26sense. Really, really great scene.
- 1:46:29Well, just a little bit. I mean, he's wearing a yellow
- 1:46:34jacket. I recognize the guy.
- 1:46:35There's a flashback. Frank said something.
- 1:46:37He's got the same name. Perfect.
- 1:46:39This is all we need here. We'll go.
- 1:46:40Let's end the film here, please. Yeah, I mean Wesley.
- 1:46:45'S talking about the film making sense now and being normal.
- 1:46:47Well, not really, just slightly. Well, slightly by little
- 1:46:50standards. Stop putting words in me though.
- 1:46:53Yeah, violin standards, because. Then think you move into what is
- 1:46:56maybe the most normal scene of the film, which is Geoffrey and
- 1:46:59Sandy going to this party. Yes, because you know, it's what
- 1:47:02the people do of their age and it's completely normal.
- 1:47:05But then again, when is this set?
- 1:47:06Because that's some 50s rockabilly playing during this,
- 1:47:10and there's seventy 80s kids there.
- 1:47:12But then it just moves into, like, the most lushly romantic
- 1:47:15scene you could imagine of Geoffrey and Sandy confessing
- 1:47:18their love to each other. Well, I'm incredible.
- 1:47:21Soundtrack Mysteries of Love. It's called Players Over.
- 1:47:24Yeah. Like if you watch the scene in
- 1:47:26isolation, you'd think I'm just watching one of the great
- 1:47:29romantic worlds of all time. That's what the scene is.
- 1:47:31Yeah. Imagine just seeing the scene
- 1:47:33and then. Going do you want to watch Blue
- 1:47:34Velvet? This is the scene from You go.
- 1:47:35Oh yeah, yeah, I'd love to watch that.
- 1:47:37This would. Be lovely, Valentine's.
- 1:47:38Day maybe? Yeah.
- 1:47:40Exactly. Then even following this you.
- 1:47:46Get them pursued in the car by Mike, who is Sandy's
- 1:47:49ex-boyfriend. You think, oh, it's going to be
- 1:47:51like tragically romantic. It's two people who need to be
- 1:47:54together in the face of adversity.
- 1:47:55It's very Romeo and Juliet, but it ends up being another scene.
- 1:47:59That's testament to how Lynch can just shift gears and tones
- 1:48:03throughout this song. Because when they get into that
- 1:48:04confrontation outside the house, the way that Dorothy just
- 1:48:08appears in the background, yeah, it's really naked, obviously, in
- 1:48:12some disaster. It's one of the creepiest things
- 1:48:14I've ever seen because it just drove you out of that teenage
- 1:48:17romance. So glad you've just been in.
- 1:48:19Like it's one of the things. I can just.
- 1:48:22Vividly remember first time around just being so sad, the
- 1:48:25way she just emerges out of the darkness.
- 1:48:27Yeah. And almost no one knows apart
- 1:48:30from Mike. So yeah, so much of the effect
- 1:48:32of Blue Velvet is the way all these contrasts and taunts and
- 1:48:36subplots can flow into one another and be part of the
- 1:48:38whole, no matter how different they are to each other.
- 1:48:41I like. Mike, who's going to?
- 1:48:43Kick Jeffrey's ass then starts. To take.
- 1:48:46Face out with Dorothy, but then realizes how serious the
- 1:48:49situation is. Is that your mom?
- 1:48:51Yeah. Yeah, Awful, horrible.
- 1:48:54So this scene we're. Talking about the scene.
- 1:48:55Where Dorothy is naked on the lawn near the end was inspired
- 1:48:58by real events, if you can believe that.
- 1:49:00When Lynch was a kid, he was on his way home with his brother
- 1:49:02when he saw a naked woman in the street.
- 1:49:05He said it wasn't totally it and it was disturbing.
- 1:49:07And he started to cry. You recognize the violent
- 1:49:09undertones of this and one of the representing that feeling in
- 1:49:12Blue Velvet. And he really does.
- 1:49:14Yeah, he does. It's not sexy.
- 1:49:16This scene not as far. It's the farthest thing from.
- 1:49:19Sexy. I think I've ever seen him,
- 1:49:20Yeah. And.
- 1:49:21Film of this scene. Caused quite a stir among the
- 1:49:24citizens of Wilmington. They all came out with their
- 1:49:26picnic blankets to watch the scene being shot, despite Lynch
- 1:49:29and Rossellini asking them not to.
- 1:49:31But after the scene, the local police forbade Lynch from
- 1:49:35shooting any more scenes outside because of the stirrer created.
- 1:49:39Of course, that set should have been locked off.
- 1:49:43Absolutely ridiculous. What do you think?
- 1:49:46Well, I'm picking. Up where they take.
- 1:49:47Dorothy back to Sandy's parents place.
- 1:49:50Right now this is a mixture of the two worlds colliding to
- 1:49:53devastating effect. A bruised, battered and naked
- 1:49:56Dorothy has snook behind the white picketed fence of suburbia
- 1:50:00and Sandy's mother does not like what she sees.
- 1:50:03Maybe he doesn't. Jeffrey, Maybe Dorothy.
- 1:50:05'S secret lover. But Sandy, she doesn't need to
- 1:50:08hear that, not really. And she certainly doesn't.
- 1:50:11Want to hear? That he put his disease in the
- 1:50:13Dorothy. I'd love Jeffrey to say, listen,
- 1:50:17I wish you'd stop saying that because it really doesn't
- 1:50:19reflect well on me. I don't have any diseases.
- 1:50:22What the fuck are you? Talking about I.
- 1:50:24Don't know who you are? She says it.
- 1:50:28Twice. He put a disease in me.
- 1:50:30Shut up, man. And I think this is where he.
- 1:50:39Jeffrey has to make a decision about what path he wants to walk
- 1:50:41down. He ultimately chooses Sandy and
- 1:50:43brings the light back to the world.
- 1:50:45And I think another mention should go to Isabella
- 1:50:47Rossellini. Here she leaves it all on shore,
- 1:50:49no airs, and graces. Her tortured soul is there for
- 1:50:52all to see in the most vulnerable way possible, and
- 1:50:55you're crying out for somebody to give her a bloody blanket or
- 1:50:59something like that. Just cover her up because she's
- 1:51:02got no clothes on for too long. That court takes too long to
- 1:51:05come into the living room. It does.
- 1:51:07Yeah. Yeah.
- 1:51:08So a chilling turn of. Events, disturbing imagery,
- 1:51:11challenging audience expectations and tolerance.
- 1:51:13All in a day's work for David Lynch.
- 1:51:19The final stretch of the film sees.
- 1:51:21Jeffrey, confront Frank before everything returns back to Erie.
- 1:51:24Normality. Westie, you're kicking us off.
- 1:51:27Yeah, it's starting to climb back.
- 1:51:28Isn't it starting to climb back to a little bit of happiness?
- 1:51:31I think some in some ways, you know, it's it's the middle of
- 1:51:34the night, but there's still that gloss there, especially
- 1:51:36where it's when Sandy's room when he's just on the phone to
- 1:51:38Jeffrey and it feels a bit like grease here to me.
- 1:51:42You know, the hope to see devoted.
- 1:51:43See, you might say, Sandy, it's alright.
- 1:51:44I love you. And she's on the phone and say
- 1:51:46everything in our room looks like that kind of 1950s kind of
- 1:51:49rhetoric. Great.
- 1:51:51Mirror shot I love. That I love the way it kind of
- 1:51:53comes out from that. Dern's absolutely wonderful
- 1:51:55here. She's absolutely one because she
- 1:51:58sells it. She's very forgiven as a
- 1:51:59character. Very forgiven.
- 1:52:01Straight away, that's fine. I love you.
- 1:52:03Yeah. Yeah, it's fine.
- 1:52:04Yeah. I'm sorry.
- 1:52:05I overreacted slightly. No, you didn't.
- 1:52:07You overreacted massively. That's what I think.
- 1:52:10I don't think you should even take the phone call, let's be
- 1:52:12honest. I think she should stipulate.
- 1:52:14That he gets rid of the disease firstly before they do any
- 1:52:17questions. What?
- 1:52:18It is maybe. Is it, you know, is it
- 1:52:21metaphorical? Is it, is it physical?
- 1:52:23What is the, what's the problem here?
- 1:52:24There's a lot, there's a lot of questions.
- 1:52:26It's a big ugly cry, isn't it? It's a big ugly cry.
- 1:52:30Then she's she's getting into the character and doing it
- 1:52:32really well. And when she delivers that line,
- 1:52:34where's my dream? That is absolutely fantastic.
- 1:52:38Just like, where's the happiness?
- 1:52:40Where's the light? When's the sun going to come up?
- 1:52:42Why is it so dark? What can I do to help?
- 1:52:45That's the last cut from her. And then we move into the most
- 1:52:47shadowed part of the whole film. It is now or never.
- 1:52:51It is make or break. Jeffrey is there at Dorothy's,
- 1:52:54and that corridor is pitch black.
- 1:52:57There's this exit sign behind him.
- 1:52:59There's Dorothy's door there. There's a couple of slivers of
- 1:53:01light, but he can kind of come in and come from.
- 1:53:04And when he opens that door, it's just terrible.
- 1:53:08Would you go in that room? No.
- 1:53:10He. Turned the corner and there's
- 1:53:11there's. The yellow man standing with a
- 1:53:13hole in his head, but he's still alive.
- 1:53:15Some guy sat down with a velvet thing stuffed down his mouth and
- 1:53:19a police radio in his pocket and a smash television and a light
- 1:53:23weird. And there's that jump.
- 1:53:24Scare when the. Radio goes off and he hits the
- 1:53:27lamp and you're like, this guy's still alive.
- 1:53:30What on earth is going on? Do you use this guy Is that
- 1:53:33husband? What's he?
- 1:53:34Why is he like standing up? How is he standing?
- 1:53:37Up why? Is he hitting a light?
- 1:53:38What on earth is going on? Has he been lobotomized?
- 1:53:41It makes no sense whatsoever. But you still buy it.
- 1:53:44And when Frank turns up and you just see him and like I said,
- 1:53:46it's hilarious, his delivery when he comes in here and he
- 1:53:49starts shouting and screaming and he's just like, hey,
- 1:53:52neighbor mustache, shit head. Shit.
- 1:53:57For brains, shit for. Brains and completely just.
- 1:53:59Belittling them. I can hear you radio.
- 1:54:02Fuck that image. Of Frank coming up the.
- 1:54:04Stairs in the well dressed man outfit.
- 1:54:06Terrifying when he looks up the stairwell of Jeffrey and makes
- 1:54:09my blood run cold. Nice.
- 1:54:11Yeah, I really. Like when Jeffrey realized.
- 1:54:13That Frank's got a radio and he can hear his conversation with
- 1:54:15Detective Williams. But he's smart and he gives a
- 1:54:18little decoy. I'll be in the back bedroom,
- 1:54:21back in the closet, waiting for Frank to arrive.
- 1:54:22Yet again, Frank. Frank.
- 1:54:25He made Frank screams when he's going into the room.
- 1:54:28Pretty pretty. You can just hear randomly.
- 1:54:33Plugging away at the bed and. Then you take some three or four
- 1:54:40shots. To realize he's not there, it's
- 1:54:42amazing. It's great.
- 1:54:44And. Yeah, I think it's a little
- 1:54:45conventional where Frank gets blown away on a surface level at
- 1:54:48least. But for me, it's really
- 1:54:50symbolic. The last time Jeffrey was in
- 1:54:52that closet, the door was opened to all of this darkness and
- 1:54:55sexual deviance. Yeah.
- 1:54:57Now he's suppressing that by coming out of the closet and
- 1:54:59taking Frank out of the equation, leading him back on
- 1:55:02the path to lightness and love in the world with Sandy.
- 1:55:05Yeah. Incredibly simple.
- 1:55:07And then we get to the end. We'll come.
- 1:55:08Out of the ear and back into some kind of normality.
- 1:55:12Yeah, I think Jeffrey is enjoying the sun.
- 1:55:15Yeah. His dad is fit and healthy.
- 1:55:17He's there. Ridiculous.
- 1:55:18Sandy just completely forgiven the affair with Dorothy.
- 1:55:21And you have the Fakers Burden Cinema since Mary Poppins eating
- 1:55:25a bug and it's. All to set.
- 1:55:28To that glorious, heavenly music again.
- 1:55:30So what does it all mean? I think it's too much of A
- 1:55:33cliche to say. Is it a dream?
- 1:55:35Maybe it's all in Jeffrey's head.
- 1:55:37It's more the fact that the Robins have brought the light,
- 1:55:39just like Sandy said. The wood Robin has eaten the
- 1:55:42book. Light has destroyed the dark.
- 1:55:44Frank is dead. Dorothy is free.
- 1:55:46But having said that, that Robin is very deliberately not real.
- 1:55:50So what's that saying is, you know, can light truly destroy
- 1:55:53dark? Maybe that's an illusion.
- 1:55:55Maybe it's only a partial victory or one that won't last.
- 1:55:57We see you repeat of the imagery we saw at the start.
- 1:56:00Or is this thing just cyclical and nothing's truly over and
- 1:56:04nothing truly ends? We see that sort of Dorothy with
- 1:56:07the sun, and she's obviously delighted to be free.
- 1:56:09But as the song plays at the end in the lyric, but I still
- 1:56:12remember Blue Velvet comes on, there's just that bit of doubt
- 1:56:16in her expression. So maybe it isn't a happy ending
- 1:56:18we think it is. Maybe nothing's been
- 1:56:21accomplished. Maybe it is a dream, or maybe
- 1:56:24it's just the last thing that Sandy says.
- 1:56:26It's a strange world, isn't it? Yes, it is.
- 1:56:28Yes. Yes, it is.
- 1:56:30Yeah. It's a strange world, isn't it?
- 1:56:36I'm going to leave it at that. It's a strange world.
- 1:56:39Yeah, I think I. Just Jeffrey this.
- 1:56:40That's idealistic side of Jeffrey is one out.
- 1:56:43He's surrounded himself with the symbols of this ideal.
- 1:56:46It doesn't mean that the darkness is in, the world is
- 1:56:48gone. It's just that Jeffrey has
- 1:56:49chosen to ignore that side of his personality.
- 1:56:52Yeah, that's why it shows the dead.
- 1:56:54Flows at the end, doesn't it? Yes, So the.
- 1:56:56Light has returned to. Earth and the idealistic
- 1:56:58American Dream is still alive, but there's still something
- 1:57:01lurking underneath. Yeah.
- 1:57:06Reception and awards Blue Velvet premiered at the.
- 1:57:11Montreal World Film Festival in August 86, where Dennis Hopper
- 1:57:15won Best Actor, and at the Toronto Festival of Festivals on
- 1:57:19September 12th before making its big nationwide release in the US
- 1:57:23on opening weekend. There was a mixed reaction to
- 1:57:25the film, as you could guess. Would have thought so, yeah.
- 1:57:29Really. Wasn't just straight down the
- 1:57:31line. People.
- 1:57:35Walked out and demanded. A refund?
- 1:57:37There were reports of lines of cinema goes queuing around the
- 1:57:40block in LA and New York. In Chicago, a man passed out and
- 1:57:43had to have his pacemaker checked before going back into
- 1:57:46the theatre to catch the end. Was that just?
- 1:57:49The start of the film, just. Doing his lawn hadn't.
- 1:57:52Even watched it deal around this Entertainment Group.
- 1:57:57'S marketing team didn't know what to make of Blue Velvet when
- 1:57:59it came to promoting the film, of course.
- 1:58:05Yeah, it wasn't. Until it started to get positive
- 1:58:07reviews that they began to promote it.
- 1:58:09Yes, yes, and those. Positive reviews came from big
- 1:58:11movie critics. Janet Maslin, writing in The New
- 1:58:14York Times, said that Blue Velvet was an instant cult
- 1:58:17classic and said that it confirms Mr. Lynch's stature as
- 1:58:20an innovator, A superb technician and someone best not
- 1:58:23encountered in a dark alley. Wow, OK.
- 1:58:28I mean from. This film you can kind of get.
- 1:58:30That yeah, Peter Travers. And Rolling Stone called it an
- 1:58:33American masterpiece and later declared it the best film of the
- 1:58:3680s. And what of Roger Ebert?
- 1:58:39What do you think he's got it out of four fellas.
- 1:58:41I either Absolutely. Loved it or absolutely hated it,
- 1:58:45I'm going to say loved it. I'm going to agree.
- 1:58:47I think bit of a. Curveball that he loved it for
- 1:58:49four actually, he. Gave it a one out of four.
- 1:58:56He's got no patience. We should.
- 1:59:00Have guessed that well. What he said was I was absorbed.
- 1:59:02And convinced by the relationship between Rossellini
- 1:59:05and McLaughlin. And annoyed because the director
- 1:59:07kept placing himself between me and the material.
- 1:59:09After 5 or 10 minutes, I didn't need the director prancing on
- 1:59:12with a top hat and cane whistling that it was all in
- 1:59:15fun. In a way, Lynch's behavior is
- 1:59:18more sadistic than the Hopper character.
- 1:59:19What's worse, slapping somebody around or standing back and
- 1:59:23finding the whole thing funny, which we know he did.
- 1:59:26Yeah, we. Do I think he wanted a more
- 1:59:28straightforward? Narrative, yeah, but that's when
- 1:59:31this. Came out, this was 86, right?
- 1:59:33So he hasn't got yeah, we've got, we've got hindsight on,
- 1:59:36yeah, on Lynch. It was ahead of it, yeah.
- 1:59:38Exactly we've. We can look back on it now with
- 1:59:41rules tinted glasses, I think and just go right yeah or I can
- 1:59:43see where this is coming from because we had the chance to
- 1:59:46understand them yes, since it's. Released, the films come under
- 1:59:49considerable criticism for the troubling nature of the
- 1:59:51narrative themes of sadism and masochism in the dynamic between
- 1:59:54Dorothy and Frank. About the criticism, Lynch has
- 1:59:57said. Well, I can understand that for
- 1:59:59sure, but without that relationship, there wouldn't
- 2:00:01have been a film. That's fair enough.
- 2:00:03True. Yeah, true, Yeah.
- 2:00:05That is true. And now I'm going.
- 2:00:07To hand over to Matt the stat for some numbers generated by
- 2:00:11Blue Velvet. Stat abandoned.
- 2:00:12Go for it. Stat abandoned.
- 2:00:14That's me. In the end, on a budget of $6
- 2:00:18million like we've talked about, Blue Velvet returned a very
- 2:00:21conservative $8.5 million. Critical reviews As for said
- 2:00:25they were divided at the time, but they've since given way to
- 2:00:27overwhelming prayers and it now has 91% on Rotten Tomatoes and
- 2:00:31it's got off 7.7 out of 10 on IMDb.
- 2:00:36Hugely revered now. Isn't it?
- 2:00:37Yes, it is definitely. At the Golden Globes.
- 2:00:41Lynch was nominated for his screenplay and Hopper for his
- 2:00:43support and performance. Lynch was also nominated for
- 2:00:46Best Director at the Oscars. Strange he lost out to Can you
- 2:00:51think the 87 Oscars for films from 86 Is it?
- 2:00:56Platoon, you have platoon solver Stone.
- 2:00:58Well done, Matt. There you go.
- 2:00:59Matt, the stats that Obando strikes again.
- 2:01:02The Butcher never ceases to amaze.
- 2:01:04Me that. It was more successful.
- 2:01:08On the lower rung of award ceremonies, Rossellini won an
- 2:01:11Independent Spirit Award, Lynch, Hopper, Helms and the film
- 2:01:14itself won the National Society of Film Critics awards, and it
- 2:01:18won best film at the Citrus Festival.
- 2:01:20Nice. I think representative of the
- 2:01:22disturbing nature of the film. Yeah.
- 2:01:25Yeah, that's the. Audience for it isn't.
- 2:01:27It a challenging film. One where conservative box
- 2:01:30office numbers and divisive critical response is pretty much
- 2:01:32on brand for David Lynch. Yeah, sequels and influence,
- 2:01:43obviously. No sequels to Blue?
- 2:01:44Velvet No sequels for David Lynch at all, except maybe on
- 2:01:47the small screen. Yeah, but the film's reputation
- 2:01:50is significantly increased in the years since, and it's now
- 2:01:53considered one of the greatest movies ever.
- 2:01:55It's received a number of accolades, is seen as an
- 2:01:58ultimate cult film, and has appeared on many publication
- 2:02:00Best of lists. It was even chosen by the AFI as
- 2:02:04the 8th greatest mystery flick of all time, which is quite
- 2:02:08strange to me. I think there are better pure
- 2:02:10mystery flicks out there, but to call Blue Velvet a mystery film
- 2:02:13is, I think, just to miss the point.
- 2:02:16Yeah, just a. Little bit. 5% of it, yeah.
- 2:02:19Yeah. And nevertheless, and more.
- 2:02:22Importantly, where have we seen Blue Velvet influencing?
- 2:02:25What is its legacy in the time since?
- 2:02:29I think you need look no further than Tarantino.
- 2:02:31I mentioned Pulp Fiction earlier, but the ES licensing
- 2:02:33from Reservoir Dogs. Julie.
- 2:02:36The humor and irreverent approach to human life I think
- 2:02:39in the likes of Heather's is influenced by Blue Velvet, the
- 2:02:44white picketed fenced American dream of Edward Scissorhands.
- 2:02:47With that dark underbelly at the end of it.
- 2:02:50Definitely. Yeah, it was obviously
- 2:02:51responsible for. One of the many resurgences that
- 2:02:54Dennis Hopper had in his career, and I think they cemented his
- 2:02:56reputation and longevity as an actor.
- 2:02:59Yeah, I think ultimately without Blue Velvet, or even if it
- 2:03:02hadn't been a success, if it's still there but not successful,
- 2:03:05you definitely don't get Twin Peaks a few years later.
- 2:03:08No. Which is widely regarded as the
- 2:03:10watershed moment in prestige TV. So it paved the whiff the likes
- 2:03:14of The X-Files, Sopranos, and then we're off and running The
- 2:03:17Wire, Madman, Breaking Bad, Succession, The White Lotus.
- 2:03:20Things would just look very different.
- 2:03:22Yeah, a huge impact on pop culture.
- 2:03:25It's the orgy it. Is twin.
- 2:03:27Peaks, isn't it? Yeah.
- 2:03:28What about you, Matt? Yeah.
- 2:03:29Very similar to so much. A popular culture comes back to
- 2:03:32this, from TV to cinema. I had the exact same thing
- 2:03:34written down. If you don't have to be
- 2:03:36relevant, you don't have Twin Peaks, you don't have The
- 2:03:38X-Files, you don't have Stranger Things.
- 2:03:40There you go. So much brilliant like springs
- 2:03:42from this and just the amount of film makers whose minds must
- 2:03:46have been blown apart by this is incalculable.
- 2:03:51Like the amount of film makers who would have seen this and
- 2:03:53have that realization. It doesn't have to make sense.
- 2:03:56They don't have the rules. We can do that.
- 2:03:58And those film makers, I mean the range from the likes of
- 2:04:00Large Voluntary to Robert Eggers, the films he makes a
- 2:04:03day, Donnie Darko, Richard Kelly's film was a huge
- 2:04:07influence to this one. So that's its influence, me just
- 2:04:11Lynch in general, but certainly this film in particular just
- 2:04:14belies to trio that people still follow into the day.
- 2:04:16Yeah, very much. I think so.
- 2:04:19I mean, there's some. Films that people might not
- 2:04:21think link back to this one, but they do in my mind.
- 2:04:24So I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but I want
- 2:04:26to say them anyway. I think without this, I don't
- 2:04:29think you'd have American Beauty.
- 2:04:31I think Sam Mendes got a lot in this film.
- 2:04:33I can say that right the. Iconography of it just.
- 2:04:35The vibe of it. Just everything just doesn't
- 2:04:39really. Make sense, But it is very
- 2:04:40American and has got that kind of sensibility to it.
- 2:04:43I'm going to say LA Confidential right has that kind of that
- 2:04:47murder mystery, the femme fatale, the noir elements of it.
- 2:04:50And that twist to it and. It is quite lynching and there's
- 2:04:53some moments in that that is just very bright and then it's
- 2:04:55very shadowed and then it's very contrasting and it just has the
- 2:04:58same kind of feel. And I think Memento because
- 2:05:02Nolan went into that going well, yeah, of course it's backwards.
- 2:05:05I'm going to make it backwards because Lynch made Blue Velvet
- 2:05:08forwards and that still doesn't make sense.
- 2:05:10So it has that very simplistic vibe.
- 2:05:12It has that use of of colour in the fact that it doesn't use
- 2:05:15colour at all. It goes from black and white to
- 2:05:17colour and I think that's a very lynching thing to do, to go from
- 2:05:20a race ahead straight to Blue Velvet.
- 2:05:22I think if you miss out the other two films, if you miss out
- 2:05:24The Elephant Man of Miss out June, you can go from a race
- 2:05:27ahead to Blue Velvet and kind of cut them together and it has got
- 2:05:31the same sensibility. And that reminds me of Memento
- 2:05:33some somehow. I don't know why.
- 2:05:35So that's what I get from it. It's just this sense of freedom
- 2:05:38that he gave film makers, the fearlessness, the passion that
- 2:05:41he goes into making the film that he really wants to make.
- 2:05:44And actually, you know, it made its money back.
- 2:05:46It made 8 million sure what it may have made a profit.
- 2:05:49I don't care if it's conservative or what, it's still
- 2:05:51a success in my eyes and that's absolutely fine.
- 2:05:53And to influence some of the biggest film makers that are
- 2:05:56still, they're still going today.
- 2:05:57I think it's just an incredible legacy.
- 2:06:00Yeah, it is. Yeah.
- 2:06:01I. Mean it's almost endless
- 2:06:02examples of the influence that Blue Velvet had from the late
- 2:06:0680s, nineties onwards, and without it I think the pop
- 2:06:09cultural landscape would look very different and very boring.
- 2:06:15All the right movies ranking we're emerging out of.
- 2:06:20Geoffrey Beaumont's ear and into the sun drenched dream of Middle
- 2:06:23America. Before we go inside, it's time
- 2:06:26for our now world famous ATRM ranking.
- 2:06:30Westie, could you summarise and give us your score out of 10
- 2:06:32please? I can give you my score.
- 2:06:34Out of 10, whether I can summarise blue, though there's
- 2:06:36another. That's another.
- 2:06:38Cut the fish. We shall see.
- 2:06:41I think it's a very brave film. I think it's a very ambitious
- 2:06:45film and I think it's one that works on both of those levels.
- 2:06:48The bravery shines through and the ambition definitely shines
- 2:06:50through. I think without this, we
- 2:06:52wouldn't have the David Lynch that would know and love today.
- 2:06:54I think he needed to come back to his roots and make something
- 2:06:56that he really wanted to make. I'll bang on about that with
- 2:06:59every film that we're talking about.
- 2:07:00If it has, you know, brave direction, issue a direction and
- 2:07:04the same with the right and same with the characterization.
- 2:07:06There's things in this film that I haven't seen and will not see
- 2:07:09again. It's incredibly original, it's
- 2:07:11incredibly powerful, but it's not one that I'll go back to
- 2:07:14again and again because I think there's just too much to it that
- 2:07:17warps your mind a little bit. And there's a little bit to it
- 2:07:19that is a bit hard to watch in places that Lynch found humorous
- 2:07:23at the time. And I don't understand how that
- 2:07:27could be possible. So I maybe not tapping into it
- 2:07:30for the from the right angle, but at the same time it's a film
- 2:07:33that I really respect and I really enjoy and I will
- 2:07:36recommend it to pretty much anyone, but I won't sit with
- 2:07:39them on the watches you don't want.
- 2:07:42To be cool for that reason. Yeah, for.
- 2:07:44That reason, it's definitely up there.
- 2:07:46Not my favorite Lynch film, We'll get into that later on,
- 2:07:49but it's a definite hive one for me.
- 2:07:50So it's going to be a nine out of 10/9 out of 10.
- 2:07:53Yeah, massive. Brilliant.
- 2:07:54Yeah. Yeah.
- 2:07:55I'm full of admiration for this film.
- 2:07:57It's got so much guts and originality.
- 2:07:59David Lynch really was a unique filmmaker of which we're
- 2:08:02unlikely to see ever again. This.
- 2:08:05Film could be watched on a number of.
- 2:08:06Levels a great noir mystery, a tale of disturbed Americana, a
- 2:08:10horror flick, a coming of age story, an edible nightmare.
- 2:08:14And that's the beauty of the film.
- 2:08:15You can come back to retirement again and get something
- 2:08:17different. Yeah.
- 2:08:18But the setting, the performances by Rossellini and
- 2:08:21Hopper, the disturbing narrative, there's nothing like
- 2:08:24it in mainstream cinema. And it never fails to captivate
- 2:08:26me. Just like pure guts.
- 2:08:29It's a 10 for me all the way. Nice.
- 2:08:32OK. Adore the film?
- 2:08:34What about you, Matt? With this one I think.
- 2:08:36We've really, like stripped it back as far as we can to see
- 2:08:39what's under the hood and try to make sense of it, and there is
- 2:08:43preciously left to be said about it.
- 2:08:44I really wish I could have been old enough to see this back in
- 2:08:47the day, completely unaware of what it was, unaware of its
- 2:08:50reputation. Because even if you had seen
- 2:08:52what Lynch had done before this, even even areas ahead, this must
- 2:08:56have felt like something from an old universe.
- 2:08:58Because ultimately, that's what it is.
- 2:09:00It's a reflection of our world, but spun on its head, with all
- 2:09:03the dark and dirty little secrets behind the supposedly
- 2:09:06perfect facade of life tumbling out.
- 2:09:08And what really struck me coming back to it for this, though, is
- 2:09:11that for all the darkness, all the horror, all the sexual
- 2:09:13violence, it's an incredibly entertaining film.
- 2:09:16At the same time, it is for something that justifiably could
- 2:09:19be called art house. It works.
- 2:09:22As a thriller. Incredibly well.
- 2:09:25It's never been an all time favorite of mine because it's
- 2:09:27not something I can watch on a regular basis.
- 2:09:30I need to take a bit of a deep breath before watch it, but
- 2:09:33having said that, I think this is just one of those cases where
- 2:09:35that doesn't really factor into my score forward because it's a
- 2:09:39singular film from a singular film maker.
- 2:09:42I still think it's his best film, so it can't be anything
- 2:09:45other than a 10 for me. Wow, Very good.
- 2:09:48Yeah. Big.
- 2:09:48Scores all around. I love that our 4th and final
- 2:09:52score for Blue Velvet comes from our followers on X.
- 2:09:55Now, you can imagine with a film like this, there was a a mixed
- 2:09:58response. Yeah.
- 2:10:01Here. Are some comments that I've
- 2:10:02picked out. 1st from an Aegis of Infinite Face Palms at Roy Cook.
- 2:10:08They said My absolute number one film of all time.
- 2:10:10I've bought it on physical media so many times it's embarrassing.
- 2:10:13Every time I watch it I find something new.
- 2:10:16Not surprising. Brilliant this.
- 2:10:18Charmless Man at Jimmy Bob said. I'll say it.
- 2:10:22Magnificent movie that introduced Lynchianism into the
- 2:10:25public consciousness, but it didn't really stick the landing.
- 2:10:28I've seen it multiple times, but I still have to look up the wiki
- 2:10:31article to remind myself how it ends.
- 2:10:34Really. That may be a lack of
- 2:10:37concentration to be honest. More than anything, yeah.
- 2:10:41And on the negative. Side of things clocking out at
- 2:10:44free timex watch said one. I had no idea what anything was
- 2:10:49supposed to mean. It was weird and the scene where
- 2:10:51the guy goes insane on the girl weird me out the most.
- 2:10:54Maybe I need to read about it or something.
- 2:10:57Well, listen, this podcast clocking out, that's what you
- 2:10:59should do. There you go, I'll show.
- 2:11:01You, that's your mind changed, and I think Lynch would have.
- 2:11:04Loved his response as well. Yeah, yeah.
- 2:11:08Now this was the most balanced. Score I think we've ever, ever,
- 2:11:12ever had on Twitter slash X. As you know, our poll for the
- 2:11:16film is a choice between 1098 and 7X.
- 2:11:19Doesn't allow any more than four choices on the poll, and at the
- 2:11:22halfway point with hundreds of votes cast, there were a few
- 2:11:26comments drawn attention to the fact that there was an exact
- 2:11:29four way split. 10987 all had 25% of the votes.
- 2:11:34Wow, really? You can't get any.
- 2:11:36More lynchy in than that. Can you?
- 2:11:38There's the balance. For you love it so based on.
- 2:11:41All of that information, fellas. How do you think Blue Velvet
- 2:11:43scored out of 10 on X? Oh, God knows.
- 2:11:45Now I have no idea. I'd go higher.
- 2:11:49Up though, I'd say 8. I mean before all that.
- 2:11:52I'd have said 10 because people love it, but obviously they
- 2:11:55don't. I'll stick to me guns.
- 2:11:56I'll I'll go 10, then 10, no. No, no, that's a cannon.
- 2:12:01That's not the case. It is.
- 2:12:03It got an 8. Well done, Westie.
- 2:12:05Very nice, very divisive film. Clearly.
- 2:12:08I don't think that surprised me in the slightest, to be honest.
- 2:12:11Because. Fair enough.
- 2:12:12Yeah. Yeah, it's a tough one.
- 2:12:13Tough sale. So overall, including X and our
- 2:12:18three scores, Blue Velvet got a score of 37 out of 40, right?
- 2:12:22Yeah. Very impressive score.
- 2:12:25Join us again in all the right movies.
- 2:12:27And in two weeks, John, Westie and Matt will be going behind
- 2:12:29the scenes on QTS Tinseltown set, modern classic Once Upon a
- 2:12:33Time in Hollywood. Shoes and socks off for that
- 2:12:35one, fellas. Yeah, yeah, get me flame
- 2:12:37throughout. Yeah.
- 2:12:41Those hippies are going to regret it.
- 2:12:42And they just. Looking forward to that one,
- 2:12:45yeah. Loads of laughs.
- 2:12:46And if you haven't had enough of.
- 2:12:47Psychosexual, Phantasmagorical, Lynchy and Nightmares.
- 2:12:51Sign up to us on Patreon, where we'll be talking about two more
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- 2:13:06That's worth. Signing up on Parent just for
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- 2:13:10That's going to be. It's going to be something
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- 2:14:45is a wrap everyone. It's a wrap.
- 2:14:47We're off to grab ourselves. A couple of Heinekens come back
- 2:14:50in two weeks for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
- 2:14:52Until then, you stay alive, baby.
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