First off I wanna say I've wanted to see Blue Velvet for several years, and heard so much about it from one of my friends since high school. I finally got to see it, and I loved it. The only other David Lynch film I have seen is Wild at Heart, so I was able to recognize some of his themes and visual style that he carries across his films. I definitely need to see more from his filmography, but I can definitely recommend Wild at Heart for anyone else who loved Blue Velvet.
The opening part of the article intrigued me about Nietzche's view on art and illusion, that art's only truth is illusion, and that art is only true as a lie. Taking that into account when looking at Blue Velvet and the images it shows, it can be really thought provoking. The illusion that is presented through the film I think is that the suburban life is an illusion, and merely the top layer to a much darker world underneath. Not too far from the perfect white suburban home of Jeffery Beaumont, Dorothy lives trapped in a dark and violent world. A world where men like Frank Booth run rampant with his gang of followers. Beneath the Norman Rockwell suburbia, is violence, sexual assault, and corruption that provides some scenes that feature very picturesque moments. With the background of David Lynch as a writer, many of his shots take on the idea of his signature. The lingering on lights flickering, the television, and that excellent shot and set design of Dorothy's apartment at the end with the corrupt cop standing there with a bullet in the head, and her husband tied to the chair and dead. Those two statues in what someone in class mentioned as an uncomfortable room design, makes for such a really great scene.
Jeffery Beaumont himself is kinda an illusion. There are two sides to him, the detective and the pervert. To each side, there is the different woman for whichever role he is playing. The wholesome suburban side has Sandy, the girl next door type, and then the very troubled Dorothy. Even Frank Booth tells him you're like me, as he kisses him with lip stick on in a rather unsettlingly great scene. Like the article states, this is an ambiguous film. The characters, images, story, there is a lot of ambiguity to it. There are things we are not given that are left to the viewers to make up, that make the film even better. Lynch presents his images, the performances he captured and we are treated to a hell of a movie unlike most anything, unless another Lynch movie.
David Lynch does have such a distinct style and it is so easy to pick out one of his films. I didn’t know that he was a writer or painter before he was a director, but now that I do, it really shows in his films. This is very clear in the colors of the opening shot and in the design of Dorothy’s apartment. It adds to the film and helps him in telling the story he wants to tell, even if it is a disturbing and, most certainly, unique one.
ReplyDeleteI really like the concept that you bring up from the reading. It ties into what we were talking about in class how post modernism references reality but does not depict it itself. That goes along with the art is illusion concept as well. It is very true that everything that is presented within the film could be considered an illusion, or a mask. And I agree that Lynch is making a remark on society and how perfection may seem obtained but it is truly far away. I also did not know that Lynch was a painter before we watched this film and I agree that this came out strongly within his film. You could tell by the composition of some of the shots, the sound design and the very developed set design that Lynch was thinking from a painters mind set. The character of Jeffery is one that I think could be talked about alone in a paper. He has so many different sides and oddities to him that I feel the discussions we have are only scratching the surface.
ReplyDeleteI really like what you said about Jeffrey being an allusion, a detective and a pervert and how each woman plays a different role for one of the sides. Jeffrey's transition from detective to pervert keeps building up and Jeffrey keeps trying to deny it until Frank won't let him and tells him that they're the same person. I think it shows that we all kind of have some darkness in us and we can't always ignore it.
ReplyDeleteThis is good! I really like your point about Jeffrey himself being a kind of illusion--an innocent hero type who thinks he's doing the right thing and saving the day but having no clue. Focusing on illusion and image gives you room to discuss postmodernism, and also to address the central question of the reading, whether Lynch is ultimately nihilistic or something more complex is going on.
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