'Blue
Velvet', a 1986 film, very controversial in it's day as the director
David Lynch himself, was on TV here in Spain a couple of nights ago. I
knew it's fame as well as the scandal it created, the unforgettable
theme song; and always had my mind set to watch it, but I missed!
Didn't read the paper that day!!
While cursing myself for having let escape the film yet another time, I did the 2nd best thing, looked it up on net. So I must make clear that I didn't write the following, criticisms
from wonderful to disgusting ... by professional critics and experts
on films and their making, which I find quite interesting. Including
some backgrounds of the ups and downs occurred in the production.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Upon
the film's release, the critical reaction to Blue Velvet was mixed.
Pauline Kael wrote in The New Yorker, "This is American darkness -
darkness in color, darkness with a happy ending. Lynch might turn out
to be the first populist surrealist - a Frank Capra of dream logic."
J.
Hoberman wrote in The Village Voice, "There hasn't been an American
studio film so rich, so formally controlled, so imaginatively cast and
wonderfully acted, and so charged with its maker's psychosexual energy
sing Raging Bull."
Other
critics weren't so kind. Roger Ebert stated in his review, ".. .those
very scenes of stark sexual despair are the tipoff to what's wrong with
the movie. They're so strong that they deserve to be in a movie that
is sincere, honest and true. But "Blue Velvet" surrounds them with a
story that's marred by sophomoric satire and cheap shots. The director
is either denying the strength of his material or trying to defuse it
by pretending it's all part of a campy in-joke ... Blue Velvet is like
the guy who drives you nuts by hinting at horrifying news and then
saying, 'Never mind."
Rex Reed on At The Movies called the film "the sickest wallow in filth and sleaze."
Some
feminist and women's groups were upset at the portrayal of Dorothy's
masochism and thought the film encouraged violence towards women. Lynch
responded, "But what isn't right is to assume that a character like
Dorothy Vallens is every woman. Then you can't just do a story about
these characters. Suddenly, if it's a black man, he represents all black
men. If it's a woman, she represents all women. If it's a kid, it's
all kids. And they just go to town on you. The films are about these
particular characters, this kind of situation, this little corner of
the word. Relax! It goes on, you know..pretty soon you won't be able to
make movies. There are so many different groups out there that are
going to be upset about something."
Commercially,
the film wasn't a huge box office success. It took in just over $8
million domestically, not much more then it's $6 million budget. The
marketing department of DEG wasn't even sure how to sell the film or if
they should bother putting any effort into it. It wasn't until it
started gaining a buzz at various film festivals that they decided to
get behind the film. But combined with overseas grosses the film made
back De Laurentiis a respectable return on his investment. More than
that, not only did it earn Lynch his second academy award for
directing, but cleared the way for what was to become his biggest
commercial success to date, Twin Peaks.
Tags: bluevelvet
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