esrosedotblog

TODAY'S MOVIE

BLUE VELVET (1986): NYTimes1176BestFilms; David Lynch; high style horseshit. It is not too hard to see what Lynch is up to here; it is all laid out there in the first few frames: traditional, happy, (what I think of as 'blond') situation comedy type films collide with cynical, black, nasty film noir. Film noir wins. On second thought, it is not even film noir. It is the underbelly of film noir which the noirists didn't feel they had to put right up there. You were supposed to imagine or feel it. So it is just Lynch's take on it.

The film is dolloped with symbols and references which are clearly designed to make any film-nerd salivate and feel good about themselves. It worked at the time with some critics and others were outraged. The rest of us are left either feeling like we missed something--how could you miss being beaten up for a good part of two hours--or seeing that the emp, once again, has no clothes. Or both.

I am happy to see that the period of David Lynch's hoodwinking critics is over. He has not done anything notable for awhile; nor does he appear to be threatening to. Someone else, maybe that awful Kaufman (MALKOVITCH), has taken his place.

John and I watched this once before, maybe ten years ago. We lived in Boston South End because I remember the room I was in when I got pissed and shut the machine off. John had already left. it was that strong at the time.

This time I saw it through, and as I just told a friend, I only used the 'slow' fast forward and not the scene jump. I did not remember anything of what I had seen before until Dennis Hopper takes the gas and gets even crazier than he normally is. Something has to be done about Dennis Hopper. Or is he over it? I have not seen him for awhile either. Thank you movie spirits. You can't put a zero in the Netflix5 scale, so it will have to be an over-rated one.

I got a lot of validation and some info from a great review by Roger Ebert who, once again, when alone, is a very good guy to pay attention to about films in specific and films in general. He helped me put words to my reaction..