Overview
Blue Velvet (1986)Classics at the Browning
Fresh off his widely-derided adaptation of Dune (1984), David Lynch returned to the idyllic small-town life to undress its seedy underbelly, a common focus of his, in this polarizing neo-noir mystery. Jeffrey (Kyle MacLachlan) returns to his sleepy hometown of Lumberton where he discovers a severed ear in a meadow. He teams up with a police officer’s daughter (Laura Dern) to investigate its source, and their Bloodhound Ganging takes a decidedly darker turn than the standard Edward Stratemeyer book when they begin following a local nightclub singer (Isabella Rossellini).
The mystery continues to take sharper turns when the sleuths encounter the dangerous Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper). Stuffed with common Lynchian motifs, the film’s dreamlike sampling of pop culture and Freudian allusions set a framework he later revisited in Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks, and Mullholland Drive.
Free for Notre Dame students.Sponsored by the Meg and John P. Brogan Endowment for Classic Cinema.
