Blue velvet is a 1986 American mystery film directed by David Lynch.

The film contains some elements of film noir and surrealism with vivid and contrasting colours. It revolves round the life of Jeffery Beaumont after his visit to his ill father in hospital he comes across a human ear in the field nearby and proceeds to investigate it. Using his own sources of information and from the help of his friend, Sandy, Jeffery s investigation draws him deeper that what he expects. Set in suburban America, the film opens the scene with a shot of colorful flowers against a white fence with the song with the same name as the film plays in the background, giving the audience a hint that all may be fantasy or twisted reality. Blue Velvet" opens with a
colorful picture postcard vision of small town America, set to the strains of the eponymous song. It seems so safe, so welcoming. Yet, by the time Lynch replays this sequence at the end of the film; we know that underneath this faade lies a terrifying reality. (Russell, 2001)
film poster

As the investigation goes further on within the film, Jeffery has himself involved with the singer of Blue Velvet he soon gains interest in her after she finds him hiding in her closet. Soon frequent visits made by him just to solve the case. However with the singer, Dorothy has herself involved with the sick man Frank, who was perhaps her ex-lover and has taken hostage her son. The acting of the Frank and Dorothy characters was really strong that theyve even been praised by critics as the scene that involves the characters becomes very disturbing, local torch singer Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini) and the human animal that

plagues her, the perverse, sadistic Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper, in a ferociously indelible performance). There's plenty of twisted humor in throwing "Hardy Boy" Jeffrey into the clinches of hypersexual femme fatale Dorothy and the clutches of the wildly profane, ultraviolent Frank, not least because the demonstrably square Jeffrey is so turned on by the mystery, the danger, and the sexual possibilities (for better or worse, the film takes a decidedly male point-of-view to make its points). (Groucho, 2011)

However during the course of the film, symbols or colours happen to appear a lot from time to time, either representing the love or the death the director has left this for us to decide. From the heavily stylized depiction

of iconic images like white picket fences and flowers to an equally iconic presentation of familiar drug-associated imagery, Lynch relies on a pictographic system of storytelling even more than he does standard narrative action. (Plath, 2011)

Jeffery finds a missing ear

List of illustrations: Lynch, D (1986) film poster (online): http://www.moviescreenshots.blogspot.com/2010/11/blue-velvet-1986.html-(accessed on 12/01/2012) Dellamorte, A (2011) Frank and Dorothy (online): http://collider.com/blue-velvet-blu-ray-review/127509/-(accessed on 12/01/2012) Badalamenti, A (2007) Jeffery finds a missing ear (online): http://filmtracks.wordpress.com/2007/12/22/angelo-badalamenti-blue-velvet-1986/-(accessed on 12/01/2012) Bibliography: Russel, J (2001) Blue Velvet (1986) (online): http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2001/12/05/blue_velvet_1986_review.shtml -(accessed on 12/01/2012) Groucho, P (2011) Blue Velvet (1986) (online): http://grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4251 -(accessed on 12/01/2012) Plath, J (2011) Blue Velvet (1986)- Blue Ray review (online): http://moviemet.com/review/blue-velvet-blu-ray-review -(accessed on 12/01/2012)