CAUTION!!
SPOILERS AHEAD!!
This strange little movie caused quite a stir in 1986, when the always-bizarre mind of David Lynch is at work.
Now don't get me wrong, I was one of the biggest fans of his TV show Twin Peaks
The television industry really got a kick in the crotch, as they never figured that the show would be as popular as it was.
Angelo Badalamenti would score both Blue Velvet & Twin Peaks.
The scene is set early, and the town of Lumberton is a small community that values its citizens.
The town is quaint and is visited by Jeffrey(Kyle MacLachlan)as his father is sick and in the hospital. He comes home from College; first he finds the ear on his trip through the field to the hospital.
He then turns it in to the police, but feels that he wants to investigate it further himself.
He calls upon the police captain's daughter, Sandy(Laura Dern), and they go to Dorothy Vallens(Isabella Rossellini )'s apartment, and Jeffrey gets himself in, also into a dark and twisted world he cannot escape.
The Apartments are Deep River Apartments on Lincoln Avenue, where Miss Vallens lives.
In the apartment building, Jeffrey finds the elevator is broken, so he has to take the stairs, which are located outside.
He gets inside her place as he poses as an exterminator and while she is distracted by another visitor, he sneaks a pair of keys he finds hanging from her counter.
Then one night he and Sandy go to the The Slow Club where Miss Vallens performs. Satisfied that she is busy, Jeffrey enters her home, and Sandy waits outside. He is startled to find someone at the front door and hides in the closet.
Unsure of what he will find, he waits, only to find her lover/master, Frank(Dennis Hopper) is a dominant, sadistic person.
He sees a lot from his window into her world of torture and sadomasochism.
Also finds out later on that the ear found in the field is that of Miss Vallens' husband; they are keeping him and her child from her so Frank can have his way with her.
Dennis Hopper makes the whole entire movie work here; he is intense as Frank, a man so pathetic that you don't feel sorry for him; you feel sorry for the people who come into contact with him.
He actually says to his poor victim after he orgasms in his pants and screams like a wild animal.
"Stay Alive, do it for Van Gogh"
This movie is so dark on so many levels, more so than what is being put in front of us character-wise, but when the night shots happen, there are several scenes where the actors approach the camera from the shadows.
Where so many big studio movies are so worried about losing their actors in the shadows, this one uses the shadows for a purpose.
I don't think this is a classic film on any level- dark, broody & sometimes depressing, yes, but hard to categorize, and that, my friends, is what David Lynch is all about; he likes it that way
Thanks for reading this
Sincerely
Anthony Nadeau
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