Don't Make a Scene: Blue Velvet

The Story: "It's a strange world..."

Yup. And then you throw David Lynch into the mix...

Blue Velvet is a twisted re-imagining of a Hardy Boys-Nancy Drew story (you must have read them), that series of books where small town life hides a secret and it's up to plucky teen detectives to make the world right again.

But, in Lynch's world, there is no way—NO WAY!—that pluckiness doesn't get corrupted, so dark is the depths to which people can sink...and that our heroes happen to witness. Our investigators ask for trouble and they get it. In fact, one could make a case that their corruption begins with their fascination with mysteries and secrets. The Tree of Knowledge, The Original Sin, and all that, if you want to get biblical. It's possible to get cast out of even a Paradise like Lumberton.

This is one of Premiere magazine's "Classic Scenes" and it's been percolating in my head for awhile because every so once-in-awhile I'll be watching something/reading something that is particularly dispiriting and I'll blurt out, like a Tourette's tic "Why are there people like....Frank?" And that cheers me up a bit even though it's One Degree of Separation from "Why me?" in the ineffectual rant whine-cellar. I'd considered waiting to post it in the horror-filled month of October, but, Blue Velvet isn't such a horror movie... and "why are there people like..." is appropriate for every month of this political year.

One thing I will say about this scene is "Laura Dern is an acting god who even makes me believe that robins are a manifestation of love."

 

Oh! And in David Lynch's world, even white picket fences turn grimy in the dark.

 

The Set-up: Per Premiere Magazine's description: "Blue Velvet begins with a gruesome discovery—a severed ear lying in the field—and by the end goes deep into the heart of darkness, the human disease within us that destroys the soul.* Playing amateur detective in small-town Lumberton are college boy Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) and high school senior Sandy Williams (Laura Dern), who bring a Hardy Boys—Nancy Drew naïveté to the creepiness and make everything that much more disjointed. Jeffrey finds the ear and turns it over to Sandy's father, a police detective. But Jeffrey's fascination with the mystery overwhelms his sense of law-abiding complacency, and he tries to solve the mystery himself, with Sandy as his confidante. Soon he's involved in the twisted lives of Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini), a mysterious night-club singer holding a very dark secret, and Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper), a sadistic criminal who's sexually obsessed with. Here, as Jeffrey and Sandy drive to a stop in front of a church, he tells her what he's discovered so far, and she tries to relate some sense of comfort and warmth in what is fast becoming for the two of them a very horrific and cold reality."   

 

Action.

 

128. INT. WILLIAMS CAR/CHURCH - NIGHT 

Sandy laughs as she pulls the car curbside in a quiet street by a church.

The church pipe-organ music drifts softly into the night. 

SANDY Well?

SANDY Aren't you want gonna to tell me about it? 

JEFFREY OK. 

JEFFREY It's a strange world, Sandy. 

JEFFREY This is what I have found out. What I think I have found out. Dorothy Vallens is married to a man named Don. They have a son. 

JEFFREY I think the son and the husband have been kidnapped by a man named Frank who has now cut off both of Don's ears. I think he is holding them to make her 

JEFFREY Frank has done this to force her to do things for him. 

JEFFREY I think she wants to die. 

JEFFREY The ears were for her I think Frank cut the ear I found...

JEFFREY...off her husband as a warning to stay alive. 

There is another man involved. I call him the "yellow man". You saw his back the other day in the hall at her door. I don't know what he does but I think he's on drugs supplied by Frank. 

JEFFREY Frank is...uh...

JEFFREY ... is a very dangerous man. 

SANDY (quietly) Wow. My God...

SANDY Should you tell my father? 

JEFFREY I don't see how I can. And I can't prove any of this. No. I can't do that. 

JEFFREY I can't prove any of this. I got all this information illegally. 

JEFFREY Also it could get you You could get in a lot of trouble. 

SANDY You saw a lot in one night. 

JEFFREY Actually. I've been in twice. 

SANDY (uneasy) Twice. Without her sensing anything? 

JEFFREY (lying) Yes. 

SANDY (pausing) Did you see her undressed? 

JEFFREY Yeah. I mean. a little, you know. 

SANDY Yeah? 

JEFFREY (a searching, slight smile) That doesn't bother you, does it? 

SANDY Who, me? Why should it? 

JEFFREY (seeing some jealousy and happy for it) That's what I thought. 

SANDY You're sure right. It is a strange world. 

JEFFREY Why are there people like Frank. 

JEFFREY Why is there so much trouble in this world? 

SANDY I don't know. 

SANDY I had a dream. 

SANDY In fact, it was the night I met you. 

(she reflects silently on this before proceeding) 

SANDY In the dream, there was our world 

SANDY and the world was dark because there weren't any robins. You know, birds. 

SANDY And the robins stood for represented love. 

SANDY And for the longest time there was just this darkness, 

SANDY and all of a sudden 

SANDY thousands of robins were set free 

SANDY and they flew down and brought this blinding light of love. 

SANDY And it felt seemed like that love would be the only thing that would make any difference.  

SANDY And it did.  

SANDY So I guess it means 

SANDY there is trouble until the robins come there is trouble. 

JEFFREY Yeah I guess so. (he turns to her) You're a neat girl. 

SANDY So are you. 

SANDY (laughs) I mean 

SANDY you're a neat guy. 

SANDY I...

SANDY I guess we better get back. 

JEFFREY I guess so. you want to help me watch Frank?. I'm going to stake out Frank's place tomorrow. With a camera. 

Sandy starts the car and pulls out into the street.

They begin driving back.

 

Blue Velvet

 

Words by David Lynch

 

Pictures by Frederick Elmes and David Lynch

 

Blue Velvet is available on DVD and Blu-Ray from M-G-M Home Entertainment.

* My goodness, even I'd be a little embarrassed to have written a purplish sentence like that! That's Premiere Prose. And "It's only a movie, Ingrid!"