With David Lynch‘s return to "Twin Peaks" not airing until next year, now is the perfect time to revisit the director’s terrific filmography, and why not start with what some would call his defining masterpiece, "Blue Velvet"? The picture turns thirty years old in 2016 and a new trailer is here to celebrate the return of the picture to the big screen.
READ MORE: Retrospective: The Films Of David Lynch
A movie that’s best left un-described and better experienced, it stars Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, and Dennis Hopper and features some of the most quotable lines, haunting visuals, and disturbing moments of any Lynchian piece of art. It’s also just flat out great, and made PBR cool far before the hipsters did. Here’s the synopsis:
“Heineken?! F**k that sh**t! Pabst Blue Ribbon!” Aaah! An azure sky; glistening red tulips along a white picket fence; a stalwart fireman, his Dalmatian beside him, waves from a fire truck moving in slo-mo; a crossing guard directs school kids; a woman sips tea in front of the TV while her husband waters their manicured lawn – all in gorgeous color & Scope, accompanied by the oh-so-soothing voice of Bobby Vinton singing the title tune. But wait. Now the hose is caught – is the man having a stroke?! And why are we power-diving into the earth and seeing those disgusting bugs, in ultra-close-up?! Oh, wait a minute, this is a David Lynch film. So, here’s a tip for all-American square Kyle MacLachlan: Don’t check out the rotting, ant-infested severed ear in the grass. And, even though you’ve got this thing for mysterious “Blue Lady” Isabella Rossellini, don’t hide in her bedroom closet in hopes of sneaking a peek. But this is a Lynch movie, so its depiction of idyllic “Lumberton, U.S.A.” shows its dark underside of sexual violence, kidnapping, murder, and karaoke, and, in Dennis Hopper’s amyl-nitrite-snorting Frank booth, one of the most dangerous, repellent, and magnetic psychopaths ever to haunt the screen, while Laura Dern, in her first major role, incarnates the girl next door as extremely as Hopper does in essaying pure slime. Controversial from its premiere, Velvet polarized critics like no other movie, with a thumbs-downing from normal champion of the offbeat Roger Ebert, but with Boston, L.A., and National Film Critics awarding it, the Academy nominating Lynch for Best Director, and an anointing by Pauline Kael, who hailed its “charged erotic atmosphere” and “aural-visual humor and poetry.”
The newly restored "Blue Velvet" opens at Film Forum in New York City on March 25th and will travel across the country. And you can also watch Lynch explain what New Wave is in the trailer for Cinefamily’s upcoming program, "Underground USA: Indie Cinema of the 80s."