Woody Allen On Blue Velvet
I find it interesting that Woody Allen chose Blue Velvet as the best movie of the year and 'certainly the most interesting'. Martin Scorsese likewise.
shareA lot of critics and filmmakers lauded it as one of the best of the year. In fact, that's why there was such an uproar when Roger Ebert now infamously derided the film. The dichotomy between all the love it had received, and all the hate he gave it, had people thinking Ebert had either a personal agenda in attacking the film, or something against Lynch himself. I do think that he missed the mark in that review, most of his problem with the film seems to be over the "treatment" of Rossellini. You'd think a film critic as knowledgable as Roger Ebert would realise that it's called acting and Rossellini gave her full consent to appear nude. It's not like Lynch held her at gunpoint. Maybe Ebert fancied her, and was jealous of Lynch?
shareCuriously enough (and I like Blue Velvet) I find Ebert's review makes a quite valid point. By being ironic, coy and distancing himself from his own film, Lynch has 'cheated' Rossellini who went all out and did whatever the role demanded including an unattractive frontal nudity which is VERY hard to ask of a beautiful actress. Isabella gave her all to the role. Lynch always holds something back - a kind of emotional distancing from his own material. If you read Ebert's review, you will find he has only admiration for her portrayal and simply says Lynch wasn't as brave as his actress.
shareIt's not emotional distancing, it's a refusal to explain his art. Just like a classic painter would refuse to constantly elaborate on his work, Lynch feels there is no need in spoiling his work by over-anayalising every single detail. He hands it over to his fans to decide and decipher what his films are really about.
shareI said nothing about him 'explaining' his films but rather that he is 'cool' and uncommitted IN the film in ways that are a cheat. This keeps him out of the rank of the first rank of film auteurs.
shareBut there's no "irony" or "emotional distancing" in Blue Velvet, least of all in the late scene featuring a naked and bruised Rossellini and its aftermath that Ebert whined about so much and which is in fact quite uncomfortable to watch because of her direct, unfiltered hysteria. Now, on the other hand, if we were speaking of the opening scene in Wild At Heart - another big problem for Ebert for similar reasons - then I'd actually agree - the way Nicolas Cage bashes the black dude's brains out in the most gruesome manner only to go on to light a cigarette and strike a hip pose may be tonally consistent with the rest of the film, but still gives a sense that vicious brutality is waved away as something of a joke.
"facts are stupid things" Ronald Reagan