Blue Velvet

Template:Infobox Film Blue Velvet is a 1986 mystery and thriller film written and directed by David Lynch. The film features Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper and Laura Dern. The title is taken from a Bobby Vinton song by the same name, which continues the blue velvet motif that appears throughout the film in several significant moments. The film was financed and produced for Italian movie producer Dino de Laurentiis, due to the fact that most major film studios had turned away from the film, so Laurentiis created his own production company, D.E.G. to distribute the film.

Set in the small, quaint Midwest town of Lumberton, the film begins with the protagonist Jeffery Beaumont (MacLachlan) wandering through a dilapidated field and discovering a severed human ear which he takes to the police. He begins to investigate the matter himself —soon discovering a seamy underworld hidden beneath the veneer of idealised small town middle America — home to bizarre homicidal kidnapper Frank Booth (Hopper) and a seductive femme fatale night-club cabaret singer on the verge of a breakdown, Dorothy Vallens (Rossellini). Blue Velvet opened to great critical acclaim and was a box office success, considering its limited release in theatres. The film received an Academy Award for Best Director nomination for Lynch in 1987. The film has since become a cult classic, noted for its use of surrealism, dreamlike aura, neo-noir and examination of the dark-side of America, and has spawned several inferior imitations since its release in 1986. Blue Velvet remains one of the most poignant, well known examples of the psychological thriller genre, and brought director Lynch to the attention of mainstream audiences.

Synopsis

Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) returns home from college after his father (Jack Harvey) suffers a stroke. While walking home from the hospital, he finds a severed ear. Jeffrey takes the ear to local investigator Detective John Williams (George Dickerson). When he returns to the Williams house later to discuss the incident further, Jeffrey meets the detective’s daughter, Sandy (Laura Dern). She tells him details about the ear case and a suspicious woman, Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini).

Increasingly curious, Jeffrey devises a plan to sneak into Dorothy’s apartment that involves posing as a maintenance man. Dorothy becomes distracted when a man dressed in a yellow suit (played by Fred Pickler) knocks at her door, and Jeffrey steals Dorothy's spare key.

File:Blue velvet scene isabella rossellini.jpg

Isabella Rossellini's shadowy figure, while singing her rendition of Blue Velvet at the Slow Club

While Dorothy performs at a nightclub, Jeffrey sneaks into her apartment to snoop. He hurriedly hides in a closet when she returns home. But Dorothy finds him hiding and threatens to hurt him. When she realizes he is merely a curious boy, she assumes his intentions are sexual in nature, and is turned on by his voyeurism. She makes him undress at knifepoint, then fellates him. Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper) interrupts their encounter. Jeffrey returns to the closet and witnesses Frank's bizarre sexual proclivities, which include erotic asphyxiation, dry humping, and sadomasochistic tendencies. Frank is an extremely foul-mouthed, violent sociopath whose orgasmic climax is a fit of both pleasure and rage. When Frank leaves, a saddened and desperate Dorothy tries to seduce Jeffrey again. She demands that he hit her but when he refuses she demands to be left alone. Jeffrey and Sandy attend Dorothy's nightclub show at the Slow Club, where she performs Blue Velvet by Bobby Vinton. Frank is also present at the nightclub.

At the police station Jeffrey notices that Sandy's father's partner is Gordon — the Yellow Man. Later at Sandy's home, her father is amazed by Jeffrey's story, but warns Jeffrey of the danger of the situation. Jeffrey and Sandy go to a dance party together, profess their newfound love and embrace. When they're tailed on their way home, Jeffrey is relieved to discover that it's only Sandy’s football-playing ex-boyfriend. A confrontation is avoided when they see a naked and distressed Dorothy waiting on Jeffrey’s front lawn.

From the hospital, Jeffrey tells Sandy that he must return to Dorothy's apartment and tells Sandy to send her father there immediately. When he arrives back at Dorothy’s apartment, he finds the dead bodies of The Yellow Man and Dorothy’s husband, who is missing an ear. When he tries to leave, he sees The Well Dressed Man coming up the steps and recognizes him as Frank. Jeffrey talks to Det. Williams over the police radio but lies about his location inside the apartment. Frank enters the apartment and brags about hearing Jeffrey's location over his own police radio. When Frank fails to find Jeffrey in the bedroom, he returns to the lounge. Jeffrey shoots Frank with the Yellow Man's gun. Det. Williams arrives with Sandy in tow. Days later, we see Jeffrey and Sandy together, with their lives back to normal, and before the credits, Dorothy and her son playing happily in the park together.

Themes

Main article: Themes in Blue Velvet

Despite the initial appearance of a thriller, Blue Velvet operates on an unusually rich number of dramatic and humorous levels. As with much of the the psychological thriller genre, it owes a large debt to 1950s film noir, containing and exploring such conventions as the femme fatale, a seemingly unstoppable villain, and the questionable moral outlook of the Hero — extended here to include even the humanity of the hero, as well as the usual shadowy cinematography and important symbolism. The film also pays tribute to many 1950s and 1960s soap operas, showcasing nostalgic visuals; the setting is also very indistinguishable, as there are references to the both the 1950s and 1960s, and the 1980s.

Blue Velvet establishes a metaphorical family — Jeffrey Beaumont (the 'child') and his 'parents' Frank Booth and Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini) - through deliberate references to film noir and its underlying Oedipal theme. The resulting violence can be read as symbolic of domestic violence within 'real' families. Frank's violent acts reflect the different types of abuse within families, and the control he has over Dorothy represents the hold an abusive husband has over his wife. Jeffrey is an innocent youth who is both horrified by the violence inflicted by Frank, but also tempted by it as the means of possessing Dorothy for himself.

The film is also a journey into the heartland of small town America, and its underlying surface, which is presented throughout the film with the visual manifestation of roses, white-picket fenced homes, happy suburban families, and then the discovery of what lies beneath, visually represented with crawling insects, pain (such as the seizure of Jeffery's father) and destruction.

Metaphors occur several times throughout Blue Velvet. In an interview, Lynch mentioned that he deliberately placed recurring symbols into the film. The most obvious symbol is that of insects, introduced at the end of the first scene, when the camera zooms in on a well-kept suburban lawn until it discovers, underground, a swarming nest of disgusting bugs. This is generally recognized as a metaphor for the seedy underworld that Jeffrey will soon discover under the surface of his own suburban paradise. The bug motif recurs throughout the film, most notably in the bug-like oxygen mask that Frank wears, but also in the excuse that Jeffrey offers when he first gains access to Dorothy's apartment: he claims he is an insect exterminator.

One of Frank's sinister accomplices is also consistently identified through the yellow jacket he wears. Yellowjacket happens to be the name of a type of wasp, which double-layers the symbolism on yet another level, as the USA's economically dominant class is known as WASPs —White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Finally, a robin eating a bug on a fence becomes a topic of discussion in the last scene of the film. Some believe that this is just 'one bug' and that there is still a criminal underworld left — indeed, earlier in the film when the police raid Frank's hideout, it certainly doesn't look like they're winning.

The severed ear that Jeffrey discovers is also a key symbolic element; the ear is what leads Jeffrey into danger. Indeed, just as Jeffrey's troubles begin, the audience is treated to a nightmarish sequence in which the camera zooms into the ear canal of the severed, decomposing ear. Notably, the camera does not reemerge from the ear canal until the end of the film. When Jeffrey finally comes through his hellish ordeal unscathed, the ear canal shot is replayed, only in reverse, zooming out through Jeffrey's own ear as he relaxes in his yard on a summer day.

Production

Origins

File:Lumbertonbv.jpg

David Lynch took many inspirations for the film from his own childhood; including the setting of the film, acting as a substitute for his own northwestern hometown in Spokane, Washington

Blue Velvet's origins may lie in Lynch's childhood, spent deep in the forests of Spokane, Washington, a Northwestern setting similar to that of the film. Lynch has admitted to certain autobiographical content in the film. He has said:

"Kyle is dressed like me. My father was a research scientist for the Department of Agriculture in Washington. We were in the woods all the time. I'd sorta had enough of the woods by the time I left, but still, lumber and lumberjacks, all this kinda thing, that's America to me like the picket fences and the roses in the opening shot. It's so burned in, that image, and it makes me feel so happy."

If Lynch's childhood memories inspired the setting of Blue Velvet, the actual story of the film originated from three ideas that crystallized in the filmmaker's mind over a period of time starting as early as 1973, but at that time he "only had a feeling and a title."

After finishing The Elephant Man, Lynch met producer Richard Roth over coffee. Roth had read and enjoyed Lynch's Ronnie Rocket script but did not think it was something he wanted to produce. He asked Lynch if the filmmaker had any other scripts but the director only had ideas. "I told him I had always wanted to sneak into a girl's room to watch her into the night and that, maybe, at one point or another, I would see something that would be the clue to a murder mystery. Roth loved the idea and asked me to write a treatment. I went home and thought of the ear in the field."

The second idea was an image of a severed, human ear lying in a field that has since become one of the most striking visuals of the film. "I don't know why it had to be an ear. Except it needed to be an opening of a part of the body a hole into something else...The ear sits on the head and goes right into the mind so it felt perfect," Lynch remarked in an interview. For the filmmaker, the severed ear was the perfect way to draw Jeffrey into a secret world that lies at the heart of the film.

Possible influences

The third idea that came to Lynch was Bobby Vinton's classic rendition of the song Blue Velvet and "the mood that came with that song a mood, a time, and things that were of that time." Lynch was directly influenced by Kenneth Anger's use of Bobby Vinton's classic in his avant-garde film Scorpio Rising (1964). This song proved to be such a favorite with Lynch that he not only has Vinton's version in the film but Dorothy also sings it during one of her performances at the Slow Club. The song continues the blue velvet motif that appears throughout the film from the curtain or robe of velvet in the opening credits to the piece of material that Frank carries with him. Many elements of Blue Velvet are reminiscent of Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter (1955). The story of a child or naïve young man thrust into an unexpected adult world of crime, sex, and murder is common to both films, and the development of this subject as something of a journey towards the redemption of innocence also seems similar. Both films feature a helpless woman held under the power of a sometimes disarming but ultimately terrifying madman. Both madmen are tied symbolically to a primal, animal or insect world. And in both films the child character loses his father in the first scene, and later seeks the help of a surrogate father figure but is disappointed in this appeal to adult, masculine authority.

Direction

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David Lynch on the set of the film with Kyle MacLachlan, 1986

Blue Velvet introduced several common elements of Lynch's work, including distorted characters, a polarized world, debilitating damage to the skull or brain and the dark underbelly of small towns (or large cities). Red curtains also show up in key scenes, which have since become a trademark of Lynch films. Many critics note that Lynch's directing and camera work contributed to Blue Velvet's success. The opening title features the title cards, and a backdrop of a blue velvet robe blowing in the wind, which sets the mood for the blue velvet and how it consistently appears throughout the film. Much of the cinematography and shots bear similarities to surrealistic paintings, such as the way the streets of Lumberton are lit with very dim light.

Once these three ideas came to Lynch, he and Roth pitched it to Warner Bros. Pictures who showed interest in the project. Lynch eventually spent two years writing two drafts which, by his own admission, were not very good. The problem with them, Lynch has said, was that "there was maybe all the unpleasantness in the film but nothing else. A lot was not there. And so it went away for a while."

Lynch wrote two more drafts before he was satisfied with the script of the film. Conditions at this point were ideal for Lynch's film: he had cut a deal with Dino de Laurentiis that gave him complete artistic freedom and final cut privileges with the stipulation that the filmmaker take a cut in his salary and work with a budget of only $6 million. This deal meant that Blue Velvet was the smallest film on the De Laurentiis' slate. Consequently, Lynch would be left mostly unsupervised during production. "After Dune I was down so far that anything was up! So it was just a euphoria. And when you work with that kind of feeling, you can take chances. You can experiment." Because the material was completely different from anything that would be considered mainstream at the time, Laurentiis had to start his own production company to distribute it.

The scene where Dorothy appears naked outside after being raped and beaten was inspired by a real-life experience Lynch had in his childhood when he and his brother saw a naked woman walking down a neighborhood street at night. The experience was so traumatic to the young Lynch at the time, it made him cry and he had never forgotten it.

Lynch's original script had Dorothy's child die before he could be saved, and Dorothy committing suicide at the end by throwing herself off the roof of the apartment building, her Blue Velvet robe dropping to cover the ground-level camera. Her suicide was to be crosscut with Jeffrey's idyllic home life. This referenced a previous scene in the film, shot but not included in the final cut, where Dorothy and Jeffrey make love on the roof of the apartment building during a thunderstorm, after which Dorothy threatens to jump from the roof.

The exterior scenes of Lumberton were filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Music

Another prominent stylistic feature in the film is the unconventional use of vintage pop songs, such as Bobby Vinton’s "Blue Velvet" and Roy Orbison’s "In Dreams", juxtaposed with an orchestral score inspired largely by Shostakovich. The score makes direct quotations from Shostakovich's 15th Symphony, which Lynch had been listening to regularly while writing the screenplay. Lynch worked with well-known music composer Angelo Badalamenti for the first time in this film and asked him to write a score that had to be “like Shostakovich, be very Russian, but make it the most beautiful thing but make it dark and a little bit scary.” Badalamenti would go on to contribute to all of Lynch's future full-length films.

Editing

Lynch's original rough cut ran for approximately four hours.He was contractually obligated to deliver a 2-hour movie by De Laurentiis and cut many small subplots and character scenes. He also made cuts at the request of the MPAA. For example, when Frank slaps Dorothy after the first rape scene, the audience was supposed to see Frank actually hitting her, instead it cuts away to Jeffery in the closet, wincing at what he has just seen. This was removed in order to satisfy the MPAA concerns about violence. Lynch thought that the change only made the scene more disturbing.

To this day, footage of the deleted scenes has never been found and only stills remain. David Lynch's final cut of the film ran one frame under two hours.

Casting

The cast of Blue Velvet included several then-unknown actors, including Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan and Laura Dern. Blue Velvet's dark script and low budget limited the number of big names that Lynch could attract. The part of Frank Booth was originally offered to Robert Loggia, then Willem Dafoe and Richard Bright, all of whom turned it down. Dennis Hopper—Lynch's third choice—accepted the role, reportedly saying "I've got to play Frank! I am Frank!"

Three actresses were offered the role of Dorothy Vallens. Lynch tested and turned down German/Polish actress Hanna Schygulla, then considered Helen Mirren, who was unavailable at the time. While in New York City, Lynch met Isabella Rossellini at a restaurant, and she accepted the role. Lynch only had one choice for the role of Jeffery Beaumont: Val Kilmer, who turned the role down, describing the script he read as "pornography". Kilmer later said he would have done the version of the film that finally made it to the big screen; he became very fond of the final version of the film, just not the version he read as a script. Kyle MacLachlan, who had previously starred in one film directed by Lynch, Dune (1984), was asked to play the role of Jeffery. He instantly agreed. For MacLachlan, who appears in every scene in the film, the intense shooting schedule was exhausting.

In an interview and on the 2002 documentary (The Mysteries of Love) produced for the films anniversary, Lynch said that he originally wanted Molly Ringwald, who was then a "teen idol", to star as Sandy in Blue Velvet, but Ringwald's mother objected to her starring in the film due to the graphic content, and both agreed that it would tarnish her then successful career in the film industry.

Cast

Main article: List of characters in Blue Velvet

File:Blue velvet scene.jpg

The iconic scene in which Frank Booth sexually assaults Dorothy Vallens while inhaling his drug

• Kyle MacLachlan as Jefery Beamount. After David Lynch scouted for several lead actors for the role of Beamount; who had considered the role was high-risk and subsequently turned down by several big names, including Val Kilmer and Chris Isaak. MacLachlan was chosen particularly because Lynch believed he had several things in common with MacLachlan and the character. MacLachlan had worked with Lynch previously, in Dune (1980). After Blue Velvet had established success after its release on home video, MacLachlan enjoyed moderate success, going on to star in another Lynch production: The Twin Peaks saga, from 1990 until 1991.
• Dennis Hopper as Frank Booth. Hopper was reportedly one of the few choices for the role of Frank Booth. Hopper had a strong interest in playing the role; even deeming he "was Frank" to Lynch. Robert Loggia also desperately wanted the role.
• Isabella Rossellini as Dorothy Vallens. David Lynch initially envisioned Hanna Schygulla for the role of Dorothy. When she declined, he thought of Helen Mirren for the part, before meeting model Isabella Rossellini in a New York City restaurant. When Rossellini looks back on her role and the initially difficult scenes to shoot; she laughs.
• Laura Dern as Sandy Williams. Dern was an unknown at the time; and Lynch had rejected her upon their first meeting; wanting someone suitable for the characters age. Then teen-idol Molly Ringwald was the original choice, however her mother objected to her starring in it, in account of the graphic conent.
• Dean Stockwell as Ben Stockwell was the first, and only choice for the role of the feminine sidekick of Frank's, Ben.
• David Lynch cameo appearance is a signature occurrence in most of his films. In Blue Velvet he can be seen on the Lumberton highway as a homeless person, during Frank's "joy ride."

Reception

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Poster used to advertise Blue Velvet to audiences in Italy; the Italian subtitle is Velluto Blu. The artwork depicts the films graphic nature, and a scene that was not featured in the final release

Blue Velvet was released in theatres in the United States on February 26, 1986. The film received a mixed reaction from critics in the United States. Roger Ebert, noted film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times praised Isabella Rosselini's performance as being "convincing and courageous" but criticized how she was depicted in the film, even accusing David Lynch of misogyny: "degraded, slapped around, humiliated and undressed in front of the camera. And when you ask an actress to endure those experiences, you should keep your side of the bargain by putting her in an important film." Paul Attanasio of The Washington Post said that "the film showcases a visual stylist utterly in command of his talents" and that Angelo Badalamenti "contributes an extraordinary score, slipping seamlessly from slinky jazz to violin figures to the romantic sweep of a classic Hollywood score," but claims that Lynch "isn't interested in communicating, he's interested in parading his personality. The movie doesn't progress or deepen, it just gets weirder, and to no good end."

Janet Maslin, critic from The New York Times expressed her admiration for the film, and directed much praise toward the performances of Hooper and Rossellini: "Mr. Hopper and Miss Rossellini are so far outside the bounds of ordinary acting here that their performances are best understood in terms of sheer lack of inhibition; both give themselves entirely over to the material, which seems to be exactly what's called for."

She concluded by saying that the movie, "is as fascinating as it is freakish. It confirms Mr. Lynch's stature as an innovator, a superb technician, and someone best not encountered in a dark alley." Looking back in his Guardian/Observer, critic Philip French felt that "The film is wearing well and has attained a classic status without becoming respectable or losing its sense of danger." Blue Velvet holds a 90 percent "fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.7 rating at the Internet Movie Database with 27,610 votes, which is above average. Peter Travers, the film critic for Rolling Stone magazine, named Blue Velvet the best film of the 1980s.

In its opening weekend, Blue Velvet grossed a total of (USD)$789,409 in 98 theaters in the United States. As of August 7 2006, the film has grossed a total of $8,551,228 domestically. It was also released internationally, in Australia, most of West Germany, China, Canada, Hong Kong Western Europe and Japan, followed by subsquent video releases. The film grossed (AU)$900,000 in Australia, which was a large and impressive amount of money for a film to gross at the box office in Australia, in that day, and HKD 450,139 in Hong Kong. Blue Velvet's release on home video has contributed to its popularity over the years.

The film received an array of nominations, ranging from independent awards to mainstream. Isabella Rossellini won an Independent Spirit Award for the Best Female Lead in 1987. David Lynch and Dennis Hopper won a Los Angeles Film Critics Association award in 1987 for Blue Velvet in categories Best Director (Lynch) and Best Supporting Actor (Hopper). In 1987 National Society of Film Critics gave the film Best Film, Best Director (David Lynch), Best Cinematography (Frederick Elmes) and Best Supporting Actor (Dennis Hopper) awards. In addition, David Lynch was nominated for the 1987 Best Director Academy Award. Dennis Hopper received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for the film Hoosiers. At the time, it was believed that the Academy wanted to honor Hopper's portrayal of Frank in Lynch's film, but gave him the Oscar nomination for his appearance in Hoosiers instead because Frank was just too evil a character. Many feel that Isabella Rossellini was also snubbed by the awards for her performance in the film.

It has won the following accolades:

Year	Award	Category — Recipient(s)
1986	Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival	Best Film (Grand Prize) — David Lynch
1987	Boston Society of Film Critics Awards	Best Cinematography — Frederick Elmes
		Best Director — David Lynch
		Best Film — David Lynch
		Best Actor in a Supporting Role — Dennis Hopper
1987	Independent Spirit Awards	Best Female Lead — Isabella Rossellini
1987	Montréal World Film Festival	Best Male Actor — Dennis Hopper
1987	National Society of Film Critics Awards	Best Cinematography — Frederick Elmes.

It was nominated for the following awards:

• Academy Awards (1987)
  • Academy Award for Best Director
• Golden Globes (1987)
  • Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture — Dennis Hopper
  • Best Screenplay (Motion Picture) — David Lynch

• Independent Spirit Award (1987)
  • Best Cinematography — Frederick Elmes
  • Best Director — David Lynch
  • Best Feature — Fred C. Caruso
  • Best Female Lead — Laura Dern
  • Best Male Lead — Dennis Hopper
  • Best Screenplay — David Lynch

• Writers Guild of America (1987)
  • Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

Influence and rankings

Template:Expand Although it initially gained a small North American audience, Blue Velvet was popular internationally and became a cult classic which has been often referenced in other media. Blue Velvet's dark, dream-like and symbolistic design have served as a benchmark and its inspiration can be seen in many subsequent suburban-set thriller films and television programs, such as X (1996), Happiness (1998), American Beauty (1999) and Lantana (2001). Lynch also continued themes established in Blue Velvet, in Twin Peaks, which details an exploration of a small town whose dark secrets are revealed during the murder investigation of high-school prom queen Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). Combining characters and storylines straight out of soap operas, sit-coms, detective stories, science fiction, and horror, Twin Peaks was a huge hit with its intertexuality, post-modern humour, and supernatural themes, much thanks to Blue Velvet.

Blue Velvet has also been recognized in many lists conducted by the media. The film's villain Frank Booth was anointed at number 36 on the American Film Institute's list of the 50 best villains in cinema history, and the film itself was ranked #96 on the AFI institutes: 100 Most Thrilling Films of All Time. It was ranked at #84 by Bravo Television Network in a four-hour televised countdown of the 100 Scariest Movie Moments. It was also ranked by Premiere Magazine as the 25 Greatest Dangerous Films in 2007. While not becoming a box office success given its very limited release in theaters, the film has become a cultural icon in the history of cinema, thanks to screenings on cable and VHS and DVD releases over the years.

DVD and VHS releases

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The Region 1 cover of the Special Edition DVD release

Blue Velvet was first released onto DVD, on April 24, 2000 by MGM, containing just a trailer and some editions had a special trivia booklet, omitting any supplementary material. A laserdisc edition was released in 1987, and again in 1991.

It was finally re-released on DVD in 2002 again by MGM (a VHS version was also subsequently released) in a Special Edition collection, which included an in-depth documentary about the film called The Mysteries of Love containing interviews from the cast and David Lynch, deleted scenes, originally believed to be lost, put together in a montage, a Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel interview about their thoughts on the film from a 1986 episode of their film show At the Movies, a photo gallery, booklet and an original theatrical trailer. The DVD was released in selected parts of Europe, as well as Australia, Canada and various other locations on June 4, 2002.

Frank's drug

Throughout the film, Frank Booth uses a mask to breathe a gas from a tank. The identity of this gas is a subject of controversy. Lynch's script specified helium, to raise Frank's voice and have it resemble that of an infant. However, during filming, Hopper, an experienced drug user, claimed to have insight into Frank's choice of drug and that helium was inappropriate:

"...I'm thankful to Dennis," Lynch said, "because up until the last minute it was gonna be helium — to make the difference between 'Daddy' and the baby that much more. But I didn't want it to be funny. So helium went out the window and became just a gas. Then, in the first rehearsal, Dennis said, 'David, I know what's in these different canisters.' And I said, 'Thank God, Dennis, that you know that!' And he named all the gases."

In a documentary on the DVD version of the film, Hopper claims that the drug was amyl nitrite an angina medication that was first used recreationally as an inhalant in the disco club scene. However, amyl nitrite is a yellow-gold liquid which is inhaled as it evaporates, not a gas that comes in a canister. Frank's drug is more likely nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas. More probably still, it is a 50/50 mixture of Nitrous Oxide and Oxygen, commonly known as entonox. It is used legitimately for dental anesthesia and making whipped cream in aerosol containers. It is also used as a recreational drug, because in small doses,it produces a brief but intense high. In larger doses, nitrous oxide can cause auditory and visual hallucinations.

References in popular culture

Main article: Blue Velvet in popular culture

Music

A number of musicians have sampled Dennis Hopper's character, Frank Booth, in this movie. The Louisiana band Acid Bath samples Frank Booth in the song "Cassie eats Cockroaches", the final track on "When The Kite String Pops". Amon Tobin in turn referenced Blue Velvet and Frank on the 1998 album Permutation, with the song "People Like Frank", which also samples music from Angelo Badalamenti's score. The Hypnotist (Casper Pound) in "The Ride" (Give Peace a Dance, Vol 3) prominently features the sample "A ride... well that's a good idea" spoken by Frank, as well of other lines from that same scene in the hallway.

Rollins Band (Henry Rollins) released a lengthy 'jam' song called 'JoyRiding with Frank' - the live version starts with Henry quoting Frank: "This Is IT!" .The beginning of the Fear Factory song "Concrete" off their album of the same title features a sample of Frank screaming "Next!" after Jeffrey punches him in the face.Benediction wrote "Dark is the Season", a song about Blue Velvet having lyrics directly referencing the movie. It is recorded on the Dark is the Season EP. The lyrics sheet further states, "See the film Blue Velvet by David Lynch, freak out & blow your mind!!!"

Iowa metalcore band A Well Dressed Man took their name from the disguise worn by Frank Booth, referred to by Jeffrey as "the well-dressed man disguise."

Mr. Bungle's self-titled album featured samples of dialogue from Blue Velvet in the songs "Squeeze Me Macaroni," "Stubb (A Dub)" and "My Ass Is On Fire". The San Diego band Deadbolt recorded the song "E Frank" with lyrics inspired by some of Frank Booth's lines in the film. The song, recorded live, appears on the B-side of a single issued by Trademark Records (TMR-1003). The band Anthrax wrote "Now it's Dark", a song about Blue Velvet on their "State of Euphoria" album. Many of the lyrics reference the movie, including the infamous "Don't you Fucking look at me!".

A sound bite of Frank Booth screaming "Heineken? Fuck that shit!" is heard in the middle of the Green Day cover of "My Generation". The Norwegian band Combichrist used "Fuck that shit" in the chorus to a song titled the same.

The CD accompanying Arthur Kroker's book "Spasm" contains a track which begins by repeating the line, "Stay alive baby. Do it for Van Gogh."

Films, television, and other media

Blue Velvet is quoted several times in the Kevin Smith movie Clerks (1994). A line in the film is said by Frank Booth ("Spread your legs, wider") is exactly the same as a line in Closer (2004). In Bio Dome, while inhaling nitrous oxide from a tank with a mask, Pauly Shore's character says, "Dennis Hopper, Blue Velvet: 'Oh I'm slutty!, Oh I'm slutty!'" referencing Dennis Hopper's character's crude sexual nature and the scene where Dennis Hopper gets high using a mask to inhale nitrous oxide. In The Squid and the Whale (2005), set in 1986, the year of Blue Velvet, three characters choose to see Blue Velvet at the theater instead of Short Circuit.

On the radio call-in show Loveline, the engineer will often drop (play) a sample of Frank shouting "Where's my bourbon!?" when the hosts and/or the (usually female) caller are discussing abusive, alcoholic fathers, boyriends, etc. In the television series Spaced, Tim says that the kind of people who enjoy The Rocky Horror Picture Show have too many posters of Blue Velvet, Betty Blue and The Big Blue on their "blue bloody walls!"

Blue Velvet is referenced in an episode of Arrested Development. Wayne Jarvis comments on Gob's puppet Franklin, asking (in an imitation of Kyle MacLachlan), "Why do there have to be puppets like Frank?" In the Capcom video game Resident Evil 4, a recurring treasure is named Velvet Blue in a subtle homage to the film. In the video game Conker's Bad Fur Day, the famous "Do you want to go for a ride?" scene is mimicked at the end of the game

External links

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