Heineken? Fuck that shit! Pabst! Blue! Ribbon!!! A lot of people love this movie strictly for Isabella Rossellini, but I’m more of a Laura Dern guy myself. Blue Velvet is a prototype of the sort of suburban dread that David Lynch would further explore on Twin Peaks; taking place in a seemingly normal small American town, until Kyle Maclachlan starts peeling away the layers to reveal a dark & sinister underbelly. All the Twin Peaks tropes are there: mysterious severed body parts, clueless cops, crazy dialogue that makes very little sense in or out of context. Blue Velvet is Lynch’s first collaboration with Angelo Badalamenti, who would go on to score nearly all of Lynch’s subsequent projects, including Twin Peaks, Fire Walk With Me and Lost Highway. In addition to musical collaborations with Lynch, Badalamenti plays the role of Music Supervisor, curating moody orchestral pieces by Dmitri Shostakovich. Rumor has it that Lynch desperately wanted to use This Mortal Coil’s “Song To The Siren” (featuring Cocteau Twins’ Liz Fraser and Robin Guthrie), and wished to feature the band performing the song live in the film, but couldn’t obtain the rights. Which would explain why “Mysteries Of Love” sounds quite similar. Also includes Roy Orbison’s “In Dreams”, a few jazz and honky tonk numbers reminiscent of the schlocky themes ubiquitous in Twin Peaks, and Rossellini’s cover of The Clovers’ “Blue Velvet” which inspired the film’s title.

• music label: Varèse Sarabande 2017

reviewed by mayor of hounslow 05/2017