Now It’s Dark; Blue Velvet and a sublime touch of Angelo Badalamenti courtesy of Ms Rossellini

  • Blue Velvet-MC chap-Isabella Rossellini-David Lynch-Slow Club scenes-Afterhours Sleaze and Dignity-3

    There was a point where David Lynch seemed to be the go-to chap for accessible but experimental thrillers – around the mid eighties to the turn of the decade – when Blue Velvet and Wild At Heart were either peering into the underbelly of the American picket fence dream or taking the viewer or a rollercoaster ride with Sailor and Lula.

    As I was wandering along to this here computer this morning I wandered what category/genre you would put Blue Velvet into? It has elements of neo noir but I’m not sure that’s quite right. Transgressive noir? That’s possibly getting near to the spot.

    Blue Velvet-Isabella Rossellini-David Lynch-Slow Club scenes-Afterhours Sleaze and Dignity-2b

    Anyway, one of the highlights in a film full of highlights (if that’s the right word for a celluloid tale such as this) for me and a part that can stand on it’s own separate to the film is Ms Isabella Rossellini’s music montage in the Slow Club – all crushed velvet plushness, seediness, broken dreams and rather lovely blue lighting that puts me in mind of Kiera Knightley’s tube station during the Blitz singing performance in John Maybury’s Edge Of Love (another director who somehow manages to sneak really rather experimental elements of film making into often quite accessible films).

    Blue Velvet-Isabella Rossellini-David Lynch-Slow Club scenes-Afterhours Sleaze and Dignity

    When I watch it, it tends to make me think (hope?) that somewhere in the world there’s a full album and maybe even a full recording of this performance – well, without the unsettling elements and story that accompany it.

    More details on Mr Angelo Badalamenti’s rather fine soundtrack here. Watch the montage sequence here.

    Peruse the film here.

     

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