Blue Velvet (Lynch, 1986): Rio Cinema, 2.30pm
Rio introduction to a special screening:
Revisiting a landmark 1987 Rio event with a screening and discussion that not only pays tribute to the visionary work of David Lynch, but also celebrates the enduring importance of protest, dialogue, and critical engagement. The death of David Lynch offers us the special opportunity to revisit a landmark screening of BLUE VELVET, held at the cinema on Thursday 25 July 1987. Promoted by the controversy over the film, it was followed by a discussion with renowned film theorist and filmmaker Laura Mulvey, whose influential essay “Netherworlds and the Unconscious: Oedipus and Blue Velvet” explored how the film uncovered deeper psychological forces in society. The event was chaired by Mandy Merck, then editor of leading film journal, Screen. By then, BLUE VELVET had already stirred significant concern because of its graphic depictions of violence and sexuality. What made the Rio’s screening particularly unique was the response from some of its own staff, who not only objected to the film on personal grounds but took the unusual step of protesting outside the cinema. They handed out leaflets to attendees, arguing that the film’s portrayal of women violated the Rio’s anti-sexist commitments. This upcoming screening is a re-staging of that memorable event and will reflect on how debates around this now cult classic have evolved over the past four decades. We are delighted that both Laura Mulvey and Mandy Merck, who has been researching the events at the Rio alongside feminist debates of the 1980s, will return for a post-screening discussion, hosted by Rio regular Helen de Witt, who was present at the original 1987 event.
Chicago Reader review:
It's
personal all right, also solipsistic, intransigent, and occasionally
ridiculous. David Lynch's 1986 fever-dream fantasy, of a young college
student (Kyle MacLachlan) returned to his small-town roots and all
manner of strangeness, is replete with sexual fear and loathing,
parodistic inversions (of Capra, Lubitsch), and cannibalistic recyclings
from Lynch's own Eraserhead and Dune.
The bizarrely evolving story—MacLachlan becomes involved with two
women, one light and innocent (Laura Dern, vaguely lost), the other dark
and sadomasochistic (Isabella Rossellini), as well as with a murderous
psychopath (a brilliantly demented Dennis Hopper)—seems more obsessive
than expressive at times, and the commingling of sex, violence, and
death treads obliquely on familiar Ken Russell territory: it's Crimes of Passion with
the polarities reversed. Still, the film casts its spell in countless
odd ways, in the archetype-leaning imagery, eccentric tableau styling,
and moth-in-candle-flame attraction to the subconscious twilight.
Pat Graham
Here (and above) is the trailer.
No comments:
Post a Comment