Blue Velvet (1986)

In director David Lynch's definitive film with many strange images and scenes - a bizarre, erotically-charged and nightmarish film of the dark-side of life:

• the masterful opening scene of images of small-town, white-picket fence Americana (Lumberton) concluding with a zoom-close-up into the grass finding insects fighting to the death
• the sequence of the town's clean-cut returning student Jeffrey's (Kyle MacLachlan) discovery of a severed ear carelessly discarded in undergrowth
• the odyssey of small-town, virginal and wholesome Sandy (Laura Dern) with her boyfriend Jeffrey, and their discussion: "It's a strange world"

The Corruption of Small-Town Lumberton

• the scene of dangerous and abused Dorothy (Isabella Rossellini) singing "Blue Velvet" in a nightclub - and the sequences leading up to Jeffrey's attraction to Dorothy and the dark side of life
• the voyeuristic scenes as Jeffrey watched from Dorothy's closet as she stripped naked in the rear bathroom, reached for her blue velvet robe from the closet, and then suddenly flung open the closet door where he was caught hiding - and threatened him with a knife; she forced him to get on his knees, cut his face with the knife blade, turned the tables on him, made him her voyeuristic prey, and forced him to undress in front of her, all the way down to his underwear and socks; she began touching, fondling, and kissing (and fellating?) him, and forced him to remain motionless; she asked: "Do you like that?" and then asked a question combining domination, pain, power, pleasure, and humiliation: "Don't touch me or I'll kill you? Do you like talk like that?" - the scene was interrupted by three loud knocks at the door - the arrival of Frank

Jeffrey's First Confrontation with Dorothy

• the evil, ether-addicted and depraved drug-pusher psycho Frank (Dennis Hopper) with an oxygen inhaler abusively terrorized and raped Dorothy as he play-acted being both her Daddy and Baby: ("Baby wants to f--k. Get ready to f--k. You f--ker's f--ker. You f--ker. Don't you f--kin' look at me!...Baby wants blue velvet"); as he began to feel her breasts, he sucked, chewed, and bit velvet cloth (part of Dorothy's blue robe), and then after forcefully touching her genitals, he mounted her and started humping her with his unbuckled pants still on; he moved frenziedly faster and faster until climaxing in a brief and brutal f--k; after getting off of her, he slugged her again in the face, hideously threatening her again: "Don't you f--kin' look at me." The 'dark' scene was intercut with a frightened Jeffrey surreptitiously viewing the shadowy, broken images between the slats of the distasteful ordeal from his hiding place in the closet
• after Frank left the scene of victimization, Dorothy pleaded with a consoling Jeffrey to touch her and further abuse her: "See my breast? You can feel it. My nipple. Still hard. You can touch it. You can feel it." Jeffrey responded by touching her. "Do you like the way I feel?...Feel me. Hit me." She banged her fist into the wall, as Jeffrey refused: "No. Dorothy no. Stop it." She continued to plead with him: "Hit me! Hit me! Hit me!"
• Sandy's description to Jeffrey of her dream of the robins returning to Lumberton, and her belief that there would be trouble before their arrival: ("I had a dream. In fact, it was the night I met you. In the dream, there was our world and the world was dark because there weren't any robins, and the robins represented love. And for the longest time, there was just this darkness. And all of a sudden, thousands of robins were set free, and they flew down and brought this Blinding Light of Love. And it seemed like that love would be the only thing that would make any difference. And it did. So I guess it means there is trouble 'til the robins come")
• in a later scene, Jeffrey made love to Dorothy in her bedroom, with a rendition of Bobby Vinton's "Blue Velvet" playing in the background - and the sonic signature of a cavernous howling in his ear was heard; in close-up, their naked bodies made love on the blue-silky sheets of her bed, as the masochistic Dorothy demanded to be hit: "I want you to hurt me...Go on, hit me. Hit me!" - as Jeffrey obliged, her moist red lips appeared with sparkling white teeth; the flames grew and the animalistic howling sound intensified during their violent, erotic love-making in the darkness; she told him: "I have your disease in me now"

Jeffrey's Love-Making with Masochistic Dorothy

• the harrowing scene of Frank taking a "joy ride" with a knife-threatened Jeffrey, and Dorothy
• the Heineken/Pabst Blue Ribbon line of dialogue ("Heineken? F--k that s--t! Pabst Blue Ribbon!")
• the remarkably surreal sequence of crazed Ben's (Dean Stockwell) lip-synching - in suave karaoke-style - of Roy Orbison's pop tune "In Dreams": ("A candy colored clown they call the Sandman Tiptoes to my room every night Just to sprinkle stardust and to whisper Go to sleep everything is all right. I close my eyes. Then I drift away. Into the magic night. I softly say A silent prayer. Like dreams do. Then I fall asleep To dream my dreams of you. In dreams, I walk with you. In dreams, I talk to you. In dreams, you're mine, all the time. We're together...")
• the truly terrifying scene of Frank's brutalization of Jeffrey by distorting the metaphor of the lyrics of the song "Love Letters Straight From Your Heart": ("Don't be a good neighbor to her. I'll send you a love letter straight from my heart, f--ker. Do you know what a love letter is? It's a bullet from a f--kin' gun, f--ker. If you receive a love letter from me, you are f--ked forever. Do you understand, f--k? I'll send ya straight to Hell, f--ker!")
• the appearance of a naked and battered Dorothy on the Beaumont's front lawn and into Sandy's house and her odd declaration: ("He put his disease in me") - referring to her clandestine sexual relationship with Jeffrey
• the final scene with peaceful organ music, romance, bright sunshine in a kitchen, an optimistic future, friendly conversations between neighbors, united families - all the false comforts of the nostalgic 50s past symbolized by the return of the robins: (Jeffrey: "Maybe the robins are here"), bringing Sandy's dream to fulfillment - the Blinding Light of Love