Dundead: Blue Velvet

The maverick filmmaker David Lynch has died, aged 78. As fans, filmmakers and critics mourn the loss, here at Dundead we offer this screening of 1986’s Blue Velvet in tribute to, and in celebration of, one of American popular cinema’s great poets. 

We screened Lynch’s 1977 debut Eraserhead to a sold-out audience in October but for many, Blue Velvet was their entry way into his filmography; a mesmeric portal into a shimmering, shadowy underworld of darkness. 

Blue Velvet is arguably the film of Lynch’s which most resembles his television masterwork Twin Peaks, wrapping a compelling (and accessible) mystery in a distinctly Lynch style. But for all their controversy, darkness (and Blue Velvet is dark – the film is rated 18 here in the UK) and melodramatic flourishes, Lynch’s films never lose sight of the humanity at their core. One of his great intuitions as an artist and storyteller was his empathy. He could put his characters through hell, but it never felt exploitative or cheap. 

The film stars two of Lynch’s key collaborators who would reappear in other works; Kyle Maclachlan and Laura Dern, as well as featuring roles for Dean Stockwell, Jack Nance and Brad Dourif. The film also stars Isabella Rosellini in an intense, discomforting performance as lounge singer Dorothy Vallens. And of course, the film gave us Dennis Hopper’s monstrous Frank Booth. Hopper was never better than he was here, playing a terrifyingly human force of evil. 

Crucially, the film marked the first time Lynch collaborated with the late composer Angelo Badalamenti, who died in 2022 and whose dreamlike lullabies would be a key component of what we would come to understand as ‘Lynchian’. Lynch understood the transportive potentials of music in a way few filmmakers do. 

David Lynch forever changed the realms of cinema. He was a singular, wholly unique filmmaker, and a true visionary.