Blue Velvet and North Carolina

I posted here previously about Wilmington NC. This, while watching Twin Peaks during the same period, and knowing nothing of the David Lynch connection between the DVD series and Blue Velvet the movie, which was filmed in Wilmington. Note the owl in the window in my old post by clicking on the link embedded in the word Wilmington above. If you've seen Twin Peaks, you know what I mean.

As I watched this movie again recently, for the second time, I was really fascinated. Not only at how good it was, but with my memory of how much I hated it the first time I watched it, 8 or 9 years ago.

Blue Velvet, filmed in 1986, was made just a few years prior to the production of Twin Peaks, also filmed on location (the Town of Twin Peaks is fictional) in Washington state. Featuring many of the same actors, both are centered around Kyle MacLachlan, the lead investigator, slowly unraveling unsolved crimes and serving as David Lynch's doppelganger both in facial features but also as the vehicle for Lynch's imagination. In Blue Velvet the story begins with the discovery of a human ear, just as Twin Peaks begins with finding Laura Palmer's body on a rocky lakeside, right off the bat, right in the first chapter of the film. There are more than a handful of similarities between the two works which are obvious to those who have seen both. These elements serve as the David Lynch stamp as much as they serve the aura of the plot and footage.

The further slice of irony is that on the same evening I switched to watching Blue Velvet after trying to watch the 1981 Pink Floyd film The Wall, I used to love. Both movies probe madness and the darkest back rooms of the human mind, but Blue Velvet holds a counter balance, a parallel line of mystery through out the movie that The Wall lacks. I later watched the special features on The Wall DVD and was quite pleased and satisfied to hear a recent day Roger Waters himself say that it's a "...flawed film, not a single chuckle or smile..." I agree, though when I was 16 I didn't see it that way.

When Blue Velvet first came out, the large level of violence (for 1986) and other shock elements caused the movie a lot of negative reviews. I don't want to spoil the movie by adding too many details, and yes, I watched the BV Special Features as well, so many of my exo-film facts come from that.

The formula of the quirkiest of all American characters wrapped around, and eventually with, vice filled plots has served Lynch and his fans well, but is certainly not for all viewers. As an additional note: This film also showcases the talent of Dennis Hopper who recently died. Mostly known for his roll in Easy Rider and Apocalypse Now, Blue Velvet is an additional testament to his abilities. Unfortunately his difficulties with drugs and alcohol kept him back from what could have been as he fully admitted in a recent recast of an excellent interview Teri Gross had with Hopper on NPR, which by the way, didn't mention Blue Velvet.


The following, I took from my two trips to Wilmington. These shots weren't in my original Wilmington post, but now in light of the movie, are much more interesting.

This fountain, as seen in the film, is in the middle of an intersection and is indeed something to take a picture of, as I did, as Lynch did, but this drive-by shot is only interesting to me now because of it being in the movie, and recognizing as I watched the movie.

One of the famous film quotes, by Dennis Hopper, "...Heineken! Fuck that! Pabst Blue Ribbon!" occurs in this very doorway, only 25 years earlier. This I also discovered through watching special features in a chapter titled "Barbary Coast." Blue Velvet is officially "set" in nearby Lumberton, but shot in Wilmington.




This last one is from the movie.