Blue Velvet: A “Fluxus Eleatis” Discourse

IN DREAMS, Roy Orbison

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 alright”

I close my eyes
Then I drift away
Into the magic night
I softly sway
Oh smile and pray
Like dreamers 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…Your mine

All of the time
We’re together
In dreams…In dreams

But just before the dawn
I awake and find you gone
I can’t help it…I can’t help it
If I cry
I remember
That you said goodbye
To end all these things
And I’ll be happy in my dreams
Only in dreams
In beautiful dreams

Sandy Williams:  I don’t know. 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.

Jeffrey Beaumont:  You did not let me kiss you.

Sandy Williams: I don’t know if you’re a detective or a pervert.

Jeffrey Beaumont:  Well, that’s for me to know and you to find out.

Dorothy Vallens: He (Jeffrey) puts his dicease in me!

Mr. FFF:  We are in a sleepy, idyllic American town that hides a sinister underworld.

MM: Jeffrey Beaumont, a college student visiting his home town because his father is ill at the hospital, finds a severed human ear in a field.

Mrs. T: Jeffrey shares his “finding” with Sandy Williams, a local high school student he is courting. They decide to make their own inquiries and find Dorothy Vallens, a night club singer who is apparently connected to the ear. Dorothy is played by Isabella Rossellini, who makes her real debut in acting in this movie.

MM: Dorothy is somehow related to Frank Booth, a local man of the underworld.

Mr. FFF: Frank Booth is a foul-mouthed and violent sociopath, being sexually inclined toward dry humping and sadomasochism with Isabella Rossellini, while at the same time inhaling nitrous oxide and crying ‘Mommy!’

Mrs. T: Huffing nitrous oxide causes feelings of euporia, insensitivity to pain, and auditory/visual distorions. The only known detriment to one’s health directly related to nitrous oxide is severe vitamin b12 deficiency. This usually only becomes a problem in people who use nitrous oxide several times a day every day. Most, if not all, nitrous oxide-related deaths are a result of not using common sense, such as using it while standing up and falling and hitting your head or huffing from a plastic bag and having your airways blocked. Nitrous oxide is sometimes called laughing gas and dentists commonly give it to patients undergoing painful dental work.

Mr. FFF: Frank’s inhaling from the mask is a ritual. The mask is acting as his inway to the maternal womb.

MM: This may explain why intermittently, Frank inhales and then tells Dorothy “Baby wants to fuck”.

Mrs. T: And then Dorothy tells him “Mommy loves you”.

Mr. FFF: We may have a classic here, a repressed Oedipal complex that in the way becomes twisted and blends with a delirious impulse to return to “Mommy” for his own safety, to protect her, to make sure she is only his. To confine the real world to the world of the boy and “mommy”.

Mr. FFF: The protagonists’ sexuality is rather extravagant to put it mildly.

MM: We could have a case of perverse sexuality.

Mrs. T: How would define perversion?

MM: (reading from a dictionary) Sexual perversions are conditions in which sexual excitement or orgasm is associated with acts or imagery that are considered unusual within the culture. To avoid problems associated with the stigmatization of labels, the neutral term paraphilia, derived from Greek roots meaning “alongside of” and “love,” is used to describe what used to be called sexual perversions. A paraphilia is a condition in which a person’s sexual arousal and gratification depend on a fantasy theme of an unusual situation or object that becomes the principal focus of sexual behavior.

Mrs T: We have quite a lot of paraphilias in “Blue Velvet”, and Dorothy is only one of the actors in them. Lets start with Jeffrey, who is a voyeur. He is in a closet in Dorothy’s bedroom, watching Dorothy taking off her clothes and wig.

MM: Jeffrey initially pretends he is a voyeur, but as the story unfolds he appears to one, but a voyeur who seeks gratification not only from sex, but from danger as well.

Mr. FFF: Another case of paraphilia is Dorothy’s sexual sadism. When she gets a chance, she cuts Jeffrey with a knife.

Mrs. T: We also have sexual masochism. When Jeffrey hits Dorothy and then apologizes, she proclaims that she actually liked it.

Dorothy Vallens: Hit me! (pause) Hit me! Hit me!

MM: Fetishism is also present. Blue velvet is a fetish.

Mr. FFF: And the blue it is not any kind of it. It is Yves Klein blue! Or this is what I see in it.

Frank Booth:  (addresses Dorothy) Baby wants to fuck. Get ready to fuck. You fucker’s fucker. You fucker. Don’t you fuckin’ look at me!…Baby wants blue velvet…Don’t fuckin’ look at me. Don’t fuckin’ look at me. Don’t you look at me. Daddy’s coming. Daddy’s coming home. Don’t you fuckin’ look at me. Daddy’s coming home…Don’t you fuckin’ look at me. [blows out the candle] Now it’s dark.

Mr. FFF:  “Don’t you fuckin’ look at me.” The power of seeing without being seen.

Frank Booth:  Stay alive baby. Do it for Van Gogh.

Dennis Hopper: I am Frank! Thats what I said to David (Lynch) to get the part.

Isabella Rossellini: Most people have strange thoughts, but they rationalize them. David (Lynch) doesn’t translate his images logically, so they remain raw, emotional. Whenever I ask him where his ideas come from, he says it’s like fishing. He never knows what he’s going to catch.”

Mr. FFF: I saw Isabella Rossellini perform live in the Epidavros open theater in September 2001. She was Persephone, but in my eyes she was Dorothy. Blue Velvet in Epidavros. This was my dream during and after the performance. A dream as good as real.

Ben: To your health

Frank Booth: Ah, shit, let’s drink to something else. Let’s drink to fucking. Yeah, say, “Here’s to your fuck, Frank.”

Frank Booth: Mommy. Mommy. Mommy. Mommy.

Dorothy Vallens: Mommy loves you.

Arthur Schopenhauer: All life is suffering, and suffering is caused by desire. The only way to escape suffering is to escape desire alltogether.

Frank Booth: Goddamn you’re one suave fucker!

Dorothy Vallens: I am not crazy. I know the difference between right and wrong.

Frank Booth: All right. Let’s hit the fuckin’ road, we’re givin’ our neighbor a joy ride. Let’s get on with it. Bye, Ben. Anyone, uh, want to go on a joy ride with us. [to Dorothy] How about you? Huh? Hey, no smile for Frank? No? OK. Fuck it. Let’s go. Now it’s dark. [shouting] Let’s FUCK!I’ll fuck anything that moves!

Mr. FFF: Jeffrey has no fear of Frank whatsoever because Jeffrey is like Frank. As we see the film, we see Jeffrey being metamorphosed from a benign college student to Frank’s double. Frank is Jeffrey’s evil double. This is like a journey of discovery for Jeffrey.

Frank Booth: [to Jeffrey] Don’t be a good neighbor to her. I’ll send you a love letter straight from my heart, fucker. Do you know what a love letter is? It’s a bullet from a fuckin’ gun, fucker. If you receive a love letter from me, you are fucked forever. Do you understand, fuck? I’ll send ya straight to Hell, fucker!

Jeffrey: I did not mean to hit you. I am sorry.

Dorothy: Don’t be sorry, do it again! I loved it!

David Lynch: I equate openness and truthfulness with a recognition and acceptance of inner drives and passions. The pretence of inherent goodness is equated with lying and self-deception.

Blue Velvet, Boby Vinton

She wore blue velvet
Bluer than velvet was the night
Softer than satin was the light
From the stars
She wore blue velvet
Bluer than velvet were her eyes
Warmer than May her tender sighs
Love was ours
Ours a love I held tightly
Feeling the rapture grow
Like a flame burning brightly
But when she left, gone was the glow of
Blue velvet
But in my heart there’ll always be
Precious and warm, a memory
Through the years
And I still can see blue velvet
Through my tears

Participants

Jeffrey Beaumont, a college student

Ben, an associate of Frank’s, not exactly a nice guy

Frank Booth, the film’s protagonist, a pervert and sociopath of sorts

Dorothy Vallens, a night club singer

Mr. FFF, wanderer

Dennis Hopper, American actor

MM, partner

Roy Orbison, American singer

Isabella Rossellini, actress

Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher

Mrs. T, gourmant

Sandy Williams. Police Detective John Williams’ daughter, a high school student