Blue Velvet by David Lynch is full of scenes which make the viewer feel uncomfortable and even disoriented. The film can be regarded as “the interpretation of the benign surface and malignant depth of an over-controlling rationality” (Nochimson 101). One of the scenes which disorient is the one in the car.
The director uses a very closed space, a car, as a mise-an-scene. Even when the men get out of the car, the space is still closed as Jeffrey is in a tight circle of men holding him (Lynch). This kind of mise-en-scene makes people uncomfortable as people need space. People empathize Jeffrey and want him to be saved and let go.
Notably, the light also contributes greatly to the creation of a closed atmosphere. Darkness surrounds the characters. There are only two spots of light: the lighted car and the lighted faces of the main characters. Frank uses torch to light up his face which is distorted with anger and some kind of madness.
Lynch also enhances the atmosphere of a closed space by placing the characters in a special place. Thus, Jeffrey, Frank and Dorothy are in the closed space with Frank’s henchmen and the girl dancing on the roof of the car around them. The dancing girl and the henchmen are indifferent about the events in the circle.
The girl (as well as the henchmen) is absolutely drunk. They are in their own reality. At the same time, the three people in the circle are involved in a really ‘heavy’ scene. Lynch makes people feel uncomfortable as the viewer is anticipating a horrible murder which is postponed by a strange play Frank is playing.
Finally, Frank’s madness is another tool which creates the closed atmosphere, which, in its turn, makes the viewer feel uncomfortable and disoriented. The viewer is ‘enclosed’ in Frank’s reality which is quite unperceivable. It is difficult or rather impossible to understand what is going on, but Lynch does not explain anything as he simply makes a movie “the way he felt was right” (Atkinson 11). Notably, reality is not clearer than Lynch’s depiction.
Works Cited
Atkinson, Michael. Blue Velvet. London: British Film Institute, 1997. Print.
Lynch, David, dir. Blue Velvet. De Laurentiis and Entertainment Group, 1986. Film.
Nochimson, Martha. The Passion of David Lynch: Wild at Heart in Hollywood. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1997. Print.