Review on Blue Velvet

Review on Blue Velvet

Blue Velvet

This film resembles an uncanny appearance to that of a Trojan horse, its sweet and nice on top with a friendly neighborhood and tidy gardens, but delve deeper and beyond this and you will find horrors and disturbing scenes of sexual behavior that is incredibly evil and hard to watch. Roger Ebert expresses this in a review on Chicago Sun-Times. 'The movie has two levels of reality. On one level, we're in Lumberton, a simple-minded small town where people talk in television cliches and seem to be clones of 1950s sitcom characters. On another level, we're told a story of sexual bondage, of how Isabella Rossellini's husband and son have been kidnapped by Dennis Hopper, who makes her his sexual slave. The twist is that the kidnapping taps into the woman's deepest feelings: She finds that she is a masochist who responds with great sexual passion to this situation.' (Chicago Sun-Times, 1986) After finding a human ear in an abandoned plot, Kyle MacLachlan chooses to pursue investigating, even despite the warning from the police. There are feelings of tension when he is deciding to go into Rossellini's apartment, even when he is hiding in the cupboard there is a sense of suspense. More so when you see what happens next and despite MacLachlan choosing to pursue his investigation further you feel the essence of danger increasing and wonder what he is getting himself into. This fear is mentioned in a review on Time Out London. 'The seamless blending of beauty and horror is remarkable - although many will be profoundly disturbed by Lynch's vision of male-female relationships, centered as it is on Dorothy's psychopathic hunger for violence - the terror very real, and the sheer wealth of imagination virtually unequaled in recent cinema.' (Time Out London, 1986)

 Kyle Finds a Human Ear

There are at some times in this film that are similar to Eraserhead, such as a strange zoomed up view of the insects in the lawn and a scene near the end where a man is just standing there in Rossellini's apartment with a gun shot wound to his head with what appeared to be brain matter coming out. This film shows the strangeness and disturbing scenes coming from director, David Lynch as mentioned in a review on Variety. 'Blue Velvet finds David Lynch back on familiar, strange, territory. Picture takes a disturbing and at times devastating look at the ugly underside of Middle American life. The modest proportions of the film are just right for the writer-director's desire to investigate the inexplicable demons that drive people to deviate from expected norms of behavior and thought.' (Variety, 1985)

           

Kyle MacLachlan & Isabella Rossellini

List Of Illustrations


Figure 1, Lynch, David. (1986) Blue Velvet. [Poster] http://digitalpolyphony.webs.com/trippyandweirdmovies.htm (Accessed on: 18.01.11)


Figure 2. Lynch, David. (1986) Kyle Finds a Human Ear. [Screen Cap] http://hannahpoturalski.wordpress.com/2010/02/09/blue-velvet/ (Accessed on: 18.01.11)


Figure 3. Lynch, David. (1986) Kyle MacLachlan & Isabella Rossellini. [Screen Cap] http://www.askmen.com/entertainment/movie/blue-velvet.html (Accessed on: 18.01.11)

Bibliography

Ebert, Roger. (1986) Blue Velvet. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19860919/REVIEWS/609190301 (Accessed on: 18.01.11)

Time Out London. (1986) Blue Velvet. http://www.timeout.com/film/reviews/68161/blue_velvet.html (Accessed on: 18.01.11)

Variety. (1985) Blue Velvet. http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117789411?refcatid=31 (Accessed on: 18.01.11)

           
       

Review on The Shining

Review on The Shining

 The Shining

The ambiance in this film captures the horror theme well, such as some parts where there are wide open spaces inside the empty hotel filled with silence where you would expect a loud party to be going on. The large patterns on the carpet also make the rooms appear to be wider than they actually are and give the impression that the ceilings are lower. The silence of the hotel also gives the sense of suspense, like a quiet before a storm, tension building up and ready to snap at any moment. Its so quiet that small sounds, such as the typing on the type writer and the child peddling his tricycle appear to be magnified intensively. Ian Nathan mentions this in a review on Empire. 'The result is gloriously precision-made. The use of sound especially (listen to the remarkable rhythm of silence then clatter set up by Danny pedaling his trike intermittently over carpet then wooden floor.) And that's not forgetting the procession of captivating images: a lift opening to spill gallons of blood in slow motion; a beautiful girl transformed into an old hag in Jack's arms; and, as a million posters now attest, Jack's leering face through the gaping axe wound in the door.' (Empire, 2010) With its strange images shown such as the blood mentioned coming out the lift and people or ghosts appearing in parts of the hotel, as well as scenes of the murdered children which only Danny can see, makes one wonder if the hotel is possessed by some form of evil or the isolation is making the family see things as Roger Ebert explains in a review on Chicago Sun-Times. 'It is possible to understand some of the scenes of hallucination. When Jack thinks he is seeing other people, there is always a mirror present; he may be talking with himself. When Danny sees the little girls and the rivers of blood, he may be channeling the past tragedy. When Wendy thinks her husband has gone mad, she may be correct, even though her perception of what happens may be skewed by psychic input from her son, who was deeply scarred by his father's brutality a few years earlier.' (Chicago Sun-Times, 2006)

 Blood Emerging from The Lift

The real fear does not come from the ghosts and strange happenings, but comes from within the family itself as mention by Film4. 'Unlike horror films which identify the terror externally - as a monster or pursuing entity - The Shining locates the horror firmly within the family. The threat of violence within the domestic space is somehow even scarier than the Grand Guignol of the ghosts in the ballroom and blood in the bath.' (Film4, 1980) This theme of someone killing their own family is far more disturbing than ghosts and monsters as this is not restricted to film.

 Psychotic Jack

List of Illustrations

Figure 1. Stanley Kubrick. (1980) The Shining [Screen Cap] At: http://www.movieposterdb.com/poster/4da87ba7 (Accessed on: 18.01.11)

Figure 2. Stanley Kubrick. (1980) Blood Emerging from The Lift [Screen Cap] At: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/dvdcompare/shining.htm (Accessed on: 18.01.11)

Figure 3. Stanley Kubrick. (1980) Psychotic Jack [Screen Cap] At: http://www.weirdwildrealm.com/f-shining.html (Accessed on: 18.01.11)

Bibliography

Ebert, Roger. (2006) The Shining (1980). http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060618/REVIEWS08/606180302 (Accessed on: 18.01.11)

Film4. (1980) The Shining. http://www.film4.com/reviews/1980/the-shining (Accessed on: 18.01.11)

Nathan, Ian. (2010) Empire Essay: The Shining. http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=132700 (Accessed on: 18.01.11)

Texture Tiles

Texture Tiles
  

Experimenting with textures and making them into tiles.

Grit Tiles & Their Alternate Colours

 

1 Tile

4 Tiles

Volcanic

 1 Tile

 4 Tiles

Chalky

 1 Tile
 

 4 Tiles

Sand Tiles & Their Alternate Colours

 1 Tile

4 Tiles

White

1 Tile

4 Tiles

Australian

1 Tile

4 Tiles

Metal Tiles & Their Alternate Colours

1 Tile

4 Tiles

Strange

1 Tile

4 Tiles

Brown Painted

1 Tile

4 Tiles

Flaked Metal & Their Alternate Colours

 

 1 Tile

4 Tiles

Green Painted

1 Tile

4 Tiles

Flaking Paint

1 Tile

4 Tiles

Thumbnails 44 - 52

Thumbnails 44 - 52

I added a milk float in the background half behind a bush. I think its an unusual vehicle to be at a fuel station.  

Environment Research

Environment Research

I have chosen to have my scene located in Australia due to its vast open spaces and stories of people disappearing in the outback without a trace as quoted from Missingpersons.org 'It is hard to believe that in a well-developed and populated country like Australia about 35,000 people go missing every year . Among them, about 10000 go missing in New South Wales alone . In fact, in Australia the rate of missing persons is as high, or higher, than that of road traffic accident deaths, non-fatal road traffic accidents requiring hospitalization, and suicide.' (Putt, 2008) 

 Australian Outback Roads and Fuel Garages

Australian Fuel Pumps

The trucks used on the roads in Australia called road trains are a lot longer than those used any where else, hauling over three trailers and over 53 meters long.

Pirate's Cove

Pirate's Cove Treasure

Coins Design Close up

Review on Eraserhead

Review on Eraserhead 1976

Eraserhead

A very strange and unusual film with plenty of weird happenings, for example the part where Henry sits down with his girlfriend at her house with her mother for a chat, or uncomfortable empty conversation. The three of them just sit there in an awkward moment saying very little. Its almost as if its one of those moments where you are meeting the parents of your lover and you expect the worse to happen. Which in this situation it does, except it gets even weirder when Henry's girlfriend just freaks out time to time while at her house, crying and hiding in another room. The mother is just as unexplainable having some kind of fit at the diner table over a roast chicken moving its legs and oozing fluid. A 1977 review on Film4 explains. 'The film shifts the 'action' to an imposing industrial landscape through which Henry walks, tiny and alienated, on his way back to a dingy, cell-like apartment. The beautiful girl living next door (Roberts) informs Henry that Mary X (Stewart), his ex, has invited him to dinner at her parents' house. There, a grotesque meal of painfully awkward conversation, perverse psychosexual tension and animated 'manmade' chicken is interrupted by news from Mrs X (Bates) that Henry is father to Mary's premature baby.' (Film4, 1977) 

 Diner Scene

The film seems to revolve around their baby, if thats what you call it. A small deformed helpless creature wrapped up in bandages with its head poking through. There has always been a fear surrounding deformed babies. The thought of giving birth to an unhealthy and crippled child and its torture it must go through in life is painful for the parents to bare. Even though the baby in this film is very un-human like in appearance, the couple still accept it as their baby no questions asked. Until its annoying cries in the night drive the mother to leave the apartment and the baby to Henry's responsibility. A 2001 review by Almar Haflidason on BBC go into detail on this. 'So, Henry shacks up with the miserable wretch responsible for their truly repulsive pug of a baby. This slimy bleating trog soon starts to drive Henry's partner up the wall to the extent that she leaves him and her newborn. Poor old Henry is stuck with this nightmarish creature in a single room, with only a singing radiator for added company.' (Haflidason, 2001) Henry being left with this baby tries to look after it especially when it gets sick, but in the end he cuts of the bandages to reveal that he has just cut open the creature. He stabs at it to try and kill it only to see it go wild and elongate its neck and haunt him. Why did he want to kill it? Was it because he was ashamed to have this deformed baby or was he afraid of it and thats why it went mad at the end, the answer is unclear. This whole film gave the feeling of living in a post apocalyptic world where nuclear radiation leaks have flooded everywhere causing the inhabitants to act strange and give birth to highly deformed offspring. A review by Donald Levit on Real Talk movie reviews mentions this. 'Fans and favorable commentators find in this a howling black critique of the deracinated nuclear family and parental hatred spawned by a dehumanized industrial society.' (Levit, 2010)

The Baby

Illustrations

Figure 1. Lynch, David. (1976) Eraserhead [Screen Cap] At: http://www.impawards.com/1977/eraserhead.html (Accessed on: 20.12.10)
Figure 2. Lynch, David. (1976) Diner Scene [Screen Cap] At: http://c2o-library.net/2010/05/eraserhead/?lang=en (Accessed on: 20.12.10)
Figure 3. Lynch, David. (1976) The Baby [Screen Cap] At: http://www.genjipress.com/2009/06/eraserhead.html (Accessed on: 20.12.10)

Bibliography

Film4. (1977) Eraserhead. http://www.film4.com/reviews/1977/eraserhead (Accessed on: 20.12.10)
Haflidason, Almar. (2001) Eraserhead (1977). http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2001/01/16/eraserhead_1977_review.shtml (Accessed on: 20.12.10)
Levit, Donald. (2010) The Head Horror Picture Show. http://www.reeltalkreviews.com/browse/viewitem.asp?type=review&id=2019 (Accessed on: 20.12.10)