Editing and Blue Velvet - Essay Example

The premise of the film is that horror fits into the niche of film noir. Acceding to Dancynger film noir “highlights the world of the nightmare, it tends to rely less on movement and pace.’ (Technique of Film and Video Editing (p 175) I chose to use the word intellectual as part of the theme because film noir has an abstract side to it which encompasses my intellectual basis regarding the film. and considering the theme to be one of intellectual horror. The foundation of the movie revolves around the dark side of human nature, which combines both horror and intellect. To be more specific regarding the film and its theme if the theme is an intellectual horror which theme certainly includes the dark side of human nature and that is the main reason I have identified the theme of Blue Velvet to be an intellectual horror. The thematic montage is one of angst and the dark side of human nature that it stems from. The recurring image of the home is Lynch’s way of introducing the theme each time the image of the home appears.  Many objects are discovered out of sequence during the film.  Here is a list of images Used by Lynch to emphasize the theme. These images are presented in a dreamy fashion however when considering the intellectual horror aspect of the film and its theme it becomes apparent that the horror lies in every day, the mundane, and when this is disrupted, for example by the discovery of a severed ear, the mundane can become compels and horrible, thus the theme I have arrived at.

2. Here is a list of the shots that compose the and how they are displayed. The images in Lynch’s direction and how they are presented lend credence to my premise for the theme of the film. These images are presented in a dreamy like fashion in the opening montage. 
3. Tilt down from the perfectly blue sky to red roses in

               Medium close-up against a white fence.  DISSOLVE to

2. Long shot: fire truck passing by slowly on the tree-

               shaded small-town street, with a fireman on it

               waving in slow motion.  DISSOLVE to

3.    Yellow tulips against the white fence, close-up as at

               the end of shot 1.  DISSOLVE to

4. Long shot, small-town residential street: traffic

               guard beckoning for schoolchildren to cross, again

               in slow motion.  DISSOLVE to

5. Long shot: white Cape Cod house and yard.  CUT to
6. Medium shot: Middle-aged man with hose, watering

               yard.  CUT to

7. Long shot, interior: Middle-aged woman inside,

               sitting with a cup of coffee on the couch, watching tv,

               which displays a black-and-white shot of a man

               crossing screen, gun in hand, and from which

               issues sinister noirish music.  CUT to

8. Close-up of a hand holding a gun on the TV screen.  CUT to
9. Man with the hose, as in shot 6, but now off-center at

               screen left.  (Dancynger p 175)

     In conclusion, it can be said that the theme is one of horror, the horror of the normal, and the everyday. Lynch presents his images out of sequence, displaying to the audience that when things are out of sequence is when they are experienced as horrible.