" This gives an illusion to the audience that they will be looking in on a private world, a world hidden beneath a false exterior. By distorting such recognized images of "normality," Lynch prepares his audience to look into his disturbing characters. Dorothy's world of Frank and his underworld criminals is the secret world beneath the ideal Lumberton. The magnification of the opening shots highlight the surreality of Lynch's Lumberton and also suggest the "emotional trajectory" of Blue Velvet. The audience experiences a descent into a secret and dark place, the unconscious of the human mind. As we follow Jeffrey's discovery of his dark side we are forced to "look" beyond the surface. .
Gendered and active spectatorship produce narrative identifications such as the male "gaze" within Blue Velvet. Mulvey believes "pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female." Thus the scopophilic contact with the female form displayed for the spectator's pleasure produces the active and powerful look of the male. This is created through the three different "looks" defined by Mulvey which are the camera, the audience and the intra-diegetic look of the male characters. In popular cinema, point of view shots and shot/reverse shot editing techniques are used to achieve the effect of seeing the female characters as objects of desire through the eyes of the male characters. In Blue Velvet the gaze is mediated and controlled by Jeffrey who allows the audience his viewing pleasure. Jeffrey controls the film fantasy as the bearer of the look which controls the representation of woman as spectacle. This placing of the female form as the passive recipient of male desire and sexual actions is highlighted by the two central female characters in Blue Velvet.
Whilst representing opposite ideals in Jeffrey's eyes, both Dorothy and Sandy embody the objectified and passive woman in the film.
According to Mulvey: "In a world of sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its phantasy on the female figure which is styled accordingly". Do you agree? Discuss in relation to films from the unit with attention ...
The rooms were colors of blue, purple green, orange, white, violet, and black. ... Blue, with its vivid windows; purple, with its ornaments and tapestries that made your pane feel purple; and green, that even had green casements. "The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls, falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of the same material and hue." The panes of the black velvet room were of a deep blood red color. ...
As the film starts, we see the opening of the red velvet curtains, which indicate the style that we can expect during the film. ... As characters practice their last minute preparation before entering a competition, the blue Danube waltz is played, this is an effective piece of music to open the film. ... The Blue Danube' has become a cliché as people unfamiliar with classical music recognise this tune and associated it with dancing, and it is therefore very appropriate for the clicked, rule-governed world of ballroom dancing. The glamour presented through colourful rich costumes ...
Eugene Delacroix's work entitled "Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi" is one of much drama and emotion. The composition is an oil painting on canvas. Delacroix shows the viewer a scene of a woman standing on a rocky cliff above water. An arm of a dead man is protruding from underneath the rocks, a...
The rooms went in the order of blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet, and finally black and scarlet. ... The seventh room was constructed of black velvet with blood red window panes. ... The black velvet interior provided a sense of fluidity toward death, while the blood colored window assumed that nothing was to be seen save death itself. ...
The setting of the writing is in the yellow train and the girls are sitting on the blue seats. ... When I was reading it, it really made me feel that I am sitting on those blue seats appreciating the breath taking scenery and having my hopes high. ... The use of words are colourful and expressive: "I rode in a train with blue seats, bright bright blue, and there was this factory chimney smoking white against the sky and the sky was grey like velvet." ...
Whenever I glanced at the night sky suspended by the waters, I would look at my own reflection and try to find just a trace of a diamond in my heart - a diamond that signified just one thing, love Much as I do remember about my quiet and peaceful moments watching the stars glisten and flicker across the velvet curtains of the night, I have never been able to recall what happened after the night's gazing. ... I was merely clad in my baby blue nightgown and soft white robe, which was tightly wound against my waist to keep me remotely warm. ... So I called out to my lonely star that gle...
Whenever I glanced at the night sky suspended by the waters, I would look at my own reflection and try to find just a trace of a diamond in my heart - a diamond that signified just one thing, love Much as I do remember about my quiet and peaceful moments watching the stars glisten and flicker across the velvet curtains of the night, I have never been able to recall what happened after the night's gazing. ... I was merely clad in my baby blue nightgown and soft white robe, which was tightly wound against my waist to keep me remotely warm. ... So I called out to my lonely star that gle...
