To help make the wait for the new Twin Peaks ever so slightly easier, David Lynch‘s fourth feature will be returning to theaters in advance of its 30th anniversary. Blue Velvet, released on September 19th, 1986, is one of the director’s most evocative and emotionally charged films, following Kyle MacLachlan’s character as he burrows down a rabbit hole of darkness.
Today brings a new trailer and poster to highlight the anniversary release, which will first arrive at Film Forum for a week-long run, starting on March 25, before expanding elsewhere in the United States and hitting the U.K. this fall. If you have yet to see one of Lynch’s best films — also starring Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper and Laura Dern — or even if you name it as one of your favorites, be sure to seek it out if it’s playing near you. Check out the trailer and poster below, and, for more, here’s 50 minutes of deleted scenes.
A new 30th anniversary restoration of David Lynch’s Blue Velvet (1986), starring Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, and Dennis Hopper, will run at Film Forum from Friday, March 25 through Thursday, March 31 (one week).
“Heineken?! F**k that sh**t! Pabst Blue Ribbon!” Aaah! An azure sky; glistening red tulips along a white picket fence; a stalwart fireman, his Dalmatian beside him, waves from a fire truck moving in slo-mo; a crossing guard directs school kids; a woman sips tea in front of the TV while her husband waters their manicured lawn – all in gorgeous color & Scope, accompanied by the oh-so-soothing voice of Bobby Vinton singing the title tune. But wait. Now the hose is caught – is the man having a stroke?! And why are we power-diving into the earth and seeing those disgusting bugs, in ultra-close-up?!
Oh, wait a minute, this is a David Lynch film. So, here’s a tip for all-American square Kyle MacLachlan: Don’t check out the rotting, ant-infested severed ear in the grass. And, even though you’ve got this thing for mysterious “Blue Lady” Isabella Rossellini, Don’t hide in her bedroom closet in hopes of sneaking a peak. Lynch’s depiction of idyllic “Lumberton, U.S.A.” shows its dark underside of sexual violence, kidnapping, and murder, and, in Dennis Hopper’s amyl-nitrite-snorting Frank Booth, one of the most dangerous, repellent, and magnetic psychopaths ever to haunt the screen.
Controversial from its premiere, Velvet polarized critics like no other movie, with a thumbs-downing from normal champion of the offbeat Roger Ebert, but with Boston, L.A., and National Film Critics awarding it, the Academy nominating Lynch for Best Director, and an anointing by Pauline Kael, who hailed its “charged erotic atmosphere” and “aural-visual humor and poetry.”
Blue Velvet will start screening at Film Forum on March 25. Further expansions details to come.