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‘Blue Velvet’ DVD examines sexuality By Christopher Kelly Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT) Sandy: “I don’t know if you’re a detective or a pervert.” Jeffrey: “Well, that’s for me to know and you to find out.” With those words, so begins one of the most spectacularly twisted sequences in American movie his tory. Jeffrey (Kyle MacLachlan) sub sequently sneaks into the apart ment of a lounge singer named Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rosselli ni). He watches from her closet as she acts out a bizarre rape fantasy with a gangster named Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper). Frank breathes an aphrodisiac gas from a mask that he carries with him. He calls Dorothy “Mommy” and tells her, “Baby wants blue velvet.” Dorothy re sponds by making him chew on the sash of her blue velvet robe. It only gets weirder, a few scenes later, when Jeffrey returns to Dorothy's apartment, and she starts begging him to hit her. You might want to make sure the kids are asleep before popping “Blue Velvet” into the DVD play er. Though, of course, the irony there is that director David Lynch’s subject is essentially the same one that fuels so many fami ly films, including both of this year’s biggest hits, “Spider-Man” and “Star Wars: Episode II — At tack of the Clones.” “Blue Velvet” is about the violent awakening of an adolescent male sexual id. If Lynch made a film infinitely more honest and compelling than either Sam Raimi’s or George Lucas’, it’s because he understands that you can’t render the journey from boy to man in PG-13 terms. “Blue Velvet” is back, 16 years af ter it first befuddled audiences, on a “special edition” DVD that reach es stores this week. But because Lynch — bless his soul — doesn’t believe in “director’s cuts” that add or subtract material to well-estab lished works, there is no new footage here. Still, this may be the best DVD re leased all year. Lynch did oversee a new digital transfer of the print. Ac cordingly, Frederick Elmes’ lush photography vibrantly pops off the television screen. (If you’ve seen only the muddy VHS transfer of the film, you’ll think you’re watching a completely different movie.) More to the point, this disc gives us a chance to revisit one of the two or three finest American films of the 1980s. And to realize that, amazing ly, it hasn’t dated in the least. Quite the contrary, its vision of a subur ban/underground culture that thrives — or perhaps the word is “co-depends” — on sexuality and violence, seems all the more rele vant and prescient in our era of Jon Benet Ramsey and Chandra Levy. “Blue Velvet” tells the story of handsome boy-next-door Jeffrey, home from college to care for his sick father; walking in a nearby field, the young man stumbles upon a severed human ear. Com pelled to learn more, he teams up with the angelic Sandy (Laura Dern), whose father is the police chief. Gradually, they are drawn into a horrible circle of crime and violence and weirdos — many singing pop standards (watch out for Dean Stockwell’s legendary cameo, as he lip-syncs Roy Orbi son’s “In Dreams.” Jeffrey eventual ly falls in love with Dorothy and finds that he, too, has sado masochistic sexual impulses. The greatness of the film — and the reason, I think, it did escape the ghetto of cult and has come to be rightly regarded as a modern classic — is that it so effortlessly weds satire and serious-minded ness. Lynch’s point is that, yes, you can indeed laugh at the ab surdity of small town, of a place in deep denial about its own muck. But that you also can’t deny what lurks below. That within all of us lies the impulse to do^vil, dirty things. And that we will do our best to push those tendencies be low the surface. Of course, the muck will always rise to the top — and that’s why “ Blue Velvet” is at once so funny and so scary. Lynch may be the only American artist who has envisioned the coming-of-age process in such stark, black comic terms. Indeed, the movie operates like a sick joke shared between two junior-high school boys in the locker room: It laughs at the idea of violent sexual fantasy, but at the same time it se cretly stands in fear of that fantasy. It asks us: What if sex is just as cor rupting, just as destructive, and just as compelling as we imagined it in our weirdest pubescent fantasies? The film’s genius, and its time lessness, lies in the fact that we never stop asking ourselves that question, no matter how old we get. © 2002, Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. y/e*/ pe.opfe. y/e*/ pib. y/e expe/feAte. Don't miss out. Work for your college paper. For more information on how to freelance for the Oregon Daily Emerald, call 346-5511. martial alps yi Grateful Dead |army camo |hair color pipes— 100s [skateboards — hcv, fstickers — 1Opv It-shirts jwallets . fbody jewelry [posters — I OOds’ [studded belts [martial arts hair coIqt pipe — IQ' pipes — 100s skateboards — hot ] ^'■ker s — 1000s |.-<thjrT$ tfjets 'jewelry .fc'^rs — 1000s’ kidded belts martial arts Grateful Dead backpacks LAZAR'S BAZAR 57 W. BROADWAY • 687-0189 www.Lazart.com 'Over $10. Excluding skateboards, snowboards, scales and tobacco products. Peter Utsey Emerald Pulse brief Cops hold R. Kelly on 21 child pornography charges CHICAGO — Grammy Award winning musician R. Kelly was ar rested at his home near Orlando, Fla., on Wednesday following the return of a 21-count indictment in Chicago charging the R&B artist with child pornography stemming from a tape in which he allegedly has sexual relations with a teenage girl in his former Chicago home. Kelly was arrested by police in Dav enport, Fla, as he was preparing to leave his house and rent a car to drive back to Chicago, authorities said. At a news conference Wednesday, Kelly’s attorney Edward Genson ex pressed outrage over Kelly’s arrest. He called the action “unconscionable” and said he had made arrangements for Kelly, 35, to surrender to authori ties in Chicago on Thursday. “I’ve represented congressmen, I’ve represented judges, I’ve repre sented people charged in all sorts of offenses, and I’ve never had an agree ment like this breached,” he said. Polk County, Fla., sheriffs police Sgt. Cassandra Kent said that Kelly would likely be held overnight in the county jail for a court appear ance tentatively scheduled for Thursday afternoon. Kelly issued a statement Wednes day maintaining his innocence. “Even though I don’t believe any of these charges are warranted, I’m grateful that I will have a chance to establish the truth about me in a court of law,” he said. “I have com plete faith in our system of justice, and I am confident that when all the facts come out, people will see that I’m no criminal.” © 2002, Chicago Tribune. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. 687-2805 20off All Bed Head Products All Breeze Products *io (through June 14'h) 'Best Stylists Around' For franchise C^tpvs * . ^ i"877m4pcuipieaseca" s & TANttmq 1609 E. 13th »(2 blocks from UP)« 434-3143 ♦ Hrs: M-F 9-8/Sat. 9-7 III PLRV IT AGOUTI m Buy, Trade, and Consign NEW AND USED Sports and Exercise Equipment • Skateboards • Snowboards • Fitness Equipment • Golf • Soccer Bicycles Roller Blades 1 2598 Willamette St. § Eugene, OR • 342-4041 M-F: 10-7, Sat: 9-6, Sun: 10-5 FREE Birth Control Supplies <& Services for women <& men. 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