Blue Violet Movie Questions
Question#1. Write a two-paragraph response in which you discuss what Jeffrey Beaumont means when he tells Sandy at Arlene’s:
“I’m seeing something that was always hidden. I’m in the middle of a mystery and it’s all secret.” You may go off on your own tangent, or you may build off of another student’s post. Try to think about the movie as a whole and about what Director David Lynch might be saying about small-town America, with its white picket fences and clean-cut self-image.
Question#2. Read the scene from Blue Velvet (below) in its entirety. A 2 paragraph response that discusses any Freudian implications the scene may reveal.
DOROTHY
Hello, baby.
FRANK
(annoyed, condescending)
Shut up. It’s daddy. shithead.
DOROTHY
Hello, daddy.
FRANK
(can’t-you-remember-anything-attitude). my bourbon.
Dorothy goes into the kitchen to get Frank his drink. As she passes the closet, Jeffrey can see the fear in her face.
She returns with a small glass of bourbon and hands it to Frank. Frank
sips on it.
FRANK
. sit down. get your chair.
Dorothy brings a small chair over from the wall and sits down. She
adjusts her robe.
FRANK
(studying her)
. spread your legs.
Dorothy slowly spreads her legs. She can see Jeffrey staring out of the
darkness of the closet at her.
FRANK
wider.
She opens her legs wider. Frank looks at her crotch and drinks his bourbon. He stares at the floor for a moment, then slowly looks back at
Dorothy, her body – her crotch.
Dorothy looks up at the ceiling, waiting. Frank suddenly reaches to his
belt, where he has a small canister and a mask. He opens a valve on the
canister and places the mask over his nose and mouth. The canister is
filled with helium, which makes Frank’s voice very high and strange
sounding. The result is frightening.
FRANK
(high voice)
. mommy.
Dorothy jumps. She keeps looking at the ceiling.
FRANK
(continuing, with high voice)
. MOMMY!.
DOROTHY
(frightened)
. mommy’s here.
FRANK
(high voice)
Baby wants to fuck.
Then, Frank’s voice goes to normal.
FRANK
(normal voice, but loud – like
an army order to himself)
GET READY TO FUCK!
Frank goes to Dorothy and kneels down in front of her. He takes one more gasp of helium.
FRANK
(high voice)
Baby wants blue velvet.
Dorothy opens her robe and gives a part of the robe to Frank.
DOROTHY
(whispering)
Okay.
Frank slowly moves
Frank slowly moves his mouth to the robe and runs his lips along the texture of the velvet. His hands rub the velvet and feel Dorothy’s body underneath. His hands start feeling her breasts as he sucks and bites the velvet robe.
Dorothy is very frightened but she is getting hot in spite of her fear.
Then Frank, in a sort of sickening way, pulls Dorothy down to rug. He warns her.
FRANK
Don’t look at me!
He begins stuffing part of the robe into her mouth. Then, he pushes her
arms back and she keeps them back, letting Frank have his way. Frank
sucks and bites the velvet coming out of her mouth, while he pinches and
feels her breasts in a strange, compulsive, timidly sickening way.
Dorothy is moaning. Frank is breathing very heavily. He feels her crotch.
FRANK
Don’t look at me!!!
(heavy breathing)
Daddy’s home.
He starts stuffing the robe in his mouth now and he gets on top of Dorothy.
He starts humping her and pulling her nude body up and down him. Faster
and faster, then he has a climax in his pants. Dorothy’s head is falling
back. She can see Jeffrey blurred in the distance – in the closet.
Cautiously, she looks sideways at Frank.
FRANK
(screaming)
Don’t look at me!!!
He slugs her in the face. His nose is running and he’s stifling sobs from
deep within him. On his hands and knees, he moves away. The robe pulls
out of his mouth. His breathing is even heavier now. He stands and
begins to move around the apartment. He goes to a wall, turns off the
lights, then turns and walks into the bathroom, all the while breathing
big, heavy breaths, trying to stop the crying. Dorothy moans softly.
It gets very quiet and still for a moment. Then, Jeffrey hears Frank
with his high helium voice talking to himself in the bathroom. The high,
strange sound reverberates in the distance. Jeffrey can’t make it out –
soon, he hears Frank’s high laughing. Frank comes back into the living
room. The mask is around his face. All his breathing – every sound is
high . He laughs a little and crosses the darkened room to the door.
FRANK
Stay alive baby. See you next Christmas!
Frank leaves and shuts the door. The apartment is silent except for
Dorothy’s moans.
Question#3. Read this scene from Blue Velvet (below) in its entirety. Write a two-paragraph response that discusses any Jungian implications the scene may reveal.
Jeffrey and Dorothy are making love in her bed in almost total darkness.
DOROTHY
(dreamily)
What do you want to do?
JEFFREY
I’m doing it.
DOROTHY
Are you a bad boy?
JEFFREY
Whatiya mean?
DOROTHY
Do you want to do bad things?
(very dreamy)
Anything. anything.
JEFFREY
(whispering hot)
What do you want?
DOROTHY
I want you to hurt me.
JEFFREY
No. I told you. I don’t want to hurt you.
I want to help you. I think I know some of what is happening to you.
(she doesn’t react). Dorothy? Frank has your husband and son.
Dorothy? Doesn’t he? You have to do something Dorothy. go to the police.
DOROTHY
No police!!!.
(pushing herself back against the headboard; then frantic)
No police!!
Suddenly, Dorothy gets very odd. She turns into a little girl. She has
a frightening little girl smile.
DOROTHY
You like to open me. don’t you?
JEFFREY
Yes.
DOROTHY
(thinking with a grin)
What if I told Frank that you opened me?
For just one quiet moment we see the stairway to Dorothy’s apartment.
It is empty. Then back to Jeffrey and Dorothy.
JEFFREY
That wouldn’t be too good, would it?
DOROTHY
Frank would open you.
JEFFREY
Okay. I know you’ve been scared. now you
want to scare someone.
DOROTHY
(smiles very strangely)
Does that scare you?
JEFFREY
Shut up.
DOROTHY
Beeeee careful.
JEFFREY
(scared and mad)
Come on Dorothy.
DOROTHY
What if Frank came over here and found us?
The curtains in the kitchen bellow out with an eerie gust of wind.
JEFFREY
Look, snap out of it, will ya?
DOROTHY
Kiss me.
They kiss.
DOROTHY
(continuing)
Do you love me?
JEFFREY
Do you love me?
DOROTHY
I asked first.
JEFFREY
Sometimes I think I do.
DOROTHY
And sometimes you think you don’t?! Well,
get away then!
She bolts up.
JEFFREY
Wait a minute. Wait. Whatiya want? For cryin’ out loud!
DOROTHY
Just get outta my bed.
She hits out at Jeffrey and strikes him in the face. Jeffrey struggles with her to keep her from hitting him again but she breaks loose and slams out at his face again. He pushes back hard and her head actually hits the wall. She smiles through the pain.
