[critical] Sailor And Lula

Sailor and Lula, two young lovers, fleeing from Marietta, the mother of the young girl who opposes their love, as well as a series of characters, dangerous and mysterious threat. Love will triumph there of the violence that surrounds them ?

Author’s Note

[rating:9/10]

• Release Date : 24 September 1990

• Directed by David Lynch

• Film american

• With Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern, Willem Dafoe

• Duration : 2h 07min

• Original title : Wild At Heart

• Trailer :

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Palme d’or at the Cannes film Festival in 1990, Sailor And Lula is probably a pivotal work in the career of David Lynch, maybe even the ” movie of the consecration “. Even as the cult series Twin Peaks arrived on the small screen, the filmmaker delivered a pure madness audiovisual, hardly classifiable. The feature is actually at the confluence of many genres and various influences : somewhere between the road trip crazy and the thriller well murky, synthesis of the horror film and the fairy tale, taking as much of the romance of the rose water that of burlesque or fantasy-inclined esoteric. In short, Sailor And Lula is unclassifiable : he embodies a concentrated blend of pure cinema, retrieving references, the better to reinvent and go beyond, requiring a unique personality, and typical of its author.

The story is clear and simple : Sailor and Lula are in love to mad love, but the mother, wicked step-mother of Lula did not hear from the eye and does not hesitate to throw the worst killers to pledge on their track to run Sailor and retrieve his daughter… But the treatment of this story is unique : fast and furious, the situations crazy, singular encounters, or characters completely switched on are the ingredients that are impressive with strength and rage as a film constantly simmering. We also admire the construction of a scenario that does not fade ever : at once complex and fluid, the latter foregrounds the ruptures of tone or bifurcations unlikely, make the story of Sailor And Lula dense and proliferative. Placed under the sign of the fire, the images lead us also to a sequence of fire founder, and revelator, which connects to ever all of the characters.

Mines patibulaires, airs grotesque and quasi-fantastic, the gallery of characters offered here by David Lynch is a pure marvel for moviegoers. Between a possessive mother completely crazy, murderers more perverse than ever or an amazing witch on her broom, Sailor and Lula try to cope as best as they can, trying above all not to lose this precious feeling which connects them they hope to ever : love. We will never forget the sensuality sometimes hysterical of the great Laura Dern (who will unfortunately never more such vertices) and the hair cut already worship of Nicolas Cage, advocating freedom with a jacket in snake skin hideous (but revealing his or her individuality) or singing ditties to the tunes of the King, his idol : “Love Me Tender “, be interpreted as standing on a car hood, still resounds in our memories (and hearts) of all those who have seen this amazing sequence. Wild At Heart, as the words of the original title.

But the film would probably be nothing without the genius of the mise en scene of David Lynch, who imposes with Sailor And Lula in a unique style, often imitated and never equaled. Abuse of filters to produce special effects between pure terror and kitsch, candy pink, soundtrack extraordinary, but playing on a discontinuity staggering and sequences truly amazing, sets to die for the camera : in short, a taste standing for a singularity without flaw. A kind of disturbing strangeness is very poetic, in fact. The american filmmaker always imposes his vision and passion and his audience from one end to the other of his feature-length film : this is what is called the style.