Blue Velvet Revisited
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Blue Velvet Revisited'' is a 2016
documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
directed and edited by Peter Braatz. Using a montage technique, it documents the making of
David Lynch David Keith Lynch (January 20, 1946 – January 16, 2025) was an American filmmaker, visual artist, musician, and actor. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Lynch was often called a "visionary" and received acclaim f ...
's critically acclaimed film, '' Blue Velvet'', using a combination of filmed footage, photographs and interviews captured on set by Braatz, with an accompanying soundtrack by Cult With No Name,
Tuxedomoon Tuxedomoon is an experimental, post-punk, new wave band from San Francisco, California, United States. The band formed in the late 1970s at the beginning of the punk rock movement. Pulling influence from punk and electronic music, the group, ori ...
and
John Foxx John Foxx (born Dennis Leigh; 26 September 1948) is an English singer, musician, artist, photographer, graphic designer, writer, teacher and lecturer. He was the original lead singer of the New wave music, new wave band Ultravox, before leaving ...
.


Background and production

Peter Braatz had worked as a musician fronting the German avant-garde punk band S.Y.P.H. before moving to Berlin in the early eighties to study film. He first contacted Lynch in 1983, sending a critique of Lynch's ''The Elephant Man'' with a proposal to interview him to
Mel Brooks Melvin James Brooks (né Kaminsky; born June 28, 1926) is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker, and songwriter. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodie ...
, who had produced the film. Lynch wrote back several months later, and they exchanged letters over the following two years. In 1985, out of the blue, Lynch invited Braatz to document the making of his new film in Wilmington, North Carolina, which became ''Blue Velvet''. Braatz travelled with a friend and stayed on set for three months, taking only
Super 8 Super 8 or Super Eight may refer to: Film * Super 8 film, a motion picture film format released in 1965 * Super 8 film camera, a motion picture camera used to film Super 8mm motion picture format * ''Super 8'' (2011 film), a science-fiction f ...
cameras and reels (due to cost and weight), a tape recorder and a camera. Lynch granted Braatz unrestricted access to the set, cast and crew, with only some restrictions placed on where Braatz could film
Isabella Rossellini Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini (; born 18 June 1952) is an Italian actress and model. The daughter of Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and Italian film director Roberto Rossellini, she is noted for her successful tenure as a Lancôme ...
as she was still under contract to Lancome. Braatz first released a film based on what he documented as ''No Frank in Lumberton'' in 1988. The film was avant-garde in its approach and had limited distribution through the German television station
ZDF ZDF (), short for (; ), is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. Launched on 1 April 1963, it is run as an independent nonprofit institution, and was founded by all federal states of Germany ( ...
and a handful of festivals. In 2013, Braatz was in his studio listening to the track "As Below" by British band Cult With No Name. He was inspired to revisit his footage and put together a proposal based on this piece of music for a new film using his archived Blue Velvet footage. The German Film Foundation and the Slovenian Bela-Film provided funding for the film. Before editing began, Braatz commissioned Cult With No Name to produce the soundtrack, as it was always his intention to edit to music as much of his material was silent, having been filmed using Super 8. Cult With No Name invited
Tuxedomoon Tuxedomoon is an experimental, post-punk, new wave band from San Francisco, California, United States. The band formed in the late 1970s at the beginning of the punk rock movement. Pulling influence from punk and electronic music, the group, ori ...
and
John Foxx John Foxx (born Dennis Leigh; 26 September 1948) is an English singer, musician, artist, photographer, graphic designer, writer, teacher and lecturer. He was the original lead singer of the New wave music, new wave band Ultravox, before leaving ...
to join them in producing the soundtrack, released on
Crammed Discs Crammed Discs is an independent record label whose output blends world music, rock, pop, and electronica. Based in Brussels, Belgium, Crammed was founded in 1980 by Marc Hollander of Aksak Maboul and has since released around 400 albums and 300 ...
in 2015 on vinyl and CD a year before the film. The soundtrack received significant press coverage and was met with highly positive reviews, ''with The Wire'' describing it as "... evocative, dreamy, dark and dynamic.." The CD included a booklet of previously unreleased photographs taken on set. "No News", the song that closes ''Blue Velvet Revisited'' and did not appear on the soundtrack, was subsequently released by the Cult With No Name on their ''Heir of the Dog'' album in 2017. Editing and production of the film took over a year in total. The film's Opening and chapter titles were provided by acclaimed graphic designer
Jonathan Barnbrook Jonathan Barnbrook (born 1966) is a British graphic designer, film maker and typographer. He trained at Saint Martin's School of Art and at the Royal College of Art, both in London. Work Barnbrook designed the cover artwork of David Bowie's ...
, most famous for his work with
David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...
. Braatz himself dubbed the film "a meditation on a movie", making an important distinction between his approach and a conventional documentary with narration.


Release

''Blue Velvet Revisited'' premiered at the
Institute of Contemporary Arts The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an modernism, artistic and cultural centre on The Mall (London), The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps a ...
as part of the
BFI London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival held in London, England, in collaboration with the British Film Institute. Founded in 1957, the festival runs for two weeks every October. In 2016, the BFI estimated that around 240 fe ...
on 7 October 2016. This coincided with the 30th anniversary of the release of the original film. The next day, at Lynch's request, the film received its US premiere at Lynch's Festival of Disruption. A Q+A with Laura Dern and Kyle MacLachlan followed the screening. Since then, the film has appeared in many notable festivals, galleries and cinemas worldwide, including CPH: DOX,
Doc NYC Doc NYC (stylized as DOC NYC) is an annual documentary film festival in New York City. Co-founded by Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen, the festival is the country's largest documentary film festival with over 300 films and events and 250 specia ...
, and
MALBA The Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires (, mostly known for its acronym MALBA) is an art museum located on Figueroa Alcorta Avenue, in the Palermo, Buenos Aires, Palermo section of Buenos Aires. History Created by Argentina, Argentine busin ...
. In February 2019,
The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of art film, arth ...
announced a deluxe reissue of ''Blue Velvet'' on DVD and Blu-ray with ''Blue Velvet Revisited'' included as an extra. In 2020, the track "Lumberton" from the soundtrack of ''Blue Velvet Revisited'', was licensed to be used in the
HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...
series ''
The New Pope ''The New Pope'' is a satirical drama television series created and directed by Paolo Sorrentino for Sky Atlantic, HBO and Canal+. It is a continuation of the 2016 series ''The Young Pope'', originally announced as its second season. The nine-ep ...
'', starring
Jude Law David Jude Heyworth Law (born 29 December 1972) is an English actor. He began his career in theatre before landing small roles in various British television productions and feature films. Law gained international recognition for his role in An ...
and
John Malkovich John Gavin Malkovich (born December 9, 1953) is an American actor. He is the recipient of several accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and ...
.


Reception

The film gained positive reviews. ''
The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' described the film as "... a quietly mesmerizing sensory experience, with a distinctive rhythm and look that makes it a stand-alone artwork rather than a mimetic mirror of its subject." Sam Gray of ''The Upcoming'' went further and commented, "With a terrific soundtrack and its insightful, rare footage, ''Blue Velvet Revisited'' is nirvana for Lynch nerds, though even those with a perfunctory interest in filmmaking could do with seeing this fascinating gem."


References


External links

*
Homepage for Cult With No Name
2016 films 2016 documentary films Documentary films about David Lynch Documentary films about films {{David Lynch