![]() ![]() Sailor Ripley (Nicholas Cage), a murderer and ex-convict, and his lover Lula Pace Fortune (Laura Dern), drive across America and down to the crazy remote town of Big Tuna, Texas, pursued by Sailor’s parole officer, Lula’s obsessively controlling mother (Dianne Ladd, Dern’s real mother), and a variety of other authority figures threatening to obstruct their life together. ![]() Lula remarks to Sailor on a late night drive, ‘It’s just shocking sometimes… when things aren’t what you thought they were.’ Lynch wants to play with his audience, using seemingly bizarre imagery and symbolism, the recurring references to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Elvis Presley and the shocks of sporadic gore throughout the film. Wild at Heart is a movie which takes the well-worn genre of the road trip and reworks it into a surrealist tale of explosive teenage love and escape, playing with notions of dependence, independence, deception and discovery. That is not to say that Lynch failed in his attempts to unsettle and discomfort the viewer – this too was achieved with grim engagement with sexual abuse and objectification throughout. The bold use of colour, the tongue-in-cheek script, the scenes of gratuitous and provocative violence and sex all drew me in to a film which I could not help but love. Sassy, knowing laughter from the audience at this late night screening created the perfect atmosphere for the playful yet dark fun of Wild at Heart. The cinema environment was a perfect way to be introduced to the film. The film was screened at the fantastic Prince Charles Cinema last week as part of their series celebrating director David Lynch’s work. Wild at Heart was released in 1990, and its contemporary provocative magic still remains 23 years later. ‘The whole world is wild at heart and weird on top’ ![]()
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