FRANCISCO GOYA’S RED BOY AND DAVID LYNCH’S BLUE VELVET
The painting of the boy in red appears at first glance to be a simple, innocent depiction of a pretty-faced, young boy standing for a portrait with a bird on a leash. Upon closer examination, however, we see lurking in the shadows behind him the hungry eyes of focused, hateful aspects of our own unconscious minds, waiting in a state of emergency for their chance to attack and devour that innocence.
Similarly Blue Velvet takes place in a distinctly all-American every town, full of neighborliness and innocence. However, right from the start of the film we are carried under the grass of a perfectly manicured lawn into the soil where ants crawl and feed. The boy protagonist later decides to leave his safe, innocent mind and enters its interior where other things are lurking. Eventually he watches a deeply unsettling scene in which a powerful, frantic man carries out an absurd, sexual play on a complacent, lethargic woman—one that is fueled by desperation, childish neediness and hate.
One that is motivated by the same wide eyed cats hungrily lurking in the shadow of the Red Boy.