DAVID LYNCH | USA | 1990 | 121 MIN | R | ENGLISH, SPANISH
Madly in love and on the run, Sailor and Lula take to the yellow brick road with a wicked mother and a bevy of despicable men on their trail in Lynch’s sole Palme d’Or winner.
You know you found the right movie when a violent bar room brawl at a metal concert leads immediately to a snakeskin-wearing Nicholas Cage jumping on stage to do a soulful rendition of Elvis Presley’s “Love Me” to an adoring Laura Dern. Many scenes of David Lynch’s cheered and jeered-at Cannes winner are filled with a mishmash of hyperviolence, sexcapades, and outright ridiculousness that arguably classify it as his one and only dark comedy, WILD AT HEART follows the trail of star-crossed lovers Sailor and Lula (Cage and Dern), of Berry Gifford’s long running novella series, on the run from Lula’s makeup smeared, frenzied mother Marietta (Diane Ladd). In between motel trysts, the two must work with and outsmart a number of disturbing gangsters including Willem Dafoe’s badly-in-need-of-floss Bobby Peru. WILD AT HEART kicked off Lynch’s ’90s with a bang that was quickly subdued two years later by Cannes’ outright rejection of his next selection on La Croisette, TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME, but it remains both foundational to and an oddity in the director’s oeuvre.
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern, Willem Dafoe, Crispin Glover, Diane Ladd, Isabella Rossellini, Harry Dean Stanton
Part of the Philadelphia Film Society’s Director Series – Deeper in Dreams: A David Lynch Retrospective
This year, the world said goodbye to a singular visionary, an artist whose fearless imagination reshaped cinema, sound, and the visual arts. David Lynch created worlds that were at once fascinating and unsettling, dreamlike and nightmarish, revealing the hidden paradoxes of human existence with unflinching honesty.
Through darkened hallways and suburban streets, beauty and horror, he gave us astonishing works of art we didn’t know we needed, and that we will never forget.
In honor of his extraordinary legacy, this retrospective revisits feature films, shorts, shows, visions, and more (with some surprises!) that defined his career and changed the way we experience storytelling on screen.
Click HERE to purchase the “Pick 4” Film Bundle (Select 4 films from this series)
$40 General Admission $32 PFS Members