WILD AT HEART (David Lynch, 1990, 125', English)
Schedule
Wed, 10 Dec, 2025 at 07:30 pm
UTC+01:00Location
Hypnos Theatre | Malmö, SN
Roger Ebert wrote a scathing pan of “Wild At Heart” when it was released. He despised the opening scene, in which Sailor (Nicolas Cage) murders a Black killer hired by his girlfriend’s mother Marietta Fortune (Diane Ladd). The film, Ebert argues, tries to excuse its violence and cruelty as “parody;” it is “a film without the courage to declare its own darkest fantasies.”Lynch’s attitude towards his material is always a little difficult to parse, and there are certainly elements of mockery in his depiction of lovers Sailor and Lula (Laura Dern.) But for me, at least for the most part, Lynch’s belief in them is as sincere as anything in his work; he loves the couple, and wants you to love them too. Yes, Sailor’s Elvis accent and snakeskin jacket (his "personal symbol of individuality") are silly, and Lula’s enthusiastic ode to his penis and how it talks to her while it’s inside is both saccharine and gross.
But love is silly, saccharine, gross and wonderful all at once, and Cage and Dern make it unequivocally clear that they care for each other, whether they’re stopping the car to kung-fu dance to speed metal or having hard conversations about past betrayal or trauma. They overcome mother’s (hyperbolic) opposition, their own (incredibly) poor choices, violence, and prison, and unless your heart is a big old lump of rock (or you’re Roger Ebert, I suppose), you’ve got to swoon at least a little when Sailor serenades her with “Love Me Tender” at the close. Stylized absurdist cold-hearted weirdo Lynch manages to succeed where romcoms often fail—he gives you a unique couple who both obviously care for each other, and who you can imagine being happy together.
(Noah Berlatsky, Everything Is Horrible)
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Doors open 19.00, and close 19.30! It is not possible to gain entrance after doors are closed.
Where is it happening?
Hypnos Theatre, Norra Grängesbergsgatan 15, SE-214 50 Malmö, Sverige, Malmö, Sweden
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