The return of Dorothy Vallens

Like most small town boys, I grew up totally enamored with David Lynch's brilliantly surreal film Blue Velvet. On my daily walks across a field to school I could almost have been Jeffrey Beaumont. I never did find that severed ear, though not for lack of trying.

I must also thank Isabella Rossellini for introducing me to the alluring notion of the femme fatale through her creepily cool character of Dorothy Vallens.

I've just discovered Rossellini revisiting that shimmering role as a praying mantis, amongst others, in a fantastic series on the mating and other rituals of insects: Green Porno which I had to share. Running on the Sundance Channel, it fuses Lynchian theatrics with scientific accuracy using education as the excuse. So brilliant it's almost worth getting Sky for.

And to come back full circle, there's a scene early on in Blue Velvet where a pristine small town lawn is put under the microscope, revealing a grotesque world crawling with insects. Nice.

Hat tip: Cakehead Loves Evil