![]() Freeman), a gangster she hires to kill Sailor. The second hairstyle is the curly version of the first: we can see it only once, when she visits Marcellus Santos (J. ![]() This last reference is not coincidental: Phyllis Dietrichson (Stanwyck’s character) is the ultimate femme fatale, a charismatic and beautiful woman who is ready to do anything to reach her goal Marietta is definitely a grotesque version of Phyllis. She sports three hairstyles all through the film: one is carefully coiffed, slightly wavy, reminiscent of the iconic style seen on Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity by Billy Wilder. She’s a hideous character and the main driving force of the story, but sometimes the audience perceives her merely as a symbol, a vessel which collects all the “ Mommie Dearest” cinema figures: she looks like an elegant and poised mother, but she acts like an Erinye, doing whatever she can to bring Sailor and Lula apart. All her clothes are age-appropriate, which is a contradiction, since she plays a lot with her make-up and hair. On the other hand, Marietta has a totally conservative style: she wears white skirt suits, cream or white blouses, white nightgowns, with rare touches of bright colour (the blue satin dress she wears in the opening scene). ![]() At the same time, she never changes hairstyle: her hair is always long and crimpled/wavy. Her style mixes lace leggings and slips, leather bras and skimpy dresses, but later she won’t hesitate to turn to polka dots and Veronica Lake waves. I think this glamourous manicure tells a lot about Lula: she’s wild and sexy, but there’s something conservative about her. She’s sporting a lovely half-moon manicure, with the half moon showing the natural nail colour. Later, when they leave for California, thus breaking Sailor’s parole, we can get an excellent view of Lula’s nails. At the concert she will wear strappy sandals, showing her painted toes. Before going there, Lula paints her toe nails red, while Sailor cleans his cowboy boots. When Sailor is first released from prison, they leave their town and go to see the speed metal band Powermad in concert. Lula has always a dramatic attitude (see the same gesture of covering her face with her hands at the beginning and later in the film), emphasized by her perfectly painted nails. As a matter of fact, in the rest of the film she always wears red lipstick and red nails, as you can see in the second screencap. After leaving with Sailor for their crazy road trip, she’ll go through hard moments and her life will totally change. This choice could refer to her being relatively innocent in that part of the narration. ![]() The gory opening scene is the only one in which Lula sports coral pink nails and lips in a similar shade, which match her peach pink dress. Lula is more consistent in her make-up choices, because she opts for the classic red lips/red nails combo most of the time, while Marietta likes wearing something different from time to time (see the hot pink nail polish on her talons in the screencap above). Both of them are natural blondes, with the help of some hydrogen peroxide, and love wearing red lipstick. This physical similarity is surely one of the reason why David Lynch casted both Ladd and Dern. From a visual point of view you can tell there’s a connection between them: Lula is Marietta’s younger and wilder version. Mother and daughter are very different – at a certain point of the narration they’re actually enemies – but there’s a very strong bond between them. ![]() All the bizarre, eccentric, wicked, violent and ruthless Lynch aesthetic is shown at its best, reaching its peak of perfection in the star-crossed lovers ( Sailor Ripley and Lula Pace, respectively Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern) and in Marietta Fortune, Lula’s vengeful mother (the actress who played the role is Diane Ladd, Laura Dern’s mother in real life). I love everything about it, which is the reason why it’s still among my favourite movies ever. After many years, I recently had the chance to watch it again: the shock is obviously gone, but the feeling you’re watching a unique film is still there. It shocked me, as if I had seen an alien, because it was different from anything I had watched so far. I strangely have no memories of Disney movies, but I perfectly remember the impact the twisted love story by Lynch had on my 17-year-old prudish self. I started to regularly attend a cinema when I was 14, so these are not the only movies I remember vividly, but are surely those who impressed me most. #Love rosie watch movieshare movie#This is surely my case: the first memories I have of watching a movie at the cinema are linked to A Hard Day’s Night by Richard Lester (I was 5), to Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (I was 12) and to David Lynch’s Wild at Heart (I was 17). I believe the movies you watch as a child and as a teenager often leave an indelible mark on your memory and on your cinema tastes as an adult. ![]()
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