Valentine's Day at Metrograph: Wild at Heart

Director: David Lynch

1990 / 125min / 35mm

For Valentine’s Day at Metrograph, we've lined up Lynch's lusty depiction of the Romeo and Juliet of the South, Wild at Heart. A perfect date for a special someone, someones, or just your own special self, with the intimate confines of the Commissary and a cozy date with cocktails just a few steps away once the movie’s over.

“This is a snakeskin jacket. And for me it’s a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom.” Laura Dern and Nicolas Cage are Sailor and Lula, hotpants lovers on the lam, in Lynch’s fever dream road trip through a sleazy South of stick-up men, heavy metal concerts, and pornos, Texas-style. The guiding influences are Elvis Aron Presley, who Cage channels throughout, and The Wizard of Oz, with Sheryl Lee’s Good Witch appearing at the end of a rough ride menaced by Diane Ladd’s mad matriarch and Willem Dafoe’s oleaginous, stub-toothed Bobby Peru.

35mm print courtesy of cinematographer Frederick Elmes.