Director: David Lynch

After being critically slapped around for Dune, you could have forgiven David Lynch if he’d never wanted to make another film again. Thank your lucky stars, then, that Lynch is an optimist at heart. For Blue Velvet he again placed his trust in Dune overseer, Dino De Laurentis, who afforded him final cut in exchange for a two hour movie made for less than $6 million. The result is, of course, a strangely personal journey back to a seemingly more innocent time both in Lynch’s own childhood and America as a whole. Kyle MacLachlan and Laura Dern are the peachy-keen, wholesome couple colliding with life’s underbelly, but it’s Dennis Hopper who not only steals the show, but dry-humps it at knifepoint. It’s an icon of American cinema - and of Americana - and a shining example of why some artists should be left to their own devices.