The German press kit is here

"Take me to your heart.
For it's there that I belong"

(Love me tender)

Films always divide audiences and on an emotional level there´s really no way to 'understand' or 'misunderstand' a movie. Especially those critics in Europe (mostly France and Germany) who it hailed as a masterpiece perceived it as 'deconstruction the cinema' or  'postmodern', which was exactly why Wild at Heart had very little impression in the US. 

Very few considered Lynch`s film being an option of telling a story that has been told over and over again (man  loves woman, woman loves man) in a radical shape but with the 'heart' of the story untouched. One of them is Jean Collet: 

"Lynch believes in what he`s telling. And I wonder if that`s not exactly what he`s attacked for." (Études, revue mensuelle, No.1 373 / 6, December 1990)

"I seem to have upset a man of the cloth. A vicar in Wakefield writes (Letters, 22 September) to say that my review of Wild at Heart should not have carried the headline 'Don`t take the vicar', for 'there is very little that would shock the average priest'. We shall have to agree to differ on this point." (From 'Spectator', September 29th 1990)

'That guy split!'

In the film Lula calls Bobby Peru a "black angel", one might likewise call him the alter ego of Sailor Ripley, being indeed a 'murderer, not manslaughterer, honey'. SImilarly, Bobby Peru responds to Lula in a way she secretely desires (Why didn`t you sing Love Me Tender to me): After Lula confesses to being pregnant, she isn`t sexually attractive to Sailor anymore, a gap which is filled by the violent approach of Bobby : "Say Fuck Me".

As with most of Lynch`s movies, there are several different versions of the film on video. The initial release contained David Lynch`s video for 'Wicked Game'; some tapes lack the scene with the dog. 

Thanks to winning the Palme d`Or in 1990, Wild at Heart didn`t get an X-Rating in the United States, early versions of the film shown at test-screenings are said to have included even more violence, especially the scene showing the torturing of Johnny Farragut.

 Lynch`s movie is based on Barry Gifford`s novel, the happy ending and the Wizard of Oz - elements where not included in the initial draft.

Despite its violent attitude, Wild at Heart is a simple romantic (in a quite literal sense) love story.

The 'real' climaxes are Sailor and Lula running out of money and Lula becoming pregnant.

Like in many of his other films, travelling in Wild at Heart is first of all a travel back in time as well as an internal process, not a real link between two places. (Likewise in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, the essential flashbacks of Leland Palmer seeing his daughter as a prostitute appear during their car ride; Alvin Straight`s way to Mount Zion is literally paved with memories; the guild navigators in Dune travel simply by their mental abilty to do so; and obviously Lost Highway)

Wild at Heart has been criticised as being a filmed comic strip, to me it seem to be the strengths of the film to focus on two people in love and their points of view, Sailor and Lula regard the world like children taking a peeks at the life of adults.

A symbol of my individuality 

  Marlon 'Snakeskin' Brando in Sydney Lumet`s "The Fugitive Kind" (1959)