Wild at Heart (1990)

Wild at Heart is a 1990 American film written and directed by David Lynch, and based on Barry Gifford's pulp novel Wild at Heart: The Story of Sailor and Lula. Both the book and the film revolve around Sailor Ripley (Nicolas Cage) and Lula Pace Fortune (Laura Dern), a young couple from Cape Fear, North Carolina who decide to go on the run from her domineering mother (Diane Ladd). As a result of her mother's plans, the mob becomes involved.

Lynch was originally going to produce the film but after reading Gifford's book decided to also write and direct the film version. The filmmaker did not like the ending of the novel and decided to change it in order to stay true to his vision of the main characters. Wild at Heart is a road movie and includes bizarre, almost supernatural events and off-kilter violence with sometimes overtly heavy allusions to The Wizard of Oz and strong references to Elvis Presley and his movies that found their way into screenplay as Lynch was writing it.

Early test screenings for Wild at Heart did not go well; Lynch estimated that 80 people walked out of the first test screening and 100 in the next. The film received mixed to negative critical reviews and was a moderate success at the United States box office, grossing USD $14 million, above its $10 million budget. The film won the Palme d'Or at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival, which received both negative and positive attention by the audience. Diane Ladd was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for both the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes.

One of the film's themes is, according to Lynch, "finding love in Hell". He has stated "For me, it's just a compilation of ideas that come along. The darker ones and the lighter ones, the humorous ones, all working together. You try to be as true as you can to those ideas and try to get them on film." Similar to Lynch's previous Blue Velvet, the sudden idealistic ending of perfect happiness is so drenched in irony that ultimately Lynch seems to be suggesting that people who have the potential for violence struggle to find true happiness.

Barry Gifford's character Perdita Durango (played by Isabella Rossellini in Wild at Heart) also appears in Alex de la Iglesia's movie Perdita Durango (1997), where she is played by Rosie Perez.