Wild at Heart (film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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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 only produce the film but, after reading Gifford's book, he decided to write and direct the film version himself. 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 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.
