Early test screenings did not go well , with the strong violence in some scenes being too much . At the first test screening , eighty people walked out during a graphic torture scene involving Johnnie Farragut . Lynch decided not to cut anything from the film and at the second screening one hundred people walked out during this scene . Lynch remembers , " By then , I knew the scene was killing the film . So I cut it to the degree that it was powerful but did n't send people running from the theatre " . In retrospect , the filmmaker said , " But that was part of what '' Wild at Heart '' was about : really insane and sick and twisted stuff going on . " The film was completed one day before it debuted at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival in the 2,400-seat Grand Auditorium . After the screening , it received " wild cheering " from the audience . When Jury President Bernardo Bertolucci announced '' Wild at Heart '' as the Palme d'Or winner at the awards ceremony , the boos almost drowned out the cheers , with film critic Roger Ebert leading the vocal detractors . Barry Gifford remembers that there was a prevailing mood that the media was hoping Lynch would fail . " All kinds of journalists were trying to cause controversy and have me say something like ' This is nothing like the book ' or ' He ruined my book ' . I think everybody from '' Time '' magazine to '' What 's On In London '' was disappointed when I said ' This is fantastic . This is wonderful . It 's like a big , dark , musical comedy ' "
1990 Cannes Film Festival
1990 Cannes Film Festival
Wild at Heart (film)