Dune

It's a shame Dune ended up being a negative experience for David Lynch. Some of it's very well done. I still love watching it year after year.

Some of the heavier action sequences like when the Harkonnens attack Arrakis or the sandworm battle at the end, don't fare as well as those that you find in Star Wars or Star Trek, and a lot of movie goers tend to focus on those transitions which are often filled with nail-biting excitement.

It would be nice to watch a copy without the consistent inner-character monologues as well, too bad it wasn't as huge as Blade Runner and such an alternative was never released.

Nonetheless, in classic Lynchean style the scenes with the villains still seriously impress, especially the introduction of the Harkonnens which I would argue is some of Lynch's best work.

It's grotesque and terrifying and over-the-top and the attention to detail is so immaculate, along with the chilling production design all focused around Kenneth McMillan's performance. 

I've seen him show up in other films where he didn't have a serious role, in Dune he steals the show though, alongside many prominent actors.

Lynch also thrillingly excelled with his less psychotic sublime nobility, notably during the scenes with Dr. Kynes when they head out to look over spice production. 

When Duke Leto demonstrates that he truly cares for the integral lives of his working people, it's a powerful moment that evocatively captures the democratic spirit of the times.

Kyle MacLachlan has his moments too as does Patrick Stewart, Siân Phillips, Francesca Annis, and Brad Dourif, in interviews I've seen with actors Lynch worked with the genuine admiration clearly shines through.

If you want to see Lynch the editor at work you should compare the theatrical version to the full-length feature, the excessively long studio-cut version that he had his name removed from.

It is much much much worse and you can see Lynch's genius in full swing, when you watch his director's cut and see how he saved so many scenes.

With strong performances, a complex plot, an intricate unique production design, along with his trademark wicked villainy, Lynch's version still impresses.

Denis Villeneuve's films are remarkably well done too and I hope he gets the next Star Wars franchise.

I hope they stick with one director for the entire run.

He's a contemporary sci-fi master. 

Dune: Part Two

Is there as much of a story to tell after Paul and his mom find themselves lost in the desert?

Dune: Part Two suggests there is. 

The Fremen slowly growing accustomed to the uncanny ways in which the gifted Atreides youth fulfills their prophecy, Paul must still overcome his horrific nightmares to convince the devout majority to follow his lead.

The film's kind of like the episode of STNG where Kahless suddenly returns, and the Klingons agree to manage his legend, hoping the enticing story will win hearts and minds.

But Kahless's return is manufactured in the more scientifically structured Star Trek continuum, whereas Paul's actions verifiably fulfill a prophecy and therefore messianically comport themselves in ye olde Dune.

Yet he still doubts he can effectively lead a massive underground populace in a daring uprising (against the Emperor), their rivals in possession of technological wonders of an extremely advanced destructive nature.

Much of the dialogue concerns Paul's coming of age as he learns to play the influential leading role.

The film widening its scope to include Harkonnen bedlam. 

To add despotic reckless nuance.

You'd almost hope that in 2028 a younger American would feverishly arise, and move the political spectrum away from agéd octogenarians, back to something much more grassrootsy indeed even potentially kind of lithe and nimble (these guys are in charge of the fate of the free world?) - hold on, a lot's happened since I wrote this on Saturday, looks like there is a younger American candidate, and she is indeed feverishly arising (love Bernie, but he's older than Biden)!

I often wish David Lynch had had more time and two separate films to craft his vision, I still love watching what he came up with, but also wonder what he would have crafted these days.

He was one of the pioneers however who was inventing postmodern science-fiction.

They often had to improvise sensational fascination.

Special effects weren't nearly as reliable as they are in the SuperHero Age.

Regardless, I love the Dune story apart from the Atomics and the talking fetus, Chani adding so much in this version, as does the extended look at planet Harkonnen. 

I still find intense belief which defies science to be the most destructive force the Earth has ever seen.

It makes for incredible films and books though.

Just hope it doesn't destroy the planet one day.

Or slowly over the course of depreciating centuries.

*Star Wars + Denis Villeneuve ='s Amazing (the entire trilogy).

Dune

The Indigenous inhabitants (the Fremen) of a barren world (Arrakis aka Dune) once flourished unobstructed, until its only resource became the most coveted in the galaxy.

This spice mélange allows gifted navigators to alter the fabric of space and time, while others use it to mutate consciousness, attaining heightened spiritual states.

Different planets within the interplanetary union are governed by an Emperor, who is obsessed with maintaining control, and possesses a massive formidable army.

The rights to mine the spice engender astronomical profits, and House Harkonnen of planet Giedi Prime has obscenely enjoyed them for quite some time.

But House Atreides of planet Caladan has become remarkably popular in the union, as led by its level-headed Duke (Oscar Isaac), and the Emperor has grown jealous of its meteoric rise, and seeks to dishonourably annihilate them.

Thus, he takes Dune's mining rights away for the barbarous self-obsessed Harkonnens, and gives them to House Atreides, who can't refuse the magnificent honour, even if they suspect a trap.

The Harkonnens who hate the Atreides seek to attack them after the transition, supported by several legions of Sardaukar, the Emperor's ferocious spartan troops. 

But the Fremen hold a prophecy that a messiah will lead them out of darkness, and will come from the outer world, and know his ways as if [he's] born to them.

Duke Leto's son Paul (Timothée Chalamet) possesses extraordinary abilities and the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood admires them.

Could he survive the Harknonnen's sneak attack?

And find discreet refuge amongst the Fremen?

That's a working general snapshot of Frank Herbert's complex plot, which is difficult to simplify in a film, so this one' stretched into two instalments.

Denis Villeneuve cultivates isolation as a matter of intergovernmental intricacy, so many fierce independent characters collegially united through distinct cause.

Dignified solemnity is no laughing matter as the Atreides accept monumental responsibility, in a fluctuating volatile stern vortex, augustly magnified through intrigue.

The imposing offer freely shared sombrely cloaked in grand deception, the refusal of which would lead to acknowledgement of a rival's mean-spirited intent.

A love so great it leads to trust in the most duplicitous of foes, whose autocratic snide contempt is thoroughly condemned throughout the galaxy.

The belief in prophecy spiritual import patient intergenerational stratagems, producing widespread derelict skepticism as highly invested as it is dismissive.

An oppressed people tired of colonialism and their exploitation by another.

Prone to passionate belief.

Projected reified agility.

The Atreides and the Fremen still find compassion amidst the gloom.

With staple simple pleasures.

The sustainability of life.

*Love the changes Villeneuve made with Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa) and Dr. Kynes (Sharon Duncan-Brewster).

**Loved the palm tree scene as well.

***It's very respectful of David Lynch's Dune and there are many similarities between the two films.

****Loved the dragonfly ornithopters. I was reaching for a cigarette last Summer and a dragonfly landed on my finger, obviously suggesting I should stop smoking, which I'm going to try to do next week, many thanks to dragonfly kind. 

Jodorowsky's Dune

A filmmaker possessing the highest possible artistic intentions, for whom film is a sub/conscious pyrotechnic visceral emulsion, wildly jettisoning extracted reified ideological peaks, capable of concretely delineating multilaterally deconstructive minutia, their testaments clasping your hands and mine, distinct explosive intraoperative trysts, persuasive incipient confounding strips, Alejandro Jodorowsky almost made Dune, and his crushing curtailment still resonates to this day.

The cast and crew he assembled would have possibly been the coolest ever.

That voice which obsesses about disabling degrees of practicality was non-existent, pure unabashed committed expansive insurgence, unconcerned with what actually takes place in the novel which he hadn't even read before embracing it as his next project, motivated by perceived interpretive fortuitous pacts, the universe having opened-up and provided him with chance integral reprieved constituents, like an intergalactic curvaceous onslaught, or the ultimate Proustian daydream.

The Blueberry.

Not that his dreams weren't practical, if anything, they represented the apotheosis of practicality, a spiritual conception of teamwork seeking superlative aesthetic collegial partnerships who were to be given hands-off inspirational direction, united in their pursuit of memorializing a trance, abstraction, attraction, refraction.

Jodorowsky's son Brontis trained intensively for 2 years with a martial arts master to prepare to play Paul Atreides.

Salvadore Dalí may have made 100,000 a minute to play Shaddam Corrino IV.

Orson Welles could have gorged himself ad infinitum.

I don't want to say too much about the film, it's better if you see Jodorowsky and companions explain it themselves, the Dan O'Bannon recording fitting perfectly.

Possibly the most influential film never made, transisting semantic transcendence.

Jodorowsky envisioned a groundbreaking universal consciousness expanding waking delirium.

Too much for one film alone, its manifold parts have arguably become greater than those initially conceived.

Still like aspects of David Lynch's version.

The Beginning is a Very Delicate Time

It's important after an election to make sure that the newly formed government is represented in a way that can be easily referenced.

In the case of Canada's recent election, Dune can be used to navigate some potentially turbulent political currents.

Consider the following:

House Atreides: The New Democratic Party
Duke Leto Atreides: Jack Layton
Thufir Hawat: Thomas Mulcair
Lady Jessica: Djaouida Sellah
Gurney Halleck: Romeo Saganash
Duncan Idaho: David Christopherson
Paul Atreides: Pierre-Luc Dusseault
Alia of the Knife: Alexandrine Latendresse

House Harkonnen: The Conservative Party of Canada
Baron Vladimir Harkonnen: Stephen Harper
Piter de Vries: Tony Clement
Rabban: Jason Kenney
Feyd Rautha: Bev Oda
Nefud: Peter Mackay

Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV: Thomas Flanagan
Stilgar: Paul Moist
Hasimir Fenring: Bob Rae
Margot Fenring: Elizabeth May
Doctor Kynes: Maude Barlow
Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam: Wendy Mesley

Caladan: Québec
Giedi Prime: Alberta
Arrakis: Ontario

Avatar

James Cameron's Avatar is a science fiction treat for both environmentalists and epic film lovers alike. On the far off planet of Pandora, a greedy corporation is mining a precious mineral known as unobtainium, many deposits of which lie beneath sacred portions of the planet's lush forest. The indigenous Na'vi take none to kindly to the intrusion but have learned to live somewhat peacefully with their militaristic human neighbours. Until those neighbours decide it's time to destroy their revered Hometree, a scurrilous act which unites the Na'vi tribes for a final showdown around their venerated Tree of Souls. Leading them is Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic marine who, thanks to a remarkable scientific development, is able to inhabit and navigate a Na'vi body while sleeping in a special tank. Is his leadership divine? Has he been chosen by Eywa, the Na'vi's most prominent deity, to restore balance to the planet? Will his relationship with Na'vi beauty Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) bear forbidden fruit? Or will Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi) and his bombastic military commando sidekick Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephan Lang) wipe out the Na'vi and have their way with Pandora's plunder?

The ending appealed to me although it's somewhat frustrating insofar as it's only a movie. It's a lot of fun and I probably would have rated it much higher if I was still fourteen. Nothing really that new presented and honestly, I preferred Avatar's prototype, Dune. Solid reimagining of Herbert's classic novel, nonetheless, which should find a massive, enthusiastic audience.

Conversation

It wasn't about agreement. It was about expression and discovering modes you liked. At different times different persons present different or similar modes that are appealing or not, or become appealing after not having been, certain modes inspiring the pursuit of variations on a theme, juxtapositions, harmonies, contradictions, syntheses. Some walked around as if they were ambassadors of freewill and understanding while their dialogue was saturated with social stigmas and reservations which, if you tried to point out only led to a break (while they constantly pointed out yours). Others work hard in demanding positions involving a high degree of responsibility and happily acquiesce to requests for shelter, to share what they can, without cause for considerable reflection. Others simply look out for themselves while only considering their own immediate interests, denying the same requests even though they could easily share the time and space, while circumstances and change reinvigorate and challenge these stances, those whom you find publicly compelling occasionally becoming privately as well, the two dimensions fluctuating and remaining inert as different pressures inspire different reactions at different (or within the same) moments, depending upon one's enthusiasm, fatigue, worries, spirit. Faith and desire underly much of this complicated repetition, faith in the eternal return of the same, desire for the innovative challenge of the new, evolved or anathema, Dune, Lost Highway, divergent parallels providing strength to some, problems for others, meaningless or monumental, vas y fort, je m'en fou, and so on. I like to watch coffee brew or birds putter about or listen to Chopin's piano concertos or Groupo Fantasma, Broken Social Scene's form producing the same effect as Mozart, for now, and again, and then.

I have done or will do all these things.

My kettle's full of water,
my mug a bag of tea.
I liked that rash suggestion,
her sublime subtlety.

I waited for the métro
with book and pen in hand
but did not have the time to
read or write or plan though

movement left the snow coating
all the roads below in
blankets left for summer's
growing season I like

that smooth malt flavour
while it patiently coats my
veins with warmth.