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- Joined
- May 20, 2014
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- 68
I recently had the honour of screening what proved to be one of my all-time favourite documentaries and films-about-films: Jodorowsky's Dune!
I highly recommend this film to anyone interested in meaningful, experimental, and surrealist cinema, sci-fi, and the behind-the-curtain details of the film-making process.
The film's subject? In the mid-70's, the ingenious director of the brilliantly surreal, metaphysical, and gorgeous films El Topo and The Holy Mountain turned his attention to a truly ambitious, big-budget, ten-hour adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune.
Criminally abandoned before filming began due to lack of funds and commitment from Hollywood, its pre-production was a massive collaboration that included seminal sci-fi artists Jean "Moebius" Giraud and Chris Foss and future Alien designers H.R. Giger and Dan O'Bannon!
Its actors would have included Salvador Dali and his lover as the Galactic Emperor and his daughter, Orson Welles as Baron Harkonnen, David Carradine as Duke Leto, and Mick Jagger as Feyd Rautha!
The score would be conducted by several bands dedicated to a particular planet and its theme, with the likes of Pink Floyd and Magma involved!
Jodorowsky wanted the film to replicate the effects of a LCD hallucination, without actually taking LCD!
It was supposed to completely change cinema, and have a massive, long-reaching impact upon sci-fi films even despite not actually being made (Alien and Blade Runner would not have existed without this failed project)!
Yes, you read all of the above correctly and all of the names mentioned were indeed committed to the project!
Why couldn't we have this film instead of some of the dreck that has been polluting cinema screens for decades now!
I highly recommend this film to anyone interested in meaningful, experimental, and surrealist cinema, sci-fi, and the behind-the-curtain details of the film-making process.
The film's subject? In the mid-70's, the ingenious director of the brilliantly surreal, metaphysical, and gorgeous films El Topo and The Holy Mountain turned his attention to a truly ambitious, big-budget, ten-hour adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune.
Criminally abandoned before filming began due to lack of funds and commitment from Hollywood, its pre-production was a massive collaboration that included seminal sci-fi artists Jean "Moebius" Giraud and Chris Foss and future Alien designers H.R. Giger and Dan O'Bannon!
Its actors would have included Salvador Dali and his lover as the Galactic Emperor and his daughter, Orson Welles as Baron Harkonnen, David Carradine as Duke Leto, and Mick Jagger as Feyd Rautha!
The score would be conducted by several bands dedicated to a particular planet and its theme, with the likes of Pink Floyd and Magma involved!
Jodorowsky wanted the film to replicate the effects of a LCD hallucination, without actually taking LCD!
It was supposed to completely change cinema, and have a massive, long-reaching impact upon sci-fi films even despite not actually being made (Alien and Blade Runner would not have existed without this failed project)!
Yes, you read all of the above correctly and all of the names mentioned were indeed committed to the project!
Why couldn't we have this film instead of some of the dreck that has been polluting cinema screens for decades now!
