JODOROWSKY’S DUNE
Alejandro Jodorowsky is a charismatic 85-year-old Chilean-French idiosyncratic filmmaker. He’s also a writer, graphic novelist, actor, playwright, musician, all around madman and part time guru. Jodo, as he is known by his many friends and fans, is first and foremost a passionate artist. He has the soul of a creator who operates with a ferocious vision that remains singular, searing and enigmatic.
He’s best-known for writing and directing the underground cult hits EL TOPO and THE HOLY MOUNTAIN that are still popular at special midnight showings.
In 1975, Jodo began working on his most ambitious project yet: an adaptation of Frank Herbert’s futuristic Messianic space opera best-seller “Dune” starring his own 12-year-old son Brontis alongside Orson Welles, Mick Jagger, David Carradine and Salvador Dali featuring music by Pink Floyd. The production art was by some of the best, most provocative talents of the time, including Chris Foss, Dan O’Bannon H.R. Giger and Jean “Moebius” Giraud. With key above and below the line talent in place, Jodo was poised to change cinema forever. In fact, even though the film was never realized as envisioned by Jodo, it did impact numerous films, including STAR WARS, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, ALIEN and even the more recent PROMETHEUS. (Unfortunately, David Lynch’s DUNE, a big incoherent flop widely derided was not a result of Jodo’s lavish and passionate dedication and design.)
Filmed over three years, director Frank Pavich’s fabulous documentary on Jodo’s ill-fated project is the result of unique and unprecedented access to production material including an extraordinary hard-bound book — as thick as two big city phone books — that contained the screenplay, art and meticulous story boards that was used as a “calling card” to pitch the movie to main stream studios. Fascinating interviews including H.R. Giger (artist, ALIEN), Gary Kurtz (producer, STAR WARS) and Nicolas Winding Refn (director, DRIVE) give an unexpected heft and credibility to the material.
JODOROWSKY’S DUNE was an official selection at the 2013 Cannes, Telluride, Toronto and AFI film festivals.
I was blown away by this incredible documentary that is as wonderfully entertaining as it is inspiring. It is not only about a failed movie project; it is about what it means to be an unfiltered, fully committed artist. It is about a single-minded, full-blown passion so intense that it consumes fellow artists, musicians and performers. It is also about how so-called failure has amazing rewards.
Jodorowsky is mesmerizing as he recalls his creative venture that does not exist except in the minds of those who created it. It is not Herbert’s “Dune,” but a morphed vision that was only triggered by Herbert and then given a new incarnation by an obsessive, Chilean surrealist. It’s a “What if” story written without restraint. Jodo’s stated goal was “to mutate young minds “ and change the world. His move was about the redemption of a planet. It’s not clear why the studios did not want to work with Jodo; the impression I got is that they were afraid of him and his disregard of the film’s cost and length. Jodo has disdain for money to be factor in the creation of true art.
I can’t recommend the movie highly enough. Sony Classics. Blu-ray.
NOW SHOWING ON THE BIG SCREEN:
SNOWPIERCER
Adapted from the French graphic novel “Le Transperceneige” and directed by Bong Joon-ho (THE HOST). This is his first English language film and it loses nothing in the translation.
The sci-fi epic is about the only survivors of a disastrously failed attempt to modify global warming that destroyed most of life on earth and brought on a new ice age. They are riding a speeding train – the Snowpiercer – around the world via a perpetual motion engine through a frozen world while struggling to adapt to the only environment that is livable. Soon, mysterious messages incite the passengers to mutiny as the train races toward what seems certain disaster.
A great international cast that includes Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton, Jamie Bell, Octavia Spencer, Ewen Bremner, Kang-ho Song, Alison Pill, John Hurt and Ed Harris plays the compelling characters. This is a weird, dystopian, sometimes witty, violent, audaciously ambitious action thriller that is a welcome relief from mindless CGI saturated, mind numbing summer films. Some critics are already calling th
is a masterpiece with something on its mind. I was dazzled by the startling visuals and stimulated by the ideas. The ending is stunning and emotional. Now showing Cinema’s Palm d’Or.
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