This will probably get removed by myself at a later time. But I watched Jodorowsky’s Dune documentary, and I took disjointed, weird notes and I thought it was sort of surrealist and fun, and could act as a valid and interesting review of the film, solely to spark interest or conversation. Not sure something like that is allowed here, but yay movies and fun.
TL;DR- Watch the documentary. It’s amazing.
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*During the opening credits, they really could have flashed all the amazing people that were to be involved in the lore of this film. Holy cow it’s so amazing, and going in cold doesn’t give you the anticipation this deserves. But it’s Jodorowsky, so I am sure we’re all limbered up. But all these people involved in the film, who then altered the future of film history.
*His office is obviously like the mass of an otter. (ed note: I believe this was supposed to read “mess of a hoarder”, but I am keeping this bastard voice to text).
*Right at the moment of focusing on his copy of Herbert’s Dune, there is a book underneath that which says “machines by Christopher” and mentions “special effects by Dan O’Bannon” and I have no idea what that is and I want to know. [ed. note: HOLY MOLY WOW https://www.facebook.com/ChrisFossArt/posts/2216546638407261]
*Okay… surprise surprise, with Nicolas Winding Refn. He was the only person who really got to “see” the vision of Alejandro’s Dune as it was meant to be. Which is super weird. He’s the director of drive, but also Neon Demon, a film I am deeply ambivalent about, but think I love and will have to re-watch for a long time. A film buff friend whose thoughts I appreciate still hasn’t seen it. I keep encouraging him, because while I didn’t get the homo-erotic Viking porn that was Valhalla Rising and had thought it to be a throwaway film, he says it’s competent for the genre that it is [yet another film I need to revisit]. SO, Refn is tying into the film history and my life in some really fun but odd ways. I love that Julian Winding song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqo0MdK_4qs
*But then **goddamnit** Richard Stanley shows up? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stanley_(director). His career is just plain wonderful and weird and bizarre. He is coming back with a Nicolas Cage film in a few months or weeks. All of this in this documentary is already making me go insane, and so it’s obvious that this is a touchstone moment of film history, beyond just the story of another film not being made, like Terry Gilliam. This man and his film touches all corners of Hollywood, like Manson [ed note: sorry, listening to that “you must remember this” podcast]. here’s the upcoming “Color Out of Space”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZFRxCYEXTw
*Apparently Jodorowsky inadvertently started midnight films and midnight screenings because his films were to transgressive to play during the day, and were the only types of films that could be played at that time but still draw an art house audience, without enraging the puritanicals.
*The Trumbull stuff was brilliant and I will leave that alone cuz it’s just a funny anecdote.
*The Darkstar stuff leading to Dan O’Bannon led to a funny quote about Dan’s upbringing: Dan O’Bannon didn’t have a phone till 10 years old, **and was reading Mark Twain stories not realizing they were old books**. But this Bannon stuff is glorious… Bannon: “What now?”
Jodorowsky: “And now sell everything you own and come to Paris and prepare to have your life changed!”
*A different band for every planet is unreal. The way Jodorowsky clowned on Pink Floyd’s artistic fussy pretension is not wrong.
*Think of the way a visionary or an auteur can just be so manic and driven, to end up so unbelievably isolated or insular. and not realize the impact he has on other people in the real world… while just trying to create great art. What Alejandro had his son do while in pre-production inadvertently shaped his entire life. The training that he had to do between the ages of 13 and 15 is nothing short of amazing, wildly insane, and he basically became a ninja. Pretty sure that experience, an inadvertent ramification of his father’s passion, shaped his son’s life deeply.
*I need to watch more footage of Salvador Dali and re-watch the Charlie Chaplin “great leader” speech.
Dali: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y4btzjsb0c
- The Great Dictator, final speech. Chaplin is super. Best speech ever. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7GY1Xg6X20
- Props to this twitter guy… I was trying to remember the exact quote from the film, but he does the job:
“This reminds me of the scene in the documentary “Jodorowsky’s Dune” when Jodorowsky mentions that Salvador Dali only stayed at The Regis Hotel because it had a 16 ft Maxfield Parrish painting dedicated to a fart”.
This reminds me of the scene in the documentary “Jodorowsky’s Dune” when Jodo mentions that Salvador Dali only stayed at The Regis Hotel because it had a 16 ft Maxfield Parrish painting dedicated to a fart. pic.twitter.com/GXc7G6Qgq7
— Marcus Gray LaPorte (@MarcusGrayDoor) April 3, 2018
YOU NEED TO ZOOM IN:
*Dali, jodorowsky, surrealist movement- That Dali introduced Giger to Jodorowsky who ends up influencing Bannon, and Bannon gets Giger for Alien??? [insert scanners head explosion.gif]
*The Leto torture storyboards is insane. Makes Game of Thrones look like Mr. Rogers.
*The Orson Welles anecdote was absolutely darling and charming, & makes me feel better about my personal drinking habits, LOL. Good Lord is this film a touchstone on the before and after of Hollywood.
*I do not know how much the death of Paul informed Ben Kenobi in the entire mythos of the Jedi, but it’s undeniable that there is a synchronicity here. YEAH STAR WARS PEOPLE THINK ABOUT IT. Yes, Dune had mad cultural impact across all storytelling, mythology, science fiction, and the like. Suck it.
*The rhythm of changing the end of the book opened the gates for people being able to have screenplay adaptations that faithfully reinterpret the original art in a manner that is conducive with filmmaking, even though it’s not a literal narrative that they follow. Think of the recent film Annihilation. There’s zero chance you could film that book. ZERO. To reinterpret it the way Garland did was brilliant. Thanks Jodorowsky!
*The raping analogy immediately didn’t age well, I’m going to believe.
*I figured out what the transcript was. Has anyone photocopied this yet? I would pay a $5,000 boxing fee or something? [ed note: outside of watching the film, like my review, this makes little sense to me]
*The idea that Walt Disney at that time had looked at it is a confirmation of just how freaking bizarre and crazy Walt Disney was at that time with films like Boatniks and the Cat From Outer Space. The meeting at Disney was a no chance, within one single second, but amazing it happened. It’s funny, Stanley talking about their rejection of the spiritual and metaphysical ideals, when they greenlit a horrifyingly frightening film called Watcher in the Woods. Heck Something Wicked This Way Comes was no cake walk.
*Gary Kurtz seems like he should probably take a nap
*Dude has a **lot** of cash to be so honestly open and truthful about the problem with capitalism… But I don’t know the denomination. /s
*I adore Jodorowsky’s humanity, and his reaction to the David Lynch Dune. I appreciate his professionalism and understanding of the industry… he knows it’s less the director, vs what a producer has wrought, and who fucked up the film so badly.
*Is jodorowsky’s still too old to make his film Dune? He’s 90. He can do the sequel. LOL
*I super loved his whole Croupier philosophy about the whole project, or, I guess life. that “hold on tightly let go lightly” vibe is sweet.
*I am so unbelievably happy and proud to know this documentary called out Star Wars for the amount of visual references that they did actually reference! Woot.
*This is literally everything I love about film. It’s everything. —> and so came: Alien, Bladerunner, William Gibson, Matrix, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Flash Gordon, Contact, Masters of the universe, Prometheus, what else?
I want that rare book so bad.