What is the secret of the cult film of a native of Ukraine, without which there would be no "Starship Troopers" and "Alien": "Dune" by Khodorovsky

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

He was called the Prophet in the world of cinema. The unfinished epic saga Dune is one of the most famous cult films in cinema history. Only the enumeration of those who were involved in this picture has a powerful hallucinogenic effect. Reading this list, it may seem that all of this is too amazing to be true. Indeed, in what delusional dream it might occur that Salvador Dali and Mick Jagger can star in the same movie, and Pink Floyd and Magma write the music …

Director from Chile, Alejandro Jodorowsky, was the son of Jewish emigrants from Ukraine. The history of his Dune dates back to December 1974. The stunningly surreal and truly epic film was nearly completed by Jodorowski in the 1970s. The director wanted to create an unforgettable piece of art based on Frank Herbert's fantasy saga. The idea was great, but the film was not destined to see the viewer. How did this unusual and complex undertaking arise and suddenly disappear, like a sandworm chasing food in the desert?

Some critics call it "the greatest movie ever made" … Jodorowski's vision of what Dune was supposed to be is truly mesmerizing. " Alejandro wanted to start the tape with a long shot, which would embody all the modern achievements of cinema science fiction. The end would be universal enlightenment and the transformation of the desert planet Arrakis, on which the events taking place in the film unfold, into a blooming paradise.

Most likely, the main reason for the failure of this idea was that the project was based on creative rather than commercial interests. Now Jodorowski is 91 years old and he says the following about this: “Van Gogh once cut off his ear … But it's rather difficult for me to imagine a Hollywood director cutting his ear because he cannot shoot his picture, although I was ready to do this is.

A previous attempt to adapt Dune to the screen failed. Previous producers wanted David Lean ("Lawrence of Arabia") to play in the film, but he was not interested … And the tasks before all the participants in the project were simply colossal - it is not so easy to bring to the screen the crazy surreal world of Frank Herbert. Jodorowski stayed awake for weeks working on the painting. He struggled to get into this surreal golden mean. The tape promised to be a countercultural hit.

What could have become the world of Herbert from Jodorowski, you can imagine by looking at his previous paintings - "Mole" (1970) and "Sacred Mountain" (1973). These films turned out to be not just surreal, but shamanic, even occult. Of course, for the most part, this concerns the "Sacred Mountain". The film attracted money from fans of the director such as John Lennon and Yoko Ono. The director, inspired by the success of "Mole" and enough money, embodied all of his wildest ideas. The picture has become a cult.

The first book by Frank Herbert, published in 1965, tells the story of the hero Paul Atreides and the struggle for power between noble families in the planetary system of the distant future. The struggle revolved around some kind of "medicine" that allowed those who took it to literally collapse space. A French consortium acquired the rights to the script and signed a contract with Jodorowski. According to the director's idea, it was supposed to be a ten-hour saga filled with fantastic views and bright bold images.

Among the production designers was H. R. Giger, a few years before he helped create Ridley Scott's Alien. Later, Scott was involved in his own project, where he and Giger first crossed paths. Dan O'Bannon was in charge of special effects on Dune - coincidentally, he co-wrote the first chapter of the xenomorph adventure franchise after Jodorowski's film never made it to completion. Alejandro has hired the best, brightest and most talented creative people to fill this unique universe.

Orson Welles was to play the villainous Baron Harkonnen. He may have been flattered to learn that the director had filmed Wells's 1958 film, Touch of Evil, for the planned opening shot of Dune. Mick Jagger portrayed Feyd-Rauta, a relative of the Baron who opposes Atreides. Also in the picture were such stars as Gloria Swanson, Alain Delon, Geraldine Chaplin and David Carradine. Herve Wilscheis, who rose to prominence on the big screen the same year as Nick Nack in The Man with the Golden Gun, got the role of Gurney Halleck.

The surrealist met a surrealist when Salvador Dali agreed to play the role of Emperor Shaddam IV. Although Dali showed himself to be a very cold realist, when it came to his fee, he asked for a fabulous $ 100,000 at that time … an hour. Sly Alejandro planned to shoot all the scenes with Dali in sixty minutes, and for the rest, where possible, use a dummy. The legendary Pink Floyd, who had just won a resounding success and worldwide recognition with their album "The Dark Side of the Moon", had to write the music.

Jodorowski was perfect for that unique atmosphere of the late 1960s and early 1970s, when everything was mixed: LSD, Maoism, yoga, Tarot cards, alchemy, movements proclaiming a return to earth and simple life, and an all-consuming desire to change the world. The director's films attracted both urban intellectuals, expanding their minds, and visitors to night sessions in grindhouse cinemas, where films with an abundance of blood and nudity were usually shown. There was everything in Alejandro's paintings. Everyone could find in them something that would be to their liking.

Dune could become more than just a cult film, it was supposed to become a real legend of a cult cinema. As often happens and what is especially offensive that everything fell apart due to a banal lack of money. In order to embody all the director's ideas, it took from ten to fifteen million dollars. This is in addition to the fact that at the stage of the collapse of the picture, it was already elementary that they did not have such funds. They tried to sell the footage and the finished storyboard to Hollywood. The project was just right for him. They didn’t buy it there only because the “crazy” director flatly turned out to cut the timing, and it was no less than ten hours long!

Two million dollars have been spent. The team failed to raise the fifteen million dollars needed to keep the head above water (or more precisely, above the sand). So the dream died.

Jodorowski adapted some of the footage for the graphic novel Incal (1980–2014). The artwork was provided by Jean Giraud, also known as "Möbius", who also worked on the production of the film. The documentary "Jodorovsky's Dune" was released in 2013, giving viewers a glimpse of the work that was once completed.

Another art house director took over the reins of Dune in 1984. The film became a cult film, but was underestimated by the mainstream audience and some critics. David Lynch's vision was portrayed by Kyle McLachlan as Paul, Jose Ferrer as Shaddam IV, Kenneth McMillan as Baron, and Patrick Stewart as Gurney Halleck. Mick Jagger never became Fade-Rauta, although another rock star, Sting, took on the role. Toto and Brian Eno were replaced on the Pink Floyd soundtrack.

Jodorowski went to Paris to see this film. “I was so happy, so happy, so happy because the movie was shit! I realized that "Dune" is beyond the power of anyone. It is a myth".

Frank Herbert's Dune was recently adapted for the small screen by Sci-Fi. Now fans are awaiting a version of Denis Villeneuve due out in December, starring Timothy Chalamet. Jodorowski is looking forward to this premiere. The director is confident that the end product will be "industrial cinema", and not what is needed.

Despite the sands of time, sprinkled with Alejandro Jodorowski's crazy ideas about the story of Frank Herbert, they continue to live in the imaginations of moviegoers. One of the main advantages of the unfinished picture of the Prophet is cinema, “what if”. In this sense, it has a lot more power than a finished product ever could. Dune can be called the best film of the director's career. After all, the picture exists only in our imagination, and therefore, it is absolutely perfect.

“They were afraid of what my movie might do to them, to their minds. The system makes us slaves, without dignity, without depth … Films have a heart! There is consciousness! There is strength, there is ambition!.. And I wanted to make just such a film - powerful, great. Why not? It was a dream movie. Dreams also change the world …”(Alejandro Jodorowski)

For those who are a fan of intellectual cinema, our article is about another legendary figure of cinematography why the brilliant director Stanley Kubrick hated his first film and why he did not let the audience see "A Clockwork Orange".