JODOROWSKY’S DUNE

US/France, 2013, 90 minutes, Colour.
Alejandro Jodorowsky, Brontis Jodorowsky, Michel Seydoux, H.R.Giger, Chris Foss, Christian Vander, Devin Faraci, Diane O' Bannon, Drew Mc Weeny, Gary Kurtz, Jean- Paul Gibon, Jean- Pierre Vignau, Nicolas Winding Refn, Richard Stanley.
Directed by Frank Pavich.

For the film buffs who experienced films in the 1960s and 1970s, and for those who appreciate the history of cinema, this is an essential film, a portrait of Chilean director Aleyandro Jodorowsky and an illustrated lecture on the director himself and his career. At 84, he is a vigorous and intelligent participant in the film, responding eagerly with passion to questions about his career. He is a commanding presence.

The focus on of the film is on his attempt to make a movie of Frank Herbert’s Dune in the 1970s. Everything seemed to be in place after a long and painstaking pre-production effort. He and his producer, Michel Seydoux, who had brought the directors films to France with great acclaim, went to, shop the screenplay at all the Hollywood studios. They Were commended for the completion of such a planned project, but were wary of the director himself and his reputation and all turned down Dune.(Ironically, the de Laurentiis company greenlit a project in the early 1980s with David Lynch, whom Jodorowsky admired, directing – and we see Jodorowsky amusingly explaining how we went to see the film and had great contentment to find that he thought the film was awful!).

This documentary stands as a very interesting portrait of Jodorwosky, originally from Chile, maker of provocative films in provocative style, especially El Topo and Holy Mountain, both of which were screened in Australia shortly after their release. These are considered as the first of the Midnight Movies, finding a home in the United States for these late night screenings. Jodorowsky himself says here that he did not urge audiences to take LSD but wanted to provide films which offered the visual equivalent of an LSD experience with hallucinations. And he succeeded. The next step was to make Dune, which he saw as a prophetic novel – even though he changed some of the plotlines and situations according to his own prophetic interpretation. Jodorowsky is not above seeing himself as rather Godlike.

The film makers here have scored many a coup, gathering together most of the chief collaborators for Dune, and interviewing them. One, writer-director, Dan O’ Bannon, who had sold up everything in the United States and moved to Paris to work on the project, had died but there were visuals of him and an interview with his widow. Together, they explain how they saw their task in bringing Dune to visual life, with illustrations of many of their designs.

After the disappointment of Dune’s demise, many of these collaborators worked together, for example, Dan O’ Bannon and H.R.Geiger created Alien. There is very interesting section here with sequences from many of the signs-fiction films from the 1970s which were directly influenced by the planned Dune – since the quite large book compiled by the director was available at all the studios.Jodorowsky himself worked with the artist, Möbius, especially with a number of what are now called graphic novels.

This is exemplary filmmaking, keeping audience interest, moving at a great pace, introducing a variety of characters, insightful explanations of the creative process, interviews with Jodorowsky’s son, Brontis, who was to be Paul Atreides in Dune, as well as the commentary from the director himself right throughout the film.

It is some consolation that he directed a film. The Dance of Reality with his son which was screened at the Cannes film Festival 2013.