Mess. This is the word that spontaneously comes to mind, looking at Jorodowsky’s Dune. A memorial feature film, which creatively retraces (impressive animation techniques from a story board illustrated, in particular…) the crazy story of the missed meeting between two monuments of pop culture. On the one hand, the Franco-Chilean poet Alejandro Jodorowksy, a whimsical and somewhat mystical spirit at the origin of surrealist jewels (the film The Mole), then cult comics (L’Incal). And on the other… Dune. Frank Herbert's long novel, a true bible of science fiction sixtiesof which everyone now knows the main points thanks to the adaptation by Denis Villeneuve.
What could have been the result of Jodorowsky's version, begun nearly fifty years earlier in the manner of a supposedly revolutionary project? “reproduce the effects of LSD, to change the public mentality forever” ? Dizzying question, to which the aptly named Jorodowsky’s Dune provides new answers. Focus.
Universal consciousness and messianic hero: a hippie version of Dune ?
Let's rewind the spool. After spending several years working as a kingpin for avant-garde theater in Mexico City, both as an actor and director, Jodorowsky is convinced that his next challenge will be that of cinema. Problem: our genius creator doesn't know how to edit or frame. But when you're as feverish as him, that's not a problem.
Royally flouting conventions, he makes a series of ultra-baric films. There is the very esoteric Fando and Lys (1967) whose crude images caused several riots during its screenings, then a first banger, The Mole. A sort of metaphysical western soaked in surrealism including, it is said, John Lennon himself would have been a fan. The proof: the singer and his partner, Yoko Ona, are participating in the financing of the next Jodorowsky, The Sacred Mountain. Quite a slap. We barely understand it, but how beautiful it is…
Let's just say that at this precise moment in his career, the filmmaker's reputation is well established. So much so that, when he crossed paths with the famous business man Frenchman Michel Seydoux, he blurted out: “Tell me what film you would like to make, I will take care of the production”. Literally. Obviously excited by the proposal, Jodorowsky suggests the adaptation of Dune. As promised, Seydoux gives the green light and work begins. A construction site of the pharaonic kind. Quite simply because, from the outset, the filmmaker's aspirations would be described by some as… delusional? “My ambition was enormous. I wanted to create a prophet to change young minds around the world. For me, Dune would be the arrival of a God”. Just that.
Roughly speakingJodorowsky wanted to use the basic material imagined by Frank Herbert, while reinterpreting the end of the work, version Peace and Love. Where the novelist had depicted, in his book, the horror of a drifting power provoking – in particular – cosmic jihad, the Franco-Chilean artist wanted to lean towards something much more optimistic. An alternative version, where Paul would not appear as a genocidal warlord, but rather as the messiah of a “cosmic” consciousness since at the time of his death in the film, it was planned that he… reincarnates into all other beings in the universe. Translation: deep down, we are One.
As a reminder, the project Dune begins in 1975. This type of spiritual mantra around “universal” communion is at the heart of New Age philosophy, close to the hippie movement of the time of which Jodorowksy’s “Paul” would have been, in a sense, the spokesperson and martyr. But for the character's message to be transmitted, it is still necessary to realize Dune. Neither one nor two, the filmmaker puts together a team of “spiritual warriors”according to his expression, in order to secure the blow. And concretely, it gives a team of collaborators like cinema had never dreamed of.
Soundtrack by Pink Floyd, Salvador Dalí paid $100,000 per minute…
After winning the adaptation rights from Hollywood for a “bite of bread”Jodorowksy sets about his next mission: to unearth the profile that will be able to illustrate their vision of Dunethrough a story board. The chosen one is none other than Jean Giraud, aka Moebius. Either a luminary of French SF comics, who was then crowned with the success of his masterpiece, Arzarch. The collaboration is alchemical and the story boardbreathtaking. It all starts under the best hospices.
And as surprising as it may seem, this good momentum continues. Ginger – who was not yet the legendary creator of “Alien” – said to himself “super enthusiastic” at the idea of taking care of the sets and costumes of these gothic villains of Harkonnen. On the soundtrack side, after a shouting match, Pink Floyd (who were eating burgers while Jodo was doing his pitch) assure us: yes, yes, the filmmaker can count on them to concoct an entire album dedicated to Dune. All that's left to do is cast – quite a bit.
On this point as on everything related to his film, directly or indirectly, the filmmaker has a precise idea in mind. For example, it's simple: Orson Welles must take on the role of Baron Harkonnen, and no one else. So there you go. To meet the reality of Citizen Kanerenowned for his fork skills, Jodorowsky has the good idea to investigate his going out habits and tracks him to a Parisian restaurant where he finds him having lunch, surrounded by six bottles of red. “I spoke to him with immense respect”remembers Jodorowksy, “He told me he didn’t want to play anymore. So I told him: “If you come, I will hire the chef of this restaurant and you will eat like today, every day”. Welles agrees. But the race for stardom has only just begun.
Another star in the lead, another rough negotiation. So that Salvador Dalí (yes, yes, the dandy prince of surrealism), who dreamed of being “the highest paid actor in the world” deigns to accept the role of the mad emperor of the Padisha universe Shaddam IV, Michel Seydoux promises to remunerate him to the tune of… 100,000 dollars per minute of appearance on the screen. Madness. Luckily, Mike Jagger isn't as demanding. “I imagined him in the role of Feyd Rautha (the nephew of Baron Harkonnen, editor’s note)specifies Jodorowsky. Before remembering: “I was at a Parisian party (…) and at the other end of the room he was there! He moved forward, then stood in front of me. I asked him if he wanted to act in my film, and he answered me with one word: Yes.”. Jackpot.
The next step? Find investors. To achieve this, Jodorowsky knocked on all the doors of the cinema majors. Universal, Paramount, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer… And it’s a cold shower. Michel Seydoux remembers: “Every time they told us “it’s great”. You have solved the technical problems of the special effects, economically it is reasonable but… we do not understand your director”. The fault is a lack of “vision” and a certain reluctance, vis-à-vis an SF project of hitherto unprecedented stature, denounces Jodorowsky (Stars Wars IV will only come out years later…). “Hollywood didn’t see science fiction that way. For them it was 2001: A Space Odyssey or serial films B,” he laments.
Dune is dead, live Dune !
In a word, no studio trusts the extravagant author of The Sacred Mountain to bring to fruition such a titanic project, the budget of which would weigh 15 million dollars, minimum. From refusal to refusal, Jodorowksy must face the facts: his Dune died before being born. The disappointment is immense. And the final blow was not long in coming: in 1984 it was one of his counterparts, David Lynch (to whom the final cut will have escaped, moreover…) which will adapt what was supposed to be the “project of his life”.
To avoid sinking, Jodorowksy is fed up with the “nullity” of this version, already. But above all, he draws on the scenario of his Dune to weave the stories of L’Incal Then The Caste of Meta-Barons. Absolute references in SF comics. Not one to ruminate on the past, the one who has carved out a lion's place for himself in the landscape of the 9th art wants to believe in it: to hear him, his Dune influenced all SF cinema, from Star Wars has Terminatorpassing through Premier Contact. Delirium?
Maybe not. After all, the story board that Jodorowsky left on the desk of every major US studio in the seventies undoubtedly circulated – and, with it, all the ideas for sequence shots and costumes of the filmmaker, illustrated under the style of Mœbius. A true art book, this “script” like no other could also follow an unforeseen destiny.“If someone decided to take it back – even after I pass away! – he could make an animated film out of it. It would be possible, with current means”slips Jodorowsky. To the wise?
