Dune is part of these works of science fiction that resonate for many as the sacred book. Whether the adaptation is to the letter or seeking to emancipate the text, the exercise is by nature cursed at the risk of betraying the memories of the followers or alienating the novices. From Lynch's unequal film to Jodorowsky's baroque and aborted adaptation, many s After a first feature film that set the scene, this second part enters the heart of the subject: the religion that permeates more than ever Dune cycle. Has Denis Villeneuve always been carried away by aesthetics and the concern for shape?
Crossing the desert
After the fall of the Atreides house in the first part, the film focuses on Paul's integration (Timothy Chalamet) among the Fremen, this people who live in harmony with the desert of the planet Arrakis. On the way to Sietch, Paul and his mother, the witch Lady Jessica, are seen as foreigners and must gain the confidence of the Fremen not without sacrifices. These natives are divided among those who believe in the prophecy that a mother and her son of « external world » bring green paradise and those who consider them spies and a danger to the equality of their own.
Intrigue revolves around this dilemma: satisfy its thirst for revenge, driven by the will alone, or face a messianic mission whose order of the Bene Gesserit Pull the strings. Does the message always prevail over its bearer despite the veneration it generates? It is the red thread of the film, the ridge line that must not be crossed in order not to lose its humanity when it was precisely sought to save it. The classical axis of the SF, understood as a declension of tragedy, is also the question of waiver to accomplish a destiny that might well lead to total war rather than to paradise.
At the heart of this prophecy is the essential role given to Chani (Zendaya), a customary fedaykin fighter of raids on Harkonnen's harvesters, and with whom Paul has a romantic relationship. Let's immediately evacuate the biggest black spot of Villeneuve's adaptation: a certain hermetism with emotion. Expected as one of the key events of this adaptation, the birth of their union unfortunately resonates as an admission of failure to write or at least a missed opportunity. Sunset, desert as far as you can see... « Romanticism » It looks like it's already alive, but let's go. Catapulted in a handful of seconds during a brief exchange on equality, the root of the Fremen people, the sequence ends with a kiss too easily brought, carried away by a camera that veers around the couple. The narrative of this second part is carried by ellipses not always very happy and that prevent us from identifying with the characters.
However, this turning point would have gained in emotion if it had been less agreed. Even if it's fragments, it's not for lack of seeing many visions between Chani and Paul in the first part. We feel that Denis Villeneuve did not wish to extend too much on the premises of their union while already having in mind the next chapter and the key scene of the novel, even if he destabilizes his spectator. And maybe that's the problem. Without falling into the pitfall of the case of Star Wars attack clones Who was turning blue flower, was there not material to give more warmth and therefore adhere to these two characters, yet key to the story?
Magnificent images... but modest
Another paradox of the vision of Dune by Villeneuve, Arrakis may be the most inhospitable planet in the solar system because of its heat that can reach extreme temperatures at the poles, we never feel the hostility of the desert. An aseptic side wanted as a contemplative aesthetic choice. A movie like Alien, the eighth passenger (1979), however, perfectly integrated the grammar of bodies and fluids as a vehicle of emotions. Would we have had the same chill without a single drop of sweat? Everyone still remembers Ellen Ripley almost as peaty as the xenomorph in the nostromo oven. In Dune 2024, on the contrary, water is precious even if it never escapes from the pores of the skin or so rarely. Chani's character is a photogenic beauty that separates us unconsciously from the authenticity of Arrakis by its perfection. Not a remnant of sand comes to upset the grain of a skin with almost digital softness.
The same applies to battles deprived of emotional involvement because of choreographies that lack sincerity outside duels. We still regret not seeing a single drop of blood shed which makes the fights more like a capoeira exercise than a fight against survival, especially since the opponents Harkonnen offer only a very moderate resistance, not to say insignificant. As if they were only used to make good the Fremen whose offensive abilities are certainly unusual. It is interesting to note that Dune shows to better understand what he reserves religiously out of field. The weight of the Pegi 13 buffer is also seen.
Simply not recommended at least 13 years of age, the 2h45 of the film forbids nudity. One cannot help but think of Giger's bitter testimony on the Jodorowsky's aborted project As if the curse continued. On the planet Giedi Prime of the Harkonnens, already the artist of biomechanical (read our file on Scorn and Giger) did not hide his irritation to see his morbid ambition upset: « Evil dominated my planet, it was black magic, it was free to attack. There were also other perversions on the agenda. In short I was in my element ». And he adds, bitter: « Sex was prohibited, as if the film were made for children. [Jodorowsky] was tired of all his films being censored ». Fifty years later, censorship or worse self-censorship is still raging. The paedophilia of the Baron is not even shown or even suggested, even though his character is always the object of aversion.
Should this choice of non-adaptation be seen as a puritan neo filter? Indeed Frank Herbert, a fervent supporter of Nixon, leaned very largely to the right. Before being known for his science fiction, the author made a living by writing speeches and creating advertisements for Conservative candidate campaigns. But above all Herbert will have made explicit remarks homophobic until the end of his life, freely assimilating homosexuality to violence and the collapse of society. He was teaching his son Brian how to « Repressed homosexual energy could be exploited by armies for murderous purposes ».
In an unpublished poem, the author reactionary wrote unfailingly that « homosexuals, bureaucrats, tyrants grow before every fall in darkness ». Not at all sensitivity readers who gain ground by revising many popular works and who confuse work with educational tool, it is regrettable not to have gone to the end of the representation of the perversity and sadism of the Baron. There is always an infantilizing side – and therefore objectively debilitating – not to trust the intelligence of the public. We would rather subodor the merchant weight of the Warner than a real sweetened choice of the director...
The same is true for the raw violence, despite the many cuts, you will never see a single bloodshed. As if you shouldn't be dirty with such beautiful images. This bias at the sole service of aesthetics makes Villeneuve's vision pudic, if not smooth, despite the splendour of his composition and photography. The director seems to forbid too long tightening his frame on his characters. A criticism that was already addressed to him for the first part.
The (re/de)construction of a myth
If one ignores these few defects, these choices are not completely off the ground. By depriving himself of this organic side, Denis Villeneuve detachs himself from his predecessors and especially from the baroque side of the Dune of Jodorowsky, including storyboard become legendary offered a curious mixture between the worlds of Giger and Moebius. Cleanly less bariolate, it was the choice of purification that guided the Quebec director. Through these concessions, Villeneuve succeeds in accomplishing something else.
More imperial or messianic in his approach, Dune Villeneuve version constantly seeks to separate from Men. The plans are majestic and inspired with a sense of gigantism that brings us back to a form of humility. The scenes with the verses are the climax. We too are witnessing the construction of a myth in the etymological sense of the term, i.e. the « idealized representation of a past state of humanity ». Giger's legacy remains palpable with some aerial plans in urban areas and mother ships that will not leave indifferent the lovers of the tortured painter, chanting a SF where darkness has long consumed beings.
Behind this remarkable aesthetic, we find in particular Greg Frasier, director of photography and true artist to whom one owes much to the plastic of The Batman, The Creator or Rogue One, the most authorising blockbusters in recent years. Dune was captured with one of the best digital cameras, the Arri Alexa 65 which offers epidermal sharpness.
Clearly Denis Villeneuve and his team wanted to offer a show with all that implies such a term. Coquettery and not least, this second part even has an IMAX version 70mm but only a few rooms around the world offer this format with almost 40% extra image on the top and bottom edges of the screen. There's something to let think about for the privileged few who have had access to it. Even if our country is not equipped with such rooms to date, we remain fascinated by these wide planes where the Men are small freighters facing the machines.
In this second part, Dune goes even further by choosing a colorimetry that frees itself from the carcans of realism to best stick to the atmosphere. No plan is recycled and it is a real treat for those who worship the form. The Giedi Prime planet and the Harkonnen palace pay tribute to Giger's work by offering a contrast between a totalitarian model (up to depriving the image of colours) and the planet Arrakis with stunning beauty with its dunes as far as the eye can see.
The sequence that introduces the psychotic nephew of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen turns almost to monochrome with saturated whites where the paleness of Léa Seydoux Flosses poisonous innocence. Infrared film, this scene of the Colysée where gladiators clash with each other responds to a radical logic. Such audacity evokes the freedoms taken by Villeneuve for his excellent Blade Runner 2049, to date his best SF film that does not have to pale before his illustrious model. In this Villeneuve carpets all Marvel productions combined. Denis Villeneuve explains his approach:
« For Giedi Prime, the Harkonnen world, there are few details in the book and it is a world cut off from nature. A plastic world. So I thought it would be interesting that the sun us a little their mind. If instead of giving colors, the sun would destroy them and create a dark black and white world. What would tell us more about how these people see reality, their politics, their primitive and brutal culture. »
From a musical point of view, the soundtrack of the film is not left behind. Hans Zimmer (Interstellar, Inception, The Dark Knight and so many others) behind OST The film. The German composer had taken the place of Jóhann Jóhannsson who had long collaborated with Villeneuve on his first films Prisoners, Sicario or First contact. Here again, the soundtrack occupies a central place as if to fill up stinging images but ankylosed by an over-purification concern as if any trace of life had been systematically cleared.
The score of Hans Zimmer is perhaps too often reduced in the popular imagination to an overwhelming atmospheric music that would take over the image. Here the OST leaves the beautiful part to mysticism. The themes are designed as breaths with a strong presence of wind instruments and a welcome oriental touch. And as with the first film, atypical acoustic instruments such as the duduk, Armenian oboe, were first used. Some were even invented but instead of amplifying them, they were then put into vibration by a complex system of resonators and synthesizers, of gongs and osmosis, which gives them a new color. More metallic during its flights, the OST carries the show by accompanying the audience further by switching from more subtle sound textures to melodies and themes dedicated to characters and families.
Experimental, the music was designed by the team with a very horizontal management, each one able to offer his ideas to the composer on the same level (listen to the podcast It's more than SF.). The original Dune is unique. It transpires the nostalgia of a lost golden age where human voices never really cover this bewitching buzz, sometimes caught up with lyrical impulses. This musical choice fits perfectly with the birth of a cult despite the ambiguity of Paul Atreides whose psychological evolution draws an infinite number of possibilities for the continuation of the saga.
It's not a prophecy, it's a tale.
In parallel with the duo formed by Paul and Chani, one sees the designs of the other large houses, that of the enemies Harkonnen and especially the order of the Bene Gesserit who augurs for beautiful things for the next films. May it be Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), Margot Fenring (Léa Seydoux) or young Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), all offer brief incarnated sequences that make us want to see more. On this subject, the female characters are very clearly the most interesting of the film and Villeneuve does not hide his desire to work more with Florence Pugh and Anya Taylor-Joy, two actresses with magnetic interpretations.
It is said that Herbert's novel had been enriched with more built female characters after his wife had to press his spouse. While the SF is often criticized for leaving only a very reserved (if not sexist) place for women, Villeneuve here signs a film on the opposite sides with female characters much less monolithic than their male avatars. With its colourful casting and an impressive number of protagonists, we imagine that we had to make cuts accordingly. Choices that may question the format of the film rather than that of the series.
If this second part is imperfect though much better than the first, it is that it finally draws its stakes: the reverse of religion founded as many other systems on the same imposture: the promise of liberation by enslavement of the crowds. And it is precisely the object of the film: to have us witness inevitably to the advent of a theocracy whose nature is by its very nature the opposite of any democratic aim. The inevitable is the will that bends under the weight of power. A tragic element that recalls this proverb of the Bene Gesserit order:
« When religion and politics travel in the same cart, travellers think that nothing can stop them. They're moving faster and faster. They forget that a precipice is always too late. »
As history progresses, the spectator wonders about the increasingly supernatural dimension of the hero Usul Muad SF obliges, faith occupies a central place there as if our religions had led to a form of almost nihilistic syncretism. This second opus sketches with intelligence the ambivalence of the Messianic figure of Christ and his negative, the Antichrist. And yet nothing is left to chance in the construction of the myth: let us remember that Paul is the son of Jessica, witch Bene Gesserit, and Leto Atreides, the Duke of the Atreids house. It was therefore born of a union which was intended to create a child with exceptional powers. « It's not a prophecy, it's a tale. » concludes the first interested...
The scene of Paul Atreides' submission to the Reverend Mother in the first part of Dune was explicit. And bis reappeared in this second part with another key character... The Bene Gesserit pulls strings in shadow on two main axes: macro level with the Missionaria Protectiva which consists of launching religious rumors to influence peoples and at the political level by training the daughters of the big houses to spread the plans of Bene Gesserit throughout the galactic Empire through weddings by alliance. Whatever the cost and with Machiavellic opportunism. « We don't hope, we plan » As the Reverend Mother rightly confirms. By their sense of education and their relationship with power, the members of Bene Gesserit recall the historical cartoon of the Jesuits.
Paul Atreids and the Holy War
Denis Villeneuve finally developed one of the axes of the Dune cycle : the coming holy war, resurgence of the butlerian Jihad, whose name will never be pronounced. It will not escape anyone that Herbert's work borrows much from religions and more particularly from Islam. Paul Atreids can recall the prophet Muhammad who before being a spiritual guide was also warlord. The Messianism of Dune is echoed in Shiite Islam and its mahdi, « who is guided by God », term taken literally by Herbert as Villeneuve. In the Muslim religion, it is the last hidden imam that must return to lead the community of believers. Comparisons could be continued. To one letter, Fedaykin fighters refer to Fedayin, term which means « who sacrifice himself for something or someone ». Today this term Fedayin is used, for example, by some branches of the Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupier, even if one finds trace of this term until the Middle Ages with the cult of assassins.
As for the holy war and the Jihad itself, its meaning is actually much richer than a simple crusade against the infidels. Phagocyted by a civilizational obsession after September 11, the term is infinitely larger suggests its assimilation to contemporary terrorism. It is even a first name worn by the musummans as Arab darlings and which means « effort ». This is the work of the believer even Christian for « rising to piety on the scale of human perfection ». Traditional Islam distinguishes the minor Jihad from the major Jihad. The first is directed against the enemies of the dogma in an offensive or defensive manner, the second against oneself. It's kind of a variant of « Know yourself » inscribed on the Temple of Delphi and whose philosophical use of Socrates will also pass through the centuries. An exercise of self-denial and path to God to sum up grossly. In Islamic tradition, some imams like Al-Bayhaqî (994-1066) claim that the Prophet would have kept these words in front of his companions on the return of a military expedition: « Here we come back from the minor Jihad to surrender to the major Jihad ». And when his brothers were arming him, he asked him what he was talking about, « The heart ».
More than revenge against the Harkonnen, Dune is above all a struggle of Paul Atreids against himself, as opposed to his father whom the emperor (Christopher Walken) do not hesitate to skin like a man of heart, so a weak man. Introspection as a revelation of human essence, this deadly potential that our body contains such as the precious liquid that makes the Fremen live and of which no drop must leave the being. « Whoever can destroy something has real control » Let go of the prophet who became the destructive of the worlds. This ambivalent sentence is the very illustration of a certain form of Jihad. Destroy others and destroy yourself to take control.
« If you drink, you die. If you drink, you'll see » as one of the figures of the order announced during a memorable scene. More pessimistic, this second part allows for a particularly dark program for the upcoming films that are already eagerly awaited. We do not attend the birth of a prophet but the birth of a prophet. abomination born of the millennial work of Bene Gesserit in the quest for Kwisatz Haderach. Abomination in the sense of an object of aversion but especially anathema. Paul is no longer himself or the vassal of Bene Gesserit, he is already excommunicated before even having belonged to any church or become its prophet. This is the figure of the Antichrist in spite of him.
Passionate about this article, I love the ties you draw with Giger, the dune of Jodorowsky and Herbert's life (I didn't know his political past at all). And very nice idea also these musical passages scattered through the article, it allowed me to plunge back into the atmosphere of the film during the reading 😉
Gracias, yes I had fun this week, I was listening to the OST loop by writing my article and doing my research! ^^ A hell of a job behind the music creation, I recommend you take a look or rather a tender ear while listening to the podcast It's more than SF. Frankly I would have liked to go even further on the subject of religious and the bridges between different religions. But then write a book! ^^^
https://www.cestplus thandelasf.com/podcasts/fail-see-dune-2
Impressing the quality of this article, a very informative and pleasant reading moment. Thank you!!!
Thank you, thank you! ^^^
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