Overlooked Pictures

In this long edition of SHORTS we discuss and debate for nearly the duration of a full length commentary. Jules: More characters, more locations, more worms, more desert, and more engagement with themes of mass mind control and the metaphysics of destiny. DUNE may be Denis Villeneuve's dream project, but has it become his waking nightmare? David: And speaking of dreams, why does the Fremen one based on myths and faith keep coming true, while the smarter-than-thou Bene Gesserit one based on calculations, manipulations and unholy trysts keeps turning out wrong? Who's trolling who in the Dune-iverse? Meanwhile this dream franchise grows apace, drawing a sparse narrative from its dense source text, leaving space for sensorial nuance, albeit often at the expense of logic.

Jules: Roman Polanski's least controversial film may be one of his densest when it comes to themes and messaging. Based upon a subplot of Arturo Pérez-Reverte's 1993 novel The Club Dumas, Polanski plays out a love affair with books, their physicality, and their mystery. Johnny Depp's muted Dean Corso encounters the gamut of Polanskian caricatures, from the mephistophelian Frank Langella, the vampish Lena Olin, and the angelic Emmanuelle Seigner. David: Unlike the claustrophobic Rosemary's Baby before it, Polanski's second dance with the devil sees its protagonist cross the Atlantic to Mediterranean-adjacent lands, seeking to unravel the antics of an occult book club whose members, some unwittingly, compete for an audience with the devil. As a mysterious tome purportedly penned by the dark lord himself occupies the hero's attention, and its pages begin not only to echo but also presage unfolding events, does he himself stand to win the race or become merely hapless prey?

The inaugural episode of Overlooked SHORTS. Ironically focussing on one of the longest feature films in recent memory, Jules and David literally phone it in with a short commentary whilst not watching the movie. David recalls and Jules interrogates, surveying the technological innovations, the water, whales, wokeness and 3D wonders of Avatar: The Way of Water.

David: Each manifestation of Dune, including Frank Herbert's 1965 novel, can be viewed as a product of its time. Dune (2021) appears sanitised to accomodate the social and geopolitical tensions of the 21st Century. It's also a different take on the huge weight of world-building detail in the novel and the choice whether to cram it into a movie or leave most of it out. Here we set out to cram some back in for you. Jules: Is the tragedy of DUNE (2021) the same as the tragedy of DUNE (1984), namely that the best film of Frank Herbert's 1965 novel was David Lean's 1962 Lawrence of Arabia?

Jules: Do we deceive ourselves when we attempt to distinguish the sacred from the carnal? A small film made in a small village in a small (for Scandinavia) country seeks answers, as do we. David: When a fortress of encrusted ascetic piety and propriety suffers an unexpected incursion of fabulous french cuisine, something more than its inhabitants' impoverished taste buds cracks open. Rather than the conflict against which the god-fearing community steels itself, Babette's state-of-the-art feast triggers a cathartic synthesis of sensory and spiritual joy, to the great elevation of all concerned.