Before seeing it, the adjective I have heard and read most refers to Dune it was: “elegant”. I was reminded of the dialogue between Billy Crystal and Bruno Kirby in Harry, this is Sally that if you say that a girl has personality it means that she is not attractive. If everyone says that Dune it is “elegant” maybe it means that it is not beautiful. But Denis Villeneuve’s version of Frank Herbert’s science fiction classic, already brought to the screen in 1984 by David Lynch and Dino De Laurentiis (with disturbing results), is not just “elegant”.
The story is well known. Arrakis is a desert planet rich in a substance, called “the spice”, fundamental to running the Imperium, a sort of galactic institution of which, in truth, we know little. The House of Harkonnen has brutally exploited the spice harvest concession for years. The Imperium has decided it’s time for a change: the proud and noble Atreides lineage will replace that of the very wealthy Harkonnen, trying to develop more equitable relations with the local population. Obviously things are not what they seem and difficulties arise.
“Colonial” exploitation of someone else’s resources, the demon of profit, the search for a greater balance with the environment, integration, intrigues, mysterious designs, corruption, blackmail. There are hints of topicality and there is the use of solutions that never go out of fashion such as prophecies, the arrival of the messiah and, who knows, the famous fifth element that holds the universe together (therefore love, which however here it is only suggested). Nothing revolutionary.
But: clear direction, excellent cast, scenes that tend to the grandiose and fantastic costumes and (perhaps one of my favorite things) a script that takes its time to give the right depth to the narrative, without never losing its grip on the story. . Even during the battle scenes, the plot is not forgotten and the whole is particularly well balanced. In short, the film is well done, but who knows if it will convince the general public, the one in search of continuous doors, of action without pauses.
Perhaps with this doubt in mind, authors and producers have tried not to take too many risks. The most striking example is the colossal cast, starting with Timothée Chalamet, who certainly attracts many fans and overall works, to Oscar Isaac, always always convincing, to finish with Zendaya who, for now, remains more a vision than a real character. Also like Rebecca Ferguson, whose moments of disorientation serve the ambiguity of which her character is a healthy bearer. The whole cast is centered.
Probably, at least in part, even the choice to divide the story into two parts (and at the moment it is not known when the second will be released) is dictated by the desire to limit the damage if the response of the public is not what was hoped for. Today the laws of the film market would push to divide the Riccardo III by Shakespeare, but I don’t want to think I can’t see Dune – Part two. So everyone to the cinema.
Dune: Part one
By Denis Villeneuve. With Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Josh Brolin, Dave Bautista, Javier Bardem, Stellan Skarsgård, Charlotte Rampling. Canada / United States 2021, 155 ‘. In the hall
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