Jodorowsky's Dune

image from here

I love documentary films, they are my go-to cinematic selections that feed that side of me that needs to know.  I'm a compulsive google-er and I've always loved watching DVD/Blu-ray extras after the movie.  Now present me with a documentary about the making of a movie?  About Alejandro Jodorowsky's efforts to bring Frank Herbert's Dune to life? Give it to me.

I used to photograph in-between frames of films back in the CRT television days.  This was one image I saved from El Topo (1970), my first introduction to Jodorowsky.  This film is a surrealist and absurdist hero's journey in the form of a western, starring Jodorowsky himself as the main figure. This film falls in the same school of thought featuring visually rich and symbolically heavy tableaux as Parajanov or Fellini have created in their earlier films.  

In Jodorowsky's Dune (2013), the viewer is introduced to an ambitious feat in science-fiction filmmaking, one that never comes to fruition.  The film re-lives Jodorowsky's journey in assembling his army of "spiritual warriors" with names like H.R Giger, Dan O'Bannon, Orson Welles and Salvador Dali (!?!?!?) being attached to the project. This totally boggled my mind. 

Jodorowsky and Pavich, image from here

There are loads of incredible nuggets in this Frank Pavich directed doc, but so much of the life of the film comes from the central character, Jodorowsky himself, bursting with energy and colourful quotes.

On filmmaking:

"What is the goal of life? It's to create yourself a soul. For me, movies are an art...more than an industry.  And it's the search of the human soul...as painting, as literature, as poetry.  Movies are that for me."

On his ambitions:

"My ambition with Dune was tremendous.  So what I wanted was to create a prophet. I want to create a prophet to change the young minds of all the world.  For me Dune will be the coming of a god.  Artistical, cinematographical god.  For me, it was not to make a picture.  It was something deeper.  I wanted to make something sacred, free, with a new perspective.  Open the mind!  [...] My ego, my intellect, I want to open!  And I start the fight to make Dune."

On assembling his army or team of collaborators:

"In that time I was like a prophet, I was enlightened.  And I give to them that they are not only making a picture.  They are making something important for humanity.  They have a mission, they were warriors."

Richard Stanley on Jodorowsky:

"Alejandro is a bit like a dictator or a cult leader in assembling his army around him.  Alejandro's genius was picking those people and finding absolutely the right people for designing the spaceship, the clothes or designing the whole look of the world.  I think he seized the potential of science-ficiton."

In the end, it was not meant to be.  Despite amount of prep that had gone into the project, financing did not go through citing the lack of confidence in the director's ability to helm such a big project. In 1984, a non-sensical studio romp of Dune was released, directed by David Lynch, who has since distanced himself from the project.

Jodorowsky on the studio system:

"This system make of us slaves.  Without dignity. Without depth.  With a devil in our pocket.  This incredible money in our pocket.  This money.  This shit.  This nothing. This paper who have nothing inside.  Movies have heart.  Have mind.  Have power.  Have ambition.  I wanted to do something like that.  Why not?"

On viewing Lynch's Dune:

"When I heard that David Lynch would direct, I have a pain because I admire David Lynch.  He can do it! [...] I suffer because it was my dream, another person will do that maybe better than me.  [...] I will not go to see [the picture] because I will die.  And my sons say, "No, we are warriors.  You need to come and see that." [...] I start to see the picture and step by step, step by step, step by step, I became happy because the picture was awful!  It's a failure!  Well, it's a human reaction no?  I say, "It is not possible.  Is not David Lynch because he is a big artist."  Is the producer that did that."

Although we might fantasize of the greatness that could have been, is it possible that Jodorowsky was spared from disaster and the weight of such a big production?  Maybe the film would have toiled in a cinematic hell as Lynch's did?  

In the end Jodorowsky fulfills his prophecy as the influence of the well-documented imagery and the assembled warriors have since permeated the cinematic landscape.  They are all whispering, "I am Dune."

weekend

It was a particularly summery Montreal weekend, lots of meandering, encounters and art.

a quick stop at a new wellness studio Espace Yama Naka for some kobucha to start my day

All in Eyewear event at Les Montures

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a stroll up the mountain...

...to check out Chromatic festival. Above Jason Botkin and Jeremy Shantz's giant Mr. Potatoheads on acid.

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installation by La Camaraderie
#vscocam
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works by Sébastien Lafleur
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dans le chalet du Mont-Royal
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a bike ride to the east end for an atelier/birthday party complete with smoked meat sandwiches and a mechanical bull. enough said.
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winding it down with the incredible Watermark by Edward Burtynsky and heartbreaking La Vie d'Adèle

Les Rendez-Vous Du Cinéma Québecois

Les rendez-vous du cinéma québecois is upon us!
It's no secret I'm a huge fan of the movie making side of life and les rendez-vous is a nice showcase of homegrown films of the past year.
In no particular order I will throw down some of my picks from the festival.

In the category of "I can't believe I haven't seen these films yet-what am I waiting for?"

Clockwise from top left:
1. Monsieur Lazhar, fiction feature film, director: Philippe Falardeau
2. Surviving Progress, documentary, feature, directors: Mathieu Roy, Harold Crooks
3. Marécages, fiction, feature film, director: Guy Édoin
4. Café de Flore,  fiction, feature film, director: Jean-Marc Vallée
5. Inside Lara Roxx, documentary feature, director: Mia Donovan
6. Inni, feature documentary on Sigur Ros! director: Vincent Morisset

In the category of "Shorts I've already seen but love all these directors so I have to give them shout outs"

Clockwise from top left:
1. Sanctuaire, director: Andreas Mendritzki
2. Washed in Blue, director: Tom Fennario
3. Surveillant, directior Yan Giroux (and ps. I did the wardrobe on this short. It's a great film that just had a screening at Sundance. High five!)
4.  A Film Portrait on Reconstructing 12 Possibilities that Preceded the Disappearance of Zoe Dean Drum, director Eduardo Menz
5. Drat, director Farzin Farzaneh
6. Vent Solaire, director Ian Lagarde

And last but not least in the category of "It will probably be difficult to see these films outside of a film festival setting (unlike films by Denis Coté-whose Bestiaire is supposed to be awesome!) "

Alejandro Jodorowsky Grand Rectum de L'UdFOU 
feature doc directed by François Gourd
Ummm...Jodorowsky is a mad genius. What else is there to say? Have you seen El Topo?!

Un 14 Juillet å Marseille
feature doc directed by Yan Giroux (again!)
An experimental hand is given to this doc with lots of long takes. Sign me up!

Docu-Bonanza!

Dear friends,
It has been a couple of days since my last post, as I have locked myself in with a pile of documentaries that I will share with you.

First up: L'amour fou (2010), a documentary centered around the relationship of Yves Saint-Laurent and Pierre Bergé, his life and business partner, and the auction of their art collection after Saint-Laurent's death.  Told mostly from a series of interviews with the poetic Bergé, the film is revealing and at times touching, but unfortunately failed to engage me, keeping the viewer at arms length.  The final scene of the auction itself should feel like some kind of crescendo but comes across as selling a whole lot of stuff, without knowing the history behind certain pieces with their owners.  Although, I must add that watching art being moved is fascinating for real!

A quote from Bergé:
"C'était une très belle époque, Marrakech. Une époque que je ne me souviens pas avec nostalgie-parce que je n'ai pas de tout de la nostalgie-mais avec beaucoup de joie, c'était une histoire de jeunesse."

 Up next: Jean-Michel Basquiat: the Radiant Child (2010), an awesome documentary on the late artist (who died at 27!!) told with many modern day interviews as well as director Tamra Davis' interview with Basquiat from the 1980s in its VHS glory.  While I have never really been attached to Basquiat's work, I had some familiarity with it, as I had seen Julian Schnabel's biopic years ago when I was going through an Andy Warhol obsession.  While still not more enamored with Basquiat's work itself, I have a giant pile of respect for the man himself and have too, too many good words about this film!  If anything I LOVE LOVE LOVE, learning about someone's artistic practice/process/methods to madness.  Whew! Good stuff!

Would you like a quote?:
"He never copied. He always improvised a total revision, Jean Michel was demanding that, "if you wanna talk about influence, man, then you've got to realize that influence is not influence.  It's simply someone's idea going through my new mind."

Last film: Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006) is a documentary about the development of battery operated electric vehicles that first appear on California roads in the late 1990s.  While there is enthusiasm for the cars, corporate bullying ensues (from car and petroleum industries) and eventually all electric cars are crushed.to.death.
Sigh.
Oh the irony, given that in the present day we now have steady popularity of hybrid vehicles.  I suppose that the hybrid might be a happy medium?  Ok, I'd already seen this film before but I felt the need for a refresher, given that the film Revenge of the Electric Car (2011) is on my list of films to see.

Fave quote: "America is addicted to oil." George W. Bush

Bill Cunningham New York

Today we have another documentary that centers around the New York Times.  This film follows Bill Cunningham, an 80ish year-old bicycle riding photographer for the New York Times' street fashion oriented "On the Street" column (and video version with Cunningham's awesome commentary!) and the society event oriented "Evening Hours" column.
Throughout the film I was wowed by Cunningham's staunch moral and work ethics, his passion, positive energy, and endless knowledge of references.

Here's a couple of gems in Cunningham's words:

"Damn you New Yorkers-so extravagant and wasteful."
"To be honest and straight in New York is like Don Quixote fighting windmills."

But despite his moments of expression of disdain, what he clearly embraces is the beauty, the imagery and the self-expression that can be transmitted through fashion-often exclaiming with unfiltered enthusiasm when something catches his eye.

While I don't want to give away too much-you'll have to see the film for yourself-I'll leave you with this insightful interview with the director Richard Press.

Page One: Inside the New York Times

Above is a still inside the offices of the New York Times from the documentary Page One: Inside the New York Times.  The film follows several editors and journalists during a period of the fallout and bankruptcy of many municipal papers throughout the US, questioning the survival of print journalism as the founding pillars of reliable hard news.

The film took place over a period when the WikiLeaks released the Iraq war logs, when Comcast took over NBC/Universal and the release of the iPad.  There is no shortage of material to weave an interesting tale. While there are several members of staff that carry the story, the journalist David Carr provided the film with a character we can attach ourselves to, with his wit and sometimes scathing commentary.
In a segment where Carr interviews the founders of Vice Magazine/VBS.tv*  on their collaboration with CNN, one of the founders claims that they are covering Liberian cannibalism while the Times is covering surfing. To which Carr replies:

"Just a second, time out...Before you ever went there, we've had reporters there reporting on genocide after genocide and just because you put on a fucking safari helmet and looked at some poop, doesn't give you the right to insult what we do-so continue, continue."

There are many more of these colourful commentaries, I'd love to write them all down, but...

*note* vbs.tv doesn't seem to exist anymore and is redirected to the video section of the main site.

Helmut Newton

I was fortunate to see one retrospective of Helmut Newton's work at the Barbican in 2001, which grouped many of his iconic images including a roomful of his "Big Nude" series, which are in fact "big" at heights of around 8 feet tall!

After a long while I was pleased to finally see the 1989 documentary Helmut Newton: Frames From the Edge. Above is a still where Newton is instructing the model to pose with a roasted pig.  Audacious, funny and definitely frank are words to describe Newton as he reveals himself in an intimate portrait.

Here are little gems of a quote in the section that discusses the photographing of wealthy women:

June Newton: "...he loves the idea of these idle ladies, as he calls them, that have nothing to do, but just waiting to have something to do."

An unidentified woman on being photographed by Newton: "...he put me in a black velvet evening cap- uh cape-leaning on a telephone pole and behind me was an oil well pumping-ah it wasn't even my oil well!"

A little trivia here: Newton's "Sumo" book was the biggest and most expensive book production of the 20th century-so claims the publisher.  I saw one well preserved copy in someone's home perched on it's Phillippe Starck book stand. As there was a pair of white gloves placed on top of the book, I decided to leave the book alone.

Inside Job

A view of the tents of Occupy Montreal from a luxury condo while working on a photo shoot. Oh the irony does not escape me.  To stay with the thematic I rented Inside Job (2010), the Oscar winning documentary about the economic crisis of 2008.  With frustrating facts and outrageous greed, it is needless to say that there was no happy ending to this film.