The wrong director and the wrong project will often produce nothing more than a disaster. If you’re lucky, as in the case of David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation Dune, it’s at least an interesting disaster. Defenders of the film are few and far between and did not include Lynch, who could barely be drawn to talk about it. Maybe it was because his disappointingly literalist script never fully grasped the politically subversive text of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi epic. It was never bold enough to take on its twist on the white savior narrative as Denis Villeneuve did in his more recent film version. However, it’s still one of the most visually stunning and deliciously depraved space dramas ever conceived, as famous for Sting in a winged pleather Speedo as it is for its awe-inspiring depictions of sand worms. – Richard Whittaker
April 4 & 7-9
