1. What is the goal of the life?Copy !req
2. It's to create yourself a soul.Copy !req
3. For me, movies are an art...Copy !req
4. more than an industry.Copy !req
5. And it's the search of the human soul...Copy !req
6. as painting, as literature, as poetry.Copy !req
7. Movies are that for me.Copy !req
8. I wanted to make a film...Copy !req
9. that would give the people
who took LSD at that time...Copy !req
10. the hallucinations that you get with
that drug, but without hallucinating.Copy !req
11. I did not want LSD to be taken,
I wanted to fabricate the drug's effects.Copy !req
12. This film was going to change
the public's perceptions.Copy !req
13. My ambition with Dune was tremendous.Copy !req
14. So, what I wanted
was to create a prophet.Copy !req
15. I want to create a prophet...Copy !req
16. to change the young minds
of all the world.Copy !req
17. For me, Dune will be
the coming of a god.Copy !req
18. Artistical, cinematographical god.Copy !req
19. For me, it was not to make a picture.Copy !req
20. It was something deeper.Copy !req
21. I wanted to make something sacred...Copy !req
22. free, with new perspective.Copy !req
23. Open the mind!Copy !req
24. Because I feel, in that time,
myself, inside a prison.Copy !req
25. My ego, my intellect,
I want to open!Copy !req
26. And I start the fight to make Dune.Copy !req
27. You needed a touch of madness to do it.Copy !req
28. You can't have a masterpiece
without madness.Copy !req
29. Pink Floyd? Dali...Copy !req
30. or Orson Welles or others!Copy !req
31. Maybe Dune had too much madness?Copy !req
32. But a movie that doesn't have
a bit of madness...Copy !req
33. is not going to conquer the whole world.Copy !req
34. I was in Paris with my wife
at Jodorowsky's house...Copy !req
35. and having dinner...Copy !req
36. and very late into the evening...Copy !req
37. he goes if I wanted to see Dune.Copy !req
38. And I was like:Copy !req
39. "I didn't know you made it."Copy !req
40. And he goes, well, he did.Copy !req
41. And he pulls out, you know,
the famous Dune book...Copy !req
42. that apparently only exists...
Two copies left in the universe.Copy !req
43. And I then sat with him
in front of me...Copy !req
44. for a very long time
and just went through the book...Copy !req
45. and he would explain
his thoughts and his ideas.Copy !req
46. And, you know,
when I heard about the team...Copy !req
47. that he had assembled
to make this movie...Copy !req
48. sitting there at night,
2 a.m. At his house...Copy !req
49. seeing the book,
looking at the images...Copy !req
50. and hearing Jodorowsky telling me...Copy !req
51. what was gonna happen
in every scene.Copy !req
52. So, in a way...Copy !req
53. I'm the only guy who actually
ever saw Jodorowsky's Dune.Copy !req
54. I am the only spectator...Copy !req
55. that has seen the movie.Copy !req
56. And I'm gonna tell you something.Copy !req
57. It's awesome.Copy !req
58. Dune is probably
the greatest movie never made.Copy !req
59. It continues to influence us...Copy !req
60. and will go on influencing
generations to come...Copy !req
61. despite the fact that it doesn't exist,
we cannot rent it, we cannot watch it.Copy !req
62. What if the first film of that nature...Copy !req
63. had been Dune and not Star Wars?Copy !req
64. Would the whole...Copy !req
65. mega-bucks blockbuster structure...Copy !req
66. have been altered?Copy !req
67. I think there's this cliché phrase
about movies being ahead of their time.Copy !req
68. I think Jodorowsky's Dune might've been
the most ahead-of-its-time movie ever.Copy !req
69. I don't think that in the
history of cinema...Copy !req
70. there was ever a film that was taken
that far, only to end up not being made.Copy !req
71. To become a different film,
since a film was made...Copy !req
72. that had nothing to do with those
two and a half years of work.Copy !req
73. If Alejandro's Dune
could've been made...Copy !req
74. it would've been bigger than 2001.Copy !req
75. It was built up...Copy !req
76. to be the greatest achievement
in science fiction...Copy !req
77. and it just evaporated...Copy !req
78. into a billion small,
black pieces of space.Copy !req
79. In the beginning, I was making theater.Copy !req
80. In Mexico, I make 100 theater plays.Copy !req
81. In 10 years,
I make the avant garde theater.Copy !req
82. Ionesco, Beckett, Strindberg.Copy !req
83. Adaptation...Copy !req
84. Modern adaptations of Shakespeare,
I do.Copy !req
85. One day I will make a picture.Copy !req
86. From the beginning
of his film career...Copy !req
87. what he was doing
was driving people crazy.Copy !req
88. His first film, Fando y Lis...Copy !req
89. it premiered in Acapulco
at a film festival...Copy !req
90. and there was an actual full-scale riot.
People went crazy.Copy !req
91. It was so nuts
that Mexico banned the film.Copy !req
92. When I came to pictures...Copy !req
93. I came like a virgin.Copy !req
94. Without to know technical movement.Copy !req
95. I didn't know lens, the number.
I didn't know.Copy !req
96. We shoot Fando Y Lis, hiding of unions.Copy !req
97. In Mexico,
a young director cannot make picture...Copy !req
98. without the permission
of the old director unions.Copy !req
99. I say, "What I need to take
the permission to make art?"Copy !req
100. Artists need to be free! I do my picture!Copy !req
101. Then was a great scandal later, eh?Copy !req
102. Because I broke all the unions, I did it!Copy !req
103. I was opening the mind of the industry.Copy !req
104. Be prepared to live the most
wonderful experience of your life.Copy !req
105. El Topo is miraculous...Copy !req
106. and terrible.Copy !req
107. It's violent.Copy !req
108. El Topo is more than spectacle.Copy !req
109. It is an experience for all of your life.Copy !req
110. El Topo really was the original
midnight movie, the original cult film...Copy !req
111. the first movie that played exclusively
at midnight screenings...Copy !req
112. and drew a loyal cult audience.Copy !req
113. What I find extraordinary about El Topo...Copy !req
114. is it's his first major movie,
and Jodorowsky's producing...Copy !req
115. writing and directing
and playing the lead...Copy !req
116. and he gives himself
that immortal line, "I am God."Copy !req
117. I was exposed to it
in the underground cinema in New York.Copy !req
118. And after that, we had the courage
to attempt to distribute it in France...Copy !req
119. and it was an incredible success for
this movie that was quite revolutionary...Copy !req
120. and a natural friendship was born
between Alejandro and me.Copy !req
121. Thanks to the success of El Topo...Copy !req
122. I got one million dollars
to make The Holy Mountain.Copy !req
123. I did whatever I wanted.Copy !req
124. I didn't have a producer...Copy !req
125. no critic, no one to mess with me.Copy !req
126. I did what I wanted
and it was The How Mountain.Copy !req
127. Holy Mountain really is
an extraordinary film.Copy !req
128. It feels like a work of art
that's come from a parallel world.Copy !req
129. A totally different version
of the film industry...Copy !req
130. where there really are no limits.Copy !req
131. I gave the movie to Michel Seydoux
in France.Copy !req
132. And, oh, surprise, in Europe it attracted
a great number of people...Copy !req
133. it was playing openly.Copy !req
134. In Italy that year, it was the
number two movie behind James Bond.Copy !req
135. The Holy Mountain was incredible.Copy !req
136. So my ambition grew.Copy !req
137. Michel Seydoux called me from Paris
and say to me:Copy !req
138. "Holy Mountain is a success.
I want to make a new picture with you.Copy !req
139. Do whatever you want!"Copy !req
140. I have never made movies
or transactions...Copy !req
141. unless there was something
more to them.Copy !req
142. A relationship between human beings
is what makes the difference.Copy !req
143. He said,
"I want to produce you anything.Copy !req
144. What do you want to do?"Copy !req
145. I say, "Dune!"Copy !req
146. And he say, "Yes."Copy !req
147. Why?Copy !req
148. Because the book was the most beautiful
science-fiction book.Copy !req
149. It was the bible of science fiction
for all the big devotees.Copy !req
150. Because the book had been
a worldwide publishing success...Copy !req
151. that you could find in every country.Copy !req
152. I didn't read Dune. But I have
a friend who say me it was fantastic.Copy !req
153. I don't know why I say Dune.
I can say Don Quixote...Copy !req
154. or I can said Hamlet.
I don't know anything.Copy !req
155. I say Dune.Copy !req
156. Dune is this sprawling space epic...Copy !req
157. that focuses on the planet Arrakis. ..Copy !req
158. A desert planet, where this spice,
melange, is found.Copy !req
159. This consciousness-expanding drug...Copy !req
160. which is one of the most important
commodities in the universe.Copy !req
161. This makes Dune into a planet...Copy !req
162. of extraordinary strategic importance.Copy !req
163. Almost, I guess, the galactic version
of Afghanistan.Copy !req
164. Paul Atreides is a young noble.
Paul gets cast out of his house...Copy !req
165. and leads a revolution
of the Fremen...Copy !req
166. the local natives on Arrakis,
to take over the planet...Copy !req
167. from the evil, colonial Harkonnens,
who are controlling it...Copy !req
168. and to sort of return power
of the spice to the people.Copy !req
169. So, of course,
the idea of imbibing a spice...Copy !req
170. that opens time and space to you:Copy !req
171. That couldn't have been more right
for that moment.Copy !req
172. And so that's why it's a...
It's a weird Hollywood film.Copy !req
173. Like, it's a weird idea for Hollywood
to ever tangle with Dune.Copy !req
174. Hollywood sold us the rights for nothing...Copy !req
175. mockingly on the inside, I believe...Copy !req
176. thinking that we would never
be able to carry out such a thing.Copy !req
177. It was a great undertaking
to do the script.Copy !req
178. Michel Seydoux brought me to France.Copy !req
179. He rented a castle, a huge castle...Copy !req
180. and I was in that castle
dedicated solely to Dune.Copy !req
181. Frank Herbert created a world in Dune...Copy !req
182. but he never said exactly what it was.Copy !req
183. And you have a hundred pages
of literature...Copy !req
184. where you go on to discover,
with great difficulty...Copy !req
185. what the book is about.Copy !req
186. It's very... It's like... I compare it
to Proust in French literature.Copy !req
187. It's literary, it's great literature.Copy !req
188. The first 100 pages...Copy !req
189. you understand almost nothing.Copy !req
190. It's insinuations.Copy !req
191. To bring literature to image
is completely difficult.Copy !req
192. You need to create another world,
the optical world.Copy !req
193. It's not the literary, auditive world.Copy !req
194. All the time, even in the...
In the little details...Copy !req
195. I was trying to find
the spiritual meaning of that picture.Copy !req
196. Now I have my script.Copy !req
197. I need to find the warriors.Copy !req
198. The warriors to do it.Copy !req
199. Every person who will work in this picture
will be a spiritual warrior.Copy !req
200. The best I will find.Copy !req
201. He had the genius to make...Copy !req
202. a storyboard with Moebius.Copy !req
203. I find a comic book.
The comic book was...Copy !req
204. Blueberry.Copy !req
205. Cowboy book, drawing by Giraud.Copy !req
206. I start to see, but that guy is my camera!Copy !req
207. Who is this?Copy !req
208. Giraud was the most fantastic
figure artist.Copy !req
209. He could draw anything.
Giraud was probably...Copy !req
210. France's most famous
and most talented art...Copy !req
211. Bandes dessinées artist.Copy !req
212. This is the person I need.Copy !req
213. Where I will find this person? Where?Copy !req
214. In that time was not Internet
to find any person.Copy !req
215. I need to find this person.Copy !req
216. I went to see my agent, publicity agent...Copy !req
217. and there he was. By chance.Copy !req
218. He was there.Copy !req
219. He say, "I am Moebius."Copy !req
220. "When I drawing science fiction,
I am not Giraud, I am Moebius."Copy !req
221. And I say to him,
"You are the person! Come with me!"Copy !req
222. Drawing by drawing, I shoot the picture.Copy !req
223. I need 3000 drawings.Copy !req
224. Point of view. Movement of the camera.Copy !req
225. Dialogue.
The relation between the actors.Copy !req
226. I use Moebius like a camera.Copy !req
227. I take Moebius, I say,
"Now you advance."Now you travel."Copy !req
228. "Now you make a close-up."Copy !req
229. I have Moebius, who was a genius.
Moebius was a genius.Copy !req
230. Because he was not only an artist
with an incredible capacity...Copy !req
231. but he was very quick.Copy !req
232. Was superhuman. He was...Copy !req
233. quickly, rapido, incredible.Copy !req
234. And then I could shoot.Copy !req
235. Every day, we start to shoot...Copy !req
236. At 8:00, we come, we prepare everything.
I think at 9:30 we start to shoot.Copy !req
237. I made the picture with drawings.Copy !req
238. And then in the costume, I say to him...
I describe what I wanted.Copy !req
239. He immediately:Copy !req
240. Quick, more than a computer.
He was incredible.Copy !req
241. Everything became magic
when we was doing this picture.Copy !req
242. Everything, everything.Copy !req
243. Dune, my Dune, start with a long shot.Copy !req
244. I admire the long shot
of Orson Welles' Touch of Evil.Copy !req
245. The camera go, go, go,
traverse the street, go.Copy !req
246. It's a fantastic big, long shot.Copy !req
247. And then I wanted to start Dune
with a long shot...Copy !req
248. better than the long shot
of Orson Welles.Copy !req
249. I wanted to go farthest.Copy !req
250. And then all the shot
is traversing the whole universe.Copy !req
251. You go there and you traverse
all the galaxy, all the galaxy...Copy !req
252. and in traversal of the galaxy,
you see a pirate...Copy !req
253. robbing a convoy of spice, by example.
Battles. And you go, you go...Copy !req
254. Is a long shot.Copy !req
255. Having looked at some
of the storyboards...Copy !req
256. and being aware of what
he was trying to accomplish...Copy !req
257. I don't know how
he could've done it in '75.Copy !req
258. His vision was so huge...Copy !req
259. so beyond what anybody else
was doing at that time...Copy !req
260. you look back at what George Lucas
struggled to accomplish...Copy !req
261. in '77 with Star Wars...Copy !req
262. and here's Jodorowsky
a couple years before that...Copy !req
263. going with things that Lucas wasn't
even gonna try in the prequel films.Copy !req
264. I mean, it's just... It's enormous.Copy !req
265. We need to find the person
who will make the special effects.Copy !req
266. I say, "Moebius, we fly
to California, to Los Angeles...Copy !req
267. to the appointment
of Douglas Trumbull."Copy !req
268. At that time, in the early '70s...Copy !req
269. why, Doug Trumbull was probably
the premier visual-effects guy around...Copy !req
270. and everyone had known
his work on 2001.Copy !req
271. He was a very honored,
very important person.Copy !req
272. He receive me. He was interesting.Copy !req
273. Was a business.Copy !req
274. My gosh. Hey.Copy !req
275. Hey-Copy !req
276. Yeah.Copy !req
277. We went to see Trumbull...Copy !req
278. but he gives himself so big importance.Copy !req
279. We was speaking, he answered...Copy !req
280. 40 times the telephone.
Forty times.Copy !req
281. He was speaking
with so big vanity of himself.Copy !req
282. He was a big technician.
But for me, was not a spiritual person.Copy !req
283. He have nothing to do in the creation
of a film who was a prophet.Copy !req
284. He will make a technical film, no?Copy !req
285. Trumbull, had a very specific way
he wanted to work...Copy !req
286. and Kubrick had given him
pretty much carte blanche...Copy !req
287. to do what he wanted to do
within certain bounds...Copy !req
288. so some filmmakers
who wanted to control more...Copy !req
289. what the visual style was...Copy !req
290. were a bit put off by that.Copy !req
291. And then I say,
"I cannot work with you."Copy !req
292. And we went out.Copy !req
293. Moebius was astonished, say,
"How you can say no to the biggest...Copy !req
294. technician of Hollywood?"Copy !req
295. I say, "It is like that."Copy !req
296. I cannot use him.
He is not my spiritual warrior.Copy !req
297. And then we was walking in the street,
Hollywood...Copy !req
298. there was a little cinema, a little theater.
And there was a science-fiction picture...Copy !req
299. Dark Star.Copy !req
300. And when I see the picture,
"That is the guy!"Copy !req
301. O'Bannon.Copy !req
302. We will search for this person.
This person will be the person.Copy !req
303. Dan was from rural Missouri...Copy !req
304. the Ozarks, and he didn't even have
a phone until he was, like, 10.Copy !req
305. The first time he talked on the phone.Copy !req
306. He read Mark Twain stories
and didn't realize they were old.Copy !req
307. He thought they were, like,
contemporary stories.Copy !req
308. So he's kind of a guy out of time,
in a very strange way.Copy !req
309. But he was always attracted
to science fiction and whatnot.Copy !req
310. For me, the art was before,
later the technique.Copy !req
311. And that was O'Bannon.Copy !req
312. I thought I was pretty well prepared
for him.Copy !req
313. I thought I had a very clear image of him
as this very erudite lunatic.Copy !req
314. And I was steeling myself
for the interview.Copy !req
315. In El Topo,
he had this long hair...Copy !req
316. down to his shoulders and a big beard
and he was a raving lunatic.Copy !req
317. He acted in his own films.
And I was greeted at the door...Copy !req
318. by this charming,
continental gentleman.Copy !req
319. Clean shaven, with styled hair.Copy !req
320. He goes back and he gets
out of his suitcase...Copy !req
321. comes outwith this little piece
of folded-up newspaper, and says:Copy !req
322. "This is special marijuana."Copy !req
323. I said, "Oh, boy!"Copy !req
324. All I remember is,
I was getting incredibly relaxed...Copy !req
325. and then I was looking
straight into his eyes...Copy !req
326. when all of a sudden...Copy !req
327. at the conclusion of a sentence,
he said, "Like this!"Copy !req
328. And, Wham, out from his face...Copy !req
329. shot these radiating lines
of patterns...Copy !req
330. which proceeded to produce
around his head...Copy !req
331. a circular, shimmering mandala
or kaleidoscope-like pattern...Copy !req
332. with his face in the center
and his eyes fixed on mine...Copy !req
333. and the rest of the room
vanishing into oblivion.Copy !req
334. And then his whole...
He relaxed all of his features.Copy !req
335. The eyes,
which had been staring into mine...Copy !req
336. like something supernatural,
all of a sudden relaxed.Copy !req
337. Lids came down and the face smiled
and it changed back.Copy !req
338. The 20 years came back
onto his face.Copy !req
339. And the hallucinogenic visual effect
and the mental effect...Copy !req
340. dispersed immediately.Copy !req
341. And I was completely dazzled.
I was dazed at the experience.Copy !req
342. He said, "All right, I want you to do
the special effects."Copy !req
343. And I said, "All right."
I said, "Well, hell, yes!"Copy !req
344. He said, "Good."
I'll never forget his words.Copy !req
345. He says, "Now sell everything you own
and come to Paris.Copy !req
346. Prepare to have your life changed."Copy !req
347. And then he came to Paris.Copy !req
348. And that was... I have two warriors:
Moebius and O'Bannon.Copy !req
349. I need to find the others.Copy !req
350. The first actor is the father,
the Duke Leto.Copy !req
351. David Carradine had starred
in a very popular television series...Copy !req
352. in which he was a warrior...Copy !req
353. who was taught by masters
from the Orient.Copy !req
354. It was influenced by El Topo.Copy !req
355. Then, when Carradine knew
that I wanted him, he came...Copy !req
356. he came running.Copy !req
357. I waited for him in Los Angeles,
in a hotel room.Copy !req
358. I had bought vitamin E.Copy !req
359. Like, this E vitamin. Half a kilo.Copy !req
360. In order to take one pill every day
to have the strength.Copy !req
361. Carradine came to my room,
the first thing he saw...Copy !req
362. was the pot of E vitamin.Copy !req
363. He say, "Oh, E vitamin!"Copy !req
364. And he drink all my pills of vitamin E!Copy !req
365. Like is a monstrosity! Sixty dollars was!Copy !req
366. Well, was a big beginning.Copy !req
367. And then I say,
"We need to work together!Copy !req
368. You are the person I am searching!"Copy !req
369. I wanted a musical group
for every planet.Copy !req
370. Pink Floyd.
They will make the music of Leto.Copy !req
371. Pink Floyd have a record,
Dark Side of the Moon.Copy !req
372. For me, that is the human being,
like the moon.Copy !req
373. One side is brilliant, light.Copy !req
374. And the other side who is black,
the unconscious...Copy !req
375. what is mysterious, what is deep.Copy !req
376. It happened during a meeting.Copy !req
377. "Pink Floyd?"
Gibon said, "Okay, I'll go!"Copy !req
378. He called Pink Floyd's agent.
He said, "Could I meet with you?"Copy !req
379. So one day we went to London.Copy !req
380. They were in the middle of finishing
the mixing...Copy !req
381. of Dark Side of the Moon,
at Abbey Road, the famous studio.Copy !req
382. And I remember, we got there...Copy !req
383. and they were very standoffish...Copy !req
384. pop stars, very distant.Copy !req
385. They was eating. They was eating...Copy !req
386. hamburgers.
Four guys eating hamburgers.Copy !req
387. "Hello," they say, "Hello!"Copy !req
388. And nothing, I could not speak,
they was eating.Copy !req
389. All of a sudden, Jodo...
We called him Jodo.Copy !req
390. Jodo said,
"No. They're pissing me off. Let's go!"Copy !req
391. I start to insulted them.Copy !req
392. "How you don't understand
I offer to you...Copy !req
393. the most important picture
in the history of the humanity!Copy !req
394. We will change the world!Copy !req
395. And you are eating...Copy !req
396. Eating Big Macs. How?"Copy !req
397. And then they stop
and they speak with me.Copy !req
398. And after that, it went very, very well.Copy !req
399. Very, very well, yeah.Copy !req
400. And we was speaking to make
a big album with the music of Dune.Copy !req
401. Could be fantastic, no?Copy !req
402. In my version, the Duke Leto...Copy !req
403. he is castrated.Copy !req
404. And then how he will do a son?Copy !req
405. And then his wife...Copy !req
406. a marvelous woman, a wise woman...Copy !req
407. and the guy have a love, a cosmic love
when he see this woman.Copy !req
408. And how he will make a child?Copy !req
409. And she take a drop of his blood...Copy !req
410. and she change the blood into semen...Copy !req
411. and then we see the drop of blood
going inside the vagina, the uterus...Copy !req
412. and we will follow the blood...Copy !req
413. the blood coming and go inside
the ovum and explodes there.Copy !req
414. She get pregnant with a drop of blood.Copy !req
415. That's What I did.Copy !req
416. What will have if you are not
the son of a sexual pleasure...Copy !req
417. but of a spiritual pleasure?Copy !req
418. And from this spiritual love,
he will create Paul.Copy !req
419. Paul was a young boy...Copy !req
420. but is not a normal boy. Was a mutant.Copy !req
421. With a big soul and strength.Copy !req
422. Where I will find that boy?Copy !req
423. My son.Copy !req
424. Today you are 7 years old.Copy !req
425. Now you are a man.Copy !req
426. Bury your first toy and
your mother's picture.Copy !req
427. I work with him in El Topo,
now he have 12 year old.Copy !req
428. I say, "You will make Paul,
but you need to prepare as a warrior."Copy !req
429. He said, "We're gonna make Dune
and I want you to play...Copy !req
430. the part of Paul,
and you're gonna have to prepare."Copy !req
431. I prepare my son, to do the role exactly...Copy !req
432. as the Duke Leto prepare his son.Copy !req
433. "So, yes, you're gonna have to learn
karate and make acrobatics...Copy !req
434. and your mind has to develop a lot,"
you know.Copy !req
435. "You have to be a genius."
He wanted me to be the character.Copy !req
436. I find teacher for him.Copy !req
437. I have a very strong person...Copy !req
438. Jean-Pierre Vignau.Copy !req
439. When we started, he was 12.Copy !req
440. There I trained him in karate,
karate jujitsu, Japanese style.Copy !req
441. That's all the fist-foot techniques...Copy !req
442. joint locks, floor
pins, standing pins...Copy !req
443. a combination of karate,
judo, aikido and atemi-jitsu.Copy !req
444. He learned how to fight with his hands,
with knife, with swords.Copy !req
445. He learn all that.Copy !req
446. And he was ready to do Paul
as a real "Paul."Copy !req
447. I trained Brontis six hours a day,
seven days a week for two years.Copy !req
448. That was painful. That was...
And Jean-Pierre, he has no mercy.Copy !req
449. No, really. He was...
No, he was, you know...Copy !req
450. We worked together.
He had no mercy.Copy !req
451. And all the person say to me,
"But what you did?Copy !req
452. But why you are trying
to change the mind...Copy !req
453. of child and to make
a superior person?"Copy !req
454. I say, "No, I was only
awakening the creativity."Copy !req
455. I opened his mind.Copy !req
456. That's what I was doing.Copy !req
457. I don't know if I changed his life.Copy !req
458. Now I am thinking, "Why I did that?"Copy !req
459. Sacrifice my son.Copy !req
460. But in that time, I say, if I need to out
my arms in order to make that picture...Copy !req
461. I will cut my arms. I will do it.Copy !req
462. I was believing that to make a picture...Copy !req
463. who will give a mutation
to the young minds...Copy !req
464. was sacred.
You need to sacrifice yourself.Copy !req
465. I was even ready to die doing that.Copy !req
466. Well, Jodo's a bit like a dictator
or a cult leader...Copy !req
467. in assembling his army around him.Copy !req
468. Part of Jodo's genius
was in picking those people...Copy !req
469. and finding, absolutely,
the right people...Copy !req
470. for designing the spaceships,
the clothes...Copy !req
471. for designing the whole look
of his world.Copy !req
472. I think he sees the potential
of science fiction.Copy !req
473. For me, science fiction
was like a huge theater...Copy !req
474. like a huge work of art.Copy !req
475. Every spaceship was a being...Copy !req
476. like an insect, like a fabulous bird.Copy !req
477. That was the spaceship I wanted.Copy !req
478. Foss, I knew him in the covers
of science-fiction books.Copy !req
479. They were ships with souls, like beings.Copy !req
480. It had to be Chris Foss.Copy !req
481. This company called Camera One...Copy !req
482. made contact with me.Copy !req
483. They said,
"We're doing a film here in France...Copy !req
484. and we've seen your work in
a science-fiction bookshop here in Paris.Copy !req
485. And would you like to come over,
have a chat with us...Copy !req
486. and see if we could do something?"Copy !req
487. And on that basis, I went to Paris.Copy !req
488. So I'm there.
All I know is I'm staying the night...Copy !req
489. and then, finally,
I was introduced to Alejandro.Copy !req
490. Here is this slightly strange man.Copy !req
491. First thing he does,
he goes through my bags...Copy !req
492. starts pulling the bits out.
And then he realizes that it's my bag.Copy !req
493. He thought it was his girlfriend's.
That's not the best beginning.Copy !req
494. Then they say to me, "You're gonna see
a film that Alejandro made."Copy !req
495. I'm on my own,
watching the strangest film in the world...Copy !req
496. and right in the middle of it,
here's this bloke crapping a golden turd.Copy !req
497. You are excrement.Copy !req
498. You can change yourself into gold.Copy !req
499. And this is my introduction
to this whole environment.Copy !req
500. And I suppose already...Copy !req
501. Alejandro had some sort of pull,
some sort of enigma.Copy !req
502. I'd obviously found it quite strange.Copy !req
503. And they said,
"We want you to come back.Copy !req
504. We want you to live here.
You will be part of us."Copy !req
505. And basically,
I was then installed in Paris...Copy !req
506. and shoehorned into Parisian life...Copy !req
507. and it was an absolute
eye-opener.Copy !req
508. Dan loved Paris.Copy !req
509. When he first got there,
he thought it was very cramped...Copy !req
510. and tiny and didn't understand it,
and he was very tall for France.Copy !req
511. But he loved it.Copy !req
512. Well, he wrote me love letters...Copy !req
513. and he wrote me
his impression letters.Copy !req
514. Here's one from September 10th of '75.Copy !req
515. He says,
"I'm sending along photocopies...Copy !req
516. of some preliminary sketches
of vehicles for the film.Copy !req
517. We've got two artists working,
a Frenchman named Jean Giraud...Copy !req
518. and an Englishman
named Christopher Foss.Copy !req
519. The former did comic books...Copy !req
520. and the latter book covers
before coming on Dune.Copy !req
521. Both are young. As I've mentioned,
the whole staff of this picture is young.Copy !req
522. Jodorowsky, at 46, is the oldest."Copy !req
523. In that time, I was like a prophet,
I was enlightened.Copy !req
524. And I gave to them the feeling
they are not only making a picture.Copy !req
525. They are making something important
for humanity.Copy !req
526. They have a mission. They was warriors.Copy !req
527. Alejandro was the guru.
He completely motivated you, you know.Copy !req
528. And I still say yes to this day...Copy !req
529. I did some of my most
unusual paintings...Copy !req
530. and I'm very proud of them.
He was very supportive.Copy !req
531. Very supportive.Copy !req
532. Alejandro motivated me
to such an extent...Copy !req
533. I used to go in at weekends
just to finish paintings.Copy !req
534. I've got this memory
of coming up with the pirate spaceship...Copy !req
535. over a weekend.
It's been mortally wounded...Copy !req
536. and all this spice
is spilling out of it.Copy !req
537. And it's got a camouflage
which matches the asteroid.Copy !req
538. It was just like a fish.Copy !req
539. If it stayed very still,
no one could see it.Copy !req
540. And then, this was the whole...Copy !req
541. I remember seeing that
very clearly in my head...Copy !req
542. you think you're looking at a rock,
as if you were under the sea...Copy !req
543. and then suddenly something moves,
and you realize that it's an object.Copy !req
544. Still haven't read the book, no.
I have no idea what the actual story is.Copy !req
545. None whatsoever.Copy !req
546. It all came via Alejandro
and the script. Yeah, yeah.Copy !req
547. So, as far as I'm concerned...Copy !req
548. the story of Dune
is what Alejandro told me it was.Copy !req
549. In an ideal world,
he wouldn't have needed a script.Copy !req
550. You could've sat Alejandro down...Copy !req
551. and he would've talked the story,
you know?Copy !req
552. He would've said the words,
he would've said:Copy !req
553. "Now we're in this landscape."Copy !req
554. We've got these scenes
in the desert.Copy !req
555. The heat would be so intense,
but the sky would be blue...Copy !req
556. a blistering blue.Copy !req
557. And Jesus, you were transported.Copy !req
558. Alejandro always had
quite clear ideas.Copy !req
559. He'd do his little piece of theater.
He'd say, "These are the Sardaukar.Copy !req
560. This is what they're like."
He would play you music, and then...Copy !req
561. But it was wonderful,
because he sort of left you...Copy !req
562. He motivated you,
but then he left you to interpret it.Copy !req
563. I was searching for...
For the light of genius in every person...Copy !req
564. with an enormous respect,
an enormous respect.Copy !req
565. And then, every day
I was feeding them in order to...Copy !req
566. To be free, to do the best of them.Copy !req
567. On other films, they just leave you
to your own devices.Copy !req
568. Sometimes, you think they're not even
interested in what you're doing.Copy !req
569. And here was Alejandro...Copy !req
570. who was passionate
about the whole project.Copy !req
571. Every morning, I give a big speech...Copy !req
572. like the person who make
football or rugby...Copy !req
573. a speech with the players:Copy !req
574. Every morning, I make my speech.Copy !req
575. In order to say,
"Do it, what you need to do...Copy !req
576. really, because this will be important."Copy !req
577. I actually started life...
I was going to be an architect.Copy !req
578. And that's what you see
in the palace...Copy !req
579. you know, which is, it's...
You could physically build it.Copy !req
580. Because the story of my life is,
anything I design...Copy !req
581. it's entirely buildable.
And if you look, there's a detail.Copy !req
582. Look, you've got the walls
with weeping water, all very stylized.Copy !req
583. I designed it knowing exactly
how they would build the set.Copy !req
584. I probably said, "Oh, yes, Alejandro.Copy !req
585. We will do this in fiberglass,
we will cast it like this."Copy !req
586. So I knew exactly how to do it
and how to get the effect.Copy !req
587. In that time,
I was seducing Dali...Copy !req
588. because I wanted Dali
as the mad emperor of the galaxy.Copy !req
589. Dali, to us, he seemed to be
the only emperor of the world...Copy !req
590. with that extraordinary talent,
with his speech and his wording.Copy !req
591. Can nobody understand Dali because
myself, never understand my work.Copy !req
592. Never Dali understand
one painting of Dali...Copy !req
593. because Dali only create enigmas.Copy !req
594. Dali was something, eh?Copy !req
595. The first time we went to New York
was with Michel Seydoux.Copy !req
596. We went to the St. Regis because
Michel Seydoux liked the St. Regis Hotel.Copy !req
597. And we discovered that Dali
was also at the St. Regis Hotel!Copy !req
598. By chance.Copy !req
599. I was reading a book about the Tarot.Copy !req
600. And then I take a page
where the Hanged Man...Copy !req
601. I write, "I want to see you because
I will make a picture with you."Copy !req
602. He like it. To have this kind of
invitation. He say, "I will see you.Copy !req
603. I wait you in the bar."Copy !req
604. The bar had a 6-meter long painting...Copy !req
605. pre-Rafaelite, where there was a king...Copy !req
606. and the nobles had a face
like they were hiding something.Copy !req
607. Dali told me, "I like it here because
there is a 6-meter painting...Copy !req
608. dedicated to a fart."Copy !req
609. Dali told me,
"We are going to see each other in Paris.Copy !req
610. I am going to think about it."Copy !req
611. In Paris, on the Champs Élysées,
there was a very fancy restaurant...Copy !req
612. and he was there with his court.Copy !req
613. He had 12...
Twelve persons at the table and him.Copy !req
614. "Sit down.
I want to ask something to you."Copy !req
615. "What, Mr. Dali?"Copy !req
616. "When we was young, myself and
Picasso, we went to the beach.Copy !req
617. And we open the door of the car...Copy !req
618. always in the sand, we find a clock."Copy !req
619. Clock, no?Copy !req
620. "Do you find, in your life,
a clock in the sand?"Copy !req
621. And I say, "What I can answer?"Copy !req
622. It was very quick, like this, because...Copy !req
623. all the 12 person
are awaiting my question.Copy !req
624. Because if I say I find,
all the time, clocks...Copy !req
625. I will be a vanity person. Ridiculous.Copy !req
626. If I say I never find a clock,
I will be a poor guy.Copy !req
627. And suddenly came to me, I say:Copy !req
628. "I never find a clock.Copy !req
629. But I lost a lot."Copy !req
630. Really?Copy !req
631. "Okay!" And then,
"I wait you in Barcelona!"Copy !req
632. It was a game.Copy !req
633. Also, Jodorowsky was part
of the surrealist movement...Copy !req
634. and Dali liked that.Copy !req
635. So it was a game between them.Copy !req
636. Who would win the game?Copy !req
637. He was going through his first adventure
with Amanda Lear...Copy !req
638. this sort of
extraordinarily sexy person.Copy !req
639. Nobody ever knew
if it was a man or a woman...Copy !req
640. a completely incredible character.Copy !req
641. A sort of muse, a poet's muse.Copy !req
642. Whenever someone like
Jodorowsky or...Copy !req
643. Would come to see him,
it was a bit ambiguous.Copy !req
644. There was a sort of respect.Copy !req
645. Yes, of course,
you have success with your work...Copy !req
646. but there was also
a little jealousy, I think.Copy !req
647. He was a bit jealous.Copy !req
648. And you had to meet him,
you had to tame him...Copy !req
649. and he needed to tame you.Copy !req
650. So he would make you go
through these initiations each time.Copy !req
651. Of course, Dali had absolutely no idea
what Dune was about.Copy !req
652. He had never read the book.
He didn't know who Frank Herbert was.Copy !req
653. He didn't know what Dune
was talking about.Copy !req
654. So I had to clue him a little bit, because
I liked Frank Herbert and I liked Dune.Copy !req
655. And I said to him,
"You know, this is a great thing.Copy !req
656. It's not just a science fiction.
There's a whole philosophy."Copy !req
657. He wasn't interested in all that,
I realized that.Copy !req
658. She treated me very well...Copy !req
659. and she became an ally...Copy !req
660. because I promised her the role
of Princess Irulan.Copy !req
661. Yes, I think that was hysterical.Copy !req
662. Because Dali said, "Yeah,
and Amanda must play the princess."Copy !req
663. So they all look at me,
"Well, is she an actress?"Copy !req
664. "Oh, yes, of course.
she'll play the princess."Copy !req
665. She said,
"Be careful because Dali is destructive.Copy !req
666. If he says 'yes', he is going to do
everything to destroy the film."Copy !req
667. Dali said,
"Can I have a helicopter?"Copy !req
668. To him, to have a helicopter
was the maximum of, you know...Copy !req
669. "Yeah, yeah,
you can have many helicopters."Copy !req
670. "Can I have a burning giraffe?"Copy !req
671. "Well, what about...?"
"Burning. I want burning."Copy !req
672. "All right, we'll have burning giraffe.Copy !req
673. We'll have elephants,
whatever you want."Copy !req
674. And slowly, you know, the budget
of the movie was going up and up and up.Copy !req
675. We're talking hundreds of thousands,
millions of dollars.Copy !req
676. Dali say to me, "I will work with you...Copy !req
677. but I want to be the actor...Copy !req
678. Best paid actor in Hollywood.Copy !req
679. I want $100,000 per hour."Copy !req
680. I went back and told Alejandro,
"We're never going to make it!"Copy !req
681. But I couldn't pay him
"the most in the world."Copy !req
682. That would be impossible.Copy !req
683. Then step by step...Copy !req
684. because we were stubborn
and because Alejandro would tell me...Copy !req
685. that Dali was the only one
who could play the emperor...Copy !req
686. the totalitarian emperor...Copy !req
687. we had the idea of paying him...Copy !req
688. by the minutes used.Copy !req
689. I go to see Alejandro...Copy !req
690. and ask, "How many minutes
is he going to be filmed?Copy !req
691. How many minutes
will he be in the movie?"Copy !req
692. Alejandro says,
"Maximum five, probably three."Copy !req
693. So I said, "That's the idea!"Copy !req
694. I go back to see Dali and I say,
"I will pay you $100,000 per minute!"Copy !req
695. He says, "That's brilliant!
I will be the $100,000 a minute actor!"Copy !req
696. I said, "I will take a mold of you,
hyper-realistic...Copy !req
697. and I will make
the emperor of the galaxy...Copy !req
698. he is so afraid to be killed,
he have a robot. And the robot will act."Copy !req
699. And Dali said, "Yes, if you give me
the sculpture for my museum."Copy !req
700. "Okay." And then like this, I have Dali.Copy !req
701. And Dali, in our conversation,
show me a catalog of Giger.Copy !req
702. And he say to me,
"I think this person have a talent."Copy !req
703. I see that, I see... But is incredible!Copy !req
704. Is what I am searching for
the Harkonnen, for the bad guys.Copy !req
705. The gothic planet, gothic characters.Copy !req
706. And then I went to search Giger.Copy !req
707. Paris was where Jodorowsky and
Dan O'Bannon saw my work displayed...Copy !req
708. and they wanted me to join them.Copy !req
709. Giger had never done movies.Copy !req
710. I said, "You have to make movies."Copy !req
711. It was completely new to me
and incredibly fascinating.Copy !req
712. I say to Giger, "I need you as you are.Copy !req
713. You are searching in the deepest
darkness of the soul.Copy !req
714. And that is good. That is your art.Copy !req
715. Your art is... For me, is an ill art.Copy !req
716. Marvelous, ill art,
necessary for the Baron Harkonnen."Copy !req
717. I met Jodorowsky for the first time
in Paris.Copy !req
718. This was the evening when he attended...Copy !req
719. a Magma concert.Copy !req
720. For the Harkonnen planet,
I chose here in Paris...Copy !req
721. a very famous group in that time,
is Magma.Copy !req
722. Magma was gothic, military...Copy !req
723. terrible.Copy !req
724. I knew nothing about the project,
or the idea...Copy !req
725. or the book for that matter.
I learned about all of that afterwards.Copy !req
726. Alejandro Jodorowsky didn't give us
any direction on the music.Copy !req
727. I believe he trusted us.Copy !req
728. Now, I had an idea because he had
described the planet, the Harkonnen.Copy !req
729. I knew that they were not really
the good guys...Copy !req
730. that they were more like the bad guys.Copy !req
731. So it was rather easy
to imagine because...Copy !req
732. Magma made music
that was rather violent...Copy !req
733. typically hard, things like that.Copy !req
734. I was just amazed by the quality...Copy !req
735. and I told them I felt just like
Christ when he was on the cross.Copy !req
736. I was fulfilled,
it was fascinating, the music.Copy !req
737. I was using the best musicians
of this time, from rock.Copy !req
738. I wanted Mick Jagger to play
Feyd-Rautha, a character.Copy !req
739. How am I going to contact this person...Copy !req
740. who is not going to be impressed that
I have the great power to make a movie?Copy !req
741. He is in the peak of his
fame, of his glory. How?Copy !req
742. And I was invited to an event in Paris.Copy !req
743. It was a big gathering
of the Parisian bourgeoisie...Copy !req
744. and at the other side of the room,
a big room...Copy !req
745. I don't know,
maybe 150 square meters...Copy !req
746. was Mick Jagger.Copy !req
747. I saw him from a distance
and I think he saw me...Copy !req
748. and I saw him walking,
he started walking...Copy !req
749. He started walking between the people...Copy !req
750. and then I realized
that he was coming to me.Copy !req
751. He crossed the room
and he stood in front of me.Copy !req
752. And I told him, "I want you for my movie."Copy !req
753. And he said only one word, "Yes."Copy !req
754. I was often invited
to Andy Warhol's Factory...Copy !req
755. Candy Darling, and all those people.Copy !req
756. There I met Udo Kier,
who was Andy Warhol's great actor.Copy !req
757. He had played great roles,
and he said that he would act for me.Copy !req
758. Baron Harkonnen is a big, big monster...Copy !req
759. who have anti-gravitational implants...Copy !req
760. and he is in the air all the time
because he is too heavy.Copy !req
761. Orson Welles.Copy !req
762. Orson Welles had a bad reputation...Copy !req
763. because they said
that he liked to drink and eat...Copy !req
764. so much that he ate at the movies.Copy !req
765. He ate a lot, and then he did not
finish the movies, he was moody.Copy !req
766. But I said, "No, Orson Welles
is a genius, he is the one."Copy !req
767. And since he liked to eat, they say he goes
to the gastronomic restaurants in Paris.Copy !req
768. Therefore, I sent a secretary to ask...Copy !req
769. in all the gastronomic restaurants
in Paris:Copy !req
770. "Where does Orson Welles eat?"Copy !req
771. And we discover a restaurant
and then he was eating.Copy !req
772. Six bottles of wine. He was eating.Copy !req
773. And then I asked to the chef,
"What is the best wine he want?"Copy !req
774. He say, "That."
Then, "Send him a bottle."Copy !req
775. And then, he drink the bottle
and he want to speak with me.Copy !req
776. And then, I speak with all the respect,
because was for me was an idol.Copy !req
777. He say, "I don't want to do it.
I don't want any more."Copy !req
778. I say to him, "I will propose something.Copy !req
779. If you do the picture, even if
we pay what you want as an actor...Copy !req
780. I will hire the chef of this restaurant
and you will eat, as here, every day."Copy !req
781. And he say, "I do it."Copy !req
782. I had the artworks from the movie...Copy !req
783. which I got from Moebius, who drew
the storyboard, where one can see...Copy !req
784. the Harkonnen Castle.Copy !req
785. The castle was the big Baron Harkonnen,
no? The big sculpture.Copy !req
786. That was where Baron Harkonnen lived.Copy !req
787. In himself! The big ego, no?Copy !req
788. The castle open the mouth,
a tongue go there, out...Copy !req
789. and the spaceship came in the tongue.Copy !req
790. And then he say:Copy !req
791. I was fascinated by the creation
of the Harkonnen people...Copy !req
792. and when I airbrushed five paintings...Copy !req
793. I gave my best to create these designs.Copy !req
794. In order to go to the castle,
there is a way with tubes.Copy !req
795. Enormous tubes. Come out knife.Copy !req
796. And then in order to go to the Baron
Harkonnen, you need to walk this way...Copy !req
797. "escaping of the big knife
who want to destroy you.Copy !req
798. If attacked, then the spears would be
set in motion and impale the people...Copy !req
799. who stood in the way
on the pathway up the castle.Copy !req
800. And in fact this Harkonnen fortress
was never in the novel.Copy !req
801. So this was somehow
in Alejandro Jodorowsky's translation...Copy !req
802. his interpretation of the story.Copy !req
803. When Paul get killed,
he doesn't die because...Copy !req
804. the Messiah is all the humanity
can get enlightened.Copy !req
805. In the end, his mind is the mind
of every person. He's a plural being.Copy !req
806. I am the others. The others are me.Copy !req
807. By killing the hero near the end...Copy !req
808. you also open this way
of identifying yourself.Copy !req
809. So you're not identifying
yourself with a hero...Copy !req
810. a character, but you start
identifying yourself also...Copy !req
811. with a universal consciousness.Copy !req
812. He dies, really physically,
but he becomes everyone.Copy !req
813. And then, if the whole humanity
get enlightened...Copy !req
814. the Earth changed.Copy !req
815. The planet of sand...Copy !req
816. start to grow plant, animals,
be like a paradise.Copy !req
817. Dune is a Messiah of the planets
because is a planet with consciousness.Copy !req
818. With the same consciousness of Paul.Copy !req
819. And the planet go to the universe...Copy !req
820. to illuminate the other planets.Copy !req
821. I changed the end of the book,
evidently!Copy !req
822. In the book, it's a continuation.Copy !req
823. The planet never changed.Copy !req
824. Is not awake,
with a cosmic consciousness.Copy !req
825. It's not a Messiah, the planet. I did that.Copy !req
826. It's different. It was my Dune.Copy !req
827. When you make a picture,
you must not respect the novel.Copy !req
828. It's like you get married, no?Copy !req
829. You go with the wife,
white, the woman is white...Copy !req
830. you take the woman, if you respect
the woman, you will never have child.Copy !req
831. You need to open the costume and to...Copy !req
832. To rape the bride.Copy !req
833. And then you will have your picture.Copy !req
834. I was raping Frank Herbert,
raping, like this!Copy !req
835. But with love, with love.Copy !req
836. And then I came with that.Copy !req
837. It was such a beautiful object.Copy !req
838. So well done and at the time,
there were no photocopies.Copy !req
839. It was just photos of each drawing.Copy !req
840. In color...Copy !req
841. so well done...Copy !req
842. with so much detail about
the costumes, about the techniques used.Copy !req
843. Every studio have one book like this.
Every studio.Copy !req
844. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Universal,
everything, all them...Copy !req
845. Michel Seydoux give a book like that.Copy !req
846. This approach was chosen
precisely because...Copy !req
847. I was thinking they might have
a certain distrust of Jodorowsky.Copy !req
848. But since we were showing the camera
angles, since we explained each scene...Copy !req
849. the way we wanted to film it...Copy !req
850. they should have been relieved.Copy !req
851. But they weren't. It wasn't enough.Copy !req
852. In Los Angeles, I wasn't optimistic.Copy !req
853. The thing is that sometimes
the French and the Americans...Copy !req
854. have difficult relationships, you know.Copy !req
855. Well, we have had.Copy !req
856. We were almost at the finish line,
but we had to find the last $5 million.Copy !req
857. The film cost $15 million.
Well, we estimated it as $15...Copy !req
858. We had been invited to Walt Disney
studios by the chairman of the board.Copy !req
859. He looked through the project and said:Copy !req
860. "This is a wonderful project...Copy !req
861. but it is like the Concorde.Copy !req
862. It's an exceptional plane,
but over here, never!"Copy !req
863. And there I said to myself that
we were going to face a lot of problems.Copy !req
864. Hollywood prefers ideas
which they can relate to...Copy !req
865. things which sound like
two other current movies.Copy !req
866. If you can tell them
it's like Jurassic Park...Copy !req
867. crossed with Twilight
or, you know...Copy !req
868. The Hobbit crossed with
The Killing Fields, it makes more sense.Copy !req
869. To come in with something
which is more complex...Copy !req
870. which has adult themes
and a degree of ambiguity...Copy !req
871. and especially a film which has
spiritual and metaphysical ideas...Copy !req
872. is something which has
most studios running scared.Copy !req
873. They always received us
in a very friendly way...Copy !req
874. but it was always the same answer.Copy !req
875. When we would give them the book,
they were very impressed.Copy !req
876. They had never seen anything like it.Copy !req
877. Each time, they would tell us,
"It's superb. It's very well constructed.Copy !req
878. You've solved the technical problems
of those special effects.Copy !req
879. It's economically reasonable.Copy !req
880. But we don't get your director."Copy !req
881. They are not qualified
to judge this material.Copy !req
882. They are not designers
or artists themselves.Copy !req
883. Most of those guys are accountants.
They want to know the bottom line.Copy !req
884. Hollywood did not visualize
science fiction that way.Copy !req
885. It was in 2001: A Space Odyssey...Copy !req
886. or in small B movies.Copy !req
887. But a huge movie, that would cost
millions of dollars with all the effects.Copy !req
888. They did not conceive of that.Copy !req
889. Maybe it was a bit long as well.Copy !req
890. Maybe the film was a bit too long.Copy !req
891. They asked me to make a picture
one hour and a half, for the theaters.Copy !req
892. And myself, "No, why the time?"
I will make a picture...Copy !req
893. of 12 hours! Or 20 hours!Copy !req
894. The worry was that it would go
way over budget...Copy !req
895. and it wouldn't have an audience...Copy !req
896. because no one would want to sit
through that long a film.Copy !req
897. So those things should have been
at least talked through...Copy !req
898. I think,
before a presentation was made...Copy !req
899. because someone
should have known...Copy !req
900. that the studio people would be...Copy !req
901. There would be a red flag
all the time...Copy !req
902. about how bizarre it was.Copy !req
903. The totally outrageous side
of Jodorowsky...Copy !req
904. especially after
The Holy Mountain and El Topo...Copy !req
905. did not give them faith that he could
lead this very ambitious project.Copy !req
906. Because $15 million in the middle
of the '70s was a lot of money.Copy !req
907. And that was their answer, even though
they found everything else to be perfect.Copy !req
908. Everything was great,
except the director.Copy !req
909. You have to be like a poet.Copy !req
910. Your movie must be just as you
think of it and just as you want it.Copy !req
911. Do not take comments to change this
or that from this person or the other. No!Copy !req
912. The movie has to be just like I dream it.Copy !req
913. The picture need to be exactly
as I am dreaming the picture.Copy !req
914. Is a dream. Don't change my dream.Copy !req
915. I believe deep down...Copy !req
916. that people did not
do this film in America...Copy !req
917. because they were afraid of him.Copy !req
918. They were afraid of his imagination,
his mind...Copy !req
919. they were afraid
what it was gonna do to them.Copy !req
920. I think that is the real reason
why it never got made...Copy !req
921. because people were scared.Copy !req
922. This system make of us slaves.Copy !req
923. Without dignity. Without depth.Copy !req
924. With a devil in our pocket.Copy !req
925. This incredible money are in the pocket.Copy !req
926. This money. This shit.Copy !req
927. This nothing.
This paper who have nothing inside.Copy !req
928. Movies have heart.Copy !req
929. Have mind.Copy !req
930. Have power.Copy !req
931. Have ambition.Copy !req
932. I wanted to do something like that.
Why not?Copy !req
933. It was canceled at the point
where all of the planning...Copy !req
934. that could be done on paper
had been done...Copy !req
935. and we were ready
to start constructing sets.Copy !req
936. They were taking a hiatus
before they went to Algeria to shoot.Copy !req
937. And he was sent back here
to do some research on film stock...Copy !req
938. and then he got the call,
said it's over.Copy !req
939. No money.Copy !req
940. And he went crazy.
Everything was in Paris.Copy !req
941. Everything he owned was in Paris.
He'd sold his car.Copy !req
942. So he was crashed on our couch,
and he stayed there...Copy !req
943. for about two weeks
until he drove everybody nuts.Copy !req
944. Complete disaster that was never made,
complete disaster.Copy !req
945. It would have been
quite extraordinary.Copy !req
946. I was disappointed.
Sure I was disappointed, you know.Copy !req
947. Because if the film was made...
There was like...Copy !req
948. You know, it's like you have a...Copy !req
949. A dreamed life.Copy !req
950. My life could have been
this and that. Right?Copy !req
951. Very disappointed. Very disappointed
because we all believed in it.Copy !req
952. I believed in it.Copy !req
953. Alejandro was very, I think... I think...Copy !req
954. very, very, very hurt,
very disappointed.Copy !req
955. It's a big failure for him.Copy !req
956. Now, this is my take on it...Copy !req
957. but I think he didn't feel like...Copy !req
958. doing something else
after such a project...Copy !req
959. which was the project of his life,
I believe. That's my feeling.Copy !req
960. I think that the humiliation...Copy !req
961. that Alejandro Jodorowsky suffered,
in not having been chosen...Copy !req
962. in having been eliminated for being
too original, being too surrealistic...Copy !req
963. that is a permanent injury.Copy !req
964. I think that Jodorowsky
carries that in his heart for life.Copy !req
965. I was convinced that it would be
something great.Copy !req
966. But then Dino De Laurentiis' daughter...Copy !req
967. came along and took the project
away from us...Copy !req
968. and gave it to David Lynch.Copy !req
969. And when I heard that David Lynch
will direct that...Copy !req
970. I have a pain because I admire
David Lynch. He can do it!Copy !req
971. He is the only one in this moment
who can do it that and he will do it!Copy !req
972. I suffer because was my dream.
Another person will do that...Copy !req
973. maybe better than me.Copy !req
974. And then when the picture,
they will show the picture here...Copy !req
975. I say I will not go to see that
because I will die.Copy !req
976. And my sons say, "No, we are warriors.
You need to come and to see that."Copy !req
977. And then they take me,
like an ill person I came to the theater.Copy !req
978. Even I think I will cry.
And I start to see the picture...Copy !req
979. and step by step, step by step,
step by step...Copy !req
980. I became happy
because the picture was awful!Copy !req
981. We come for you!Copy !req
982. Is a failure!Copy !req
983. Well, it's a human reaction, no?Copy !req
984. Is not beautiful,
but I have that reaction.Copy !req
985. I say, "Is not possible. Is not David Lynch
because he is a big artist."Copy !req
986. Is the producer who did that.Copy !req
987. I've never seen the movie and I never will.Copy !req
988. Jodorowsky was ahead
of his time.Copy !req
989. The big problem
was that he was bringing in...Copy !req
990. a lot of ideas which take people
decades to process.Copy !req
991. When you want to change
the consciousness of the audience...Copy !req
992. you want to change the consciousness
of the Hollywood executives...Copy !req
993. and alter the whole ecology...Copy !req
994. you have to be extremely patient,
like Kynes the planetologist.Copy !req
995. These things take
thousands of years.Copy !req
996. And very slowly these ideas
might permeate the system.Copy !req
997. But Jodo was try...
Was hoping it would happen...Copy !req
998. within his lifetime,
that it would happen now...Copy !req
999. and the truth of the matter is
that it may take generations...Copy !req
1000. before movies actually aspire
to the level that Jodo is wishing for.Copy !req
1001. From this supposed failure,
come a lot of creation.Copy !req
1002. In the life, thing come, you say "yes."Copy !req
1003. Thing go away, you say "yes."Copy !req
1004. We don't do Dune? Yes!Copy !req
1005. That is, yes, we don't do it!Copy !req
1006. And then so what?Copy !req
1007. And then so what?Copy !req
1008. Dune is in the world like a dream,
but dreams change the world also.Copy !req
1009. Dune is like Paul, so Dune was...Copy !req
1010. Its throat was cut, of the film.Copy !req
1011. The film wasn't made,
the film was killed.Copy !req
1012. But, you know,
you can hear in some films:Copy !req
1013. "I am Dune, I am Dune, I am Dune.Copy !req
1014. I think it was a guide.Copy !req
1015. A guide for some.Copy !req
1016. In any case, I am convinced
that our storyboard...Copy !req
1017. made the rounds
in the halls of Hollywood.Copy !req
1018. I can't imagine that isn't the case.
It pleases me to imagine that.Copy !req
1019. You always have to see the positive.Copy !req
1020. The original Star Wars, the '77 film...Copy !req
1021. there's a lot of visual reference from
what Jodorowsky laid out on paper.Copy !req
1022. Just the way his sword fights
were designed.Copy !req
1023. There's a huge amount of influence.Copy !req
1024. There's a scene of Paul dueling
with a robot and doing training...Copy !req
1025. and it's a lot like Luke
dueling with the ball...Copy !req
1026. in the Millennium Falcon.Copy !req
1027. What I found interesting...Copy !req
1028. is there's shots
from the robot's P.O.V...Copy !req
1029. where the robot has
a heads-up display...Copy !req
1030. where he's analyzing
the environment around him.Copy !req
1031. And I was thinking about it, and I can't think
of an earlier iteration of this scene...Copy !req
1032. which we've all seen now
a thousand times.Copy !req
1033. The Terminator looking at somebody
and analyzing their face.Copy !req
1034. It's one of these things where
this is a movie that never got made...Copy !req
1035. but it has its fingerprints all over so
many other movies that came afterwards.Copy !req
1036. Giger. He make the monster of Alien.Copy !req
1037. Why he make the monster of Alien?Copy !req
1038. Because Dan O'Bannon.Copy !req
1039. O'Bannon create Alien.Copy !req
1040. They take Moebius,
they take Giger, Foss.Copy !req
1041. And Hollywood start to use my group.Copy !req
1042. Was very fantastic.Copy !req
1043. Dune is this massive asteroid...Copy !req
1044. that has a near miss with Earth...Copy !req
1045. but it still manages
to seed the Earth...Copy !req
1046. with all these amazing spores.Copy !req
1047. In a world where Jodorowsky's
Dune doesn't happen...Copy !req
1048. maybe Alien doesn't happen,
and when Alien doesn't happen...Copy !req
1049. Blade Runner doesn't happen.Copy !req
1050. There's no Blade Runner,
there's no William Gibson.Copy !req
1051. There's no Matrix, there's no...
All these other things...Copy !req
1052. that sort of come
organically down this line.Copy !req
1053. A lot of people took images
and ideas with them...Copy !req
1054. and incorporated them
into other projects...Copy !req
1055. so it always leads back
to Jodorowsky.Copy !req
1056. When you get involved in the process
of bringing a beast like this to life...Copy !req
1057. and when you don't get the chance
to realize that...Copy !req
1058. to put the thing on screen,
it goes on living inside your head.Copy !req
1059. You never get a chance
to exorcise it.Copy !req
1060. And a story like that
can stick around and stick around...Copy !req
1061. and goes on haunting your dreams...Copy !req
1062. for the rest of your life
unless you can get it out.Copy !req
1063. And then Moebius say to me,
"What you will do? You will die?"Copy !req
1064. No, I will not die.Copy !req
1065. For me to fail is only to change the way.Copy !req
1066. If we don't do that...Copy !req
1067. the Dune we was doing is...Copy !req
1068. The roots are the Dune of Herbert.
But this Dune is us.Copy !req
1069. Is the optical. Is a creation.Copy !req
1070. And then, I will use everything
I put in Dune to make comics.Copy !req
1071. I say to Moebius,
"Why we don't do a comic?"Copy !req
1072. And I start to dictate The Inca/.Copy !req
1073. A lot of images that are in here
are in here.Copy !req
1074. And then I find an Argentine,
a Spanish, Juan Gimenez.Copy !req
1075. And there I make all the spaceship
I design for Dune are in The Metabarons.Copy !req
1076. Even the Duke Leto.
I made him castrated by a bull...Copy !req
1077. and we find the sorcerer
who will take a drop of his blood...Copy !req
1078. in order to make the child.Copy !req
1079. I did it here, is here, like
I was shooting! I did it.Copy !req
1080. I start with Dune, but I go farther, no?
Farther.Copy !req
1081. I continue and I did it, my work.Copy !req
1082. I think Dune will be fantastic
if somebody take this script...Copy !req
1083. even if I am not alive...Copy !req
1084. and do a picture in animation.Copy !req
1085. Now is possible.Copy !req
1086. I can die, they can do my picture.Copy !req
1087. I have 84 years, but I am still creating.Copy !req
1088. I am not:Copy !req
1089. All my life I create,
and is more and more and more.Copy !req
1090. The mind is like a universe.Copy !req
1091. It's constantly expanding.Copy !req
1092. Like the universe,
exactly like the universe, open the mind.Copy !req
1093. The opening of the mind is every day,
is open.Copy !req
1094. That was this picture. Open the mind
of all the persons who worked there.Copy !req
1095. From the producer to the artists.
From the workers...Copy !req
1096. for every one was an opening
of the mind, this work.Copy !req
1097. Was ambitious, but not too.
Was ambitious.Copy !req
1098. Myself, I have the ambition
to live 300 years.Copy !req
1099. I will not live 300 years.
Maybe I will live one year more.Copy !req
1100. But I have the ambition.Copy !req
1101. Why you will not have ambition?Copy !req
1102. Why?Copy !req
1103. Have the greatest ambition possible.Copy !req
1104. You want to be immortal?
Fight to be immortal.Copy !req
1105. Do it.Copy !req
1106. You want to make
the most fantastic art of movie? Try.Copy !req
1107. If you fail, is not important.Copy !req
1108. We need to try.Copy !req