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David Lynch was, is, and will always remain one of the most significant voices challenging cinema’s boundaries as a spiritual art form. Some directors make films for the mind, others make films for the soul; Lynch had it both ways, insofar as his incorporeally inclined vision was one that, clearly, came about from the recesses of a brain that knew exactly what it wanted to say, and how it wanted to say it. We may not have understood exactly what Lynch was going for and why, but those films were all the better for it. In honor of the man taken far too soon, we find it fitting to examine all of David Lynch’s movies to determine where they rank amongst one another.

Though it goes without saying that rankings are rather arbitrary, such a distinction seems especially necessary in the case of Lynch, whose broad appeal seemed...

Kill your darlings” is a phrase attributed to William Faulkner, advising writers to resist overuse of their favorite expressions, tropes, characters, etc. This is true for any writing, wherein emotional proximity to the work might manifest into myopic creations in the grander scheme of things. However canonized this belief is, the hypothesis falls apart for Nicolas Winding Refn.

Armed with a style that has only grown more distinctive with every new film, Refn explores fundamental themes and deploys the camera to shift between fluidity and limbo. With sensibilities similar to a master architect, Refn uses frames to create moments that let the viewer internalize, and experience on a physio-psychological level, a creation that does not confine itself to a two-dimensional rectangle, but reminds you of what was felt while watching it. This is the moment the Nicolas Winding Refn effect kicks in, and this is when cinema affects one on a deeply personal level.

Screen Rant is thrilled to present an exclusive first look at the return of legendary French sci-fi magazine Metal Hurlant, which comes back into print in time for its 50th anniversary celebration courtesy of publisher Humanoids something legendary film composer Hans Zimmer has been waiting forever for. Humanoids' shared a video of Zimmer teasing the book's new era, giving readers a sense of Metal Hurlant's pop culture impact.

Humanoids' Metal Hurlant is available to back on Kickstarter now; along with the message from Hans Zimmer, the publisher also shared pages from a brand-new story by artist Mbius, one of the original contributors to the magazine. Humanoids also offered an exclusive preview of cover art for the series by some of the industry's top artists, including rising superstar Peach Momoko, done in the style of the original print run.

Additionally, Humanoids provided a detailed list of the incentives for the Kickstarter campaign,...

Half a century after the groundbreaking release of the first issue of Metal Hurlant in France, the endlessly influential comic book anthology will return to print in English in early 2025 as a quarterly publication from Humanoids, and with a Kickstarter campaign now underway as part of Humanoids' 50th anniversary celebrations, we've been provided with an exclusive excerpt that invites readers to check into Elene Usdin's “Nightmare Motel,” one of the many unique stories that will be featured in the first year of the new Metal Hurlant.

Below, you can check out our exclusive preview pages from Elene Usdin's “Nightmare Motel,” as well as cover art and the official press release with additional details. To learn more about the return of Metal Hurlant, visit:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/humanoidsinc/metal-hurlant?ref=ch8qc6

Press Release: Los Angeles, November 13, 2024 – In 1974, filmmaker, writer, mime, and poet Alejandro Jodorowsky was working in...

Streaming on: Sky / Now

Episodes viewed: 4 of 6

Frank Herbert’s Dune has always proved fatally hard to adapt. It is material that tripped up filmmakers like David Lynch and Alejandro Jodorowsky; only Denis Villeneuve, with his superb 2021 and 2024 films, has had any luck. You can understand why. It is the hardest of hard sci-fi, the most operatic of space opera, and about as weird as it comes: giant worm-gods, royal incest, psychic mutants, elite lesbian soldiers known as ‘Fish Speakers’, and a musical-instrument planet known as Chusuk, to just scratch the surface.

Dune: Prophecy decides to stretch back into the lore. Loosely adapting the novel Sisterhood Of Dune by Herbert’s son Brian and Kevin J. Anderson, it focuses on the early days of the mysterious Sisterhood — later the Bene Gesserit — the puppet masters behind the entire Imperium. Having stalked the wings of Villeneuve’s films, the dark-cloaked sorcerers take...

While there aren’t any movies quite like Coralie Fergeat’s “The Substance,” there are plenty of over-the-top horror films about transformation, incredibly weird science, shared identities and losing your damn mind, like the 1981 cult movie “Possession,” pretty much every David Cronenberg movie, as well as offerings from Ken Russell, Peter Strickland, Julia Ducournau and Ari Aster.

Expect screaming, exploding heads, lots of blood and some of the most insane endings ever.

Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill in “Possession” (Credit: Gaumont) Possession (1981)

Isabelle Adjani has the mother of all freakouts in a subway in this role that earned her a César for Best Actress (the French equivalent of the Oscars) and Best Actress at the Cannes Film Fest that year, but that’s not even the most mind-blowing part of the movie form Polish director Andrzej Żuławski. She’s also cheating on her husband (Sam Neill) with something that isn’t really human.

Reflecting the breadth of her legacy across different continents, French actor Isabelle Huppert was celebrated by the likes of Alfonso Cuarón, Claire Denis, Alejandro Jodorowsky and François Ozon at the 15th edition of the Lumiere Film Festival in Lyon where she received a sprawling career tribute on Oct. 18.

Huppert kicked off the festivities as she entered the 3000-seat auditorium dancing to the 1980’s disco beats of “Nuit de folie,” dressed in a shimmery champagne gown.

The joyful ceremony, emceed by Huppert’s longtime friend (and Cannes boss) Thierry Fremaux who runs the Lumiere Film Festival, was punctuated by live musical numbers ranging widely from Camelia Jordana’s singing a capella “I Will Survive,” to Julien Clerc performing his 1978 cult song “Ma Preference” by the piano, and French actor Sandrine Kiberlain playfully singing “Nuit de folie” which was said to be Huppert’s unexpected all-time favorite song.

The most vibrant homage...

The 16th edition of the Lumière Film Festival kicked off in high style, with a glittering lineup of stars including Benicio del Toro, Tim Burton, Monica Bellucci and Vanessa Paradis plus high-profile directors Costa-Gavras and Giuseppe Tornatore gracing the red carpet in Lyon.

Bellucci, who’s in town to present a new documentary about the stage play in which she portrays Maria Callas, was among the last to take to the red carpet. After taking a few steps, she turned back with a playful gesture as if she had forgotten something, reached through the curtain, and drew out Tim Burton, to the delight of the 5,000-strong crowd: Burton’s unannounced appearance drew massive applause.

The pair famously met and fell in love in Lyon in 2022, when Burton was the recipient of the festival’s lifetime achievement Lumière Award, which was handed to him by Bellucci. The Italian actress has since...

In a scene near the end of Quentin Dupieux’s Daaaaaalí!, Judith (Anaïs Demoustier), a French journalist assigned to interview Salvador Dalí, is riding the bus, in the doldrums after the latest failure to capture her mercurial subject on film. The facial hair of the man seated across from her reminds her of Dalí’s iconic mustache, and after Judith aks him if it’s an intentional homage, he retreats behind his newspaper. The front-page headline reads, “Barista Lets Off Steam on Paris Bus”—a reference to the insult that Judith’s producer (Romain Duris) calls her—with a photograph of Judith below. Dupieux then cuts to a reverse shot of her that begins as a perfect match of the photo, one of countless flourishes of dream logic in the film that subvert conventional cinematic handling of time and space.

That there are almost as many actors portraying Dalí as...

Tarsem’s The Fall is now showing exclusively on Mubi.A version of the following interview was originally published in Pardo, the Locarno Film Festival’s official daily magazine. The conversation has been expanded and edited for republication on Notebook.The Fall.“If Andrei Tarkovsky made The Wizard of Oz”—that’s how David Fincher summed up his friend Tarsem’s globe-spanning, decades-in-the-making magnum opus, The Fall (2006). This shapeshifting fable about the art and power of storytelling is maybe more Alejandro Jodorowsky than Tarkovsky, but, most importantly, it’s all Tarsem.Tarsem: the mononym is of a piece with his bold, brazen style. Like his film-school peers Michael Bay and Zack Snyder, the Punjab-born Tarsem is a bona fide vulgar auteur. He was still a student when he made his first hit music video, for R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion” (1991). A young Tarsem Singh Dhandwar had arrived in...

Fernando Arrabal’s Viva la Muerte is a mostly autobiographical account of the filmmaker’s youth during the Spanish Civil War that intermingles with disturbingly surreal dreams and fantasies. This alienation effect is rendered all the more unsettling since Arrabal opts to shoot the imaginal sequences on heavily color-filtered video, aligning them with Nam June Paik’s avant-garde video art. Another sort of alienation may stem from some unsimulated violence against animals, in particular a jaw-dropping scene in a slaughterhouse that combines the in-your-face verité of Georges Franju’s Blood of the Beasts with the dynamic writhing of Isadora Duncan.

Viva la Muerte opens at the end of the war, with a jeep full of fascist soldiers declaring the titular phrase and vowing to kill half of Spain’s population if that’s what it takes to cleanse the nation from the pernicious influence of atheism and communism. Young Fando (Mahdi Chaouch) looks on,...

“All you have to do,” says author Shawn Levy, who wrote King of Comedy, the definitive Jerry Lewis biography, is to give the plot summary. “If you just tell people: Jerry Lewis wrote, directed and starred in a drama about a clown in a concentration camp leading children into the gas chambers, people say: ‘What? How have I never heard of this movie, how have I never seen it?’ “

You haven’t seen the film, The Day the Clown Cried. No one has. Jerry Lewis shot it in 1972, but it was never released. And it never will be. It is one of the last white whales of lost cinema, like Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Dune or Orson Welles’ The Other Side of the Wind, except Jodorowsky never got to shoot a single frame of his Arrakis epic. And Welles’ opus was eventually finished, 48 years later, thanks to Netflix money. It screened...

Metal Baby

August has been a wild ride so far. Between art house discussions of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Santa Sangre (listen) and Paul Morrissey’s Blood for Dracula (listen), we squeezed in a look at screenlife sequel Unfriended: Dark Web (listen). Now we’re ready for more contemporary foreign content with Julia Ducournau‘s sophomore feature, Titane (2021).

In the film, after a run of poorly timed murders, serial killer Alexia (Agathe Rousselle) goes on the run from the police. After shaving her head and breaking her nose, Alexia disguises herself as “Adrien,” the long-missing son of aging fire captain Vincent (Vincent Lindon).

The distraught father pledges to protect his offspring from harm, but considering Alexia’s literal Cadillac ride (ie: sex) has resulted in pregnancy, how long can Alexia or Vincent keep up the ruse? And what happens if/when the truth comes out?

Be sure to subscribe to the...

Wirgin Worries.

After kicking off August with discussions of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s surrealist masterpiece Santa Sangre (listen) and the screenlife sequel Unfriended: Dark Web (listen), we’re returning to the world of Andy Warhol with a look at Paul Morrissey‘s Udo Kier-starring vehicle Blood for Dracula (1974).

In the film, the deathly ill Count Dracula (Udo Kier) and his slimy underling Anton (Arno Juerging) travel to Italy in search of a virgin’s blood (the only type of blood he can drink). They’re welcomed at the crumbling estate of indebted Marchese Di Fiore (Vittorio De Sica), who’s desperate to marry off his daughters to rich suitors. But there, instead of pure women, the count encounters siblings with impure (aka not virgin) blood and their Marxist manservant Mario (Joe D’Allesandro), who’s suspicious of the aristocratic Dracula.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday.

Mateo

After wrapping up July with a Jan de Bont double feature discussing the movie magic of Twister (listen) and the laundry list of problems with his 1999 remake of The Haunting (listen), we’re tackled our first Alejandro Jodorowsky film with Santa Sangre (listen).

Now we’re back on American soil for our first Screenlife horror film on the Main Feed: Stephen Susco‘s Unfriended sequel, Unfriended: Dark Web (2018).

In the movie, Matias (Colin Woodell) shows up for virtual game night with a new laptop. As his friends – conspiracy nut Aj (Connor Del Rio), British Damon (Andrew Lees), harangued Lexx (Savira Windyani), and lesbian couple Nari (Betty Gabriel) and Serena (Rebecca Rittenhouse) – play Cards Against Humanity, Matias discovers hidden video files on the stolen computer.

The realization leads him to Charon (Douglas Tait) and Erica Dunne (Alexa Mansour), a missing 17 year old as Matias, his deaf girlfriend Amaya (Stephanie Nogueras...

Severin Films is taking over Brain Dead Studios in Los Angeles for its annual Super-Shock Pop-Up Film Festival Triple Feature on Saturday, August 24.

Viewers will be treated to a one-night-only screening of three mystery titles that will be released by Severin on 4K Uhd/Blu-ray in the coming year, along with trailer reveals, free swag, and a wide selection of Severin merch.

“Super-Shock is part fan appreciation event, part future-titles reveal, and 100% Severin Films gala celebration,” says Severin president David Gregory. “This year promises to our biggest and best yet.”

Founded in 2006, Severin Films is dedicated to the world’s most provocative cinema for physical media, theatrical, streaming, and beyond. Their catalog includes films from Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Dennis Hopper, Joko Anwar, Alex de la Iglesia, Sergio Martino, Umberto Lenzi, Paul Morrissey, Jess Franco, and many more.

Brain Dead Studios is located at 611 N Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles,...

Elephants, Eagles & Chickens, Oh My!

After wrapping up July with a Jan de Bont double feature discussing the movie magic of Twister (listen) and the laundry list of problems with his 1999 remake of The Haunting (listen), we’re heading down to Mexico City to discuss Alejandro Jodorowsky‘s surrealist masterpiece Santa Sangre (1989).

Santa Sangre sees Fenix (Axel Jodorowsky), a former circus magician, escape from a mental hospital to rejoin his armless mother Concha (Blanca Guerra), the leader of a strange religious cult. Once they are reunited, Fenix is forced to enact brutal murders on Concha’s behalf as he becomes “her arms.” Only a figure from his past, the deaf mute tightrope walker Alma (Sabrina Dennison), can stop him before he murders again; but will she be able to reach him in time?

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts,...

Stars: Axel Jodorowsky, Blanca Guerra, Guy Stockwell, Thelma Tixou, Sabrina Dennison, Adan Jodorowsky, Faviola Elenka Tapia, Teo Jodorowsky, Sergio Bustamante | Written by Alejandro Jodorowsky, Roberto Leoni, Claudio Argento | Directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky

Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Santa Sangre is an audacious, surreal journey through trauma, redemption, and the labyrinthine corridors of the human psyche. This film, a quintessential piece of cinematic surrealism, combines elements of horror, drama, and psychological thriller to create a visually stunning and emotionally intense experience. The film follows the life of Fenix, a boy raised in a circus who endures a series of traumatic events, including witnessing his father’s violent behavior and his mother’s descent into madness. The narrative unfolds in a non-linear fashion, interweaving past and present, reality and hallucination, to depict Fenix’s struggle with his haunting memories and his quest for liberation.

Jodorowsky is known for his rich, symbolic imagery and Santa Sangre is no exception.

I don’t have the highest opinion of the work of Alexandro Jodorowsky, to put it mildly. (See my post on the Moebius/Jodorowsky product Madwoman of the Sacred Heart for a fuller rant.) I tend to think Moebius had massive tendencies towards self-indulgence at best, and that Jodorowsky fed into those, adding a soupy Euro mystic vagueness on top, like a light fog that makes everything unclear.

But I like books that I react strongly to – even if that reaction is not actually positive. The point of art is to make people feel, and revulsion and disdain is a feeling, he said somewhat puckishly. So I keep giving Jodorowsky chances, in large part because other readers – people who I otherwise respect – said consistently for decades that there really was a there there.

Thus The Eyes of the Cat , their 1978 collaboration – I think the first time they worked together, a...

I don’t have the highest opinion of the work of Alexandro Jodorowsky, to put it mildly. (See my post on the Moebius/Jodorowsky product Madwoman of the Sacred Heart for a fuller rant.) I tend to think Moebius had massive tendencies towards self-indulgence at best, and that Jodorowsky fed into those, adding a soupy Euro mystic vagueness on top, like a light fog that makes everything unclear.

But I like books that I react strongly to – even if that reaction is not actually positive. The point of art is to make people feel, and revulsion and disdain is a feeling, he said somewhat puckishly. So I keep giving Jodorowsky chances, in large part because other readers – people who I otherwise respect – said consistently for decades that there really was a there there.

Thus The Eyes of the Cat , their 1978 collaboration – I think the first time they worked together, a...

“Final Cut” means a director gets the last word on editing a movie. But usually, contracts and studio decisions don’t let this happen. So, many directors end up just working on projects without having any real control.

Still from Dune (1984) (Universal Pictures)

As a result, even if the final version of a movie pleases the audience, it often doesn’t fully satisfy because it may lack the depth and originality that the director’s vision would have provided. The filmmaker plays a crucial role in interpreting the script and bringing the story to life. If the their vision isn’t considered, the chances of poor reviews are high. This is exactly what happened to David Lynch when he directed Dune.

The 1984 Version Of Dune Was A Failure Still from Dune (1984) (Universal Pictures)

Dune (2021), and especially Dune: Part 2, released this year, were massive hits. The sequel alone grossed over $700 million worldwide,...

The Children, Eleanor!

We’ve spent the month of July discussing the badass babes of Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror (listen), the queer undertones of Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut (listen), and the “very bad weather” of Jan de Bont‘s 1996 tornado film, Twister (listen).

Now we’re wrapping up our de Bont double bill with his less successful 1999 special effects remake, The Haunting!

In the film, sheltered Eleanor (Lili Taylor) is recruited for a dubious insomnia study at the infamous Hill House by questionable doctor David Marrow (Liam Neeson). Along with bisexual Theo (Catherine Zeta-Taylor) and horny Luke (Owen Wilson), Nell is terrorized by annoying ghost children and the monstrous owner of the house, Hugh Crain (Charles Gunning).

As the spectral hauntings become more and more severe, Nell must uncover her tenuous connection to the previous victims before the terrible CGI swallows her and the other participants whole.

Get ready for an onslaught of "Dune" material now that Hollywood has recognized there's quite an audience for author Frank Herbert's revered sci-fi saga. Not only do we have the upcoming Max series "Dune: Prophecy," the trailer for which reveals several sacrifices will be made, but we'll also see the return of Timothée Chalamet's Paul Atreides in a third movie from sci-fi maestro Denis Villeneuve.

After "Dune: Part Two" proved massively popular at a time when the box office wasn't exactly at its peak, you better believe Legendary Pictures decided to keep the spice flowing with a third "Dune" movie. The next installment in Villeneuve's epic saga looks likely to be an adaptation of the second novel in Herbert's original run, with Villeneuve previously revealing his eagerness to adapt "Dune Messiah." At this point, the man can basically do no wrong, having proven Herbert's supposedly "unfilmable...

Severin Films is proud to announce the release of Santa Sangre on Limited Dual Edition on 29 July 2024. We’re giving you the chance to win Limited Dual Edition.

Legendary filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky is lauded by critics and cult cinema enthusiasts alike for his avant-garde, violently surreal, brilliantly original features. Now, one of his finest films, Santa Sangre, is set for brand-new release that will deliver an experience like never before.

Severin Films is proud to announce the release of Santa Sangre Limited Dual Edition on 29 July 2024. Get ready for a breathtaking, epic odyssey through ecstasy and anguish, belief and blasphemy, beauty and madness – and learn about the surreal genius behind it all. This must-have set features the film on both 4K Uhd and Blu-ray, with the 4K scan from the original negative supervised by Jodorowsky himself.We meet Fenix, a young boy who has grown up in a circus in Mexico,...

Frank Herbert's "Dune" is an unkillable intellectual property. The novel was rejected by a multitude of publishing houses before a company best known for putting out auto-repair manuals took a chance on the sandswept sci-fi saga. Despite poor reviews and soft sales, the book caught on via word-of-mouth, spawning a series of bestselling novels that, unsurprisingly, caught the eye of Hollywood producers eager to find the next "Star Wars." They failed. Repeatedly.

Peyote Western pioneer Alejandro Jodorowsky sought to craft a mind-bending epic out of Herbert's novel, and, as recounted in the un-making-of documentary "Jodorowsky's Dune," dreamed too big. David Lynch was the next man up, and I think, as a fan of the first few books, succeeded in delivering a wildly truncated, yet generally coherent rendition of the novel on his own delectably perverse terms. Alas, critics, audiences, and most Herbert fans didn't dig it, so the property...

Rediscover the Surreal Genius of Alejandro Jodorowsky with Santa Sangre‘s Limited Dual Edition Release out on July 29th and ready for you to win below.

Win 4-Disc Limited Edition Uhd + Blu-Ray of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s masterwork Santa Sangre

Critically acclaimed filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky, known for his groundbreaking works like El Topo and The Holy Mountain, continues to captivate audiences with his avant-garde, violently surreal, and brilliantly original creations. Now, one of his masterpieces, Santa Sangre, is being re-released in a stunning new edition, offering an unparalleled viewing experience.

Severin Films proudly announces the release of the Santa Sangre Limited Dual Edition on July 29, 2024. Prepare yourself for an epic journey through ecstasy and anguish, belief and blasphemy, beauty and madness, while diving deep into the mind of a surrealist genius. This essential collection includes the film in both 4K Uhd and Blu-ray formats, with the 4K restoration supervised by Jodorowsky himself,...

Daredevil season one showrunner Steven S. DeKnight is launching a Kickstarter campaign for his debut graphic novel, Hard Bargain, a detective story with supernatural elements, set in 1940s LA. working with artist Leno Carvalho and publisher Humanoids, DeKnight is brnging his "passion project" Hard Bargain to life decades after originally conceiving of the idea. Hard Bargain is the authorial debut graphic novel for Stephen S. DeKnight, who has spent decades working on iconic TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Smallville.

The mind behind Netflix's Daredevil blends L.A. Confidential with Buffy the Vampire Slayer for a new comic book endeavor within the detective genre: Hard Bargain. Steven S. DeKnight served as the showrunner for Daredevil's first season, while also leaving his footprint on televised classics like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Smallville. In addition, he has worked in comics previously, including for Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight.

David Lynch has expressed his latest regret for not negotiating a “final say” over 1984’s Dune. During an appearance on NPR’s Wild Card with Rachel Martin, the filmmaker said he “died a death” over how the movie turned out.

Lynch’s comment was in response to a question about which failure he’s learned the most from. “I knew already one should have final cut before signing on to do a film [like Dune],” he said. “But for some reason, I thought everything would be Ok, and I didn’t put final cut in my contract. And as it turned out, Dune wasn’t the film I wanted to make, because I didn’t have a final say.”

He continued, “So that’s a lesson I knew even before, but now there’s no way. Why would anyone work for three years on something that wasn’t yours? Why? Why do that?...

Alejandro Jodorowsky's masterwork 'Santa Sangre' gets 4-Disc Limited Edition Uhd + Blu-Ray Release from Severin Films on July 29th: "Legendary filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky (El Topo, The Holy Mountain) is lauded by critics and cult cinema enthusiasts alike for his avant-garde, violently surreal, brilliantly original features. Now, one of his finest films, Santa Sangre, is set for brand-new release that will deliver an experience like never before.

Severin Films is proud to announce the release of Santa Sangre Limited Dual Edition on 29 July 2024. Get ready for a breathtaking, epic odyssey through ecstasy and anguish, belief and blasphemy, beauty and madness – and learn about the surreal genius behind it all. This must-have set features the film on both 4K Uhd and Blu-ray, with the 4K scan from the original negative supervised by Jodorowsky himself.

Hailed as “Extraordinary… mind-blowing” by The Guardian, “Visionary and haunting” by Rolling Stone and “A grand work of art,...

Cold Blows The Wind: "Lion Heart Distribution is proud to be releasing Eric Williford' startling new indie thriller Cold Blows The Wind on VOD on July 2nd.

When a husband and wife (Victoria Vertuga and Danell Leyva) find their night blown wildly off-course, they're forced to band together in order to survive in the most extreme of circumstances."

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Tiger Stripes: "Zaffan (12) is a rebellious and carefree girl until she starts to experience horrifying physical changes to her body. Struggling to maintain being normal at school, Zaffan is in denial of her inevitable changes and tries to cover herself. Zaffan’s friends however attack her, when all hysteria breaks loose — one by one teenage girls drop to the floors in fits, turning it into a spread of mass hysteria across the school.

Rumors of a dark figure in the toilets have caused fear to take over the primary school,...

In the early 1970s, a period marked by a surge in experimental cinema and the emergence of new cinematic voices, Chilean-French filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky embarked on an ambitious project that would challenge the conventions of traditional filmmaking. This was a time when filmmakers were pushing the boundaries of narrative and visual storytelling, experimenting with new techniques and themes. Jodorowsky, with his unique blend of surrealism and mysticism, was at the forefront of this movement. His goal was to adapt Frank Herbert’s iconic science fiction novel, Dune, into a film.

Jodorowsky is known for his avant-garde and surrealist style, which is evident in his body of work. In addition to his ambitions for Dune, he has directed several other films, each a testament to his unique artistic vision. These include El Topo (1970), a surreal western that is considered a classic of the acid western genre; The Holy Mountain (1973), a spiritual...

Ridley Scott’s iconic sci-fi horror film, which introduced cinema lovers to iconic characters like Ellen Ripley, Alien is celebrating its 45 years. Widely regarded as one of the most influential films of all time, Alien was a revolutionary project whose impact on the horror genre remains significant. However, the story of the extraterritorial creature hunting down the spacecraft crew originated from a failed attempt to adapt Frank Herbert’s Dune series.

A still from Alien | Credit: 20th Century Fox

Chilean-French filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky had meticulously planned to adapt the sci-fi novels, creating a screenplay and thousands of sketches to bring his vision of the desert planet Arrakis to life. Although this project fell apart, it ultimately inspired Scott’s 1979 Oscar-winning masterpiece.

Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Failed Attempt Adapting Dune

Denis Villeneuve’s Dune film series has captivated movie lovers, especially with the 2024 sequel that continues Paul Atreides’ journey to the southern...

Exclusive: Paris-based Nour Films has acquired French rights to Saudi director Tawfik Alzaidi’s first feature Norah ahead of its world premiere in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard.

The film will make history as the first ever Saudi feature to play in Cannes’ Official Selection just six years after Saudi Arabia announced the end of its 35-year cinema ban.

“Norah is an elegant film that combines age-old traditions with a desire for emancipation. This emancipation is achieved through art, learning and a desire greater than oneself. Tawfik Akzaidi has beautifully crafted a film that is both powerful and delicate,” said Nour Films’s co-founding director Patrick Sibourd.

The deal was brokered by Sebastien Chesneau under his Cercamon banner which clinched the international sales mandate for the film last week.

Cercamon and Nour previously collaborated on Vietnamese drama Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell which premiered in Directors’ Fortnight...

Alien artist Hr Giger was involved in a number of film projects in the 1980s and 90s. We talk to filmmaker William Malone about some amazing films that never happened.

Given just how genre-defining 1979’s Alien was, it’s perhaps surprising that Hr Giger, the Swiss artist who designed the title monster, wasn’t involved in more films. His creations appeared in the likes of Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986), Species (1995), plus a little-seen German indie comedy horror called Killer Condoms (1996), but none were as high-profile or influential as Alien.

In the wake of that genre-defining space horror, other artists and designers tinkered with Giger’s unforgettable xenomorph in its sequels. Giger wasn’t involved in the making of Aliens, Alien Resurrection or subsequent prequels or spin-offs, and his work for Alien 3 was barely used. Instead, Giger had the curious habit of coming up with concepts and artwork for...

To mark Alien Day, we head back to the late 1970s to see how Hr Giger designed the Space Jockey – and its strange fate after the film’s premiere…

In the early hours of Tuesday, the 29th May 1979, someone killed the Space Jockey. Burned it alive, perhaps with a blowtorch even something more mundane like a match or a cigarette. The crime occurred four days after the premiere of Alien at Hollywood’s Grauman’s Egyptian Theater, and was reported on by at least one outlet at the time: sci-fi magazine, Starlog.

“The Los Angeles opening of Alien was marked by misfortune when a miniature version of the film’s ‘starpilot’ was destroyed with fire,” the news story ran, garbling the Space Jockey’s name somewhat. “It was set ablaze by vandals just hours after being placed on display in the forecourt of Hollywood’s Egyptian Theatre. Additional objects on display in the lobby,...

Baron Harkonnen's spider pet may be a creation of the Bene Tleilax, hinting at their involvement in future Dune movies. The spider resembles Jodorowsky's Tarantuwolf, possibly paying tribute to the director. Speculation that the spider is Dr. Yueh's wife turned into a pet highlights the Baron's twisted nature and hints at its human origins.

Dune introduced House Harkonnen as sinister villains, but the Harkonnen pet is perhaps the creepiest part about them. Denis Villeneuve’s Dune is a transhumanist social sci-fi space opera that’s based on the cult 1965 Frank Herbert novel of the same name. And while the Dune reboot’s depiction of the Baron Harkonnen is relatively faithful to the novel, Herbert’s book doesn’t mention a creepy Dune spider pet creature with human hands, which appears in the 2021 film on Geidi Prime in the scene where the Baron, Piter de Vries, and Reverend Mother Mohiam discuss the House Harkonnen plot.

‘A deeply twisted shocker… You will never, ever, ever find a psychotic she-monster more blood-chilling than Susan Tyrrell’

Coming Soon

‘An excellent shocker… queasy and wildly ahead of its time… Susan Tyrrell delivers a character unlike any other in horror history’

Mondo Digital

‘Tyrrell steals the show… the sight of her… clutching a machete and chasing a poor unfortunate through a stormy night is once seen, never forgotten!… I heartedly recommend you seek out’

Hysteria Lives

One of the notorious 1980s video nasties Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker has been lauded as ‘Brilliantly insane’ (Cool Ass Cinema) and a ‘horror gem, well-crafted, ripe for analysis… should not go overlooked (Bloody Disgusting) and now, thanks to Severin Films, you can witness the film like never before. The company announces a brand-new Special Edition Dual 4K Uhd and Blu-ray is set for its UK release on 13th May 2024.

In a surprising change of direction,...

Making a place for himself among critically acclaimed directors like Christopher Nolan and Martin Scorsese, Denis Villeneuve has turned himself into an extraordinary icon following his take on Dune. While previously the novels were considered “unadaptable” following David Lynch and Alejandro Jodorowsky’s failed attempts, Villeneuve proved his capabilities with his sequels.

Acclaimed filmmaker Denis Villeneuve | image: Film at Lincoln Center

Apart from Dune, Denis Villeneuve also has other acclaimed projects like Arrival, Blade Runner 2049, and more under his belt. But much like most filmmakers, even Villeneuve’s proficiency comes from his appreciation for cinematic brilliance. Naming a few of his favorite films of all time during an interview with BBC Radio 1, the filmmaker held one movie in high regard that he even paid homage to in Dune.

Denis Villeneuve’s Appreciation for Cinematic Gems

Following the release of Dune sequels, starring Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya, French-Canadian director...

Lady Margot is crucial to the Dune universe, though her role was largely omitted in film adaptations. Léa Seydoux's portrayal in Dune: Part Two differs slightly from the character in the book. Seydoux is connected to the failed Jodorowsky's Dune movie through her great-uncle, a producer on the project.

Dune: Part Two introduced audiences to Lady Margot Fenring actress Léa Seydoux, who has an interesting connection to the franchise. Lady Margot plays a crucial role in Prelude to Dune and also appears in Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel. However, Lady Margot was omitted completely from David Lynch’s 1984 Dune movie and has a limited presence in Denis Villeneuve's sequel. Nevertheless, the Bene Gesserit agent is an undeniably important character. Many of Lady Margot’s decisions and actions yield incredibly powerful effects on the Dune universe at large and set various plot events in motion.

Given her absence in Dune: Part One,...

James McAvoy has been in the entertainment industry since he was a teenager. When he made his debut as an actor in The Near Room in 1995, he was not much interested in becoming an actor. However, that changed soon and he ended up going to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. He graduated from the academy in 2000.

James McAvoy in X-Men: Apocalypse

Since then, he has worked with numerous great directors such as Steven Spielberg and Matthew Vaughn. Long before he gained recognition with his roles in the X-Men film series and The Chronicles of Narnia, McAvoy appeared in the miniseries Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune. However, he refused to give any advice to Timothee Chalamet when his movie Dune was about to be released in 2021.

James McAvoy Refused to Give Advice to Timothee Chalamet

James McAvoy in Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune

One has to...

Adapting Frank Herbert's "Dune" novel series to the big screen is no small feat. The scale of Herbert's world-building and the complex optics of the thematic threads that run through the story are fairly tricky to translate to the visual medium. A quick look at the history of adapting "Dune" would lead you to several efforts: David Lynch's 1984 film is delightfully weird but fails as an adaptation, while Alejandro Jodorowsky's unmade film ran into a ton of problems despite inching towards a workable script. Enter Denis Villeneuve's "Dune," and his recently released "Dune: Part Two," which managed to accomplish what was long thought to be impossible by birthing a saga that is both faithful to the books and imbued with the director's creative liberties.

Adaptations are bound to be flawed, as it is often tough to reconcile a beloved novel franchise's context-specific shortcomings with evolving perspectives,...

‘An underrated northern artist whose impact could have been greater given the right breaks. Cliff Twemlow’s story should provide encouragement to the current crop of British indie filmmakers. An essential watch’

*****

Starburst

‘Hugely entertaining documentary about a truly unique character… Jake West paints an affectionate portrait of a genuine one-off, whose work you’ll want to dive into once credits roll’

Dexerto

‘A fascinating man… Cliff absolutely deserves a place in the pantheon of low-budget, guerrilla-style filmmakers and hopefully this documentary will introduce him to an entirely new audience’

*****

Set the Tape

Following its successful festival run and ahead of its digital release in June 2024, Severin Films announces a UK theatrical tour of the acclaimed film Mancunian Man the Legendary Life of Cliff Twemlow.

Tour dates:

3 March – Nottingham Broadway + Q&a with Jake West & David Gregory

13 March – Birmingham – Mockingbird Cinema + Q&a with Jake West

23 March – Exeter – Exeter Phoenix...

Max offers a diverse collection of documentaries from top studios. With themes ranging from music to true crime, there's something for everyone. Award-winning offerings set Max apart from other streaming services.

The best documentaries on Max come from many different origins. The streaming service has movies and series from HBO, Warner Bros, and Discovery Channel. It also brings in movies and shows from licensing deals. This results in one of the largest libraries of documentary movies and series on any streaming service. These also run the gamut of themes. Max has a series of music documentaries. Max also has plenty to choose from in true crime, one of the most popular forms of documentary.

That isn't where it stops though. Max also has plenty of documentaries based on movies and TV shows. There are also classic documentaries, with many from the Criterion Collection. The best documentaries on Max offer something...

Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two is almost everyone’s current obsession thanks to the brilliant execution of the source material by the cast and crew. It goes without saying that the sequel has surpassed its predecessor in more ways than one. Whether it’s the acting, the soundtrack, the cinematography, or the direction, Dune: Part Two was able to blow the audience’s minds through its two-hour seventeen-minute runtime.

A still from Dune: Part Two (2024)

However, Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi novels wasn’t the first go Hollywood had at the story. Back in 1984, director David Lynch released another adaptation titled Dune starring Kyle MacLachlan and Francesca Annis. Unfortunately, the film was met with an overwhelming amount of negative feedback which led people to wonder what Ridley Scott would’ve turned the film into, should things have gone according to plan.

Suggested“We have different...

This article contains Star Wars and Dune spoilers.

When Frank Herbert published “Dune World,” the first part of what would become the novel Dune in Analog Science Fiction and Fact in 1963, it was a moment that would reverberate through science fiction for decades to come, especially on the big screen, where the story’s influence can still be felt to this day. In fact, you can easily track how Herbert’s creation led to some of the biggest blockbuster franchises of all time.

If you’ve watched the excellent documentary Jodorowsky’s Dune, you know how the story goes. Alejandro Jodorowsky, the avant-garde filmmaker behind El Topo and The Holy Mountain, tried to adapt Herbert’s book in the ’70s, and while that movie never got made, many of its ideas and designs would later make their way into other sci-fi films through the legendary storyboard the filmmaker sent to Hollywood studios while pitching his movie.

In 1971, just six years after Frank Herbert published his groundbreaking science-fiction novel "Dune," Arthur P. Jacobs' Apjac International obtained the rights to the story for a film adaptation. The producer behind "Planet of the Apes" was ready to craft another world set in a distant future, but with the sequel film "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" on its way, "Dune" was delayed.

Jacobs went through a handful of different directors and screenwriters in early development, but he tragically passed away in 1973. David Lynch would eventually bring "Dune" to the big screen in 1984, but there were multiple failed attempts that paved the way for his film and a remake in his wake that led to Denis Villeneuve's recent adaptations. The messy histories of failed "Dune" adaptations could justify their own feature-length documentaries but allow this to be a crash course on the bizarre "Dune" movies that never came to be.

Timothée Chalamet returns to the desert as Denis Villeneuve triumphs again in filming the unfilmable with a colour-saturated blockbuster contemplating zealotry and religious war

If there’s another blockbuster this year that matches the visual impact of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two, I’ll eat my desert boots. The second Dune instalment is jaw-on-the-floor spectacular. It elegantly weaves together top-tier special effects and arresting cinematography; it layers muscle, sinew and savagery on to the bones of Part One. It’s an inhospitable, brutal kind of beauty that Villeneuve has created – there’s not enough lip balm in the universe to make a visit to the sandblasted wilderness planet of Arrakis look appealing. But this epic action picture, which follows the journey of Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) from a cheeky whippersnapper who’s a bit handy with a sword, to a feared warrior, to the prophesied leader of the Fremen tribe of Arrakis,...

(Welcome to Tales from the Box Office, our column that examines box office miracles, disasters, and everything in between, as well as what we can learn from them.)

"When I finished the novel. I was just knocked out." Those are the words of filmmaker David Lynch, of "Twin Peaks" and "Eraserhead" fame. The director said this in 2021 reflecting on reading Frank Herbert's "Dune" for the first time. That is, in no small part, why he decided to sign on to direct an adaptation of the novel that had been kicking around Hollywood for years. Unfortunately, for various reasons, Lynch's version was doomed to fail.

"I'd seen 'Star Wars,' of course; but to be honest, I wasn't all that crazy about it," Lynch, who had been eyed to potentially direct "Return of the Jedi," said in that same interview. "Dune was different; it had believable characterizations and depth.

Lynch's 1984 Dune may be visually stunning, but its rushed narrative loses key aspects of the rich story, leading to a disappointing adaptation. Villeneuve's 2021 Part One takes a slower, deliberate approach, successfully exploring the intricate lore and characters of Herbert's world. Part Two of Villeneuve's adaptation excels in delivering a complete and satisfying conclusion, elevating the franchise to new heights.

Warning: Contains Spoilers for Dune: Part TwoAlthough various attempts have been made to translate Frank Herbert's novel to the big screen, some Dune movies are far more successful than others. The source material was long assumed unfilmable, thanks to its blend of dense philosophy, spiritualism, and incredible imagery. However, the combination of ambitious filmmakers and technological advancements post-1965 means that there have now been three attempts to realize Herbert's original vision – all with their own flaws and qualities.

David Lynch became the first director to successfully adapt Herbert's book,...

So, where were we? Oh, right.

House Atreides, the noble family that oversaw the rule of the spice-rich planet Arrakis, is no more. Its patriarch, Duke Leto, is dead. His heir Paul Atreides, and the young man’s mother Lady Jessica, are both presumed to have been killed as well. House Harkonnen, led by the corpulent and cybernetically enhanced Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, will once again take control of Arrakis and mine its deserts for its prized — and extremely hallucinogenic — resource. Unbeknownst to the Baron, his hulking nephew Beast Rabban (who...