Welcome back for another wrap up, in the video I’ll talk about all the books I read (including a semi savage discussion on Sally Rooney’s new book) and my Film and TV highlights of the month of September.
Usually, book-to-film adaptations get a bad rep. Fans of the source material are prone to finickity nit-picking, and more often than not, the screenplay never quite captures the full essence of the story because, in most cases, there’s just not enough time to cover it all.
Of course, there's the odd good one, and the occasional great one, many of which we can thank the late great Mr Stanley Kubrick for. Yes, even The Shinning that Stephen King notoriously hated.
But 9 times out of 10, the consensus is always that the book is better than the movie. But Denis Villeneuve could quite possibly change that when his cinematic blockbuster adaptation of Dune hits theatres in October.
Here are 5 reasons why Denis Villeneuve’s Dune will blow us away
Villeneuve has read Frank Herbert's epic space fantasy novel many times over; he has an undeniable passion for the material. When Denis made Blade Runner 2049, he took the DNA of Ridley Scott's movie and ran with it, he was loyal but also creative with the world, and that's exactly what Dune needs. Someone who loves it and wants it to be Dune but is willing to make it mainstream in a clever way.
The sophisticated and utterly classy 2016 film Arrival is based on a short story by Ted Chiang, and well, it was unarguably one of the best films of the year. This film cemented Villeneuve’s status as a certified Sci-fi wizard as he turned a rather intriguing and very short story into a mind-blowing theatrical experience that only gets better on re-watches.
From the looks of the trailer, we are getting a believable Dune. A much more palatable cinematic version, unlike the kitsch campiness of David Lynch's oh so 80's it hurts adaptation from 1984. If anything, there are some major operatic and Shakespearean vibes to the production. The scope of Dune is immense, and the political intrigue is Game of Thrones-level stuff, and that’s exactly what Denis is delivering.
Climate crisis, Colonialism, whitewashing, white saviours – all terms that are very much in our verbal lexicon nowadays and this adaptation of Dune tackles them all.
Colonisers ravish Arrakis, for it is the only place where you can acquire the priceless spice Melange. Paul is part of the problem or, at best, a White Saviour, and if you look at Lynch’s 1984 movie it really was rather too white for an intergalactic society hundreds of years in the future.
For a book published in 1965, Dune is still very much contemporary, its issues are our issues, and really this is the perfect time for Dune to be hitting our screens. It’s pure sci-fi epicness with a gut-wrenching punch behind it. Dune is essential viewing.
Going into a Denis Villeneuve movie is a safe thing; he’s a director you can trust. It’s like walking into a Christopher Nolan movie and knowing something about Time will be in the plot or into a Marvel movie and knowing it’s going to be a fun and formulaic blast.
With Villeneuve, you know you’re going to get great visuals, great stories and above all, you know there will be stellar performances. Timothee Chalamet is the perfect casting choice for Paul Atreides; not only is he one of Hollywood’s hottest talents under 30 right now he has the perfect sad boy vibe that just screams an epic coming-of-age story; I feel like he’s going to play Paul as a sort of space Hamlet, to be emperor or not to be emperor that is the question!
So I watched more than 30 movies in August, in my defence some were short films so… but tbh I had a blast so I don’t really need to excuse myself. Cinema is one of my biggest passions and from time to time I’ll get completely consumed by it and thats kind of what happened this past month.
Find out what films and books I read in August:
Undine is an exquisite and hypnotic reimagining of the Undine myth set in modern-day Berlin.
The German romantic drama film is by one of the countries most celebrated directors, Christian Petzold and stars critically acclaimed actors Paula Beer and Franz Rogowski as lovers, Undine and Christoph. Undine had its premiere at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival, where it was shown in competition for the coveted Gold Bear Award. The film ultimately secured Beer with the Silver Bear for Best Actress for her mesmerising performance as a reluctant water nymph.
In Undine, Paula Beer and Franz Rogowski are reunited with their Transit director, and let me say this trio is magical. The chemistry between Beer and Rogowski is electric here, and I found myself completely enamoured by Undine and Christoph’s courtship. They may have a semi unbelievable first encounter where a fish tank shatters, but it certainly is an enchanting one, and that’s down to the way Petzold shoots the moment. It’s a moment full of whimsy, but it juxtaposes nicely with the rather unfortunate breakup Undine suffers at the beginning of the film.
Petzold himself said in an interview with Indiewire, “As the water pours over them, they’re lying next to each other like on a beach. They open their eyes like a rebirthing scene, wet with mud and old fish. They look at each other, and the first thing they see are the eyes of the other. That’s a good start for a love story.”
I also like the fact that their courting after this almost magical first encounter takes place in ordinary and unremarkable places, which Petzold does deliberately. In a talk with fellow German director Heinz Emigholz and NYFF program director Dennis Lim, he said he didn’t want to film the love story in romantic locations. Petzold instead opted to use ordinary spaces so that the romance can ‘bewitch’ these places and transform them from something banal to something other. He also refers to a line from a poem by Joseph von Eichendorff that inspired him ‘Schläft ein Lied in allen Dingen’ (A song sleeps in all things), which I think is a rather beautiful sentiment. You can certainly see this idea has been considered throughout the movie (and in his other films too).
The other striking thing about the use of place in the film is the links to architecture and Berlin itself. Undine is a historian who gives talks about urban development, which on its own is pretty cool. But when she talks about the city’s origin, she mentions the etymology of Berlin’s name; it means ‘swamp’ or ‘dry place in the swamp’. Therefore the city like Undine has a connection to water that has been severed, and she has, in a way like Berlin, been urbanised, transformed and separated from her elemental origin. Later in the film, she rehearses a talk in front of an enraptured Christoph (such a beautiful moment!). There she talks about the Humboldt Forum, a 21st-century museum in the centre of Berlin that was modelled on an 18th-century building that once stood in the exact same place and an architectural theory that suggests that progress is impossible. A neat bit of foreboding, which is mirrored in Petzold’s cyclical direction which features recurring motifs of mysterious Catfish sightings (more on him in a minute!) and characters returning to the same locations in search of evidence of events taking place.
Another of my favourite moments in the film is where the shot of Undine looking over Christoph’s shoulder for the poster originates. It’s simple; we follow the two as they wander along in each other’s arms, as if completely smitten and unable to be separate from one another’s embrace for any length of time. The music and the atmosphere is beautiful until Undine sees Johannes, her previous boyfriend, with another woman. The camera then sweeps around to follow them walk past, and Undine peers over Christoph’s shoulder. This signifies a turning point in the film and that despite her growing bond with Christoph, her fate is catching up to her.
So let’s talk about Gunther the catfish. He’s named after a character from the Nibelungenlied an Old Germanic text, very much like The Prose Edda and other mythological/legendary tales from medieval times. This little literary reference adds another texture of myth and mystery to the setting of the water, which as a dam is a natural place that has been industrialised. It’s an archaic place that has been transformed and acts as an intersection between the modern world and the world of mysticism, note that both Undine and Gunther reside there. This also connects back to the original romantic story by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, the river is so imposing in the novella that it strands characters for a period of time, however here in the modern age man has tamed the river. Petzold said in an interview that people are becoming distant from the myths and legends of the earlier years and this setting most definitely suggests that and offers us the chance to reflect on this fact.
In conclusion, I think I have found a new favourite in Undine. I love unusual romances that are sprinkled with magical realism and a sobering dash of doom. I love the performances by Beer and Rogowski, and I think Petzold has crafted such a beautiful film with so many textured layers to unpack. On the first watch, it is a whimsical love story; on the second watch, it's a meditation on time, place and autonomy…I can only wonder what a third watch will have in store for me. But ultimately, it's the intertwining of love, architecture, poetic doom and mysticism that makes Undine a film that will keep me coming back re-watch after re-watch.
Angst essen Seele auf (Fear eats the soul) is directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder and stars Brigitte Mira and El Hedi ben Salem. The film follows Mira as Emmi, an older German woman who is a mother of three adult children and a widow who meets and falls in love with Ali, a much younger migrant worker from Morocco.
This was my first foray into Fassbinder’s filmography, and I must say it’s brilliantly shot. I love all the claustrophobic framing through doors, which reflects the crushing limits society puts upon the protagonists. Likewise, the scene outside amongst the sunshine-yellow tables is a particularly beautiful moment, but it again adds to the idea of isolation as the couple are completely alone; they can have a tender moment in public only because the scene is unpopulated by other prying eyes.
But what’s most shocking and really quite sad is that a film made in the 1970s about racism, ageism and prejudice feels just as relevant now, and while we have progressed slightly, we are nowhere near to where we need to be!
Fear Eats the Soul is a must-watch and a great introduction to a master of German cinema. I’m intrigued to watch more of his films, one for the fact that Fassbinder was a filmmaker that dared to push boundaries and famously proclaimed, ‘I don’t throw bombs, I make films.’ and because Fear was just such a great place to start.
