Dune‘s Denis Villeneuve is a true film nerd….a believer, a devotional, a monk in robes. As Lawrence of Arabia‘s Dryden (Claude Rains) says to General Murray (Donald Wolfit), “He knows his stuff.”
But projection-wise, 70mm is not the best way to see Lawrence any more. Digital projection has surpassed it. There’s no question about this. I saw it digitally projected at the Salle du Soixantieme in Cannes so don’t tell me. In this respect Villeneuve is wrong.
Friendo #1: “For what it’s worth, I couldn’t get past page 50 of Frank Herbert’s Dune and thought the Lynch version dismal. But I have to say that the new Dune put me in The Zone in a way that I’m not accustomed to — I just locked into what Villeneuve was doing and more or less stayed that way to the end, quite admiring it all the way.”
Friendo #2: “Seeing Dune in a theatre is agony, an endurance test. Don’t do it. Choose the HBO Max option.”