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mutsubaki · 14 days

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Quoting the classical work of art (Fleabag), hair is everything. Let's talk about hair and Dune characters.

I adore how hair and headpieces are treated as a part of the visual language in the movies. Some changes are drastic, and some are more subtile, but nevertheless everything is thought out.

Let's start with Paul Atreides, an owner of the gourgeous head of locks. We are introduced to him with this look:

His natural curl pattern is layed around his face neatly enough for the lood of the young aristocrat, but has a romantic lightness. He woke up like this. His hair look brushed away for the ceremonial attire, but the pattern stays the same.

That's how his hair act on Caladan, in his homeworld humidity and weather. Curly, romantic, on the verge of caladan it-boy messiness, but actually easily put together. In later Caladan scenes you don't really see his hair getting in the way of his face, besides a couple frames where front locks follow his movement, not in the wind, not in the training. Because he's used to this enviroment, his body and mind.

When the Atreides arrive at Arrakis, his hair lay flat and are pushed back. He looks into the future, ready to see and adapt, but not much has changed - but I'm atttaching this picture for future comparison of the same hairstyle.

In the following scenes, the Fluff is subtule, his hair don't really reflect the change of air, but in the Desert the framing of his face in those locks is important.

At this shot, his eyes look fully covered. The cinematograpy picks up how the first breath of desert air messes Paul up - from his look to his inner core. Here we pick up the theme of the inner strugggle to open up to the vision or not.

And in the following scenes the Fluff comes fully, even when the setting of the scene assumes that he could change and brush, that's just how his hair look like.

But mind you. In the scenes where Paul has the vision, the director chose to show how his face actually openes by the spice air gush.

In the following scenes, where the remaining Atreides flee the battle, not much changes. But when Paul and Jessica get out of the sand storm, we get this, laying the grounds for the hair continuity of the following dramatic shots and siginfying the change of Paul's approach for his visions. They survived in the storm because he relied on this part of himself. Bun now everything is even more messed up.

And you know what follows. The Shot of Paul, head lowered, walikng from the first man he killed, whom he killed, becaule the man himself lead him there in his visions. Nothing about his look now is playful unkeptness.

In the second part, when Paul is accepted to the comminity, not much changes in his looks. He wears his hair as he used to, only the Fluff is almost constant. He has adapted, and in most of the shots the curls are soft and are constantly picked by the wind, rising the volume.

How he is a young warrior - a more romantic type, actually reflecting more on his caladanian presona. When he rides the sandworm, he looks like a young man, but soon we'll see a change in this persona.

Writin this post, I assumed that the Halo of Hair appears later, but actually we see the harshly put back hair even earlier. The decent for the godhood begins after the shai-hulud, when his peers first see him as a prophet in mass. It's when he talks to resqued Gourney when we first see this.

The transition to the Lissan Al Gaib has already begun. It's not yet settled, we do see some scenes where he looks much softer - like this one, when Chani comforts him:

But that's how Lisaan Al Gaib wakes up. I think that comparison's to the Vroubel's Demon Sitting had been made a million times.

No softness, harsh features, rigid hairline. Curls forming the halo around his face. Now compare the waves when Paul first arrives to Arrakis to those tight swirls above his forehead. The desert changed him and his body, and it's translated not only from the eyes. It's an overall look.

Dune tells up, among other things, a story about traumatic personal change. A break from childood into godhood against Paul's wishes. "When you take a life, you take your own", says the voice from the myriad of Paul's ancestors, and that's what happens. Paul Atreides slowly changes and dies, but his body transforms into a vessel for Lisaan Al Gaib. Yet, in the last shot of Paul in Dune part two, we could see something resembling his persona - a ghost of a romantic hero, grieving his death.

#dune #dune part two #paul atreides #I am obsessed and gay so hair posts #dune meta #i'd make posts about chani and jessica maybe if y'all don't think i'm insane #lissan al gaib #paul muad'dib #dune visuals

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the-crooked-library · 2 months

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regarding Dune Part 2: i am obsessed with its consistent visual theme of self-destruction. the shot of paul surrounded by his new followers seems triumphant - until the viewer remembers that each crysknife is made from a tooth of shai-hulud, and paul is standing in a circle of them, in the allegorical mouth of the worm. he orders a missile strike, and the viewer sees them fly directly through his head. every victory for the prophecy is a blow to paul himself; he's killing himself with every step he takes towards his destiny, and we know that already, and the film is screaming it, but it's a hell of a thing to watch it happen, isn't it?..

#dune #dune part 2 #dune 2024 #paul atreides #kwisatz haderach #shai hulud #dune 2 #dune meta #film analysis #visual metaphors

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maracllea · 2 months

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ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴀʀᴋᴏɴɴᴇɴ ʜᴀʀᴘɪᴇꜱ & ʜᴜɴɢᴇʀ | Dune 2

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lucimiir · 2 months

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MY FAV DUNE PT 2 COSTUMES

And my (mostly visual/aesthetic) reasoning

(In no particular order)

Ok starting off STRONG with this Irulan look:

It’s simple, it’s classy, it looks comfy AND elegant. I love the beadwork on the headpiece and how it’s Bene Gesserit-adjacent but you can still completely see her face and hair. The light colors look good on her and that collar made me question it for just long enough to make it better.

Next up is Jessica’s early sayyadina look, and I loooooove this robe. The earth colors are nice, I like how it kinda blends in with the sietch while emphasizing her eyes, and the fabric is very rough and functional looking while still being beautiful. Mostly I’m psyched about the patterns in the weaving (I think it’s woven) and the way that creates continuity with her tattoos.

I had trouble finding good pictures for this, but

Everything about this scene was GORGEOUS. I swear I didn’t breathe for the first ten minutes of the movie, and these Harkonnen uniforms were part of it. The colors here are amazing and make the black look so harsh and unnatural compared to the sand and rocks and the Fremen clothing. Their shiny helmets are terrifying and sterile and buglike and I am living for it. (Little me would have gotten nightmares)

Obviously we’ve all acknowledged Lady Margot’s amazing dress, but it’s just That Good. The structure! The open shoulders and low neck + hood! The color! Sinister and sexy. And despite the fact that I loved the color, I might love this even more in the black and white scenes because it shows off the construction so well and the opera glasses honestly tie it all together.

Ok bringing back Jessica because she Doesn’t Miss:

I loooove this. The gold printing (?) around the hood might be my favorite part, and the beads under the collar are awesome without weighing down her whole face like the outfit she wears for most of the film with all the metal on the forehead. I also like how the structure and design of it is extra similar to Reverend Mother Mohiam, with the giant rectangular hood, but the color and the face beading are actually more reminiscent of the gown she wears when the Atreides arrive on Arrakis in part one.

A shoutout for Feyd-Rautha’s armor in the duel:

Idk I just really like how shiny it is. All the Harkonnen stuff reminds me of bugs (those evil looking shiny black beetles) I like how this is actually very much like a stillsuit and really similar to what Paul’s wearing, but more evil and shiny.

Last but CERTAINLY not least is just Chani’s blue scarf. BOY does this pull its visual weight. Like symbolism and meaning aside, it’s such a necessary piece of color in the all the desert scenes, and adds visual interest to what is a largely beige movie. In tons of the scenes most of the color is bright bright blue in the characters’ eyes and this scarf. And I think it adds a lot of joy and lightness to Chani’s appearance, which obviously symbolically changes as she does.

I just love costumes! This was a visually stunning film! I’m feeling very happy!

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thewormformerlyknownasletojrjr · 1 year

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Sometimes self care is rewatching Dune (2021) and going on and on about ‘the symbolism of this or that’ or how ‘something here is a nod to the sequels’ or ‘look how the casting characterizes the house atreides’ or ‘the music here is phenomenal, it foreshadows gurney’s fate later on’ or ‘I think the difference in the vocalizing in the soundtrack here is deliberate’ until whoever you’re watching it with is ready to commit murder to shut you up.

But it’s just so phenomenal that you can watch it and catch new things each time, the visual and auditory storytelling in the background gives you so much! All these little things that go unnoticed until you see and want to jump out of your seat at them, let’s talk about that.

Let’s talk about how Jessica is always hooded when her scenes are associated with her Bene Gesserit powers and upbringing, how you can literally watch her out her hood down or up mid scene as she transitions from mother and concubine to an obedient disciple, how it foreshadows her struggle in the books all the way through Children of Dune.

Let’s talk about how well done the foreshadowing of the jihad is, how even this early on we can see the start of what is integral to Paul’s conflict in Messiah, how that feeling of helplessness about a destiny he doesn’t want will keep him frozen and unable to stop what’s in motion, how Messiah is such an incredible book because it ties into the dystopian trope wherein revolutionaries become like those they once revolted against, but how it’s so much more fascinating than some of the ways we see it in modern dystopias, because it’s the main characters who are following the pattern, not just watching in horror as those they fought with change for the worse, but actually experiencing it, horrified at what they’ve done and what they will continue to do, frozen and so unable or unwilling to do what needs to be done to stop it, how the movie is still in the stage where they are noble and valiant, but it makes sure to show the dread of what it coming, how it does such a good job of showing the burden of foresight that is so integral to Dune, the way that even as they see the future and can attempt to change it, they know that no matter their decisions, horrible things will come, how it shows Paul as scared hating the power he was given and blaming his mother and her aspirations, how the atreides family never wanted to be great, they wanted to be good, how Paul is coming to see that great and good cannot always coexist, how you look at this boy and you can genuinely see how he will become the man saying ‘Believers, all of them’ how Dune is such a hard story to get right because you watch someone devolve and stand by why horrible things are done without seeing him as a terrible person from the start, without the boy and the man seeming irreconcilable from one another, how the movie actually is on the right track even though the end result is unpalatable to the majority of society, how they are showing the white savior trope in a way that is thus far complaint with how it is deconstructed later on, how they have the epic notes of the beginning without going in a direction that makes the ending impossible.

Let’s talk about how they cast the Atreides family as beautiful people, but not soft, not tamed to modern standards, aristocratic in their looks in such a way that you believe they have been nobility for centuries, maybe millennia, slightly untouchable, dangerous, like those in power during the Italian Renaissance, how Paul looks young but also ethereal and formal, the balance between boy and duke and messiah in his appearance, how Leto’s hair and beard make him not only regal but worn by politics, cold and formal yet fatherly all at once, how Jessica’s ghostly pale complexion nods to her Harkonnen ancestry in the books and how she is beautiful in a way that seems not entirely human, how the other members of the Atreides house are each unique and full of character, not designed to fit a palette or aesthetic, whereas the Harkonnens have an eerie similarity that shows how little they value free will, how the Harkonnens are not dramatized to emphasize their characterization but rather understated, devoid of emotion save for rare explosive moments, how they echoed this in their design, making them blank slates, taking away rather than adding, leaving them almost human, but not quite, enough to trigger that ancient animal instinct in a person that says ‘something is wrong here, something is dangerous’ rather than making them fit in with the conventions of a time period or trend as to how to look evil.

Let’s talk about the soundtrack, how the epic music playing when House Atreides lands on Arrakis is echoed as Gurney and his men charge at the Harkonnens who so greatly outnumber them, how this not only ties you emotionally to the battle, hearing this dying cry of the Atreides, more so than the music continuing to be dark and foreboding through it all, but also how it foreshadows the survival of Gurney and the small group of men with him, living to reunite with Paul later on.

Let’s talk about how throughout the soundtrack we have women vocalizing, the emphasis on the power of the Bene Gesserit and how in Leto’s death scene we diverge from this trend, how he was so powerless against all these grand plans but he still took a stand, still ended things on his own terms.

Let’s talk about how Jessica doesn’t answer when Leto asks her to protect Paul as a Bene Gesserit. Let’s talk about the bull and the matador, the symbolism there. Let’s talk about the emphasis on medieval and renaissance headdresses on the Bene Gesserit, the significance of choosing attire from a time when the Catholic Church was in the peak of its power. Let’s talk about the nods to Gurney’s music. Just, look at all this stuff in the movie that you barely even notice, the first time. All the planning that went into it, how to fit in all these little nods, how to stay true to who the characters are in the present while also beginning to show who they will become. Let’s talk about it.

Though maybe not to the people I was watching the movie with. I don’t actually have a death wish.

#dune #dune frank herbert #paul atreides #children of dune #dune messiah #lady jessica #leto atreides #dune 2021 #visual storytelling #soundtracks #movie appreciation #wow this got long #that part in messiah when he says ‘believers’ hits me like a punch in the gut

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anthemofgvf · 11 months

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