We’re not jinxing it this time. All releases scheduled for October have been cautiously moved to the end of the year, so we’re making the best of it with three alternatives to our most anticipated films.
Denis Villeneuve’s Dune is arguably the most anticipated film of 2021. One of the most exciting filmmakers working in Hollywood and a stellar cast adapting Frank Herbert’s sci-fi classic. I’m not going to recommend Lynch’s infamous 1984 version but, instead, Jodorowsky’s Dune (rent on iTunes), a making-of documentary about a film that never happened. The Mexican cult filmmaker planned to adapt a novel he never even read, with a healthy dose of drug-fueled insanity. At the end he doesn’t have anything to show, but the concept and style went on to influence future sci-fi operas.
Wes Anderson is adamant to show his French Dispatch on the big screen, delaying its release for more than a year. Each of his projects is inspired by different filmographies, and this one is no different: Parisian cafes, berets and baguettes, sexual liberation. Anderson wrote a list of films that helped him shape the style of the project, including one of my all-time favourites – Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Quai des orfévres (Kanopy). A Hitchcockian thriller with a most compelling logline: a husband and wife each believes the other committed murder, so they independently plant fake alibis to confuse the police and incriminate themselves. Do not miss it. Cinema is rarely this entertaining.
Finally, in tributue to Julia Ducournau’s Palm d’Or winner Titane. A follow-up to the intense body-horror cannibal drama Raw hit Cannes with the kind of divisiveness the festival thrives on. What could even compare to that? Try Lucile Hadžihalilović’s Evolution. Another French filmmaker that will leave you confused and horrified in equal measure. Without making it sound more confusing than it is, imagine H.P. Lovecraft, David Lynch and Salvador Dalí making a film about the physical horrors of pre-puberty.