Strap on your weirding modules and hold on to your decorative pugs: The Overlook, The A.V. Club’s ongoing exploration of neglected and under-appreciated films, is going live with a special screening of David Lynch’s ambitious 1984 sci-fi epic Dune at Chicago’s Music Box Theatre on Saturday, October 1st.
A.V. Club film critic, Overlook concierge, and Dune apologist Ignatiy Vishnevetsky (a.k.a. me) will be presenting a 35mm theatrical cut print of the film—a fascinating and sometimes mesmerizing amalgam of decadence, grotesquerie, and interplanetary intrigue. Adapted from the classic sci-fi novel by Frank Herbert, Dune is set in the year 10,191 on the desert planet Arrakis, where noble houses and local freedom fighters battle for control of a drug-like psychotropic resource that makes space travel possible, all the while trying to avoid poisonings, telepathic spying, and the threat of phallic giant sandworms.
Regardless of how you feel about it, Dune offers an experience unlike any other big-budget movie. As with all of Lynch’s film work, it’s best seen and heard in a darkened theater. There’ll be a special Overlook devoted to the film the week before (the scheduled entry on A Thief In The Night will instead run later), and a post-screening discussion of this most unusual of blockbuster wannabes.
Tickets and more information are available the Music Box’s website.