Dune and sci-fi movies, in general, gives a way to escape everyday reality and travel towards an imaginary one. The idea to travel on different planets, travelling through space give us the chance to reduce our anxiety and everyday fears.
Freud was the first one to talk about the importance of fantasy. He thought that was the way to express unsatisfied needs that otherwise are not able to rise. Cinema is the vehicle that let us enter fantastic worlds by simply entering a dark theatre and release our emotions.
“Cinema distracts from a delusional reality,” says Paolo Sorrentino in his latest film taking the quote from Federico Fellini. “Distraction” is a fundamental element of our mind. Sci-fi is important even more because gives us the chance to know and ask ourselves questions about complex scientific matters. We wonder how to drive a spaceship, the shape of galaxies, Sci-fi helps us imagine the future and exploring infinite possible scenarios. Dune is a mix of fantasy and reality. The themes that Frank Herbert puts in the novel are human survival, evolution, ecology and the connection between politics and religion.
Sci-fi movies work even more when creating the perfect mix of fantasy, reality and exploration of inaccessible areas of our mind. While travelling across planets we travel across the world of our mind. Just Blade Runner and 2001: Odissea nello Spazio. We all remember the quote of the unforgettable film by Stanley Kubrick: HAL says he’s scared. A computer with human emotions. The success of the movie was due to the possibility to give explanations about the dawn of humanity and the doom of the human race, questions about we don’t have a sure answer.
Dune’s adaptation is always been considered impossible or difficult because puts together all these elements, including having superpowers.
We are waiting for Dune and we recover there and in sci-fi and our heroes will entertain and distract us with possible and impossible.
