Dune 2 director Denis Villeneuve explains why Harkonnen planet is black and white
Austin Butler in Dune: Part Two
*This story may contain spoilers
Filmmaker Denis Villeneuve has opened up about a key aspect of the film. Villeneuve has explained why the Harkonnen planet of Giedi Prime - which is hell-bent on wiping off Fremen and Atriede- is in black and white in the recently released Dune: Part Two.
Those who have watched Dune: Part Two, would recall how during Feyd-Rautha's (Austin Butler) introduction sequence, the entire planet is drenched under the Black Sun, which makes the colours of its environments vastly different from the other worlds shown in the movie.
As a result, the entire sequence appears to be in black and white, making Giedi Prime a distinct world in Villeneuve's adaptation of Frank Herbert's book Dune.
While speaking to Moviefine, Villeneuve explained why the planet is treated in black and white and revealed that the idea of a black sun could reflect on the psyche of the people who inhabit House Harkonnen.
"The idea came from the book. One of the aspects that I love in the book is the idea that the book is a study of the impact of the ecosystem on human beings, all from the nature of the ecosystem, the human-developed religions, techniques, and ways of survival, all their culture, we are the product of our environment and when you want to know about the Fremen, you just look at the desert and it will inform you about the native people," explained Villeneuve.
"I love this idea and I tried, for Giedi Prime, the homeworld of Harkonnen, there's less information in the book and it's a world that is disconnected from nature. It's a plastic world, he added.
The director felt that the sunlight could give an insight into the psyche of the characters inhabiting the planet.
"What if instead of revealing colours, the sunlight was killing them and creating a very eerie black and white world, that will give us information about how these people perceive reality, about their political system, about how that primitive brutalist culture and it was in the screenplay," said the director.
Timothee Chalamet's Dune: Part Two gets staggering opening at North America box office
Dune: Part Two starring Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem and others has opened to great numbers at the North American box office. The film has earned an estimated $81.5 million in its opening weekend.
WION's review of Dune: Part Two
Calling it a visual spectacle, WION's Shomini Sen wrote, "Chalamet comes on his own in a film that features stalwarts like Bardem, and Brolin among others. It is ultimately Paul's story of growing up from a boy to a mature man who leads a tribe to war, and Chalamet ably shows that transition." Read the full review here.
