Jodorowsky's Dune Page #3

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Dali, to us, he seemed to be

the only emperor of the world...

with that extraordinary talent,

with his speech and his wording.

Can nobody understand Dali because

myself, never understand my work.

Never Dali understand

one painting of Dali...

because Dali only create enigmas.

Dali was something, eh?

The first time we went to New York

was with Michel Seydoux.

We went to the St. Regis because

Michel Seydoux liked the St. Regis Hotel.

And we discovered that Dali

was also at the St. Regis Hotel!

By chance.

I was reading a book about the Tarot.

And then I take a page

where the Hanged Man...

I write, "I want to see you because

I will make a picture with you."

He like it. To have this kind of

invitation. He say, "I will see you."

I wait you in the bar."

The bar had a 6-meter long painting...

pre-Rafaelite, where there was a king...

and the nobles had a face

like they were hiding something.

Dali told me, "I like it here because

there is a 6-meter painting..."

dedicated to a fart."

Dali told me,

"We are going to see each other in Paris.

I am going to think about it."

In Paris, on the Champs Elyses,

there was a very fancy restaurant...

and he was there with his court.

He had 12...

Twelve persons at the table and him.

"Sit down.

I want to ask something to you."

"What, Mr. Dali?"

"When we was young, myself and

Picasso, we went to the beach."

And we open the door of the car...

"...always in the sand, we find a clock."

Clock, no?

"Do you find, in your life,

a clock in the sand?"

And I say, "What I can answer?"

It was very quick, like this, because...

all the 12 person

are awaiting my question.

Because if I say I find,

all the time, clocks...

I will be a vanity person. Ridiculous.

If I say I never find a clock,

I will be a poor guy.

And suddenly came to me, I say:

"I never find a clock.

But I lost a lot."

"Okay!" And then,

"I wait you in Barcelona!"

It was a game.

Also, Jodorowsky was part

of the surrealist movement...

and Dali liked that.

So it was a game between them.

Who would win the game?

He was going through his first adventure

with Amanda Lear...

this sort of

extraordinarily sexy person.

Nobody ever knew

if it was a man or a woman...

a completely incredible character.

A sort of muse, a poet's muse.

And you had to meet him,

you had to tame him...

and he needed to tame you.

So he would make you go

through these initiations each time.

She treated me very well...

and she became an ally...

because I promised her the role

of Princess irulan.

She said,

"Be careful because Dali is destructive.

If he says 'yes', he is going to do

everything to destroy the film."

Dali say to me, "I will work with you..."

but I want to be the actor...

Best paid actor in Hollywood.

"I want $100,000 per hour."

I went back and told Alejandro,

"We're never going to make it!"

But I couldn't pay him

"the most in the world."

That would be impossible.

Then step by step...

because we were stubborn

and because Alejandro would tell me...

that Dali was the only one

who could play the emperor...

the totalitarian emperor...

we had the idea of paying him...

by the minutes used.

I go to see Alejandro...

and ask, "How many minutes

is he going to be filmed?"

How many minutes

will he be in the movie?"

Alejandro says,

"Maximum five, probably three."

So I said, "That's the idea!"

I go back to see Dali and I say,

"I will pay you $100,000 per minute!"

He says, "That's brilliant!

I will be the $100,000 a minute actor!"

I said, "I will take a mold of you,

hyper-realistic..."

and I will make

the emperor of the galaxy...

"...he is so afraid to be killed,

he have a robot. And the robot will act."

And Dali said, "Yes, if you give me

the sculpture for my museum."

"Okay." And then like this, I have Dali.

And Dali, in our conversation,

show me a catalog of Giger.

And he say to me,

"I think this person have a talent."

I see that, I see... But is incredible!

Is what I am searching for

the Harkonnen, for the bad guys.

The gothic planet, gothic characters.

And then I went to search Giger.

Paris was where Jodorowsky and

Dan O'Bannon saw my work displayed...

and they wanted me to join them.

Giger had never done movies.

I said, "You have to make movies."

It was completely new to me

and incredibly fascinating.

"I say to Giger, " I need you as you are.

You are searching in the deepest

darkness of the soul.

And that is good. That is your art.

Your art is... For me, is an ill art.

"Marvelous, ill art,

necessary for the Baron Harkonnen."

I met Jodorowsky for the first time

in Paris.

This was the evening when he attended...

a Magma concert.

For the Harkonnen planet,

I chose here in Paris...

a very famous group in that time,

is Magma.

Magma was gothic, military...

terrible.

I knew nothing about the project,

or the idea...

or the book for that matter.

I learned about all of that afterwards.

Alejandro Jodorowsky didn't give us

any direction on the music.

I believe he trusted us.

Now, I had an idea because he had

described the planet, the Harkonnen.

I knew that they were not really

the good guys...

that they were more like the bad guys.

So it was rather easy

to imagine because...

Magma made music

that was rather violent...

typically hard, things like that.

I was just amazed by the quality...

and I told them I felt just like

Christ when he was on the cross.

I was fulfilled,

it was fascinating, the music.

I was using the best musicians

of this time, from rock.

I wanted Mick Jagger to play

Feyd-Rautha, a character.

How am I going to contact this person...

who is not going to be impressed that

I have the great power to make a movie?

He is in the peak of his

fame, of his glory. How?

And I was invited to an event in Paris.

It was a big gathering

of the Parisian bourgeoisie...

and at the other side of the room,

a big room...

I don't know,

maybe 150 square meters...

was Mick Jagger.

I saw him from a distance

and I think he saw me...

and I saw him walking,

he started walking...

He started walking between the people...

and then I realized

that he was coming to me.

He crossed the room

and he stood in front of me.

And I told him, "I want you for my movie."

And he said only one word, "Yes."

I was often invited

to Andy Warhol's Factory...

Candy Darling, and all those people.

There I met Udo Kier,

who was Andy Warhol's great actor.

He had played great roles,

and he said that he would act for me.

Baron Harkonnen is a big, big monster...

who have anti-gravitational implants...

and he is in the air all the time

because he is too heavy.

Orson Welles.

Orson Welles had a bad reputation...

because they said

that he liked to drink and eat...

so much that he ate at the movies.

He ate a lot, and then he did not

finish the movies, he was moody.

But I said, "No, Orson Welles

is a genius, he is the one."

And since he liked to eat, they say he goes

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