Culture news “Neither Dune nor Star Wars” This French sci-fi film is inspired by many things, but not by science fiction classics
France is the “motherland” of science fiction. The novels of Jules Vernes, the films of Georges Méliès and the magazine Métal Hurlant are all witnesses to its glorious past and its predominance in a genre which today arouses much interest. The hegemony of France over SF is no longer, but some filmmakers intend to change the situation. This was the case for Jérémie Périn with Mars Express in 2023. This year, it is a comedy which defends the (tri) colors of science fiction in our territory.
“Neither Dune nor Star Wars”
The latest “made in France” cinematographic creation in science fiction is an unidentified film object directed by none other than Bruno Dumont. The filmmaker who made himself known in our territory with The Life of Jesus (1997), P’tit Quinquin (2014), Ma Loute (2016) and France (2021) is coming to theaters this winter with a comedy of SF of which he alone has the secret. Often described as a “Star Wars parody” by the general press and/or general public, The Empire ultimately has nothing (or almost nothing) to do with the universe imagined in 1977 by George Lucas according to the words of the main person concerned. During an interview given to Point Pophe said following the comment “When I saw the film, I found that it was much more inspired by Dune than Star Wars…”:
Not really. Neither Dune nor Star Wars, in fact! Besides, when it came to creating the spaceships, I spent a lot of time stopping the technicians from making machines that we had already seen everywhere. For the rest, The Empire is like Aristotle: everything is mixed, naturalism, SF, Satanism, the fantastic, the tragic, the comic… The Empire is also like the ducasse of the North, What. As in the village of the film, they are all half angels and demons, mixed together by opposing forces. Johnny has been invested by evil. He is the father of Freddy that we see in The Life of Jesus. -Bruno Dumont
The Empire Strikes Back
The interview between Bruno Dumont and our Point Pop colleague Philippe Guedj was an opportunity for the French director to return to his relationship with the Star Wars franchise. He discovered the film “Star Wars” very early in theaters directly in the United States while he lived with an American family in the state of Indiana. This cinema session left a lasting impression on B. Dumont. We also find traces of Star Wars Episode IV in his filmography, from a simple nod to the way of developing a saga.
I was in the United States with a family in deep Indiana and I spoke very poor English when they sent me to see the first Star Wars. I didn’t understand anything because I spoke English very poorly but, again, the imagination, the characters, the big syncretic broth of influences overwhelmed me. When I filmed Flanders, in Tunisia, I did it in one of the locations that was used for filming Star Wars. Look closely at certain shots, you will detect remnants of Star Wars in the decor. In Star Wars, I also loved the idea of serializing the films, it made me want to think of The Empire as a prequel to The Life of Jesus: baby Freddy is the Freddy of The Life of Jesus. He is the son of evil, of Beelzebub! -Bruno Dumont
Solid SF references
Bruno Dumont admits to knowing science fiction only through the prism of cinema and not literature, which he does not particularly like. The fact remains that its references (in this case cinematographic ones) prove to be solid. The director of The Empire mentions great sci-fi classics including the essential 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick. However, his first genre film at the cinema was The Planet of the Apes (1968), another science fiction classic. He ends with a film less known to the general public, but which has acquired the status of a cult work over time… Green Sun (1973) by Richard Fleischer.