Dune: Part Two, the bombastic sci-fi sequel from resident perfectionist Denis Villeneuve, saw an impressive opening weekend raking in $182.5 million at the global box office.
The film’s gargantuan technical achievements speak for themselves, but by getting caught up in the sand-dusted spectacle, one risks missing out on some of the subtler details of Villeneuve’s epic hit. During a recent appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the filmmaker called to attention an especially interesting detail regarding the film’s use of the Fremen language.
“There was like a whole poetry and whole inner logic to the language. For example, when Zendaya says at one point to Stellan SkarsgÃ¥rd, her character Chani says to SkarsgÃ¥rd, ‘you are crazy, you’re insane.’ She says ‘you’re insane.’ But the way she says it in Fremen language is ‘you’re drinking sand.’ That of course for a Fremen, is the ultimate madness.”
Of course, anyone familiar with the ins and outs of linguistics knows that language systems almost never allow a one-to-one translation from one to another, and it would have taken the Emperor of Dune fandom to have noticed such a thing while watching Dune: Part Two. Nevertheless, the fact that Villeneuve seems to have added the detail of “roughly translated subtitles” into his Part Two checklist shows a uniquely incredible dedication to the filmmaking craft here, and we now await the brave soul who will sit through the film, English-to-Fremen dictionary in hand, and proceed to offer up the more raw edition of such subtitles.
And for a guy who apparently hates dialogue, Villeneuve seems to have had a lot of fun with it here.
Dune: Part Two is now playing in theaters.
(featured image: Warner Bros. Pictures)
