Never seen Dune 1984? David Lynch movie available for free!

No, it’s not just the diptych signed by Denis Villeneuve, whose second installment, released in theaters on February 28, continues to perform strongly at the box office with more than 3.4 million viewers.

Villeneuve’s film probably wouldn’t exist without the version delivered by David Lynch in 1984. The film is also available for free on the streaming platform france.tv from Thursday, March 28. And you’ll have plenty of time to watch it or plan a future viewing: it’s available for 3 months, until June 30, 2024. The only condition is that Create an account on the site.

The world imagined by Frank Herbert intrigued David Lynch, who had already directed Eraserhead and Elephant Man. Producer De Laurentiis and Universal Studios gave him $40 million in the hope that Dune would be successful and become a franchise that could compete with Star Wars.

David Lynch favors the unknown for this huge project, Kyle McLachlan, who will be revealed thanks to the role of Paul Atreides and will become the director’s favorite actor. The rest of the cast is very solid, with Max von Sydow, Jürgen Prochnow, singer Sting in a memorable role as Fade-Routha, Sean Young, Brad Dourif and even Kenneth MacMillan as the dirty and foul-mouthed Baron Harkonnen. .

Shooting in hell

The grueling shoot in Mexico lasted a year. The team, consisting of a thousand people, faces disease, sandstorms, oppressive heat and corrupt local government. To make matters worse, the studio shares the team of Richard Fleischer’s Conan the Destroyer, another De Laurentiis production, which is being shot simultaneously to cut costs.

Editing also proved to be the most painful experience for Lynch, having to go through his copy several times and make many cuts. 4 hours after the first edit, he will trim his film down to reduce its length to 2 hours 11.

Lynch was understandably dismayed by his film’s critical and financial disaster. So much so that more than 30 years after its release, he refuses to talk about it, it’s so painful to recall the experience. And naturally he avoided watching Villeneuve’s film.