I was rather charmed to learn that Josh Brolin spent his time on the set of Dune writing poetry, which are collected here in Dune: Exposures alongsideI was rather charmed to learn that Josh Brolin spent his time on the set of Dune writing poetry, which are collected here in Dune: Exposures alongside the photography of cinematographer Grieg Fraser and makes for a really lovely coffee table book. As a fan of the books and films, this is quite the treat though the way I came to be in possession of this clothbound collectors volume is quite lovely to me as well. The whole project of this is a cool collaboration of art and artists with Brolin writing verse from the perspective of his character, Gurney Halleck, sometimes from his own perspective as Josh Brolin the actor, and occasionally somewhere inbetween. I’ve long loved Brolin and this further shows how cool he is as well as dedicated to his craft and acutely perceptive about it. These poems sparked some viral fan humour over his poems about Timothée Chalamet—particularly a line about his cheekbones—and while Brolin might not be Poet Laureate for this, these are still so delightful to read and have so much heart and wit behind them. It works wonderfully with the photos, and I do have to admit I’ve always found actors dressed in character but in the moments between shots where they are just themselves to be rather magical imagery. It’s like if you were to catch Mickey Mouse smoking a cigarette or something.
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Brolin addresses just that in a discussion with Variety:
Brolin doesn’t have a favorite passage but says, “I love haikus.” He reads a passage from the book, “‘Lie down in the light, as fictional characters watch you from afar.’ I love that because it’s pointing out the fact that this is not real, but there’s nothing more real. The light is real, lying down is real, the sand is real, the experience is real, and yet, it’s this great contrasting thing.”
I really enjoyed the mini essays Brolin and Fraser wrote about each other, or his poem addressed to Denis Villeneuve in character as Gurney asking if he can finally sing his song on his stupid little lute (the lack of lute in the first film was a bummer for me), or even Brolin describing Chalamet in a poem as looking like a Giocometti sculpture saying ‘I really like you / in The Goonies, man. / That was dope.’ There’s also some cool reflections about being on set in nicely poetic expressions. If you are a fan, this is worthwhile.
Though perhaps more meaningful to me is the way I got it. Its been years since I moved away from my hometown but still keep in touch with one of my good high school friends. He’s the sort you can go months without talking to and pick up right where you left off or as if we were just teenagers playing video games in the basement the day before. We always try to send each other super nerdy gifts, the sort you would never actually buy yourself but like…would actually enjoy having. They’ve gotten pretty over the top in friendly gift giving competition at times, but after planning for 2 years to meet on the opposite side of the state to see Dune Pt 2 on opening night together (we read the books and watched the miniseries together years ago so we felt we should see it how we did movies in high school--go opening night, stay up way to late to watch the first at home, wake up and see the new one again) it was hilarious to discover we both gifted each other this same book. And I thought I was going to have the upper hand on obscure nerdy gifts… We have good taste, what can I say.
So, Dune film fans, definitely flip through a copy of Dune: Exposures if you can. I’m that friend that has this, come find me, we’ll read some Gurney poetry.
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