Dante 01

The art of the Making Of DVD doc has never been defined and seldom taken seriously. You could do worse than check out Marc Caro’s Dante 01 unplugged. It combines scenes of filmmaking, during which you gain even more respect for actors and cinematographers, with talking heads that actually say things you want to hear. Overall, it does exactly what it is supposed to do – make you want to watch the film again with the advantage of a little light knowledge.

It doesn’t explain what it's all about. Caro prefers to leave pockets of incomprehension to be filled at your discretion. “That’s why I love David Lynch.”

The star of the film, Lambert Wilson, who plays the mysterious Saint Georges, a shambling, mute, Christ-like figure is quite a charmer off screen. “People think of me as a sophisticated, dandified actor,” he says, while having his head shaved and making faces at the camera. Later, he admits that his dedicated fitness regime in the gym was necessary as it proved a physically tough shoot. “My heart beat faster at every scene.”

Being French, there is the temptation to intellectualise the whole thing. If this had been a Hollywood production the talk would have been of action and CGI. With Caro and co-writer Pierre Bordage, it’s about the psychology of meaning and the structure of sci-fi. “Everything is pushed to the limit,” Bordage says. “That’s what sc-fi is.” Caro adds that there are elements from different religions in the film. “Each character is connected to a mortal sin,” Bordage says.

Wow! I thought it was a bunch of bad guys stuck out in space, trying to cope with being bald, and making conversation with a new bloke who might be an alien.