In Villeneuve’s phrases:
“I cherished the concept that Harkonnens are a society that does not like hair. […] They take away the whole lot. They wish to be as distant from any a part of their previous as attainable, the place they’re coming from. There is a will of purity.”
Shaving one’s head has lengthy been a purification ritual in lots of religions, notably amongst sure Buddhist monks. The Harkonnens, nonetheless, aren’t depicted as being notably non secular — certainly, they’re hedonistic and merciless — so Villeneuve was probably evoking the panicked, commercially linked hair-removal rituals that started to invade the Western world within the early twentieth century. The style of shaving one’s armpits did not come into vogue till Harper’s Bazaar started hyping it in round 1915. Ever since, each women and men have been inspired by Madison Avenue to take away increasingly of their physique hair, in a misguided try to look extra female, “cleaner,” and/or youthful. The entire removing of Harkonnen physique hair in “Dune” probably exhibits that the household has intentionally taken these commercially-driven notions of vainness to their excessive.
To be able to make Butler bald, the “Dune” make-up artists outfitted him with a latex bald cap. Butler described the make-up like this:
“There’s two caps on my head. […] One which goes over the hair, after which there’s the sculpted cap that attaches type of the place my eyelids have been, proper on the crease of my eyelids. That goes all the way in which again.”
Feyd’s pronounced forehead, as seen within the image above, is synthetic. One can solely think about how scorching Butler turned sporting the latex bald cap whereas taking pictures within the desert.
“Dune: Half Two” opens in theaters on March 1, 2024.