PRESENTATION - CHOSEN DIRECTOR "Denis Villeneuve" (DIRECTIONS UNIT)

January 16, 2020

PRESENTATION - CHOSEN DIRECTOR "Denis Villeneuve" (DIRECTIONS UNIT)

Name: Denis Villeneuve

Age: 52

DOP: October 3rd, Quebec, Canada, 1967

Bio: Growing up in Quebec in Canada, son to Jean Villeneuve and Nicole Demers. Villeneuve began his career into filmmaking at the National Film Board of Canada. He is married to Tanya Lapointe. He is best known for directing films such as Arrival (2016), Sicario (2015), Enemy (2013) and Incendies (2010). Villeneuve is currently working on Dune a SCI -FI remake film from the 1980's and based on the book by Frank Herbert. He has won a couple of awards at the Canadian Screen Award for best achievement in direction, he has been nominated for two Oscars, one for Best Director of Arrival and Best Foreign Language film which was Incdendies.
Projects:

Malestrom (2000)

Polytechnique (2009)

Incendies (2010)

Prisoners (2013)

Enemy (2013)

Sicario (2015)

Arrival (2016)

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Upcoming Projects:

Dune (2020) - POST PRODUCTION

Cleopatra - PRE PRODUCTION

Responding Positively To Their Work: Denis Villeneuve's directing has always made me feel impressed and excited for his next upcoming film project. Villeneuve is a director that focuses a lot on character and atmosphere. In terms of character, he creates individuals that all have some type of demons going through them psychically and mentally. For mentally he does not think he is creating a villain or even a hero, and just by creating and treating as if they are only human. The human nature of a individual that thinks and decides if the person is making the right choice or not and i find that aspect in his films, a more of a engaging and relevant way. For us as a society how we can understand and engage with each other. A lot of Villeneuve's films do contain the element of violence, as he finds violence to be one of his personal fears, Villeneuve makes sure to make a variety of violence themes and pushes the boundaries of it. To present these realistic and horrific themes from the characters, Villeneuve is very good at presenting the question of how do we as humans beings control our feelings, emotions and he asks himself a lot, is it from our conscience or self conscience mind.

Visual, Audio, Thematic, Dramatic, Similarities/ Trademarks and Body of Work: Denis Villeneuve has a theme in puzzles and symbols, when it appears in his films to communicate something important, and in a depth sign for the audiences to experience and understand whats the meaning of these specific symbols mean and hold in Villeneuve films. For example in Prisoners (2013) and Arrival (2016), both of those films show these type of examples as a puzzle, message and a maze even. Villeneuve enjoys playing around with the audiences minds, with a more visual, psychological and more of a realistic version, compared to other film directors such as David Lynch and David Cronenberg. Who attend to do these type of aspects more of a unrealistic, strange and disturbing way.

Prisoners (2013)

Arrival (2016)

When it comes to colour and mood, Villeneuve sometimes uses very specific colours for the appropriate tone from the colour of his films. For example in Blade Runner 2049 (2017), has multiple different colours, on the example to the left it presents itself in a very orange misty colour. It shows us our main character is walking into something unknown, and the questions are is he heading towards something safe or something in danger. In the second example on the right, our main character is lying down on some steps and it's snowing. This shows us our main character is at a very peaceful location, and has this home feel to it for the character. For Villeneuve being brought up in Canada, this scene can make it more on a personal note for Villeneuve and the country he was bought up in.

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Music, Tone, Cinematography:

What Scenes I Have Chosen and Why: From all of Denis Villeneuve's films, i have chosen the film Prisoners (2013). The scenes i have chosen is a scene when two of our main characters first meet, about discussing the suspect being arrested who has an IQ of a ten year old. My second scene is the main character getting a phone call from his wife, informing him that the suspect is getting released, and my final scene is the main character kidnapping the suspect who got released. I want to re create these scenes because it sets up the tone of this film from Villeneuve, it's about one of our main characters thinking he is doing the right thing psychologically, and having this conflict between Keller (Hugh Jackman) and Alex Jones (Paul Dano). Making Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) being placed in the middle of this situation and case. It doesn't feel complicated or impossible to film with the equipment and locations to have around myself.