Denis Villeneuve’s Indie Films & Finding the Tools to Make his Dream.

Transcript:

I was frankly afraid to go to work in Hollywood I was fascinated I was excited but afraid to be crushed I was afraid to lose my identity as a filmmaker I had heard so many stories and I was not considering myself better than the others if it happened to this guy or this guy why it would not happen to [Music] me isn’t it lovely that we are in 2024 and we still need claps I love that if you want to fight with us first thing you must learn to be one with the desert you know there’s all these stories of how long you’ve been dreaming of making doom and reading the books as a teenager but it strikes me that it was a project that you needed time to make absolutely I needed to get some muscles as a filmmaker in order to be able to bring that home I was always cautious not to put myself in a Zone where I will not be strong enough not to skip the steps and I I uh Through The Years many times I I decline offers because I I was feeling I wasn’t I wasn’t ready I want to jump in and talk about one film one of my favorites um inandi yeahi is a very important project in in my career it’s an adaptation of a play written by WJ muaad a libanese author that uh was born in beut and then because of the war his family moved to Montreal the play itself is a masterpiece about this crazy journey of two twins that uh at the death of their mother will have to go back in the country of their origin and to find out the truth about their Origins and that story that was set in the Middle East uh strangely had strong resonance uh with me I felt very timately linked despite the fact that it was happening at the other end of the world there was something that it was saying that was deeply meaningful to me and I remember coming out of the play and my wife at the time said to me oh my God you’re going to do a movie again because I saw the play at a period of time where I I had decided to St make making film for a while I wanted to learn my craft I wanted to know more about how to direct actors how to write and I was through that process of learning because I was not satisfied with my two first features and I wanted to make sure that the next time I would take a camera in my hands I will finally be uh happy with the results but when I saw sound that’s the the the moment where I felt I had finally something meaningful in my hands that uh it will be relevant to go back to cinema Ani was the first movie I’ve made where I felt home because as a filmmaker prior to that I was feeling that I was like um a film student that was like influenced by uh many Masters before me and and I I was like referring to or having always the the images from others my mind as I was shooting andan was the first movie where I I felt Sovereign autonomous uh making images only inot relationship with reality in front of me not having those all those ghost in beside my head so it it’s the first movie that I really feel that it’s I feel it was mine it was these images were mine you took five years to adapt that yes it was a long process I took my time because it was not easy one I think that I’ve learned most of what I know about screenwriting to be working on that project the structure about the development of a character about uh everything I’ve learned from ASI helped me to to to work on do most importantly also is that as I was doing asand has been shut in Jordan yeah and as I was shooting I I needed to find very specific locations and um it was a very intense Scout that tooks over spent weeks of work and um I I remember seeing landscape that I was saying to myself this will not fit an aan it is not foran it’s for something else if it’s it is for that sci-fi movie that I’m Dreaming to do one day in the future maybe that I I said to myself If Ever I do movie like dun I have to come back here and so it’s like building blocks like that but there’s a bit of as in dun where you shoot a has an incredible impact of course on on on the Mis and on the meaning itself each location has to be chosen in order to describe the inner psychology of of the character what the character is going through it’s part of the Arc of of the character it’s like U it says something it’s it’s tremendously meaningful here there’s something here thematically that in rewatching your films I started to see he said how can we evolve and not repeat the same mistakes that we are doing over and over again and to a certain degree with in Sunday too that was about the family breaking these Cycles there seems to be thematically something it’s something that is I’m obsessed by this idea of breaking the Cycles the the the compulsions the the obsessions that uh are coming from our genetics or education or how can we evolve how can we stop making over and over and over again the same mistakes as a species it’s something that uh I’m obsessed by and and that is uh uh I think sadly relevant today when I did the As on Z and went to Academia Awards that’s where I start to get offers about screenplays but there’s one that kept popping in the back that stayed in my mind for what it was saying about the about the cycle of violence and power of faith and it was Prisoners and meanwhile I was developing on my on the other side a project with a friend of mine called enine adaptation of Jose the other like me a tiny project and both were green l in the same time we made a case to the studio in in hwood to ask them to wait M because I was feeling that it would be clever to do a smaller film in English my first English movie with a small crew in Canada something that will be much more experimental and in the back of my mind the idea was I was frankly afraid to go to work in Hollywood I was fascinated I was excited but afraid at sometime I I was afraid to be crushed I was afraid to lose my identity as a filmmaker I had heard so many stories and I wasn’t considering myself better than the others I’m if it happened to this guy or this guy why will not happen to me an enemy becomes your identity in your back pocket exactly prisoners makes you something you’re not you exactly if ever it it it all goes down the drain and I’m I’m crushed and and I’m kicked out of of Hollywood they they say what the what the is that movie they could all say oh V love is there that he made the strange one of there was that back of my mind that I will have an anchor like some someone who’s doing a rock climbing and I had something solid somewhere that an anchor that will help me not to fall down the the the cliff the the enemy was that anchor I want to talk about uh working with Jake um obviously You’ been working with great actors beforehand but this is a Hollywood star cuz I imagine when one thinks about the fears of what hollyw one could do to it I think probably cast is probably part of it yeah working with Jake is one of the best thing that happened in my life I was fled by his skills as an actor uh I think that I had a chance to work with him at first because he uh uh he was in need at the time of uh to work with Indie filmmakers and I I came to him with the idea of a laboratory acting laboratory that that the enemy at the art of the project it was a gift that I was giving to myself I was feeling at a time that I had uh very strong artistic complicity with the cinematographers with composers with editors but actors I was feeling always that they were coming and and uh uh landing on the set and I I didn’t felt that I had created that bond that artistic bond to explore more so Thea technically was really to put the actors at the EP Center the the the center of the creative process and to create that small laboratory where we will just improvise try different techniques and and I think that that really first of all Jake believed me and and he got excited by the idea I felt he gave him 200% of that project you have a respectable J you have a nice apartment and since we have been Frank here I think you should quit that fantasy being a third great movie actor eat those you want some coffee when we did it me we were like it was made by a band we were like a very few people and we all thought nobody would see ever that movie we we we were making this movie for ourself for our own pleasure sometime you have to make movies like that you have to uh and and uh it’s a project that is one of my most personal there’s no compromise in an me you know it’s a movie that is quite and Jake was absolutely at the art at the center of that project there’s also an element of entering that character’s mental space visually do you know there’s a there’s an element here of of entering a space that could be viewed as abstract or sci-fi and trusting that the audience is going to understand where we are that feel it feels like a small building block if I look at the two films prior to to this one yeah it’s it’s a it’s a challenging movie and I me it’s a movie that uh uh it it’s it is it trust the audience a lot and it some people uh when they Embark in the journey uh find it playful and and uh and uh joyful other are frustrated because it can be quite abrasive it’s it’s a it’s a puzzle it’s an enigma and and uh uh it’s a movie that you need to watch a couple of times in order to understand it I think and and these are the movies I love that’s the movies that I I I crave when I was a teenager those enigmatic movie you were worried Hollywood I think the quote was Destroy you um prisoners Why didn’t it what what was that experience like I kept saying to myself that as I was shooting that after a couple of days someone will tap on my shoulder and will say to me listen we love your accent you’re very friendly but here’s your plain ticket and and thank you and and we’ll go on from there to trust us I was and it didn’t happen it in fact it was was the first time that people were giving me everything that I needed to bring the movie home uh the movie had some Ambitions which was to control the climate you know when I I was used at home to improvise with the weather in a French Canadian movie if you wrote the scene and it’s supposed to be hot and and sunny and you are in pouring rain you will shoot in the pouring rain there’s no choice that’s that’s not there’s no option there it’s like you have to shoot you have to shoot and I I was used to improvise that was used to adapt very quickly to to to the environment this time uh it’s a movie that needed to uh control environment somewhere where we will feel that the story happened over a few days where there’s a deterioration of the climate where we go from cold rain to snow and where the the I wanted to not see a peak of of of sunlight during the movie so it required a a structure move w watch out don’t shoot don’t shoot don’t shoot there was like a very precise color palette yes that was like there to create a claustrophobic feeling that uh and and that was one of the key element of a visual approach to create that increasing pressure on the character of it was the first collaboration with Roger deakin I would say that one of my big um fantasy desire dream one when I came to uh work in Hollywood and I was one day I had the chance to work with a legendary cinematographer someone that will be uh a master on on on his field and and to learn from me I am curious about sakario what what was that experience shooting that with Roger one thing that happened as we were doing scario that reminds me to listen to the landscape was the storms at at the end of each day that were happening as we were shooting but that was not part of the screenplay you know but it brought that kind of ominous feeling to the to the scene so we we were instead of avoiding them we started to chase them and to make sure that we’ get close as close possible to them to in order to to bring that that fire power to the screen it was like a boot camp for for what will come in the future when we shut Dune uh where it’s there a much bigger units and and much more uh challenges one thing that was interesting to me in rewatching arrival it in some ways it almost feels like the most hopeful of your films absolutely I did the five movies that were quite dark uh uh and I would say increasingly dark because when you go from an to prisoners to sario I mean it’s like a it’s it’s not stairways to Heaven it’s the opposite to go to hell you know it’s like it’s darker and darker and I remember saying to myself that I will be able to go back in the darkness as I was doing to sario knowing that arrival was next knowing that there finally I will approach reality with hope the biggest special effect in in the in the arrival is Amy Adam Amy and I agreed right from the start that we will need to be as honest as possible and that if someone watching the movie twice will not feel cheated U despite the time Distortion her emotional Journey would absolutely makes sense as and I I think that was the key of success to arrival memory is a strange thing it doesn’t work like I thought it did we are so Bound by time by its order I remember being in the in the editing room with Joe Walker and saying to ourselves we are fighting against a 100 year of cinematic language where when someone sees something and thinks it it’s a flashback to re-engineer the thinking behind that is it was like a lot of of work and editing how can you know the future I don’t I don’t understand who is this child wait no wor wait that idea of of where we are looking into the future looking into the back you know and what’s going on mentally that idea that it could feel emotionally true but yeah the thing is that I think that what interests me here is not the magical idea the idea that something surreal such as having visions of the future could actually exist what interested me is about our intuition about our deep human feelings that we foresee sometimes we feel that something will happen we say how many times we say in our lives I knew this would happen I knew I felt it I and it’s not about it’s not something magical it’s that it’s the power of intuitions and that I’m I’m truly fascinated by that don’t resist talk to me jvas you see only fragments only frag you cannot see the future without seeing the past was Dune in the back of your head at all as you’re making arrival it did it is strangely uh uh it was an obsession it’s something that kept uh popping out when uh when people were asking me specifically in Los Angeles what will be your dream project the only thing that popped out in my mind that was always Doom in the arrival it was the first time that I was working with VFX on that scale to learn how to instruct and give guidance to animators to to go exactly in the direction I I want how those creatures will behave there was a dis idea also trying to stay in a very close intimate relationship with sci-fi and that the big spectacle will always in some way stay in the background because at the end of the day when you look at Donuts it’s not uh um the Sci-Fi element the technology is really in the the background and not something I’m not focusing on it always seen from the humans point of view very grounded you young pop you young pup it feels like with inun you were really able to direct that in a way where your focus was exactly what it needed to be it could be as intimate as it was it’s a project that I would had never dare to approach without having learned my craft and Through the Years uh in different ways I learned different things that help me to to let’s say attack this adaptation I was dreaming to bring the adaptation uh of that book that I had not seen on the screen yet [Music]

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