The French-Canadian director and screenwriter has directed blockbuster hits like Dune and Dune 2. But not everyone remembers Denis Villeneuve’s other films: Whirlpool, Polytech and Fires. The three films earned Villeneuve Canada’s National Jeannie Award for Best Director in 2000, 2010 and 2011, respectively. In 2010, his film Fires won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Let’s take a look at 10 films by this director, ranked from worst to best.
Films by Denis Villeneuve: list
Tenth place: August 32 on Earth (1998)
This film is the debut in the career of the French-Canadian. After Villeneuve won the competition for short films in his homeland, he finally decided to take on the “full meter”. The film turned out to be quite minimalistic – it lasts a little less than 90 minutes. The main character of the picture, Simone, is in a deep existential crisis after miraculously surviving a car accident. The experience of imminent death causes her to spiritually awaken.
Therefore, Simone proposes to her friend Philip to conceive a child. But not just anywhere, but in the desert of the Great Salt Lake, in the state of Utah. As for the first movie, it’s quite a bold idea!
For Villeneuve, the film became a kind of “starting point”. We will see many of the motives touched upon in the picture later. These are mental traumas, longing for motherhood and inexplicable, just a manic obsession with deserts.
Ninth place. Whirlpool (2000)
This film begins with an abortion, a tragic event that haunts the main character throughout the film. We see exactly the same fixation on women who have been removed from motherhood in the films August 32, Fires and Arrival. Motherhood is both a gift and a burden. It is this fact that determines the life of the main characters.
Eighth place. Sicario (2015)
The central theme of the picture is the FBI’s fight against drug trafficking on the border with Mexico. In a deep philosophical sense, this is a story about the loss of innocence and the severe struggle with reality. The boundary between good and evil is completely blurred and it seems that the goal can be justified by any means. It is with this question that the director addresses the viewer: are you ready to make a deal with your conscience in order to achieve what you want?
Seventh place. Polytech (2009)
“Polytech” is a tragedy based on real events. In 1989, a misogynist staged a mass shooting in Montreal and killed 14 innocent girls.
Films of this kind are always a risk for the director. After all, you can unwittingly get carried away and glorify the criminal. How the director coped with this, you will find out if you look at this picture.
“Polytech” focuses on the killer, but only to condemn him for the blind hatred that made him go to the crime. Villeneuve does not try to give precise and clear answers, but stimulates the viewer to think.
Sixth place. Enemy (2013)
The film “The Enemy” can be called a real window into the subconscious. There is also a sense of guilt, and fears, and obsessions – we usually keep all this somewhere in the back of our minds. The protagonist of the picture, a tired college professor Adam. He is painfully dissatisfied with his boring and monotonous life. By the will of fate, he meets his double Anthony. Anthony turned out to be the complete antipode of Adam. Adam is a neurotic and introvert, afraid of commitment in life. But Anthony is a charming family man and a successful actor.
Fifth place. Dune (2021)
Dune is Villeneuve’s biggest film. The director managed to saturate the picture with a large number of storylines, while not sacrificing all the mysticism and scale that were so characteristic of Frank Herbert’s book. “Dune” tells the story of Paul Atreides, heir to a powerful duke and at the same time a “genetic miracle” endowed with the ability to predict the future.
Fourth place. Prisoners (2013)
This film is an important milestone in Villeneuve’s career. The Captives became the director’s first work in foreign territory and approved the role of Villeneuve in Hollywood. The picture gave rise to a long and fruitful collaboration with Roger Deakins.
For many viewers, The Captives will be not just another fascinating spectacle, but a real challenge to reconsider their most primitive instincts.
The picture, like most of Villeneuve’s works, is imbued with an atmosphere of nihilism. Again and again, the director seems to throw the audience into a bottomless pit of revenge, obsession and despair, with no end in sight.
The Captives is a story about the kidnapping of two little girls. The police began to investigate the case, but their investigation came to a standstill. And then the case of law enforcement officers continues the father of the girls.
Third place. Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Blade Runner 2049 is a reimagining of the classic Ridley Scott movie. The director managed to push the picture to new frontiers in terms of storytelling, bringing to life a dystopian world that reflects the problems of modern society.
The director managed to solve what many sequels lack – he breathed new life into the picture. Blade Runner 2049 is a standalone story that extends the idea of the original, not just exploits it.
Second place. Arrival (2016)
The central theme of the picture was the interaction of two species – humans and aliens. 12 ships with “little green men” arrived on Earth. The US government asked linguist Louise Banks to communicate with aliens using circle symbols and palindromic phrases. The main idea of the film is this: communication and empathy are our salvation. Everyone should try to let go of resentment and build relationships with their loved ones.
First place. INCENDIES (2010)
Fires is a story about family, war and self-discovery. The storyline of the film unfolds majestically, like a Greek tragedy. The two storylines first develop in parallel, and then merge into a delightful climax. The first is about twins. They go on a journey to find out about their roots. The second, through a series of flashbacks, takes us back to the life of their late mother. There are many borrowings from the Lebanese Civil War in this story.