A look at the director’s singular voice in film.
Aesthetic
Denis Villeneuve‘s outstanding body of work includes Arrival, Sicario (which we look at here and here), Blade Runner 2049, Dune, Prisoners, Enemy and Incendies. What more fitting tribute to the director’s work than a typically well-crafted video essay from The Cinema Cartography:
Using the case study of Arrival, Nerdwriter locates the power of Villeneuve’s storytelling in his film literacy :
Lessons from the Screenplay looks at “how Arrival was adapted from the short story it was based on, [and] how clever editing kept the focus on the protagonist“:
Director of photography In Depth Cine looks at How Denis Villeneuve Shoots A Film At 3 Budget Levels:
Approach
Countering the time-is-money hurry and pressure which more typically characterises the common understanding and atmosphere of film productions, Amy Adams describes the “calm environment” Denis Villeneuve created on set during the production of Arrival, which allowed for “silent moments full of breath, and full of awe, and full of wonder, and full of confusion and conflict“, which… I mean, what else should movies ever be? (via THR):
Similarly, Emily Blunt describes Villeneuve “blocked off the entire day” for him, her, and co-star Benicio del Toro to block the “heightened atmosphere” of their intense final scene together in Sicario (2015) (via HitFix):