Denis Villeneuve recently told the Times of London that “cinema is being undermined by television.” His opinion comes from his growing desire to make films without dialogue.
“Frankly, I hate dialogue,” the filmmaker told the magazine. “Dialogue is for theater and television. You don’t remember movies because of the good dialogue, you remember movies because of the strong images. I have no interest in dialogue at all. Pure images and sound, that’s all. That’s the power of movies, and it’s hard to see that when you watch movies today. Movies have been undermined by television.”
“Is it because there was a golden age of television and executives thought movies should emulate its success?” the Times asked Villeneuve, to which he replied, “Absolutely.”
“In a perfect world, I would make a compelling movie that doesn’t feel like an experiment, but doesn’t have a word in it,” he continued. “People will walk out of the theater and say, ‘Wait, there wasn’t any dialogue?'” But they won’t feel shortchanged. ”
Villeneuve was keen to adapt Norwegian author Jo Nesbo’s novel The Son into an HBO limited series, and even scouted Jake Gyllenhaal to star in the project. However, he said earlier this year that he no longer plans to do a TV series because it’s not the medium for him.
“This is a project that I really love. And I love the book. I love the writer, a very strong writer,” he said. “And the thing is, I brought this project to make a miniseries because I tried to protect all the elements of the book and thought bringing this project was too much for a feature film. But the adaptation we did, I think the script was great, but I felt it was far removed from my sensibilities.”
Villeneuve returns to the director’s chair with Dune Part 2. The film received critical acclaim and is on its way to becoming perhaps the director’s most acclaimed work to date. Several critics agree that Part 2 is one of his most visually stunning blockbusters ever made, and for Villeneuve, cinema has a strong image. All things considered, this compliment is certainly one to cherish.
Dune Part 2 is the latest blockbuster with a running time of over three hours, but Villeneuve wasn’t worried about making a movie that was too long. He split Frank Herbert’s novel Dune into his two films, aptly adapting the dense story. Villeneuve’s complete version of Dune is 322 minutes long.
When the Times brought up the film’s length, Villeneuve said, “I trust the audience,” adding, “This story is too dense. I’m not going to make Dune as a single film.” . This was the only way I could be successful.”
“Also, think about Oppenheimer,” he continued. “It’s a three-hour R-rated movie about nuclear physics, and it’s mostly dialogue. But the audience was young, so for my kids this was the best movie of the year. There is a trend. Young people prefer longer movies. They love watching it because if they’re going to pay money, they want to see something fulfilling. They crave meaningful content.”
Villeneuve has openly said in interviews that he would like to make a third Dune movie based on Herbert’s second Dune novel, Dune Messiah. But he doesn’t plan on getting Dune 3 off the ground any time soon. Villeneuve needs a break, but he’s not really interested in joining a project that has a predetermined release date anyway.
“I definitely want to get the third one, but I don’t want to rush it,” Villeneuve said. “The danger in Hollywood is that people get excited and only think about the release date and not the quality.”
Villeneuve didn’t mention the name of the studio or project, but it’s not hard to figure out what he’s talking about. Disney and Warner Bros., for example, assign release dates to their comic book movies far in advance. In some cases, one of these movies even has a release date before a director or screenwriter is hired.
“Dune: Part 2” will be released in theaters on March 1st by Warner Bros. Read the full interview with Villeneuve by visiting his website at The Times of London.
