Tag: Dune

Is Denis Villeneuve the new Christopher Nolan?

Posted on by victorfraga

Among other things, arthouse cinema celebrates experimentation, a quality demonstrated by Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000), a thriller that tells its mystery in reverse chronological order. Conversely, blockbusters mainly aim to appeal to mass audiences through sheer entertainment. These two avenues seem contradictory, but the strength of the British director’s early work lies in its ability to combine them and thereby cater equally to hardcore cinephiles and the average movie-goer. With Inception (2010) being his best example to date, Nolan’s films focus on story, character and big-budget thrills in equal measure. Nolan trusts the intelligence of his audience.

Denis Villeneuve’s (pictured above; image by Gage Skidmore) Arrival (2016) mirrors Nolan’s Inception and Interstellar (2014) in its use of time, and Blade Runner 2049 (Villeneuve, 2017) is both intellectual and visually stunning. The Canadian helmer’s early work is similarly comparable to Nolan’s – like Memento before it, Enemy (2013) is an internal thriller centred on a psychologically unbalanced protagonist. Having started from similarly independent backgrounds, both directors have maintained the abstractions of their earlier filmography in their bigger-budget work.

Nolan and Villeneuve both excite viscerally. They have championed the experience of going to the cinema over streaming, openly criticising their studios in the process (Nolan has parted ways with long-term collaborators Warner Bros). Both favour practical effects over CGI. Especially Nolan. His films have included a functioning Batmobile, high-street truck flips and plane crashes. Though not as comprehensively, Villeneuve has followed this model – whereas most blockbusters (think Marvel) revolve around green screen he shot large parts of Blade Runner 2049 and Dune (2021) in huge, intricately detailed sets (see video below) – even filming the latter in the Jordanian desert.

The Dark Knight (Nolan, 2008) introduced unforeseen nuance into the superhero genre, changing it from being generally perceived as silly fun to being taken seriously by critics and large audiences. Its omission from the 2008 Best Picture nominations influenced the Academy’s decision to include more nominees in the future. Equally, Inception boasts a complex narrative that still adheres to the demand for explosive blockbuster spectacle.

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A recipe gone awry?

Lately though, this fusion hasn’t worked as well in Nolan’s work. Visuals and music in Tenet (2020) are superb (Ludwig Göransson deserves an apology from the Academy), but the story is far too confusing to engage with emotionally. It also seems that as Nolan’s technical ambition has escalated, striking a balance between abstraction and mass appeal has become increasingly difficult. Dunkirk (Nolan, 2017; pictured below) boasts impressive set-pieces and the “inversion” in Tenet looks stunning, but both lack a strong emotional core.

Meanwhile, Villeneuve’s latest films have succeeded where Nolan’s have failed. Blade Runner 2049 is aesthetically striking and provides a touching story, the same of which can be said for Arrival. Both boast the intelligence and awe we associate with Nolan whilst also being easier to follow.

Blade Runner 2049 and Arrival did well critically, and the early praise for Dune suggests a continuation of this trend. Meanwhile, Tenet underperformed at the US box office and received mixed reviews by Nolan’s standards. Even though The Dark Knight Rises and Interstellar performed well commercially and critically, they are both divisive. Polarisation isn’t necessarily bad, but the lack of controversy surrounding Villeneuve suggests he is developing a more winning version of Nolan’s formula.

Additionally, Nolan’s upcoming film about atom-bomb creator J. Oppenheimer seems smaller-scale than the bombastic Tenet, as suggested by its $100 million budget (relatively small for Nolan). Given the biographical subject matter, it could also find Nolan scaling back baffling storytelling in favour of something more accessible. Because of this potential shift the spotlight could now be on Villeneuve to provide art-house blockbusters for the masses.

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Money talks

The notion of Villeneuve “replacing” Nolan is complicated by the fact that Nolan’s films still do (very) well financially. Dunkirk grossed over $527 million worldwide, whereas Blade Runner 2049 disappointed (relatively) with a $92 million US and Canada gross and $259 million international intake. Even Tenet’s relatively weak performance (a measly $58 million in the US and Canada) is difficult to judge given it was released mid-pandemic. If Villeneuve is emulating Nolan, he is doing so artistically more so than financially.

At the moment, all eyes are on Dune. At a speculated budget of $165 million, it is Villeneuve’s biggest film yet, and it shows. Each frame is enormous, and the bombastic Hans Zimmer (Nolan’s frequent collaborator, unsurprisingly) score adds extra scope. Dune is intellectual and viscerally entertaining, centring on dreams and complex politics as well as a conventional battle against evil. It seems poised to appeal to viewers seeking thinking man’s sci-fi as well as larger audiences. It has garnered positive reviews so far and debuted strongly overseas (it harvested $36.8 million from just 24 markets in early release) – with the added star power of Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya it is likely to triumph.

With Nolan scaling things down and Dune poised to succeed commercially and critically, Villeneuve seems likely to take his mantle as Hollywood’s chief mediator of art-house and blockbuster cinema.

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Dune is in cinemas on Thursday, October 21st.

You can reach Amhara Chamberlayne on Twitter @AmharaFilm.

Dune

Posted on by victorfraga

There is no doubt that Frank Herbert’s 1965 science fiction novel Dune is a classic of the genre. It is also far from traditional. It tells the story of Paul Atreides, the heir to the House Atreides, who has been brought up by his mother Jessica, an adherent to the Bene Gesserit religion and consort to Duke Leto, Paul’s father. The family is leaving its home planet in order to take over the governance of Arakkis, the desert world that gives the book its title. It is also the source of the most precious commodity in the universe, a spice: an hallucinogen that allows Navigators the ability to fold space, and makes interstellar travel possible. However, the new mission is rife with dangers as they are supplanting their sworn enemies the Harkonnens, who are scheming to somehow return.

Did you get all that? So it’s Machiavellian political machinations played out by dynastic families on a galaxy wide scale. The Borgias in Space. Such is the complexity of the story and the detailed texture of the universe with its multiple religions, languages, technologies, cultures and societies that it has stumped directors as diverse as Alejandro Jodorowsky and Ridley Scott. Arguably it also threw the usually unflappable David Lynch into a tizz, though in reality is that his 1984 version is actually much better than people remember, if only for Sting in his leather underpants.

So the prospect of Denis Villeneuve’s new big budget version has created a great deal of expectation and excitement. Add to that the enforced delay caused by the pandemic and expectations are at a dangerously high level. Can it live up to them? Could any film at this point? It certainly does its best. Villeneuve has created a serious piece of cinema. It is epic in scale and yet never loses sight of its central story of a young man finding his role in the universe.

Timothee Chalamet plays Paul as a sexy Hamlet, floppy hair, dark clothes, and the angst that comes with having a father and mother like Rebecca Ferguson and Oscar Isaac. How can he possibly live up to them? Then there’s Josh Brolin as Gurney Halleck, who trains him to fight and Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa), an older brother of sorts and tough guy who Paul hero worships. Everyone is training Paul for power: his mother teaches him the Voice, a form of manipulation that can cause people to do anything while his father has him sit in on councils. Add to this that the Bene Gesserit sisterhood have been spreading rumors that he might be The One, and you can understand why the young guy looks like he has the weight of several worlds on his shoulders. Of course, things starts to go wrong as Stellan Skarsgard’s Baron unleashes his nephew ‘the Beast’ Raban on the Atreides and there are further betrayals in store which will risk the destruction of Paul’s family and House.

Villeneuve takes all of this seriously. There is no camp, no space opera. Or if it is, it demands the kind of suspension of irony necessary for opera to work. There are two jokes in the whole picture and no zingers, the likes of which pepper Marvel films to such an extent that the winking begins to look like Herbert Lom towards the end of the Inspector Clousseau series. And if you are willing to take it seriously then there is so much in this film. The universe created is one where medieval social structures and belief systems are matched by technology that retains a hint of necromancy. The soldiers fight with swords and shields, Duke Leto uses wax to seal his documents and the Atreides arrive on Arrakis to the sound of bagpipes. Yes, bagpipes. And it all looks amazing. Greig Fraser’s cinematography is gorgeous, the scale of the film is suitably enormous with human figures often dwarfed by the landscapes and the hardware. This is science fiction that manages to look fresh – far from the last few Star Wars films that keep going back to the same planets, or ones that look very familiar and a ready branded aesthetic. This looks both new and old at the same time.

The only problem is one which is for the moment out of the hands of the filmmakers. The film title reads ‘Part One’ and the end of the film is very obviously halfway through the story. Zendaya appears as Chani, a young Fremen woman, in a series of dreams and glimpses before turning up right before the end, but her presence like much of the film really makes no sense unless the film is completed. And let’s hope it will be, because this is large-cale popular entertainment that doesn’t rely on set pieces, or constant postmodern irony. It resonates with criticisms of imperial ambitions and the exploitation of the planet as well as the indigenous peoples. Images recall Werner Herzog’s Lessons of Darkness (1992) as well as more recent news footage of soldiers fleeing Kabul. It deserves a conclusion. Let’s hope it gets one.

Dune premiered at the Venice Film Festival, when this piece was originally written. In cinemas on Thursday, October 21st. On all major VoD platforms on Monday, January 31st. Back in cinemas on Friday, February 9th (2024).

Dune is is in our Top 10 dirty movies of 2021.