Top 40 Denis Villeneuve Quotes

Sometimes you have compulsions that you can’t control coming from the subconscious… they are the dictator inside ourselves.

Film is pop art. It’s not whether it’s auteur cinema or not; that’s a false distinction. Cinema is cinema.

I made ‘Enemy‘ to prep myself for ‘Prisoners.’ I had the need to direct something smaller in English before going to Hollywood. That’s the way I sold it to Warner because they asked me if I was berserk to make a movie right before.

Each movie I make has its own heroes, and the two heroes for me in ‘Arrival‘ are Amy Adams and Joe Walker, the editor. We worked very, very hard, and it was, by far, the longest editing process.

I think they built Hollywood on the West Coast because they were always dreaming of a New World. When they arrived here, the only way to keep dreaming was to make movies. Film was the fourth dimension.

Very early on, I was writing stories, and I was amazed at Spielberg‘s movies when I was young. Coming from the countryside, I was so impressed with the way he was able to tell stories and the way he was able to deal with le merveilleux – the wonders.

I think I’m attracted to subjects that I’m afraid of. It’s a way to approach things I am afraid of, things that bring fear in my heart, and try to understand them, try to deal with them. It’s like demons. I try to approach it and understand it… I’m just visiting fears.

The reception for ‘Enemy?’ I don’t care. No matter what other people think, it was important for me. I will stand for that movie, even if I stand alone.

The beauty of Toronto is that it has not been shot a lot in movies, for itself at least. I mean, most of the time, Toronto is shot to portray something else.

I’ve always been in love with language. My favorite book is a dictionary. I have always loved words.

The thing is that when you are a director, you need to be involved in a lot of different fields. You must be a psychologist, an architecture expert; you must be a choreographer.

I’m not someone that loves dialogue – I am someone that loves movement. Action, if it’s well done, can be very poetic and meaningful.

I was at the premiere of ‘Prisoners,’ and I heard two thousand people scream at the same time. I turned to my wife and said, ‘I love cinema!’ It’s the sharing of emotions together, and it’s collective. It’s one of the last communions we have.

I always have a strange feeling that projects choose you. It’s always mysterious.

If you don’t deal with your shadows, you are condemned to repeat the same mistake over and over, as a human being or as a society.

I must say, to my great surprise and pleasure, I deeply loved making movies in the United States because of all the opportunities it gave me to work with people that I admire as artists.

In Canada, for boys, your identity is built on hockey. It’s your social position; it’s everything. And I was the worst hockey player of Canada.

When I work in English, I’d say I don’t see a big difference in my rapport with my team or the actors. When I work in English or French, the music of the language is different, but beyond that music, in the depths, it’s the same.

I was raised with James Bond. I love James Bond movies. I would love to do a James Bond movie one day. Action is very cinematic.

A longstanding dream of mine is to adapt ‘Dune,’ but it’s a long process to get the rights, and I don’t think I will succeed.

I was saying to myself that I would love to try it once, just one time, to know what it’s like to make a movie in Hollywood. I was so curious because most of my favorite directors were there. There’s a history; there’s a way of working.

I’m someone who thinks that the world would be a better place if there was a big middle class. I mean, middle class is peace. In a perfect world, everybody would have enough to eat and we’d be living in security. It’s obvious. I’m very happy to pay my taxes and all that. I would say I’m more of a Social Democrat.

The truth is, I’m someone coming from a spoiled society – the worst thing we deal with in Canada is winter.

On a film crew, you can see very quickly that some people who are working with you are stronger than you. Then you have to have the humility to listen to them. And because very often they have better ideas than yours, it can be tough on the evil ego. But it makes a better film.

I like the idea that cinema is a spectacle.

Making poetry with a camera – that’s the essence of what I do.

Cinema is an art form that is designed to go across borders. And as a filmmaker, the only way I can direct a movie is when I feel close to my culture.

I’m a very slow screenwriter. It takes time for me to write a screenplay. Also, I feel it’s not my strength.

For me, masculinity is about control, and femininity is more of an embrace, the art of listening. It’s very inspiring to explore the shadows of masculinity and femininity, and the tensions between both, and the place of women in the world right now.

I think a good director is a good listener.

I would be trying to play hockey with my friends, but most of the time, the coach put me on the bench. Because I was too dreamy – I was dreaming all of the time. I was super bad on the ice because I was just thinking about something else.

I’d love to be able to do a comedy like ‘Dr. Strangelove.’ I’m not a very serious person. Really, I’m very silly.

It’s not about choosing a specific genre; that’s not how I go about deciding what movies to make.

I remember when I read the screenplay for ‘Sicario,’ I fell in love with it, but at the same time, I went, ‘Oh no, not again.’ I mean, I would love to fall in love with something that is more light, like a rom-com or a comedy. I would love to. Because it’s very demanding to go to dark places like this.

‘Arrival’ talks very little about language and how to precisely dissect a foreign language. It’s more a film on intuition and communication by intuition, the language of intuition.

I didn’t think I’d do movies in Los Angeles. I never thought it would happen. In fact, it was not a fantasy. For me, I said, ‘If ever I go there, they will ask me to do ‘Legally Blonde 5.’

‘2001: A Space Odyssey‘ is a movie that really impressed me as a teenager. And also ‘Blade Runner.’ And ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind‘ is also one of my favorites. I’m always looking for sci-fi material, and it’s difficult to find original and strong material that’s not just about weaponry.

I had a lot of respect for Jeremy Renner as an actor before I worked with him, because I was very impressed with what he did in ‘The Hurt Locker.’

I’m coming from a small town in Quebec where, at that time, there was no Internet, and the way to be in contact with movies were those American fan magazines like ‘Fantastic Films‘ and ‘Starlog,’ and I still remember the shock, the impact of seeing the first frames, the first pictures coming out of ‘Blade Runner.’

When there’s no technical problems, if you did the right casting, and the scene is well written, the actor will give you a strong performance with his intuition right from the start.