Denis Villenueve: The Mastermind Behind Dune

“Creativity is an act of vulnerability, where your path to success is narrow, and you have to let yourself experiment.”

An artist’s best work is often shaped by his biggest childhood obsessions. 

And there’s no better example of this than the work of director Denis Villenueve.

The French Canadian director has been getting a ton of praise these days with the success of his latest and most anticipated film to date.

I’m talking about Dune of course. 

Recency bias aside, many would argue Dune ranks as Villenueve’s best work so far.

Not only is it his biggest production, it’s a project that appeared to be doomed from the beginning.

So much so that most of the big players in Hollywood considered the movie adaptation to be cursed and fans of the novel had all but given up on their dream of seeing their favourite book portrayed on the big screen.

So how did Villenueve, of all people, make it work after several decades of failed attempts to translate the classic science fiction novel into a movie that’s faithful to its original source?

To answer this question, one must go back to a 10 year old French Canadian kid, a casual visit from his aunt and three crumpled cardboard boxes full of magazines.

The boxes were filled with collections of science fiction magazines which Villenueve devoured. 

“As a boy, I was in love with science as much as science fiction”

And so began his love for science fiction and cinema.

It wasn’t until he was 13 when he stumbled upon a copy of Frank Herbert’s novel Dune in a bookstore.

Him and his best friend would end up creating storyboards and romanticizing about how a potential Dune movie would look on the big screen.

Little did he know that 40 years later, he would turn this dream into reality.

It almost didn’t work out as planned when he nearly took a major detour from film making.

He knew he loved science so his original plan was to become a biologist.

But after finishing high school, he fell into a deep state of depression about his future.

Thankfully his creative instinct won out and he decided to abandon biology to pursue his dream of being a filmmaker.

“Fuck it, I’m going to film school in Montreal. That’s really what I want to do.”... “The ironic thing is,” he adds, “that it was when I got to Montreal, that’s where my real happiness began. It cured me.”

Villenueve’s career as a filmmaker started off slow but it’s this initial failure which led him to discover his signature style. 

His first two feature films, August 32nd on Earth (1998) and Maelstrom (2000) both flopped.

These early failures messed with Villenueve’s mind to a point where he took a temporary retirement from film making and vowed to only return if he could make something he’d be proud of.

After a 9 year break from cinema which Villenueve used to look after his family as a stay at home dad and reflect on his career, he finally made what would become his breakthrough film, Polytechnique (2009).

Unlike his first two films, Polytechnique showed a different side of Villenueve; his willingness to explore darker themes and create characters on a journey of deep self-discovery.

Polytechnique was a critical success and led Villenueve towards his epic creative run throughout the 2010s which includes films like:

Incendies (2010)

Prisoners (2013)

Enemy (2013)

Sicario (2015)

Arrival (2016)

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Dune (2021)

Any film buff would agree that’s a hell of a run and one which brings him closer and closer to legendary status along with contemporaries like fellow filmmaker Christopher Nolan.

Let’s explore some of the creative techniques behind Denis Villenueve and how they make him one of the most unique filmmakers of the modern era.

How to Create like Denis Villenueve

Maintain your identity. Villenueve’ first two films, August 32nd on Earth and Maelstrom both failed and scared Villenueve for several years. They were also made in a completely different style than what he’s known for in Hollywood. The reason? He lost touch of his true identity. His early films were made in the style of French New Wave cinema but despite having European roots, his true love has always been American cinema. So much so that his nickname in school was “Spielberg”. After the failure of his second feature film, Villenueve took a 9 year break to rediscover his cinematic identity and it’s this period of rediscovery which led him to his epic run of films from 2010 to now. These days, Villenueve’s identity is sacred. Before he accepts any new projects, he tells the producers “I can direct this movie as I see it, if you want your own vision, there’s 5000 fantastic directors that can do it for you...If you want to do it with, the only way I can do it is my way”.

Collaborate to create. Villenueve is well known for giving his film crew full creative free speech. It’s this collaborative mindset which makes him such a unique director. “I like strong artistic visions that could create tension and from that tension will come something stronger.” To Villenueve, the creativity process behind making a great film is more like a tennis match than a solo act. Sometimes the best ideas come when you are challenged by other creative voices. “I like strong collaborators. I see it like a tennis game. If I hit the ball, I would like it to come back as fast or faster.”

Get your hands dirty as much as possible and as soon as possible. The best and fastest way to master your craft is to jump in the deep end. Thankfully for Villenueve, that deep end came early. After graduating from film school, he made the cut to join seven other filmmakers on a project where they flew around the world and made five minute short films in each country. “You had a plane ticket, a camera, and you had to make one short film every week.” According to Villenueve, everything he knows about the technicalities of making films came from that one project. If you’re starting out on your creative journey, the best thing you can do is work on a project that forces you to learn as you go.

The better you prepare, the more room you have to innovate. One of the biggest challenges for creators is finding the balance between spontaneity and routine; order and chaos. For Villenueve, it’s important to let the spontaneity and freedom to dream out the gate during pre-production. His long-term collaborator and cinematographer Roger Deakins claim’s it’s Villenueve’s favourite part of the entire process. Villenueve refers to the planning stage as “the time you have to dream.” Doing the dreaming early allows Villenueve to foresee the chaos that could happen during the filming stage, and gives him space to innovate without veering too far off the plan.

Patience is the artist’s most important trait. Most creators never make it because they give up too soon. Luckily, for Villenueve, he learned about the importance of patience early on. When he was younger, he watched a documentary about Picasso’s creative process. “He can do a painting and then add something, and then add something, and add something, then says, It’s a piece of [expletive] — and we are talking about three weeks of work — and then he destroys it, and does it again, 20 times.” This moved him deeply “because it shows that creativity is an act of vulnerability, where your path to success is narrow, and you have to let yourself experiment.”

Memorable Quotes

“The thing that made me get strong was my love for actors”

“The more you plan, the more you can improvise”

“The only way I can become a decent filmmaker is if I can keep my identity”

“To create tension, you need to bring on screen something the audience will relate to from a subconscious point of view”

“The soul of a movie is the words and the actors” 

“Why we see movies is to be moved by the poetry of an image”