Arguably Canada’s greatest living filmmaker (although David Cronenberg, Mary Harron and James Cameron may beg to differ) is Denis Villeneuve. Villeneuve’s big, bold, epic and yet intimate visions are among the best work being done in Hollywood right now, and the list of plaudits for his latest movie Dune (in cinemas December 2) is longer and more impressive than an Arrakeen sandworm.
The films are worth seeing on large screens and you can catch up on his whole filmography at Dendy Newtown, from November 18-30.
Touching and powerful sci-fi epic Arrival starring Amy Adams will screen, as will the director’s acclaimed Blade Runner 2049 with Ryan Gosling, and the nail-biting Mexican cartel thriller Sicario with Emily Blunt and Benicio de Toro.
But there is more to this filmmaker than intelligent genre flicks. His Oscar-nominated breakthrough picture, Incendies (2010), has a Canadian brother and sister travelling to their mother’s Middle Eastern country of birth and discovering that she wasn’t the woman they thought she was.
And what-the-actual is going on in Enemy (2013)? This surreal erotic drama stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a history professor who discovers the existence of an actor who is his exact physical double. Gyllenhaal is joined by Hugh Jackman and Viola Davis in Prisoners (also 2013), a grim psychological thriller about the abduction of two young girls.
Perhaps of most interest will be the filmmaker’s early French-language features August 32nd on Earth, Maelström, and searing gun-violence film Polytechnique (accompanied by his short film Next Floor). Get yourself an insight into how this huge talent got his start.
There are nine films in the season – book tickets here.
