The film Blade Runner 2049 by Canadian director Denis Villeneuve became the leader of the box office in its first week.
The sequel to the iconic dystopia of Ridley Scott as a whole received positive reviews from critics and the approval of fans of the 1982 masterpiece.
And Villeneuve only established himself as the most promising director of our time.
Correspondent.net decided to write about all of Denis Villeneuve’s films from best to worst.
Blade Runner 2049
Science fiction, cyberpunk, 2017
As the director himself said in an interview, the world in the film was created based on the first part of Blade Runner, and not from modernity.
“In that movie (1982) there was neither Steve Jobs nor Celine Dion, and the Soviet Union still existed. So our task was to create an alternative future, or something. our year 2049 corresponded to 2019 from a film that has become an absolute classic of science fiction cinema, «- said Villeneuve.
In the sequel, the director managed to create the gloomy Los Angeles of the future, an abandoned Las Vegas, in which traces of radiation distorted all colors.
Like Ridley Scott’s film, the new Runner has many literary and other cultural references, mostly postmodern. Already at the very beginning of the film, the heroes cite Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Pale Fire.
The music was created by composers Benjamin Wallfriesch and Hans Zimmer, who managed to recall the composition of Vangelis from the first movement.
In order not to regret watching the film, you need to watch Blade Runner Ridley Scott, which, by the way, is considered the best film of the genre, otherwise there is a risk of not understanding and appreciating it. Details about him and other masterpieces of science fiction.
Assassin / Sicario
Crime thriller, 2015
The film tells about the war of the American government against the drug mafia on the border with Mexico. Villeneuve touches on the topic of lawlessness in third world countries.
The killer was included in the main competition program of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. It was highly appreciated by the world film press, entered the overwhelming majority of the lists of the best films of the year. Three times nominated for Oscar and BAFTA.
Arrival
Science fiction, 2016
The film was a real breakthrough for Villeneuve in terms of box office and awards. Eight Oscar nominations and over $ 200 million in box office worldwide.
Arrival is based on Ted Chan’s story The Story of Your Life. According to the plot, 12 objects of extraterrestrial origin, called shells, appear all over the Earth.
To find out the reasons and purposes of their appearance, the US intelligence services contact specialists, including a linguist and astrophysicist.
Captive
Detective thriller, 2013
A dark film follows the kidnapping of two girls in a small town. One of the fathers thinks that the investigation is dragging on, so he himself kidnaps one of the main suspects so that he hopes to find out the truth through torture.
Another storyline is the official investigation of the case by a convinced detective. While checking the houses of suspects, he finds the decomposed corpse of an unknown priest in the basement. Another suspect had containers with snakes and bloody children’s clothes in the room.
Fires
War drama, 2010
The film is based on the play of the same name by Vajdi Muawad, as well as in part on the biography of Suha Bechara, a Lebanese activist.
The fires tell of the children of a refugee Narwan who receive two letters after her death, urging them to find their father and brother, whom they did not know about.
Daughter Jeanne travels to the Middle East to find out the cruel truth about her mother.
Maelstrom
Drama, 2000
Young fashion designer Bibian Champagne has an abortion, after which he falls into depression, from which he is saved with the help of alcohol and nightclubs.
A few days later, she knocks down a man to death and disappears from the scene. The story is told from the face of the fish.
As critic Denis Séguin has pointed out, The Maelstrom is a masterful study of contemporary morality. The film about a spoiled girl strikes a balance between darkness and light.
Polytech
Pseudo-documentary, 2009
After Maelstrom (his second film), Villeneuve took a break for a full nine years to return with a mock documentary about a shooting opened by a student at the Montreal Polytechnic in 1989.
The killer took up his gun out of hatred for the feminists. The film ends with the remark of the pregnant heroine: «If I have a boy, I will teach him to love. If there is a girl, I will tell you that the world belongs to her.»
Enemy
Psychological detective, 2013
The film is an adaptation of Jose Saramago’s novel The Double. The story tells about a history teacher who in one of the episodes of the film notices an actor who looks exactly like himself.
Struck by what he saw, he decides at all costs to find his double. The search turns into a real obsession, a journey into the very heart of metaphysical darkness, which turns his idea of life upside down.
August 32 on Earth
Drama, 1998
It was shown at the Cannes Film Festival as a Special Regard. The film tells about the model Simone, who miraculously remains alive after a car accident and decides to change her life — she persuades her enthusiastic friend Phillip to make her a child, for which she takes him from noisy Montreal to the desert in Utah.
