Friday, January 5, 2024

Denis Villeneuve

Poster showing scene from movie with the alien craft and helicopters, along with images of the three main actors from the film

I watched Arrival for the third time the other day...and once again was floored by how good this movie is. The aliens are so alien, for one thing--a refreshing change from the typical science fiction schtick. And with no sex and very little violence (and none of it the punch in the face or shoot 'em up kind) to carry the story forward, it still moves. It glides. Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner are both absolutely brilliant, and if you can buy the idea that the army would make a gimpy-eyed guy a colonel (which I had to question), then Forest Whitaker did a fine job as well. And since this is the way my mind works (no apologies), I went to have a(nother) look at Denis Villeneuve's filmography.

Cue the Wikipedia music.



1998 August 32nd on Earth
2000 Maelström
2009 Polytechnique
2010 Incendies 
2013 Prisoners 
2013 Enemy 
2015 Sicario
2016 Arrival
2017 Blade Runner 2049 
2021 Dune Part One
2024 Dune: Part Two

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Villeneuve

And I was surprised to note that of the 10 films so far released, I'd seen five of them (bold titles). And liked all five. So my next thought was...maybe I should see the other five. So I went for a hunt.

August 32nd on Earth is hard to find. It's on Fandor...which offers a 7 day free trial...so that's probably the only way for that to happen.

Maelström is (1) a must see, as it features a talking fish and (2) also available on Fandor.

Polytechnique is also available via Fandor...but could be caught for free on Tubi, too.

Incendies is available for rent on Amazon...but my best friend Louisville Free Public Library has a copy, so I'm going that route.

Prisoners ditto. Its also available via Netflix, though.

Enemy ditto.

Sicario is available via Amazon Prime, The Roku Channel, AND the LFPL.

Arrival can be found at Paramount+, Pluto TV, or the LFPL.

Blade Runner 2049 is at Max and the LFPL.

And Dune Part One at Max, Netflix, and...you guessed it, the LFPL.


Think I'm going on a Villeneuve-about. And btw, just because the world is mysterious and ornery, another book I'm reading just started mentioning a town in France named...Villeneuve.


And now? Itttttttttt's 🎆🎇SHOWTIME
🎇🎆


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