The sci-fi film Denis Villeneuve calls “perfect for many reasons”
While Denis Villeneuve has certainly proven his proficiency in a wide range of genres, it appears that he’s become something of a modern master of the science fiction movie with a string of films that detail far-off worlds and dystopian versions of our own with striking visuals and narratives that consult our deepest intuitions.
2017’s Arrival saw Villeneuve announce himself as a key science fiction name when he explored the nature of linguistics in an alien context. In addition, Blade Runner 2049 had the director take on one of the most beloved science fiction movies of all time as a sequel and come out the other side with critical admiration, as he has done with Frank Herbert’s iconic novel Dune.
When Villeneuve picked out his favourite movies of all time in a feature with Letterboxd, he referred to his number one choice as being “perfect for many reasons”. The title in question is Stanley Kubrick’s science fiction masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey, which Villeneuve has spoken of in the highest of terms on several occasions.
2001 remains one of the most significant science fiction movies of all time, telling of the evolutionary stages that humankind takes. It begins with prehistoric apes using tools and weapons for the first time, right up to spacefaring humans traversing the stars and going beyond the infinite realms of space and time, all the while guided by a strange monolith.
Kubrick delivers a cinematic work of genuine brilliance with some of the most cutting-edge special and visual effects for the time and a narrative that deeply explores our most profound existential questions whilst urging a stark warning of the dangers of technology. When Villeneuve sat on the Cannes Film Festival Jury in 2018, he explained that he’d first watched 2001 from the safety of his childhood staircase because he’d experienced a “cinematic shock”, which, given the mesmerising and haunting quality of Kubrick’s film, is more than understandable.
“2001: A Space Odyssey is by far my favourite movie of all time, for several reasons,” Villeneuve had also once told TCM. “It’s a movie, sometimes, as I’m getting older and older, I feel like the amount of movies that keep inspiring me through time – I’m seeing more and more movies – but the movie that stays with me through time is definitely 2001. It’s a movie I discovered as a kid on television.”
In recent years, Villeneuve has established himself as a modern master of science fiction, undoubtedly taking on the mantle Kubrick left behind in 1968 with 2001. He told the Cannes audience in 2018, “Science fiction allows you to tackle difficult subjects such as religion, or other aspects of society that are off-limits, with a great deal of freedom and distance,” an idea that the director has undoubtedly explored in his subsequent Dune films.
