Ko Takeda What Denis Villeneuve Reveals About the Dark Depths of Humanity

Acad NSD
2024/3/25 [33;03https://youtu.be/KKtWWbOvHDI?feature=shared

cathartic 1. Intro
a. “I’ve been dreaming about being lost in the maze”
providing psychologicla relief i. The line from Prisoner (2013) represents Villeneuve’s character. His
through the open expression of aesthetic vision has evolved throughout his career, but his theme has
strong expression of strong been solid since his early career in Polytechnique (2009).
emotions. ii. He deals with chaos and his films are bleak but cathartic, challenging
yet thoughtful. His depiction of darkness is filled with both
bleak fear/anger/suffer and beauty/surveillance.
(of a building or room) 2. Character
charmless and inhospitable; a. How he introduces
dreary. i. On the surface level, Dilleneuve’s way is ordinal, as he often depicts a
protagonist who lives a normal life.
grandiosity ii. But his emphasis on the inner mind of the character sets his style apart
pompous superiority or from that of others.
pretentiousness. b. Unaware of the chaos
i. Paul (Dune), Louise (Arrival, 2016), Kate(Sicario, 2015) and many
other his protagonists initially appear as ignorant of disturbance in their
lives. They all live in an ordinary way, until something happens; the
event changes everything surrounding the protagonist and shatters our
conception completely.
ii. In Prisoners (2013), a protective father loses his daughter, which
challenges his core of being. He is left with no choice but to go on
without his normal mindset.
3. Experience
a. New adventure
i. When the feeling of chaos/hostility occurs, there will be a
straightforward depiction of it. It is either through literary upside down
world, disorganized power lines or tense urban landscape.
ii. He holds vital information both from the protagonist and from the
audience, which illustrates the overwhelmingness of the chaos.
Extreme Close-up is also used to portray their internal conflict.
Enigma of the mind
iii. Awakening of the chaos is commonly held by dream/vision. Villeneuve
often refers to it as unconscious, in other words, mysterious inner parts,
iv. Enemy (2013) exemplifies the concept of unconscious. Man attempts
to regain a meaningful relationship with his wife, but he finds his
unconscious another personality,
4. Subtexts
a. Grandiosity
i. the Prophecy about the chosen one(in Dune 2021) is revealed to be
based on deliberate eugenics. Paul accepts this fact and decides to
follow his path.
ii. To comprehend grandiosity means to understand what is really driving
us/what gives us anger and fear. In, Polytechnique (2009), school
shooting’s killer is featured. He sees himself as a messiah figure, yet
the perspective from another character tells the audience that he is a
mere agent of his own delusion.
iii. Affirmation that there is grandiosity within us, and if left unchecked,
we will overestimate our capacity for control is integral.
b. Conclusion
Denis Villeneuve↓ i. Denis Villeneuve’s film do not make us pessimistic. Rather, it makes
us find the source of hope. By depicting chaos as not a temporal
obstacle, but as an entity that surrounds us.
ii. It is probable that due to these aspects, Villeneuve’s heroic figures are
the one who takes the pains, the one who knows their limitations and
the one who still finds the meaning.
iii. other personality,
Denis Villeneuve’s illustration of dark is filled with aesthetic technique. But it is
his thematic depth that gives his audiences a sense of hope even after the
witness of a total destruction. The contrast between the initial conception of the
protagonist and the one in the middle of a movie strengthens his film’s ability to
make the audiences resonate with the protagonist. The focus placed on the inner
conflict rather than external conflict enlarges the emotional experience. And
finally, the confrontation with the grandiosity lets audiences reflect upon their
own lives. For these reasons, Villeneuve’s film delivers hope while showing the
chaos of one’s inner mind.
I choose this video because I’ve recently been
astonished by the filmography Dune Part 2(2024) has,
such as the magnificent Sand worm riding scenes and
the Paul’s dual scene. Even though I’ve watched Brade
Runner 2026, Dune part 1 before, this was the first time
I was intrigued enough to search about Dilleneuve.
Among the information provided by this video,
Villeneuve’s consistency with the use of dark yet
hopeful subtexts surprised me.