Denis Villeneuve, Québécois and Citizen of the World

This chapter analyses Denis Villeneuve’s specificity as a Quebec director, an identity that shapes his oeuvre both aesthetically and thematically, from his earlier, Quebec-made films through to his more recent Hollywood genre films. The author engages with Deleuzian notions of territorialization and deterritorialization to show how the characters in Villeneuve’s work, from the short ‘Le technétium’ in the anthology film Cosmos (1996) through to Dune: Part I (2021), achieve new epiphanies by undertaking identity quests and leaving the safety of home. The continuity throughout Villeneuve’s filmography is linked both to his québécitude and a form of universalism that is informed by his double identity as a Québécois and a citizen of the world.