ReFocus: The Films of Denis Villeneuve

Québécois screenwriter and filmmaker Denis Villeneuve’s nimble creative spirit is reflected in his varied body of work. From the earlier, primarily French-language films that he wrote and directed – Un 32 août sur terre (1998), Maelström (2000), Polytechnique (2009) and Incendies (2010) – to the Canadian-Spanish coproduction of the enigmatic Enemy (2013), to his critically and commercially successful Hollywood films – Prisoners (2013), Sicario (2015), Arrival (2016), Blade Runner 2049 (2017) and Dune: Part 1 (2021) – Villeneuve explores questions of alterity and interculturality, of language and identity, of memory and forgetting, of violence and retribution. This volume engages with multiple aspects of Denis Villeneuve’s cinematic production, from his earlier auteur films to his major blockbusters. It provides a comprehensive analysis of several key aspects of his films, including technical elements (sound, score, shots, camera movements, editing, cinematic space, non-linear storytelling, temporality), cinematic representation of important themes (national and cultural identity; gender, maternity and reproduction; embodiment and memory; identity, alterity and subjectivity; time; monsters, aliens and Replicants; violence), and Villeneuve’s position as both a Quebec and Hollywood director. This volume achieves three main goals: firstly, it investigates the specificities of the formal and thematic elements of each of Villeneuve’s ten feature films; secondly, it explores Villeneuve’s identity position within two substantially different North American contexts (Quebec and Hollywood); and finally, it constitutes a significant contribution to film studies in its presentation of the works (including the films that received less critical attention) of this important director.