Dune: Part Two is here, and everyone is excited to watch the rise of Paul Atreides on Arrakis. Everyone in the crew is doing their press tour, and director Denis Villeneuve has decided to share an interesting opinion on television and movies.
Talking to Variety, Villeneuve explains how he thinks that television has seemingly ‘corrupted’ his beloved film medium. He explains:
“Frankly, I hate dialogue. Dialogue is for theatre and television. I don’t remember movies because of a good line, I remember movies because of a strong image. I’m not interested in dialogue at all. Pure image and sound, that is the power of cinema, but it is something not obvious when you watch movies today. Movies have been corrupted by television. In a perfect world, I’d make a compelling movie that doesn’t feel like an experiment but does not have a single word in it either. People would leave the cinema and say, ‘Wait, there was no dialogue?’ But they won’t feel the lack.”
If you’ve watched Villeneuve movies, you can kind of understand where he’s coming from. His dialogue and character interaction during scenes is usually considered the weaker part of his movies, but he definitely makes up for it with sound, visuals, and overall atmosphere.
With him admitting that he doesn’t really prioritize dialogue, it kind of contextualizes that part about his films. Kind of like how Christopher Nolan also says that some movies need to be ‘felt’ rather than understood—specifically TENET.
For now, fans await Dune: Part Two, and hopefully Villeneuve immediately gets the greenlight for Dune: Part Three after the premiere.
Dune: Part Two comes to theaters on March 1.
