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Q: Could you be considered a traitor for making movies in English after being such a source of pride in the wake of the Oscar nod for Incendies?
A: No, no, no! Cinema is an art form that is designed to go across borders. And as a filmmaker, the only way I can direct a movie is when I feel close to my culture. Seriously. I am a product of my culture. When I directed Prisoners, the director whose work I felt closest to was (noted National Film Board cinematographer) Michel Brault.
Q: Why was Michel Brault’s work inspiring?
A: How can I say? Because it’s a strong example of the strength of simplicity. The accuracy of the camera movements and just a feeling ... He influenced all my work. I won’t work in English all the time, it’s just that some movies you can only make in English because they are just too expensive. That’s a rule of the market unfortunately.
Q: I suppose you could have made Enemy in French. It’s a smaller-budget kind of movie.
A: You’re right. It’s not a big budget, even though there are a lot of special effects in it. It’s just that I made Enemy to prep myself
KATHERINE MONK He was promoting two Englishlanguage movies starring Jake Gyllenhaal — the big-budget thriller Prisoners and the smaller, far more intimate psycho-mystery Enemy — which meant greeting Denis Villeneuve in French at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall was a bit problematic.
“It’s more endearing for me to speak in English than in French because you have to change that thing in your brain,” the Oscarnominated Quebec director says.
“I remember just recently I was doing an interview in French and I realized it wasn’t a good interview. Then we did one in English and it was pretty good and I thought: I must go back to Montreal! That’s weird!”
Enemy, the film adaptation of Nobel Prize-winning author Jose Saramago’s novel The Double, hits theatres Friday. It’s about a man (Gyllenhaal) who goes on the hunt for his look-alike after seeing him in a movie. The film was nominated for best picture at last Sunday’s Canadian Screen Awards (Gabrielle won the prize) and it’s Villeneuve’s second English-language feature — something we couldn’t help but ask about when we sat down with him for an interview. for Prisoners. I had the need to direct something smaller in English before going to Hollywood. That’s the way I sold it to Warner because they asked me if I was berserk to make a movie right before. So I wrote a massive letter to everybody and said, ‘Listen, guys, I need to explore acting with an actor and direct in English and go back behind the camera. I need to warm up.’ It would have been a big mistake to not make Enemy before ... Believe me, I love French, and I speak a bad English. My home is Montreal. I will stay in Montreal and continue to make movies in Montreal. But it’s also very healthy for Canadian filmmakers to work outside the country. You learn so much.
Q: What did you learn from your experience in Hollywood?
A: I learned about filmmaking. When you work with a cinematographer like Roger Deakins (True Grit, Revolutionary Road) ... The subtlety of the camera movements, the strength of the point of view, he finds the elegance of it. I learned a lot in the editing room as well. I had the impression of going back to film school. The entire post-production team worked regularly with Clint Eastwood. These guys were masters. They have been making cinema for 40 years.
Q: So how long was the gap between the two films?
A: No gap. We finished both movies, like, two weeks ago.