Is it time for this “talkies” fad to come to an end? I certainly think so. Films should be seen, not heard! Dune director Denis Villeneuve recently spoke at a BFI London Film Festival event (via ScreenDaily) and expressed his desire to make his own silent movie one day.
“I love dialogue, but not [always] in cinema,” Villeneuve said. “I hope one day I will be able to make a film that will not use spoken language. I try as much as possible to use the power of images.” Following a clip of a climactic scene in Dune: Part Two, Villeneuve added, “Zendaya gave an incredible performance, where she has mostly no dialogue but just the reactions – and we understand the tragedy.“
This isn’t the first time Villeneuve has expressed his preference for imagery over dialogue in movies. “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,” the director said earlier this year. “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.“
Silent movies largely became extinct after Hollywood embraced sound. However, there have been a number of silent films (or largely dialogue-free) produced in the decades since, most notably The Artist, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2012.
Villeneuve is currently working on the third installment of the Dune franchise, but he recently said that he doesn’t view Dune 3 as the completion of a trilogy. “First, it’s important that people understand that for me, it was really a diptych,” Villeneuve said. “It was really a pair of movies that will be the adaptation of the first book. That’s done and that’s finished. If I do a third one, which is in the writing process, it’s not like a trilogy. It’s strange to say that, but if I go back there, it’s to do something that feels different and has its own identity.“
Would you like to see a silent movie directed by Denis Villeneuve?