A Critic of Denis Villeneuve's Dune using Auteur Theory

First coined by François Truffaut, the theory of auteurism argues that a director is "key to a movie’s artistic identify," like an emblem (Brody). Truffaut believed in the director's authority, that the director held veto power over the production and direction of the film,. but since filmmaking is a collaborative art, it can be hard at times to properly evaluate the impact of the "auteur" (Body). Pauline Kael, for instance, argues that "criticism is an art," and that one shouldn't base oneself on rules or theories to criticize a work (Kael). With that in mind, it can be, at times, fruitful to critic a filmmaker's work based on their past works to pull out recurring strengths and weaknesses. This essay will hence pick from Arrival's (2016) science-fiction environment, mood, and soundtrack, and Incendie's (2010) representation of war to better analyze and critique Denis Villeneuve's most recent epic, Dune.

Adapted from Frank Herbert's novel of the same name (1965), Dune tells the story of the young noble Paul Atreides after the emperor sends his family to Arrakis, a desert planet famous for producing the substance necessary for space travel called "spice." However, the previous rulers of the planet, House Harkonnen, overthrow the Atreides, and Paul is forced to flee to the desert with his mother, a member of a mysterious yet powerful sect of women named the Bene Gesserit. Being the result of years of calculated unions by the Bene Gesserit, Paul grapples with his new prophetic powers as he realizes he must lead a war, in his name, to become the next emperor and create the green and flourishing Arrakis the Fremen—the planet's native people—dream of. The task turns Paul into this crazy, heretic leader, and Herbert's story blurs the lines between messiah and foe to create this precautionary tale about saviourism.

The slow establishing shots and the enormity of the sets are common in both Arrival and Dune to better portray the wide scope of each story. Indeed, the monstrous, baleen shape of the sandworms, the ten-foot-tall doors of the palaces, the extra-wide rooms, and the huge size of the ships and explosions all serve to give Dune its impression of staggering immensity. It is, after all, a story of intergalactic wars between noble houses who control not fiefs but whole planets. Moreover, the establishing shots, whether that be of Caladan's foggy shores or Arrakis' dunes, are drawled out to give a sense of vastness (positive). These aspects are also found in Arrival and have become common traits of Villeneuve's, as denoted by K. Austin Collins in his review: "This Villeneuve, after all. The conscious sense of design, the brutalism of its sets and sounds (the latter coming courtesy of Hans Zimmer), the overwhelming aesthetics: None of this should surprise us" (positive). Dune's soundtrack, as Collins mentions, is also similar to Arrival's. Its thick and booming notes are overpowering at times, emphasizing the massive stakes of the film, the girth of its story. 

Incendie tells the tale of two siblings on their travel in the Middle East to re-discover the past of their recently deceased mother. And while Incendie deals with heavy themes such as the horrors of war and the meaning of family with prowess, Villeneuve's Dune fails to do so. For instance, after he escapes to the desert, Paul finally uncovers his powers and begins to have prophetic visions of war and destruction. In the book, they mark a crucial turning point for Paul, for he realizes he must lead the Fremen to war—essentially to their deaths—as their messiah. But the visions are downplayed in the movie and share nothing of the brutality of Incendie as if Villeneuve is trying to play it safe, to make Dune more mainstream. In his critic, Richard Brody argues that "far from the excess, the heretic cruelty, and the extravagance of Lynch's vision, Villeneuve's is spare, austere, and almost saviour-like in its commitment to a coherent and worthy set of principles" (negative). No matter how beautiful the film looks and sounds, it completely misses the point that Paul isn't supposed to be a saviour. Instead, Villeneuve presents his story with bleakness and simplicity that denotes a lack of imagination (negative). Even the shots themselves, however grandiose they may be, are repetitive and cliché—Villeneuve relies heavily on back-and-forth medium close-up shots in most if not all dialogue scenes. Dune lacks the nuances of character that made Incendie so gripping and shocking.

In conclusion, Dune is a beautiful cinematic experience void of any of the deeper meanings of Herbert's novel. Villeneuve undermines the story’s themes by choosing visuals over storytelling, preventing Dune from having any heart. It's thus pretty to look at and shares aspects from Villeneuve's Arrival, but it falls short of depicting any characterization like Incendie.

Works Cited:

"Denis Villeneuve Biography." IMDb, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0898288/bio?ref_ =nm_ov_bio_sm. Accessed 11 March 2022.

Arrival. Directed by Denis Villeneuve, performances by Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, and Michael Stuhlbarg, FilmNation Entertainment, 2016.

Brody, Richard. "Review: A 'Dune' Sanded to Dullness." The New Yorker, https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/review-a-dune-sanded-to-dullness. Accessed 11 March 2022.

Brody, Richard. “The Truffaut Essays That Clear Up Misguided Notions of Auteurism.” The New Yorker, https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the- front-row/the-truffaut-essays-that-clear-up- misguided-notions-of-auteurism. Accessed 11 March 2022.

Collins, Austin K. "'Dune' Wages an All-Out Attack on the Sense — and Wins." Rolling Stones, https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-reviews/dune-review-denis-villeneuve-1243908/. Accessed 11 March 2022.

Dune. Directed by Denis Villeneuve, performances by Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, and Jason Momoa, Legendary Pictures, 2021.

Incendie. Directed by Denis Villeneuve, performances by Mustafa Kamel, Hussein Sami, Rémy Girard, and Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, micro_scope, 2010.

Kael, Pauline. “Circles and Squares.” Film Quarterly, vol. 16, no. 3, 1963, pp. 12-26.