Denis Villeneuve Says Movies Have Been “Corrupted By Television” & He “Hates Dialogue”

Sometimes, a filmmaker makes a comment in the home stretch of promotion for their film that either blows up the marketing plan or irritates the rank and file of cineastes. And just as “Dune: Part Two” is about to hit theaters (read our review), director Denis Villeneuve seems to have made provocative comments in a recent interview that have kind of blown up the internet. Or, well, Film Twitter, at least.

Everyone seems to be up in arms about an interview with the London Times where Villeneuve seemingly unintentionally stirred the pot. Length is always a heated topic: those who complain about movies’ overlong running time and those who say a movie should be as long as it needs to be. And “Dune: Part Two” is two hours and forty-five minutes long, though not as long as Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” which is three hours and obviously poised to win Best Picture at this year’s Oscars.

READ MORE: ‘Dune: Part Two’ Review: A Darker, Devastating Blockbuster & Cautionary Tale About Prophecy, Fate & False Idols

Regardless, when asked if Warner Bros. or Legendary were worried about the movie’s run time or asked him to trim the film, he said absolutely not. “No! It was almost the opposite!” he said with a smile. “I trust the audience.”

“This story’s too dense,” Villeneuve said about the sprawl of Frank Herbert‘s novel and that he needed two movies to tell the story right. “I would never make ‘Dune’ as one movie. This was the only way I could succeed.”

Villeneuve also went on to say he thinks younger audiences “crave” longer movies because they want their investment to mean something when they travel to the theater.

“Also, think of Oppenheimer,” he explained. “It is a three-hour, rated-R movie about nuclear physics that is mostly talking. But the public was young — that was the movie of the year by far for my kids. There is a trend. The youth love to watch long movies because if they pay, they want to see something substantial. They are craving meaningful content.”

Does Villeneuve have his finger on the pulse of kids want? Is a TikTok next? 😉

But if those comments provoked some ire online, it was nothing like Villeneuve’s controversial comments about dialogue. Asked about the grand architecture of his movies and the interplay of shadows, the filmmaker evidently went off on some tear about dialogue in film, suggesting that cinema is a visual language and, therefore, the one he loves best.

“Frankly, I hate dialogue,” he said, apparently with a laugh. “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.”

Asked if he thought this because the recent golden age of TV made film execs feel like they should copy the small screen’s success, Villeneuve said, “Exactly.” (For what it’s worth, Film Twitter has seemingly been up and arms about the comment, The New Yorker’s Richard Brody seemingly using it as a dig at Villeneuve’s filmmaking style).

“In a perfect world,” the director continued, “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?”

Could “Dune: Messiah” push the filmmaker’s desire to go silent film or at least lessen dialogue in favor of images? “I would absolutely adore that,” he said. Though I personally wouldn’t put money on Warner or Legendary approving a $200 million dollar-costing movie without dialogue. Either way, “Dune: Part Two” seems poised to rule the box office when it opens this weekend, March 1, no matter how upset Film Twitter may be.