'Dune' Director Denis Villeneuve Says "Movies Have Been Corrupted by Television"

With Dune: Part Two hitting theaters worldwide, director Denis Villeneuve is gearing up for another successful run for the franchise. Villeneuve finds himself at the center of press, recently speaking with The Times about his thoughts on modern filmmaking.

To the Canadian director, he believes that television has impacted the way audiences consume film — and not in a positive way. Villeneuve shares that films have been lacking due to the way stories are told on TV and how much more series rely on dialogue. He said, “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.” He continued to explain, “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.”

Villeneuve was also asked if he would helm another film, perhaps a silent one, “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.” In regards to Dune, Villeneuve seems to believe that young people are becoming more interested in longer films, “Think of Oppenheimer. 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.”

Dune: Part Two arrives in theaters on March 1.