Recently naming one of his features among the best of the decade thus far and another, Sicario, arriving perhaps sooner than expected with a newly minted MPAA rating, Denis Villeneuve is certainly on the rise. As we await his upcoming crime drama, we’re looking back at his previous career, first with his debut short film REW-FFWD.
Made in 1994, it follows an emerging photographer who travels to Jamaica and features voice-over with a mix of footage. Jumping nearly 15 years, we also have the Cannes-winning short Next Floor, which takes a major formal leap as we follows a banquet like no other you’ll witness. We recently talked with him about and you can read his quote below, followed by the shorts.
I did a short called Next Floor and I think Enemy is the “big brother” of Next Floor. I wanted to explore these themes in a more playful way – in a more fantastic way like magical realism. There’s a part of me that’s very attracted to fantastic or sci-fi, and after Polytechnique, Incendies, and knowing I was going to do Prisoners, I felt that I need to express myself in a film that’s more of a fantasy, a distortion of reality. I like those movies a lot. I was a big fan as a kid. There’s a part of me that needs to express myself in this way before Prisoners.
Check out both below, with the first coming from Seventh Art, and for more on the director, watch in-depth video essays on his latest films.
What do you think of his early short films?