And, indeed, I will ask on my own account here, an idle question: which is better—cheap happiness or exalted sufferings? Well, which is better?---Fyodor Dostoevsky ---Notes from Underground Fyodor Dostoevsky ---Notes from Underground Even now, so many years later, all this is somehow a very evil memory. I have many evil memories now, but ... hadn’t I better end my “Notes” here? I believe I made a mistake in beginning to write them, anyway I have felt ashamed all the time I’ve been writing this story; so it’s hardly literature so much as a corrective punishment. Why, to tell long stories, showing how I have spoiled my life through morally rotting in my corner, through lack of fitting environment, through divorce from real life, and rankling spite in my underground world, would certainly not be interesting; a novel needs a hero, and all the traits for an anti-hero are expressly gathered together here, and what matters most, it all produces an unpleasant impression, for we are...
Hope
To be human is to be a miracle of evolution conscious of its own miraculousness — a consciousness beautiful and bittersweet, for we have paid for it with a parallel awareness not only of our fundamental improbability but of our staggering fragility, of how physiologically precarious our survival is and how psychologically vulnerable our sanity. To make that awareness bearable, we have evolved a singular faculty that might just be the crowning miracle of our consciousness: hope.--
Erich Fromm
Denis Villeneuve’s third feature is beautifully shot and realistically depicts Montreal’s engineering school shooting
Long before Arrival and Blade Runner 2049, director Denis Villeneuve established his acute command of space and psychology in a shocking school-shooting drama that was never released in the UK.
Inspired by a horrifying 1989 incident at Montreal’s engineering school, the film is shot in stark black-and-white and widescreen. It utilises gliding, Kubrickian Steadicam shots and vivid, often dialogue-free sound design to document the excruciating build up, carnage and fallout from a tragic campus shooting that left 14 young women dead and more injured.
The thematic and aesthetic influence of Gus Van Sant’s haunting Elephant (2003) obviously hangs heavily over the film, as does that film’s play with chronology and fatalistic mood. But unlike Van Sant’s film, with its impressionistic style and hazily noncommittal, almost scattergun approach to exploring killer motivation – a violent videogame glimpsed here, school bullying and a homoerotic encounter suggested there – Villeneuve’s film is far more direct in its approach. It takes the film’s killer – and his self-professed hatred of feminists, related in a violent suicide note read in voiceover at the film’s start – as a springboard to explore a world defined by embittered male violence, impotence and apathy.
We’re presented with 3 perspectives on the tragedy. At first we observe the shooter, credited only as ‘the killer’ (Maxim Gaudette) as he writes that long, misogynistic letter, prepares his weapon in a sparse apartment and drives to the college. Then we are introduced to a young student at the college, Valérie (played beautifully by Karine Vanasse, who acted as producer and researcher on the film), as she prepares for an internship interview with a friend. Finally we meet Jean-François (Sébastien Huberdeau), a rather scatty student and friend of Valérie’s, who sheepishly borrows her lesson notes before class and sets about photocopying them just before the carnage commences.
Denis Villeneuve (born October 3, 1967) is a critically acclaimed French-Canadian film director and screenwriter. Renowned for his meticulous visual craftsmanship, immersive soundscapes, and profound thematic depth, Villeneuve has emerged as one of the defining auteurs of modern cinema, bridging the gap between artistic cerebral drama and blockbuster spectacle.
1. Career Trajectory & Key Works
Early Quebecois Era
August 32nd on Earth (1998) & Maelström (2000): Villeneuve initially gained attention in Canadian cinema with stylized, art-house indie films.
Incendies (2010): A devastating mystery drama about twin siblings tracing their late mother's past in the Middle East. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and marked Villeneuve’s international breakthrough.
Hollywood Thrillers & Psychological Dramas
Prisoners (2013): A dark, morally complex crime thriller starring Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal that examined desperation, faith, and vigilance.
Enemy (2013): A surreal psychological thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal, exploring duality, guilt, and subversion of identity.
Sicario (2015): A relentless look at the U.S.–Mexico border drug war, featuring striking cinematography by Roger Deakins and a tense score by Jóhann Jóhannsson.
Science Fiction Mastery & Epic Cinema
Arrival (2016): A thoughtful, emotionally resonance sci-fi masterpiece about linguistics, time, and human connection, earning Villeneuve his first Oscar nomination for Best Director.
Blade Runner 2049 (2017): The visually stunning sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1982 classic. Though modest at the box office, it was hailed by critics as a landmark achievements in modern sci-fi cinematography and atmosphere.
Dune: Part One (2021) & Dune: Part Two (2024): A monumental adaptation of Frank Herbert’s seminal novel. Villeneuve achieved what many deemed impossible: creating a critically revered, commercially massive sci-fi epic that reshaped modern spectacle filmmaking.
2. Signature Directorial Style
Villeneuve's filmmaking is defined by distinct aesthetic and narrative choices:
Sense of Scale and Brutalism: He frequently employs brutalist architecture, vast deserts, and massive structures to contrast small, vulnerable human subjects against intimidating landscapes or systems.
Pacing and Atmosphere: Rather than relying on rapid editing, Villeneuve favors deliberate, lingering shots that build unbearable tension and atmospheric dread.
Atmospheric Soundscapes: A frequent collaborator with sound designers and late composer Jóhann Jóhannsson as well as Hans Zimmer, Villeneuve uses sound non-traditionally—often turning score and ambient sound into visceral narrative forces.
Visual Minimalism: In partnership with cinematographers like Roger Deakins and Greig Fraser, his frames feature clean lines, bold silhouettes, high-contrast lighting, and muted or monochromatic color palettes.
Denis Villeneuve's visual collaboration with cinematographer Roger Deakins
The partnership between Denis Villeneuve and cinematographer Roger Deakins (spanning Prisoners, Sicario, and Blade Runner 2049) stands as one of the most celebrated director-DP collaborations of modern cinema.
Their shared philosophy centers on rigorous visual minimalism: keeping camera movements deliberate, relying on practical and functional light sources, and using geometry to tell the story rather than flashy editing.
1. Sicario (2015): The Aesthetics of Exposure and Obscurity
In Sicario, Villeneuve and Deakins framed the US-Mexico border conflict not as a standard action thriller, but as a descent into moral purgatory.
Harsh Naturalism vs. Total Blackness: Deakins relied heavily on the unforgiving, sun-bleached desert light of New Mexico to create high-contrast exposures. Interior shots often cut off ambient fill light, letting characters step into pitch-black shadows within the same frame.
The Sunset Silhouette Sequence: In one of modern cinema's most famous sequences, a joint task force descends into a valley at dusk. Shot during the final 20 minutes of magic hour, the operators are reduced to jet-black outlines against a darkening sky—visually signaling their descent into an unregulated, dark underworld.
Functional Night Vision & Thermal Imaging: Rather than using stylized, Hollywood-blue "movie night," Deakins integrated actual thermal imaging and night-vision perspectives, turning military hardware into a jarring narrative lens.
2. Blade Runner 2049 (2017): Architectural Light & Color Geometry
Where Sicario grounded itself in dusty realism, Blade Runner 2049 expanded those same principles into monumental, high-concept world-building. Deakins won his first Academy Award for Best Cinematography for the film.
Color Monochromes as Environmental Markers: Instead of relying on neon reflections, each location is defined by a distinct, suffocating color palette. The radioactive ruins of Las Vegas were famously rendered in an oppressive, dusty orange haze—inspired by real photographs of Sydney during the 2009 dust storm.
Moving Light as Architecture: Inside Niander Wallace’s brutalist headquarters, Deakins built custom concentric lighting rings that rotated above pools of water. The resulting caustic reflections swept across raw concrete walls, breathing movement into static, cavernous rooms without needing complex camera tracks.
Scale and Human Isolation: Frames regularly isolate officer K (Ryan Gosling) against colossal statues, endless fog, or monolithic buildings, visually echoing the story's core question of whether a artificial creation can possess an individual soul.
Visual Element
Sicario
Blade Runner 2049
Color Palette
Sun-bleached ochre, muted earth tones, harsh black
Arri Master Primes; deep depth-of-field, extreme scale
Camera Movement
Slow, creeping dollies and steady observational pans
Geometric tracking shots, static wide frames
Historical Context
The film is based on the Montreal Massacre, which remains the deadliest mass shooting in Canadian history specifically targeting women. On December 6, 1989, Marc Lépine entered the school, killed 14 women, and injured 14 others before taking his own life. The event sparked national debates on gun control, violence against women, and the safety of educational institutions.
Anti-Feminism and Misogyny: The film directly addresses the killer's motives. By including segments of his actual suicide note as voiceover, Villeneuve highlights the political and ideological nature of the attack.
Survivor’s Guilt and Trauma: Much of the film’s emotional weight rests on Jean-François. His inability to cope with the "cowardice" he feels for obeying the gunman serves as a tragic counterpoint to the physical violence.
Cinematic Restraint: Villeneuve avoids typical "action movie" tropes. The camera often glides slowly through empty hallways or focuses on mundane objects (like a spilled carton of milk), creating a cold, clinical atmosphere that emphasizes the suddenness of the tragedy.
The Power of Sound: The film features long periods of silence, making the mechanical sounds of the rifle and the echoes of the school corridors feel deafeningly loud.
The making of the film was a delicate process. Karine Vanasse, who also served as an associate producer, spent years researching and meeting with the families of the victims to ensure the project had their blessing. The filmmakers chose not to use the real names of the victims out of respect for their privacy, and the school itself was not used as a filming location; instead, other university buildings in Montreal were used to recreate the setting.
The film was highly acclaimed for its sensitivity and refusal to turn a tragedy into entertainment. Critics praised Vanasse's grounded performance as the emotional anchor of the story. While initially controversial in Quebec due to the raw pain the event still causes, it is now regarded as an essential piece of Canadian cinema—a haunting memorial that focuses on the victims' dignity rather than the killer's notoriety.
