Denis Villeneuve, director of the hit sci-fi franchise Dune, expressed dismay about how individualism has suffered during the age of Big Tech.
Speaking with the Los Angeles Times, Villeneuve lamented that “human beings are ruled by algorithms right now,” adding that he keeps a strict no cell phone policy on his movie sets.
“We behave like AI circuits. The ways we see the world are narrow-minded binaries. We’re disconnecting from each other, and society is crumbling in some ways. It’s frightening,” he said.
When reporter Glenn Whipp noted that Villeneuve had been checking his phone while sharing those discomforting thoughts, he said that proved his point.
“There’s something addictive about the fact that you can access any information, any song, any book,” he said. “It’s compulsive. It’s like a drug. I’m very tempted to disconnect myself. It would be fresh air.”
Villeneuve said that he follows a similar policy to director Christopher Nolan by banning phones on set.
“Cinema is an act of presence,” Villeneuve said. “When a painter paints, he has to be absolutely focused on the color he’s putting on the canvas. It’s the same with the dancer when he does a gesture. With a filmmaker, you have to do that with a crew, and everybody has to focus and be entirely in the present, listening to each other, being in relationship with each other. So cellphones are banned on my set too, since Day 1. It’s forbidden. When you say cut, you don’t want someone going to his phone to look at his Facebook account.”
Villeneuve said he even went as far as keeping a chair for himself off the set of Dune so he could stay focused and avoid back issues.
“When I did ‘Blade Runner,’ I had a back problem because I was sitting a lot,” Villeneuve said. “So for the ‘Dune’ movies, my cinematographer, Greig Fraser, and I decided to stand, to have minimal footprints so we could be flexible and go fast, to keep the blood flowing, to be awakened. No chairs for us. Maybe for the producers at the video village.”
Paul Roland Bois directed the award-winning Christian tech thriller, EXEMPLUM, which has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes critic rating and can be viewed for FREE on YouTube, Tubi, or Fawesome TV. “Better than Killers of the Flower Moon,” wrote Mark Judge. “You haven’t seen a story like this before,” wrote Christian Toto. A high-quality, ad-free rental can also be streamed on Google Play, Vimeo on Demand, or YouTube Movies. Follow him on X @prolandfilms or Instagram @prolandfilms.
