Sound And Vision: Denis Villeneuve
In the article series Sound and Vision we take a look at music videos from notable directors. This week: two music videos for Bundock Lanoie by Denis Villeneuve.
Denis Villeneuve made a few music videos in his career, the two most notable for Bundock Lanoie. That band was an offshoot of the famous quebecois band Bündock, consisting of two core members, Pierre Bundock and Dominique Lanoie. The duo made one album together called Bundock-Lanoie, with two of the lead singles being Ne Me Dis Pas (below) and Ce'st le éte (also below).
Both singles got music videos directed by Villeneuve. They feel like they come from a very different director, while a lot of his hallmarks are still there. What's most noticeable is that one of the main stylistic flourishes, his deliberate slow moving camera and stark, stilled compositions are nowhere to be found. The camera shakes and buzzes, the editing goes haywire. It is dizzying to a head-ache inducing extent. Especially Ne Me Dis Pas has a frenetic energy that reads either as deliberate frenzy or a lack of control, depending on your viewpoint. The later Villeneuve has a much tighter grip on his compositions, bringing with him a sense of calmth that comes from knowing when to let loose and when not. The camerawork here feels like youthful bravado, for better or worse.
Still, both videos share DNA with Villeneuves later works. His obsession with heat, desert areas, and a sepia color scheme, as seen in August 32nd dans le Terre, Incendies, Sicario, Enemy, Blade Runner 2046, and the two Dunes is here. Ne Me Dis Pas shares the washed out grayscales of Polytechnique, Prisoners and certain segments of Dune 2.
Also present in both is Villeneuve's obsession with conveying meaning through props and repeated objects. Think of the blueberries and spiders in Enemy, the tattoos and letters in Incendies, the fish in Maelstrom, or the mazes and (toy) trucks in Prisoners for good examples. In C'est le éte it is the glasses, books, instruments and especially house flies that become more than just a prop by mere repetition. Or for example by drawing a circle round the flies, giving them an almost ritualistic significance. In Ne Me Dis Pas it is newspapers and suitcases. Given that those do show up in railway stations often, Villeneuve goes out of his way to emphasize them. Maybe the dizzying, circling camera had a use after all, as they make the props stand out more. The later Villeneuve might be a much more stilted, subtle director, but the energetic young gun here shares an attitude with his later self: both are confident directors in their own sort of way.
