DUNE Cinema Intro + Q&A | TIFF 2021

good evening welcome welcome to an imax world exclusive you are the very first audience in the world in this world in any world to see dune in imax and i'm so glad to be able to present it to you here at the ontario place cinesphere my name is cameron bailey i'm the artistic director and the co-head here at tiff this is an exciting night for us to bring back one of canada's most accomplished artists denis villeneuve to present his new film and to present it in this spectacular way so i hope that you enjoy the film there's a few just acknowledgments that i want to make before we start we always want to begin what we do at tiff by just remembering where we are taking up just a moment to reflect on the land we're on and its history here in toronto we're located on the treaty lands and territory of the mississaugas of the credit and the traditional territory of the um anishinaabe the wendat and the haudenosaunee there has been human activity on this land for 15 000 years and this is land now protected by something called the dish with one spoon wampum belt covenant and it's home to many first nations inuit and metis people and we are grateful to be here working on this land we are thankful to the people and the organizations who make what we do at tif possible this screening the whole festival everything we do year round including our lead sponsor bell our major sponsors rbc l'oreal paris and visa and the public support we get from the government of ontario telefilm canada and the city of toronto and thanks also to the ontario cultural attractions fund for supporting our expanded activities at ontario place this year you may have noticed this is one of our our bases during the festival in addition to the sino-sphere we also have two drive-ins on this property and then also a seated outdoor cinema as well where you don't need to bring a car or even have a car you can sit in muskoka chairs or adirondack chairs and watch a film during the festival so we're thrilled to be here at four different venues at ontario place thanks also to our members and donors maybe some of you in the audience tonight who support us year round if you're interested in being a part of tiff that way you can go online to tiff.net support massive thanks to warner brothers pictures canada for providing us with this film our friends at warner brothers have really been stellar stalwart supporters of the festival and of tiffin organization for many years so thank you to them and a big thank you to imax i guess any thank you to imax has to be a big thank you uh thank you for making tonight's experience possible uh you may know that the theater you're in right now is the very first cinema that was built to present imax films in the world back in 1971 when ontario place opened and it was new technology new canadian technology that we were introducing to the world so it's been over half a century to uh that this place has been presenting remarkable huge uh crisp picture incredible immersive sound and that experience that you can't really get any other way so we're grateful to them tonight you're going to see um a film that includes over one hour of footage showcasing additional picture that's available only in imax so this is really i think the way you want to see this movie it is i think quite remarkable um i am so proud uh and honored to have denis villeneuve back at the festival he's a filmmaker whose work we have been presenting uh since the uh 1990s since late 1990s uh i hope you've had a chance some of his other films he is a filmmaker who has a rare combination of the biggest ideas incredible determination but also humility as a filmmaker he approaches i think the stories that he tells with a sense of wonder and an open heart and an open mind and that really translates so well to his audiences his films include august 32nd on earth enson d uh enemy uh shot here in toronto and really transformed seen that movie it's one of the classic very strange toronto movies uh sicario arrival and uh most recently blade runner 2049. i'm so pleased that he's come to present dune to you tonight please join me in welcoming denis nerve thank you very much i'm so deeply happy to be here tonight because as cameron says earlier finally finally the movie will be seen as intended i mean we dream we design we shot this movie for imax and you will be the first one i'm so excited to uh to share the movie so it means that if you don't like it then that's it guys and that's the no but seriously i'm deeply happy and proud to to share this movie with you tonight um there's someone special here that with me when you make movies it's like the thing that i deeply love is a to share poetry and and dream together and she's by far i will say one of the most impressive talent and and greatest actress i've ever worked with frankly and it's with the great great pleasure that i introduce you to rebecca ferguson so um rebecca is swedish and when there's a premiere rebecca explained to me that they do a traditional dance and that so they will rebecca will tonight perform for us the the dance of the oh you're such a i don't even know the continuation hi this is amazing this is my first time in canada wow i don't know is there a question why are you looking at me no no no no it was uh i was trying to be canadian here i was just right sorry guys we didn't rearrange obviously i just uh do you mind if i talk a little bit more or is it oh please do okay uh there are like people in this room that worked on the movie that i would like to mention please uh there's first of all my dear dear friend uh patrice vermet the production designer of the movie is here with us tonight yes patrice is somewhere yes and also there's a patrice you know the proper way to do this is that you you stand and you wave okay so is there people there yeah voila because i mean i i was surrounded by by a team of magicians you know and that's why i want to play and there's also this vfx supervisor paul lambert is with us tonight there there's a uh uh an old friend of mine also that i made i think this is the one i made the most movie with if that makes sense in english he's the person he's made made the most films with thank you thank you continue [Laughter] storyboard artist sam udeki yeah who is from toronto by the way where sam and i we met on enemy and since then uh he stuck with me um there's also a gentleman that uh when you make movies what is crazy is that there's more movie there's more people and that i work in this movie than there's people in my native village you know it's like it's a so there's a gentleman his name is andy malcolm and he did the foley on the movie part of the sound team and andy is here i heard voila nice nice meeting you sir okay and finally uh i will say uh the last one but not the least is is uh executive executive producer tania lapoint is with us tania is responsible for the creative work a lot of things and also my mental sanity which means our mental sanity as well thank you rebecca you're welcome uh and the the last thing i want i would like to say after it's over sorry uh is there's someone in this room that uh is very close to my heart because he's the one uh when i was 13 years old i repeat this since a month that i read this novel at the 13 or 14 years old and we start to dream about making cinema together and uh we we idraw storyboards are drawing for me when we were starting to to dream about them when we were 14 15 years old as other guys were playing football we were nerds doing and and but he's still my oldest friend and and someone that uh we started to dream about cinema together nikola kazma [Applause] i love you nico all right merci beaucoup thank you for your patience have you got anything else vivid so awkward um i always have so much but you talk so much and you've just taken the whole time no um i thank you all right no you know what i feel i feel special being here i don't know because obviously you and and i know so much about this film festival and i've never been here i feel honoured it feels very big and very nerve-wracking um but thank you thank you guys for coming out i know a lot of people are nervous and all of that but it's such a good movie bye-bye [Applause] denis and rebecca ferguson thank you wow let let me hijack your q a first i think because i i i apologize but i made a mistake i did i i said a lot of stupid jokes when i but i forgot the most important thing to say a massive thank you to tiff for the invitation thank you our pleasure today always it's uh it was very very important for me to show the movie here and and um it's a thank you very much and also a big thank you to warner brothers obviously for uh for having uh make this uh this thing happen yes thank you very much we are so glad to have you here um there's so many places we could begin but i'm curious to know because i was that nerdy kid maybe 14 15 years old devouring frank herbert's books uh and i wonder when you first discovered dune and what was it in those stories that that pulled you in um i i read book first of all guys would make it short because we i understand that it it's a long movie yeah everybody wants to into the restroom no but i i um i read the book when i'm probably at the same age at like 14 years old 13 and and uh i think that what deeply touched me was paul's atreides uh isola feeling of isolation being having the burden of a heavy family heritage genetic heritage and the way he finally find comfort and solace and into another culture uh and and uh finally find uh make peace with the part of his identity being in contact with other people from another culture that i thought was really deeply moving for me it's a film of enormous scale and yet the story has to be human the emotions have to really land with the audience even with that vast scale of the world you're creating and to me that that immediately speaks to to casting and i want to ask you about the cast you've put together including rebecca ferguson uh and what was it you were looking for in rebecca and the other actors to be able to to to bring that human skill amidst all of that um that the vast world building that that you have in doing this it's a big cast where let's talk about rebecca no but the the it was it's a part uh at first we uh we casted the timati and uh and uh immediately after once i i i knew timothy wanted to be on board um we were looking for a lady jessica and and uh um i was uh for a while i had been very uh mesmerized by uh uh rebecca uh the other part she played another movie and her name came on in in my mind and i had a beautiful conversation in fact i don't answer to your question at all why let's continue i feel like you were getting there though no no but it's it's like it's like uh frankly the lady jessica uh it's the character that we uh with paul but uh uh with eric rat and john spade that we really put a lot of focus on because i didn't i wanted the feminine feminine femininity aspect the feminine aspect of the female aspect not the feminist aspect of the novel to be upfronted and i wanted and we put a lot of love into this character i mean bringing her at the surface to be sure that she will be as close as possible to paul and that she will be not the main character but almost the main character from it's like it's a very um fundamental character in the story and i needed a uh an insanely great actress that could be able to portrait all those layers uh that complexity and at the end of the day it's a movie about the story of a young man that needs to find take his how can i say that saffron it means you guys speak french are you okay no but but uh she needs she needs to he needs to to free himself from the burden of a of his mother of you i began french again [Laughter] rebecca i want to ask you about this lady jessica is a character in the film that's evolved from what herbert wrote originally and i wonder what was your contribution to that evolution in terms of the the the kind of character that denis wanted for the film i don't actually feel some films i feel i can contribute ideas and and traits and and and i feel with this there was already a book there was a shaped character um there was not much for me to bring and that feels like i'm not giving myself compliment to the work that i do but you know the costume designer jackie had developed the most exquisite outfits and just putting that dressing in that and being dropped in the in the environments that were created and and the set design and everything that was made it was kind of just there for me and i think it was conversations we had of who she was at certain moments was your trainer was your teacher was your mother um trying to normalize it and then kind of defibrillate some form of normality into it um there's a very complex relationship between your character and uh and um timothy's character as well and there's so many nuances and layers as as you were saying i'm very curious to know how you work together to to get the those nuances and layers communicated in each scene i feel i don't know how i mean denny as i've said before as an octopus but but my point is he has they don't know that you said i was an octopus we're not there she said today i was an octopus but nobody's aware of that rebecca why is denny an octopus did i not say that no no that's so funny in my head i did i call him an octopus that's so odd um she's swedish remember and i have a dance and because he has jokes aside he has these tentacles who he can cradle all of us um individually and and that answers your question and timothy has a certain way of working compared to me as do most actors you know and and not many directors have the possibility or the capacity to with such subtlety and kindness and direction separate us but yet keep us together if that makes sense so we didn't really have to work together we just needed to find our rhythm and our frequency for the scene would does that make sense danny would i am i i hope so but that i will say that uh my focus is uh always to try to create a lot of intimacy around the camera and make sure that the actors i don't know if i succeed but that's the goal that there's a creative bubble of silence around the camera like if we were the smallest indie movie you know that's the truth right and and uh everything around the camera is very intimate and you can do that even with the scale of the production that you have here you must have a lot of visual effects you've got i'm sure hundreds of people working on the film how do you keep that intimacy around the camera [Laughter] authority love it no no but it's it's like it's it's what you choose your team your crew they are so loyal you can't but be loyal and fall in love with denny it's like a big therapeutic session where we bomb each other with compliment doesn't it thank you all of us patrice i mean we all just we know each other we love each other we support each other and you know all film sets aren't like this i'm not saying that all film sets have in intense egos etc but but there are the drives this was a unit a unified object moving forward and everyone had their own energy etc but it was one organism i'm not saying that that everybody has its own way to make direct movies and there's not a good way or a bad way it's just that me i deeply need silence and i need like uh as less as possible uh people on set but you know there's like uh it's like layers there's the heart of the the set that is very small with one camera and a few actors and then there's space of silence and then there's like the circus all around tons of people working and and that but the widths shape there's always like a ap center of focus yeah it's amazing you're able to maintain that um we're seeing it for the very first time in imax and i know that that was important to you the scale of the big screen experience but specifically the imax frame the imax technology you spent a lot of time working on that can you talk a little bit about what is specific about the imax image that was interesting to you and and how you incorporated that into into designing the film there's like in imax there's like a paradox or a contradiction it means it's the fact that the format itself the square format is like close to all movies like intimate there's something that's the first thing that struck me when i blew up blade runner 2049 into a max is it's not that the landscape were bigger it's that i felt closer to the character i felt that there was a feeling of high proximity and that square frame brings something closer to the feeling of the home movie but in the same time it's a very powerful tool to bring insane scope with landscape where you feel that you have like almost you fall into the landscape the first time i went i i sat in a imax theater looking at a documentary about space at vertigo you know i was like amazed and i'm very impressed by the and um so it's that um combination of uh massive scope and and very very close intimacy with the character that i thought was was totally in in sync with the idea of having uh the way we shot greg fraser and i the movie which massive white shots that will put back humanity into their place into the ecosystem meaning that they are ants on the surface of a planet and in the same time we are following a very intimate journey and i wanted to be very close to paul so we are always in the extreme like close-ups and wide shots there's not a lot of medium shots in the movie um can you talk a little bit about david lean's film lawrence of arabia because i know that that was an influence in terms of your filmmaking generally but when you talk about that contrast of scale setting human beings against the vast scale of the landscapes i'm immediately reminded of lawrence of arabia and i know that was an important film for you it's a movie that had a deep deep influence and massive impact one day i was like maybe 90 year 19 years old or something like that and i was in montreal and i i i did sat alone in a massive theater and i watched uh lawrence of arabian 70 millimeter alone for four hours and uh in what age 20 or something like that no that's what you're reading frank herbert at 14 and watching lawrence of arabia at 17. no no no no no no you missed out no i i i'm but look at it i have a lot of good friends in this room and they know that i messed up let's talk about that but it's it's it's it's it's anyone who's uh lawrence of arabia knows that it's like a master class into film making into classical film making and it's a movie that i studied at university i made the thesis about the the movie about the cinematic language of the movie how the it used uh landscape uh the impact on lens of landscape and characters and the way used the depth of focus and they are like mesmerizing uh shots uh in lawrence of arabia that we use uh uh calorific waves or or uh it's like uh yeah probably one of the most influential movie i've seen in my life yeah and and and uh as a coincidence frank herbert was uh very influenced by the seven pillars of wisdom written by t lawrence and uh um i should we first and and and uh lawrence of arabia of course was shot where the real story happened in jordan and that's why it's not why but one of the reason i thought was interesting to go back to jordan is that the the familiarity uh of landscape and and uh because there's a lot of links between the the story of lawrence and and uh the story of paul and they are both characters that are uh going in a foreign country fall in love with another culture wants to bring something good to this culture but to this culture but but will be themselves find out at the end that would be an instrument of colonialism themselves and that there's something about this tragedy that i thought both characters are having a similar trajectory it's fascinating um and you do seem to have an affinity for desert landscapes as well in a number of your films uh it seems like you come back to that um this is part one and we have to ask because i think you know seeing how this film ends i'm already hungry for the second part um what can you tell us about how the story will continue of course we will have many of us will have read the book and the other books in the in the series but can you say anything about your vision for part two of dune it depends what's depending how how nice will be a rebecca because uh uh sorry i was trying to make a joke and i realized that it could sound very stupid and i stopped the joke right away and i'm in front of total witness in front of a camera this is embarrassing uh i can't say nothing about part two the thing is that when you do a movie when you decide to make a movie in two parts like that of course the the second part is always thought of and it's like the structure is there and the fact it's it's uh the writing is in progress it's all very i think he's quite tired of all of us like jason and oscar i tried to kill as much people as i could in the first one [Laughter] we literally go you know the scene that we didn't bring we bring it back into the second bit another bit with the when she read all of the under the leaves can we bring that can we bring that back for it do you remember green the greenhouse when she and we can't it's done you've read the books on this yesterday are you talking about ah the green okay and she walks in and she starts reading messages underneath the leaves yes great scene if you would have had that in the movie [Laughter] why did you let rebecca contribute more to the editing of this movie really a shame we had quiet sense i promise [Laughter] but i i i i didn't say to him well though the the the the thing i can say about part two is that if ever such a thing happen it will be it would be great to do because it would be much more fun because in this first one the truth is add to we had to build the foundation of the world to explain to someone who had never read the book what what is this world about and what are the different families tribes and the the the and the geopolitics of it all and there's so many elements that you need to understand but those elements now are are are there they are explained so it means that in the second part it can just be pure cinematic joy i would say just like it would be much more dynamic movie i would say that this will look like an appetizer and the main meal will be part two that's the truth oh it's quite an appetizer it looks pretentious but it's a bit true rebecca as as we're wrapping up i want to ask you about entering the world of the grand mythology of dune you know that people will be dressing up as lady jessica for years to come and you will be a part of sort of movie iconography have you had a chance to think about that yet i will say i dress as lazy dania i can tell you i'm i love it [Laughter] no i haven't thought about it i think oh i did get um my first little hero um you know when you get the figurine yes action figure i have an action figure i love it it was a faust doesn't character admission impossible but this one does which is cool did you burn it or what burn it no it's a as a swedish tradition no but that's my point is i have a point i saw a ted talk a wonderful guy who talked about gender equality and talked about oh it's actually really really sad so many sequences where women have been taken out and it's been replaced with with men and there's a famous one the scarlett johansson jumping out of a helicopter as the black widow but on top of the imagery on the t-shirt is captain america you know all of these things right so for me to be able to have a heroin woman who i also yes she has dresses on but she has so many characteristic traits that are so fantastic and wonderful and such a role model in so many ways even though it's not gender equal and it can't be for the story it you know there needed to be some form of hierarchical change or differences between the men and the women that's what creates the tension and the drama but that's also what starts a conversation um but as we've said before we're still miles away from from the version of the book i feel and that's also what made it interesting for me to act in it and i don't think denny could have done another version this is made for this century you know denis i want to um ask you the last question many of us and i know you've got some old uh long-term friends here as well when many of us would have grown up alongside your films and seen you work in independent films out of montreal and then you know increase the scale and the scope and the the the reach of your movies is there anything that you can say to people who who have that kind of ambition who may be working in small independent films lower budget films but really want to to get to the kind of scale and scope that you're working at now how did you do it and and what can you say to people who are looking to do that i asked this question once to martin scorsese because uh before i went to hollywood and he said to me stay intact [Laughter] try to do do as the best as you can do to stay intact meaning protect your your integrity protect your your identity protect your identity stay yourself try to be yourself and make no compromise that's what i will say thank you that's good advice in so many circumstances thank you very much everybody thank you kevin evil nerve rebecca ferguson thank you all for being here today

Channel: TIFF Originals

Views: 378

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: TIFF, Toronto International Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, TIFF21, TIFF Bell Lightbox

Id: hbMBvesE3T4

Length: 32min 42sec (1962 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 13 2021