Visionary filmmaker Denis Villeneuve talks 'Sicario'
Visionary filmmaker Denis Villeneuve discusses his fascination with actors, his muses, and how they are changing him as a director.
“Why don’t I fall in love with a rom-com or a musical; something that is a bit more cheerful?” Sicario director Denis Villeneuve asks himself. “This was just too strong a story.” The French-Canadian filmmaker is referring to his allure of enigmas and unresolved mystery, a concept that he openly explores throughout his work.
A film many critics are hailing as the director’s best work, Sicario is Villeneuve’s latest English-language feature that follows his previous works the psychological thrillers Prisoners and Enemy. Emily Blunt stars as Kate Macer, a SWAT team leader enlisted by an elite government task force to help uncover the war against drugs dispute on the Mexican border. CIA frontrunner Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) leads the team accompanied by the mysterious Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro), who acts as a guide to Kate as she delves deeper into a corrupt underworld.
After competing for the coveted Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and receiving rave reviews on the festival circuit, Villeneuve says Sicario was his toughest film to date: “It was a technical puzzle, but there was something very exciting about that. There was always a will to create something that feels authentic so the movie would be frightening and powerful.”
Since emerging onto the cinematic scene with his 1998 debut Un 32 Août Sur Terre, which was selected for the Un Certain Regard in Cannes, Villeneuve has remained determined to explore rich and complex subjects. “I’m always looking for stories that have different layers where you feel it expands.” Villeneuve felt that Taylor Sheridan’s script offered just that. “Not everyone can write like that,” he says. “Great stories are when they play on different levels.”
The border state of El Paso, Texas is documented as the safest city to live in the United States. Ten feet across the border sits Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, a city infamous for its high crime rate. “I have always been interested in what is happening at the border of the United States and Mexico,” says Villeneuve. “It’s a place in the world that is sadly meaningful with a very strong contrast. What is happening is a large American problem, not just a Mexican problem. I’m not a cartel expert at all, but this movie was not about that world: it’s about violence.”
Villeneuve reunites with the 12-time Oscar nominated director of photography Roger Deacons, having worked together on 2013’s Prisoners. “For him, every shot must be perfect,” says Villeneuve. “He is oversensitive with light like another species. The way he uses light is very delicate, it’s all about human faces.” He adds: “His work is poetic, meaningful and fun, but what impressed me the most is what a strong storyteller he is.”
It was Blunt’s performance in 2009’s The Young Victoria that attracted Villeneuve to cast her as Kate. “She had vulnerability but still obtained that strength inside her that I thought would be perfect for the part. I was very impressed by how precise she was as an actress.”
Critics have already got the public talking about this strong female character and her unconventional stance, one that Villeneuve refers to as “a strong woman; not a woman acting like a man.” Blunt’s character, which was originally asked to be re-written for a man, interacts with no other female throughout the film (apart from the odd “nice to meet you” in a bar). She is alone in the core of a highly masculine world. “I wanted her to be a real human being, not an action role. For me, she was probably the easiest actor to direct.”
Sicario sees Blunt reunite with Benicio Del Toro for the first time since 2009’s The Wolfman. Villeneuve wanted Del Toro’s role to remain an enigma. “Benicio was very sensitive to unveil the character slowly because it’s more powerful,” he says. “I wanted to remove ethics so it would scarier in some ways and allow the questions to remain unanswered. I loved the idea that we would be slowly attracted by this character: I think that’s the main target of the movie – to raise questions.”
While Blunt and Del Toro boarded the project early on, Brolin took more convincing. “Josh said to me, ‘Denis, I respect you, but I’m sorry, I don’t think I can play this character because I don’t understand him and I don’t know where he is coming from.’ When you see Josh you love him right away but, at the same time, he can be scary. He is a clever human being, a poet.” Villeneuve was thrilled that he was eventually able to persuade Brolin for the role. “The character is undefined which is the beauty of it. He trusted me and for that I am so grateful.”
Villeneuve puts a certain kind of faith and trust into every actor that he directs. “I’m trying to reproduce a method which is to be more inspired by actors,” a notion that is patent in the filmmaker’s recent work: most notably with Jake Gyllenhaal. “I want to choose actors carefully and create muses: find those hidden gems and embrace them in front of the camera.”