Phoning
from a winter wonderland in Quebec before Christmas, where there
is an undue amount of picturesque snow, 33 year-old director Denis
Villeneuve, father of three, is getting a break. Mom's out with
the kids and the only thing he has to contend with is a recalcitrant
dog.

"Just
a minute," he says in his quick yet accented English. "Couché!"
he snaps at the dog, who probably just wants to go out and play
in the snow and is obviously unimpressed by his master's honors.
Weeks earlier, Villeneuve was apprised of his nomination for Maelström
as Best Foreign Film in the 2001 Academy Awards. Villeneuve's an
old hand at this game, having also been nominated for the 1998 Academy
awards in the same category for his film August 32 on Earth.

Having gained international
accolades as an iconoclastic video director, winning the Course Europe Asie
TV series in 1991, Villeneuve still prefers to explore more alternative modes
of creativity. and seems nonplussed by his Academy nominations as such. Maelström
was named the Best Canadian Film at the 2000 Montreal World Film Festival and
has garnered 10 nominations for the 21st Genie Awards, Canada's equivalent of
the Oscars.



"It was very, very good for marketing," he says of the Oscar nominations. "It
gave me some leverage. The kind of films I like to make are small experimental
movies but unfortunately I need those kinds of attentions if I want to continue."

Villeneuve
is also very different from mainstream directors in that he is a
man who creates exceptional roles for women. Maelström, narrated
by a half-dead fish (you heard me) is the story of a hell-bent woman
(Marie Jose Croze) who kills a man drunk driving. The character
is dark, unapologetic, foul and almost unredemptive.

"I
was inspired by a friend of mine," says Villeneuve. "She was a meto
maniac (sic). That attracted me a lot. She has not a very strong
grip on reality. She would pull a lie and believe in her own lie."

He
laughs appreciatively at the Oscar Wilde quote "Women are more interesting
because they have more rules to break." Surprisingly he hadn't heard
it before. "My two first movies, the lead roles were played by women,"
he says. "Writing for women lets me be very close to the character
and at the same time keep a kind of distance from it and, I don't
know, I'm surrounded by women. I have a lot of women friends. Right
now I'm working on a script where the lead is a man and I have so
much difficulty."

An
artist first, Villeneuve would not last long in the Hollywood machine,
writing to order and anticipating the needs of demographics, although,
as he's just back from LA, you can bet he's juggling a few offers.
"Looking at yourself creating is not a good thing," he says. "A
few years ago when I was writing I was always looking at myself
and analyzing what I was doing. It was not very creative. I decided
not to think. I think it's a good thing to create and just do it
instinctively. Do what you think is right and after that you can
look at it and analyze it but not right now."


Post-Oscar, post-Genie, we'll keep you posted on what Villeneuve
will be doing. Will it be more experimental movies narrated by half-dead
fish or the next Julia Roberts vehicle? Maybe Julia Roberts as a
half-dead fish, but that might be typecasting...

Mary-Lou
Zeitoun