Denis Villeneuve names his favourite Martin Scorsese movie: “Amazes me still”

Every director begins life as a film fan, and Denis Villeneuve is no different. The Blade Runner 2049 maestro grew up as a huge fan of science fiction films like Star Wars and 2001: A Space Odyssey, which would have a huge impact on his own work when he came of age. Other influences on the Canadian include Steven Spielberg, Alfred Hitchcock, Ridley Scott, and Christopher Nolan.

Another filmmaker with whom Villeneuve has a special connection is Martin Scorsese. You wouldn’t immediately associate the King of Gangster Cinema with a modern sci-fi guru, but Scorsese’s fingerprints can be found all over his admirer’s work. While speaking to the Los Angeles Times about Dune: Part Two, Villeneuve admitted there was a connection between his adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel and the 1988 movie The Last Temptation of Christ. 

“That exploration of doubt in the Christ figure deeply moves me, and the reconstruction of the time amazes me still,” Villeneuve said of Scorsese’s work, which stars Willem Dafoe as Jesus of Nazareth. “The production design and camerawork is stunning, and, yes, a big influence on the ‘Dune’ movies. The colour palette, the ambiences, the use of natural light. There’s something about the weight of the costumes and the dust that I remember vividly.”

The movie is not based purely on the Bible, but rather on Greek author Nikos Kazantzakis’ 1955 novel, which frames Christ as more corruptible by means of sex and power. Harvey Keitel plays Judas Iscariot, whilst other cast members include Barbara Hershey as Mary Magdalene, Harry Dean Stanton as Saint Paul, and, remarkably, David Bowie as Pontius Pilate. As you might expect, the movie garnered a great deal of controversy for tackling a subject as sensitive as the life of Jesus. Scorsese received death threats for making the movie and a cinema in Paris was set on fire for daring to show it.

It doesn’t seem like there’s much in common between the two films, but there are more similarities than you might think. The Last Temptation of Christ was shot entirely in Morocco, whilst Dune: Part Two was also partly filmed in the Middle East, namely Jordan and Abu Dhabi. This is because large parts of both stories take place in harsh desert landscapes; Temptation is set in Judea and Jerusalem, whilst the ‘Dune’ series is based on the wasteland planet of Arrakis.

Alongside the physical similarities, the two films also share comparable protagonists. Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) becomes a deluded messiah as Part Two goes on, drawing obvious parallels to the rise of Christ as a religious figure. “This idea of a figure who has been chosen against his own will, how this gift has become a burden, and that he has to choose if he will carry that burden, it’s a link to the story of Paul Atreides,” said Villeneuve. “And then the moment where he could abandon his fate, and come down from the cross, and go to Mary Magdalene and have a family, those ideas are provocative and beautiful. It’s one of my favorite Scorsese movies.”

“It’s a portrait of Christ that always moved me because it brought so much humanity in that figure,” the director relayed to Esquire. “It was a movie that tremendously influenced me as I was doing this adaptation.”

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