Denis Villeneuve Calls Christopher Nolan “The Best and Most Important Filmmaker of Our Time”

Last July, I polled over 120 critics and asked them what was the best film of Christopher Nolan’s career, the results ended up being, “The Dark Knight,” “Memento,” “Dunkirk,” “Oppenheimer,” “The Prestige” and “Inception.” That’s not a bad batch of films.

It’s no secret that Denis Villeneuve adores Nolan, he’s mentioned his love for Nolan’s films throughout his career. Most recently, he raved about “Oppenheimer” and, even, “Tenet.”

Yes, Villeneuve loves “Tenet.” In 2021, he admitted to having seen the film “several times” and called it a “masterpiece.”

I was blown away by Tenet. I think it’s a masterpiece. I think that it is a movie that is an incredible cinematic achievement. It’s a very complex movie. I had so much fun. I saw it several times, and each time was a blast.

Villeneuve again used the “M” word to describe “Oppenheimer,” which, like all Nolans, he believes needed to be seen on the big screen. Here’s more of his praise of the man he likes to call “the master”:

I think the level of mastery of Christopher Nolan is unmatched. He is, by far, one of the best filmmakers working in the world today. Because people don’t realize the eye-level of his cinematic mastery.

Villeneuve is at it again. This time, he’s calling Nolan “the best and most important filmmaker of our time.” Is that accurate? What exactly is his definition of “our time”? He said it at a screening of “Tenet” last night where a post-screening Q&A was held between the two filmmakers:

It’s my honor to introduce one of the very best - in my humble opinion, I should say the best - and definitely the most important filmmaker of our time: Christopher Nolan.

If you remember, last September, Rotten Tomatoes polled thousands of people, and asked them to name their Best Director of The Last 25 Years, and, frankly, the results were not that surprising. It was Nolan #1, Villeneuve #2.

Three other directors came very close, Damien Chazelle, Jordan Peele, and Bong Joon-ho.

The last 25 years. The criteria for eligibility was that a filmmaker had to have released his or her first film, at the earliest, on January 1st, 1998. So, the likes of Scorsese, Lynch, Coen, Cuaron, Anderson, Tarantino, Fincher and PTA did not count.

In fact, Paul Thomas Anderson missed the cutoff date by a year. His debut, “Hard Eight,” was released in February of 1997. Wes Anderson’s “Bottle Rocket” was released in February of 1996.

So, the last 25 years … I need to think about this. I guess Nolan, Chazelle and Villeneuve have their place somewhere in the upper echelons of mainstream cinema. However, many of the very best filmmakers out there barely made a dent in the rankings.

I would have added Yorgos Lanthimos, Steve McQueen, Achitapong Weerasethakul, The Safdies, Spike Jonze, Sean Baker, Todd Field, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Lynne Ramsay and Darren Aronofsky.

A reader, Bill Jim, had a very good point at the time, pointing to the late William Friedkin’s theory that choosing the “next great” simply cannot be done until you can look back, retrospectively, many years later, at the entirety of his or her filmography.

Kubrick, in his time, was considered a junk food American filmmaker, by many, not unlike James Cameron. Ditto Alfred Hitchcock, who didn’t come to be reappraised until very late into his career — only after his death did he earn his real marks. Meanwhile other directors who were lauded at the time have become virtually irrelevant now.

If history is any indication, there is a chance that Nolan is not seen with the same praise 20 or 30 years from now. It seems very unlikely today, but cinema continuously evolves and so does our ways of watching it.