20 Things You Didn't Know About Arrival
8. The Strange Yet Fascinating Connection Between Denis And Martin Villeneuve
It goes without saying that our family members can be some of our biggest influences in our lives, and this goes for directors and other creatives. Denis’ youngest sibling, Martin, is a filmmaker in his own right and has created various films, including Mars et Avril, which many consider to be Quebec’s first science fiction film.
Clearly, an affinity for science fiction filmmaking runs in the Villeneuve household. However, Martin's 2002 music video Jouisseland is the film most relevant to the purpose of this article, and with good reason. The surreal video features Canadian singer Jean LeLoup as a clown who is writing to his ex-lover while at the same time playing with an octopus-like creature.
The impressionist style is striking and Leloup is appropriately strange as the lovelorn clown. On the surface, Arrival and Jouisseland have little to no connections beyond featuring the creatures, but this latter connection is an amusing piece of trivia, especially for fans of the Villeneuves' projects.