जीवनी

How do you pay for something that you can't afford? Martin Villeneuve needed seven not-yet-made musical instruments, inspired by women's bodies, for the movie Mars et Avril (2012). Only he had no budget for them. So he got someone else to pay for it - he sold the hypothetical instruments to Cirque du Soleil and got to use them in the movie for free. And he presented an artist friend with a dream project, in creating these wildly imaginative props.

Martin Villeneuve, brother of director Denis Villeneuve (known for films like Arrival (2016), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), and ड्यून (2021)), has carved his own path in the world of filmmaking. Despite their shared surname, Martin's creative journey has always been independent and self-driven. In an interview with TVA News on April 2, 2012, theater director and filmmaker Robert Lepage marveled at the Villeneuve brothers' artistic achievements, humorously pondering what kind of Rice Krispies their mother served them for breakfast. More recently, Lepage emphasized Martin's individuality, highlighting that being "the brother of" didn't provide him any special advantages or privileges, as evident by his sci-fi epic Mars et Avril (2012) which took him seven years to make on a shoestring budget, and in his nine-year endeavor, Les 12 travaux d'Imelda (2022), which he self-produced.

Back when he was studying filmmaking and graphic design, Martin Villeneuve created film posters, most notoriously the one for Québec-Montréal (2002) showing the pictograph of a moose screwing a car, which earned him an award for "Best Advertising Campaign" for a movie.

When the Montreal commercial creativity agency Diesel changed its name in 2006, Martin Villeneuve had the idea for the anagram Sid Lee.

Martin Villeneuve found the name for three Cirque du Soleil shows: "Zumanity", "KÀ" and "Corteo," as well as for Guy Laliberté's ONE DROP Foundation.

[at TED2013] Problems are hidden opportunities, and constraints can actually boost creativity. If people tell you it's impossible, it's an even better reason to want to do it. People have a tendency to see the problem rather than the final result. If you treat the problems as possibilities, life will start to dance with you in the most amazing ways.

[at TED2013, speaking of Mars et Avril (2012)] I made a film that was impossible to make, only I didn't know it was impossible. This is the kind of movie I wanted to make ever since I was a kid, reading comic books.

[in The Canadian Press, October 26, 2011] The biggest help that Denis gave me was not to help me. He really does his own thing and he's really protective of his own universe, in a good way. He never went into my area... Doing a science fiction film... is not something that Denis did, so it's something very personal. When you're facing an investor or the institutions or a distributor, it's you yourself with your own ideas and your own project. Even if somebody in your family is successful, it doesn't change anything. On the contrary, I suppose people expect more of you in certain ways. Certainly as a child, probably he had an unconscious positive effect in the sense that (I saw) it was possible to do. To see somebody older than you in your own family that does that is already a pretty powerful influence.

[at TED2013] When you don't have money, you must take time. And it took me seven years to make Mars et Avril (2012).

[on Mars et Avril (2012)] That I was able to create a cohesive world and tell a poetic story using sci-fi, without any violence. That is a new idea, and I'm proud of that. It isn't a perfect movie, which is the curse of a first film. Coppola [Francis Ford Coppola] said in a workshop I saw that "What people hate you for, is what they will praise you for in 20 years. It's your voice, it makes you unique. So if you get depressed about it, you lose an opportunity to grow." [2016]