Arrival
Résumé
In Denis Villeneu ve’s Arrival (2016), scientists
must decipher the language of and peacefully communicate
with aliens who have landed on Earth before the world’s military
attacks. In this first book-length study of the film, scholar David
Roche argues that it is one of the most important films of this
century, and the most brilliant science fiction film since Blade
Runner. Roche posits Arrival as a blockbuster with artistic am-
bitions—an argument supported by the film’s several Academy
Award nominations—and looks closely at how the film engages
with theoretical questions posed by contemporary film studies
and philosophy alike. Each section explores a central aspect of
the film: its status as an auteur adaptation; its relation to the
science fiction genre; its themes of communication on narrative
and meta-narrative levels; its aesthetics of time and space; and
the political and ethical questions it raises. Ultimately, Roche
declares Arrival a unique, multifaceted experience in the world
of hard science fiction films, placing it in context with works like
2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and
Contact while also examining how it bridges the gap between
genre and art house cinema.