Arrival

Résumé En

In Denis Villeneu ve’s Arrival (2016), scientistsmust decipher the language of and peacefully communicatewith aliens who have landed on Earth before the world’s militaryattacks. In this first book-length study of the film, scholar DavidRoche argues that it is one of the most important films of thiscentury, and the most brilliant science fiction film since BladeRunner. Roche posits Arrival as a blockbuster with artistic am-bitions—an argument supported by the film’s several AcademyAward nominations—and looks closely at how the film engageswith theoretical questions posed by contemporary film studiesand philosophy alike. Each section explores a central aspect ofthe film: its status as an auteur adaptation; its relation to thescience fiction genre; its themes of communication on narrativeand meta-narrative levels; its aesthetics of time and space; andthe political and ethical questions it raises. Ultimately, Rochedeclares Arrival a unique, multifaceted experience in the worldof hard science fiction films, placing it in context with works like2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, andContact while also examining how it bridges the gap betweengenre and art house cinema.