Xavier Dolan

Xavier Dolan, contemporary Canadian actor and director,

attracted international attention with his debut feature film, Jai tu
ma mre (I killed my mother). The film premiered at the Quinzaine
des Ralisateurs (Directors Fortnight) programme of the 2009
Cannes Film Festival. There, it received an eight-minute standing
ovation and won several prizes, such as Art Cinema Award and the
Prix Regards Junes. And he was just 20 years old. Since his debut,
Xavier Dolan received 51 more awards and 77 nominations at
various

prestigious

international

film

festivals.

Although

his

palmars is considered to be impressive by many critics and

industry professionals, the director under discussion admitted to
feeling pressure for the two high-profile projects (Juste la fin du
monde or Its Only the End of the World and The Death and Life of
John F Donovan) to do well commercially, once they eventually
open.
Xavier Dolan has identified himself with his local cinematic
movement for numerous times in different interviews over the past
6 years. Therefore, in order to better grasp his practice, some
aspects of the Canadian new wave of filmmakers need to be
mentioned, with a focus on Qubcois cinema. When attempting to
define a national cinema it always turns out to be more complex and
problematic then they first seem to be. Canadas situation is
certainly more difficult to comprehend than most. First and
foremost, the Canadian identity is practically inexistent, as the
nation did not have the time to form one. What could be named a
diasporic cinema has and still does exist in Canada, mainly due to
multiculturalism.

Secondly,

this

countrys

status

as

part

of

Hollywoods domestic (North American) market has created a

situation in which the achievements of Canadian filmmakers have
been virtually invisible to most Canadian filmgoers (Leach, 2006).

While this statement was true at the time, it has changed in recent
years. Mommy (2014), Xavier Dolans 5th feature film, made 3.5
million USD in Canada.
Guy Glover, a Canadian producer that mostly worked on
animated and documentary films, published a manifesto in 1967
titled How to make a Canadian Film. Although issued 42 years
before Dolans debut, the manifesto interestingly points to some
aspects of the Canadian filmmaking mentality that can still be
perceived today. A young man makes better films than an older
man. An adolescent makes better films than a young man. []
Editing rules need not be observed. [] All traces of rhythm or
rhythmic structure should be avoided as exercising an intolerable
artificiality on the natural rhythm of the subject. [] Unconventional
films are by filmmakers under 25 years of age. Here, there are no
bad films; only bad audiences. Between 25 and 30 (the difficult age)
filmmakers frequently make good-bad films or bad-good films
which are acceptable. [] Conventional films are by filmmakers
over 30 years of age and are bad. For these individuals, death would
be the kindest fate.
Dolan was in his post-adolescence when he debuted (I killed
my mother was shot when he was 18 and released when he was
20), and his most acclaimed films were shot between 20 and 25. His
editing style does not follow a pattern and all his films have been
cited as unconventional, outrageous yet brilliant (Mommy was said
to have a vitality that goes beyond craftsmanship) by various
critics and journalists around the world (The Guardian, Indiewire,
Rotten Tomatoes, Sight and Sound, Cahiers du Cinema etc.).
Numerous fans and critics place the director under analysis as
a Queer Cinema filmmaker. Even so, he publicly admitted that he
tries to blur this very clear line weve drawn and are drawing over
and over again between communities. Saying those are queer films
and those are films. I would love for that line to disappear. For that
frontier to be abolished once and for all. (Indiewire interview). What

he believes in is that hes not a documentarian; I want to tell

stories, and most of the time, they will feature queer characters
because I am [queer], but thats as far as it goes. [] for Laurence,
of course, it was a little more elaborate than the other films where I
think homosexuality was really left in the background and sort of an
accessory or a writing tool (Flavorwire interview).
Although Dolan has yet to publish a manifesto about his
practice, some assumptions can be drawn from analyzing his
interviews and critically viewing his filmography. This analysis will be
explored chronologically for a better understanding of Dolans
development as a filmmaker.
Ms. Dorval took mercy on the nervous boy named Xavier
Dolan, a 16-year-old former child actor from Montreal who spoke in a
whisper. He was so scared, he was shaking, so I decided to give it a
read. Impressed, she called the boy a few weeks later with
suggestions. He told her to forget that screenplay. He already had a
new idea for a film he had entitled Matricide about a love-hate
relationship between a 16-year-old gay boy and his mother. Ms.
Dorval would play the unfortunate title role and he would play the
boy, he said. Two years later, when the film officially named J'ai tu
ma mre (I Killed My Mother) was about to be shot, Mr. Dolan told
Ms. Dorval they would soon walk the red carpet in Cannes. (The
Globe and Mail interview). From his very first project, Dolans
building confidence can be seen in all the aspects of the production.
He wrote/directed/produced/costume designed and starred in his
debut. The blending of the editing and cinematography is one of a
kind, adding introspective moments that offer incredible details into
the characters lives (his video diary, the cartoonish moments with
his mother etc.)
In his next project, Les amours imaginaires (Heartbeats), the
introspective moments developed into montages (Francis goes to
the barbers shop; he purchases some clothes, Maries alone
moments) but they are not as daring. On the other hand, the

narrative is. Francis (Xavier Dolan) and Marie (Monia Chokri) are two
good friends that fall in love with the same young man, Nicolas
(Niels Schneider). Nicolas sexuality is quite dubious and is
presented through the relationship he has with the aforementioned
characters. The cinematography and the editing are rather basic,
while

the

mise-en-scene

develops,

comparing

Les

amours

imaginaires with Jai tu ma mre. Although having received

generally positive reviews, the film did not attract as much attention
as his debut.
Laurence Anyways is Dolans longest film, its running time
being 168 minutes. It won the Queen Palm and it was nominated for
Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival 2012. As the budgets
of his films grew, it has become clear that the unconventionality of
Dolans style shifted him from the auteur position in Sarris writings
on the auteur theory to the metteur en scne one. He accumulated
enough experience from his previous 2 films to allow himself to
pursue a more challenging and provocative narrative in a more
conventional manner. Looking at the mise-en-scene of Laurence
Anyways is vital, as it develops while mirroring the stages Laurence
goes through during his transgender shift. From the apartment Fred
and Laurence lived in up until the theater owned by the Roses the
audience perceives how a decade affects the relationship between
the main character and his lover. While the portrayal of this drama
is intensely focused on clothing, props and dcor as the years
passed,

the

cinematography

and

the

editing

become

more

conventional than in his previous films. The soundtrack of Laurence

is similar to his previous films carefully picked songs that
sometimes say more about the expressed emotion than the image.
With Tom la farme (Tom at the Farm) Dolan switched from
the drama/romance genre in which he previously based his motion
pictures to a drama/thriller. In 2013 Guy Lodge wrote for Variety
about this film that is Dolans most accomplished and enjoyable
work to date, its also his most commercially viable. Peter Bradshaw

said that Tom la farme has touches of Hitchcock. This is mainly

due to the soundtrack used for the film, as Dolan fosters the Hitch
connection mainly through the lush strings of Yareds almost everpresent score, one so uncannily in thrall to Bernard Herrmann that
viewers familiar with Dolans previous output hitherto reliant on
tastefully curated jukebox soundtracks may initially assume hes
sampling extracts from lesser-known film scores from the Golden
Age of noir. As Dolans films started reaching a higher audience, he
began approaching traditional filmmaking choices this is the first
film in which Dolan let a composer do the entire score.
Mommy is Xavier Dolans most critically acclaimed film.
Winning 43 awards and 57 nominations, the motion picture is also
his highest grossing film, yet. Having a small decline with his
previous 3 films, Mommy was a great comeback. It won the 2014
Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize, Ex-aequo with Godards Adieu au
langage (Goodbye to Language). The aspect ratio of Mommy is
intriguing, Dolan opting for the 1:1. As most of the screens are 16:9
or even wider, this tricks the eye to perceive the film even narrower
than it actually presents. Glen Kenny describes Dolan breaking of
the aspect ratio perfectly: once during a montage in which Steve,
Kaya, and Diane start to blossom in their affinities and affections;
tooling along to Wonderwall, Steve almost literally opens the
frame, willing the film into widescreen and letting the imagery
breathe a bit. [] Its with the second widening that Dolan shows his
true hand, expanding the screens dimensions for a dream sequence
[] Once Diane is shaken into waking, the box hems her in again,
and the effect is actually sadistic: against Diane, and yes, against
the audience. As with his previous films, Dolan highly stylized
Mommy as well.
Having looked at Dolans filmography, some conclusions can
be drawn, among which: he is, slowly but surely, commercializing
his work; he is attempting to transform cinematic ideologies as we
know them today, in a sense that he wishes for queer films to

become commercial and be a regular part in our movie-going lives;

he intuitively picks means of expressing his motion pictures so that
they deliver their message as he intended.

REFERENCES:
Web Resources:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/qubcoisfilmmaker-electrifies-cannes/article1151287/,

accessed

Thursday,

November 26, 2015

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0230859/awards?
ref_=nm_awd, accessed Thursday, November 26, 2015
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mommy_2015/,

accessed

Thursday, November 26, 2015.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/aug/11/xavier-dolancanada-tom-at-the-farm, accessed Thursday, November 26, 2015
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=mommy.htm,
accessed Thursday, November 26, 2015
http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/feature/49705,

accessed

Thursday, November 26, 2015

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/mar/19/mommy-xavierdolan-film-review, accessed Thursday, November 26, 2015
http://www.indiewire.com/article/cannes-review-is-xavierdolans-mommy-his-best-film, accessed Thursday, November 26,
2015
http://flavorwire.com/400845/flavorwire-interview-directorxavier-dolan-on-laurence-anyways-and-the-ghetto-of-queer-cinema,
accessed Friday, November 27, 2015
http://www.beigeuk.com/2014/06/xavier-dolan-reinventingqueer-cinema/, accessed Friday, November 27, 2015

http://www.indiewire.com/article/mommy-director-xavierdolan-doesnt-want-you-to-label-his-films-20150119,

accessed

Friday, November 27, 2015

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/apr/03/tom-at-thefarm-review, accessed Monday, November 30, 2015
http://variety.com/2013/film/global/tom-at-the-farm-reviewvenice-toronto-1200596353/, accessed Monday, November 30, 2015
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/mommy-2015,

accessed

Monday, November 30, 2015

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/mommy/review/,

accessed

Monday, November 30, 2015

Books:
Leach, J. 2006, Film in Canada, Oxford University Press, Don
Mills, Ont;New York;.
MacKenzie, S., 1967 2014, Film manifestos and global cinema
cultures:

critical

anthology,

Berkeley;London;.
Films:
Jai tue ma mere
Mommy
Les Amours Imaginaires
Tom a la farme
Laurence Anyways

University

of

California

Press,