Mommy

There is no middle way when it comes to québécois director Xavier Dolan.
You can take it or you can leave it, but you can't simply stay there uncertain, hesitant.
Uncertainty is not something contemplated in Dolan's world.
The guy is self-confident enough to have his ideas, his stories to tell, his way of telling them, and the guts to cry them aloud (and clear). So I prevent you: if you're not in the mood for strong, emotional and stylish stories, stay away from Dolan's cinema.
Zazie is, as everybody knows, an inconditionnelle of this fella, since the very beginning.
The other night, at the UGC Les Halles, Zazie was lucky enough to see the avant-première of his last work to date, Mommy, Prix du Jury at the last Cannes Film Festival (and out in French cinemas on October 8). Le bonheur était dans le pré...

Montreal, 2015. Steve is a 15 years old guy suffering of ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). When he sets on fire part of the school he has been putting in as a difficult kid, the institution decides to get rid of him. Too dangerous. The only option left is to get back to his mum, Diane "Die" Duprès, a pretty unconventional mother. She's a widow, she has recently lost his job, and the idea of having back her volcanic child is not exactly what she has in mind. When she realizes that in front of her house lives Kyla, a young teacher who's not working for some unspecified problems, she asks her for some help in taking care of Steve. Life with the guy is a true roller-coster: the passage from joy to desperation, from calm to storm, is easily overstepped. The three will have their good and bad moments, until the time comes for the inevitable big decisions.

As always in Dolan's movie, what strikes me most is the urgency, the sense of "I-do-this-movie-or-I-die" that dominates every single fiber of the film. This is one of the finest quality a director could have. The importance of what he has to say is stronger than the fear of failing at it, of not being able to keep up with his aim. But there is no risk, with Dolan. He is always aiming high, higher than you can think of, bolder than you can imagine. 
You seat there, trying to overcome your feelings, because you've just been moved to tears by a scene with a Céline Dion (!!!) song, when the guy has already prepared for you the most improbable karaoke on Bocelli's Vivo per Lei. Clearly enough, it is very hard to keep up with Dolan's imagination.
And this is exactly why I love him so much. Wonders are just behind the corner (and here, believe me, there are many wonders). And even if he is telling us the most tragic story of all, about poor, problematic, beaten by life people, he never forgets to express this in the most stylish, the most colorful, spectacular way. Because desperation doesn't need to look ugly to be deep and real.

Dolan goes back, in Mommy, to one of his favorite themes, the relationship between a mother and her teenage child, the difficulties of expressing love, of finding a way to process feelings and canalize rage, that was already at the heart of his first feature (J'ai tué ma mère, Caméra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009). Both have many autobiographic elements, which is probably why they sound so right in their juvenile, impetuos expression, and in both movies the mother has been played by the same, incredible actress, Anne Dorval. At her side, as Kyla, another constant and luminous presence of Dolan's cinema, Suzanne Clément. Their performances are so outstanding that it is hard to find the right words to describe them. In the role of Steve, the super talented and super young Antoine-Olivier Pilon, who already worked with Dolan on the controversial video for the Indochine song, College Boy. The three actors speak in a strong québécois idiom, which is unintelligible to both French and English audiences (Dolan, ça va sans dire, took also care of the subtitles translation in both languages!). 

Filmed in a squared format, to stay closer to the characters and to create a sense of oppression, Mommy has the intensity and the emotional impact of the finest works of art. 
In the most unforgettable moment of the movie, with a simple, almost childish gesture, Dolan teaches us that there is no limit to what we can be able to do and, consequently, to what cinema can do for us.
This is why Mommy is the most powerful and amazing movie of the year.
Skeptics about Dolan, you'll be proven wrong. I swear. 

Laurence Anyways

Here’s the thing: when I believe in the talent of an artist, I am always afraid of being disappointed by his/her new piece of art or by the fact that other people will not love him/her as much as I do. With Xavier Dolan, I realized this with a certain surprise, I am beyond this point.

When yesterday night I seated at the Cinéma des Cinéastes and I started watching his last movie, Laurence Anyways, I discovered that I wasn’t afraid at all. Why? Because this guy is so talented that I simply knew I didn’t have to worry about anything. 
All I had to do was to relax and enjoy 2hoursand40minutes of great cinema.

I knew it, I had it.

It is 1989 in Montreal, Québec, and Laurence Alia, a teacher of French Literature at the university, is celebrating his 30 birthday. His partner Fred (just the name is male) would like to go to New York for the week-end, but Laurence has something else in mind. As a matter of fact, he’s got something else in mind for years but he makes the announcement just that day: he wants to become a woman. The news, of course, has devastating consequences, not only on their relationship but on Laurence’s entire world. Having taken his decision, Laurence wants to stop pretending: dressed as a woman, he makes the same announcement to his mother and his colleagues and students. A “revolution”, as he calls it, which is going to cost him a lot: the loss of the woman he loves, the loss of his job. The movie follows Laurence and Fred lives until 2000, with their ups and downs, their reconciliations and their lacerations, and their impossible love.

Dolan’s third movie could already be considered as his adulthood’s movie.

Having written his first one at the age of 17, Dolan at 24 shows a remarkable maturity. His cinema has grown up movie after movie, becoming richer, deeper, braver and more inventive. Dolan is full of energy, ideas, boldness, even violence and, on top of all that, he is got an incredible cinematic sense. He is also smart enough to surround himself with great professionals, when he understands he can’t do it all alone. But what exactly this guy is not able to do? Laurence Anyways has been written, directed and edited by him. He even took care of the costumes, to mention one thing.

After a clearly autobiographical movie like J’ai tué ma mère and a love story quite disastrous but also very funny like Les Amours Imaginaires, Dolan pushes here the boundaries of his art: a very long movie (a real film-fleuve), a period movie (were we that badly dressed in the 90's??!) and a heavy, sensitive subject. Dolan clearly wants to impress us and he manages to. Brilliantly. The guy, this is well known, is not lacking in audacity, and on screen this gives flamboyant, amazing results. Visually, there are at least three unforgettable scenes: the New Year’s Eve party attended by Fred (Fade to grey by Visage on the background, la classe 80’s, quoi!), the moment Fred reads Laurence’s book seated on her sofa and the magnificent walk (ah, Dolan’s ralenti!) of Laurence and Fred on the island (am I the only one to have thought about Dolls of Takeshi Kitano looking at this scene?).

 Laurence Anyways is not just a nice object, though.

We are immediately taken by the drama the main characters are living through dialogues which sound right, powerful and original. Laurence is a man who loves women but wants to be a woman: could a story possibly be more tragic than this? We have passed, in Dolan’s cinema, from imaginary to impossible loves. And we feel it.

Dolan has been blessed by the presence of two incredible actors: Suzanne Clément (the teacher of J’ai tué ma mere) as Fred and Melvil Poupaud (who replaced Louis Garrell) as Laurence. They, as much as Dolan, are not afraid of anything and have clearly embraced their characters, giving all they could give in terms of tears and blood. In the role of Laurence’s mother, it is a pleasure to see one of the best French actresses, Nathalie Baye (irresistible when Laurence asked her: "Mum, do you still love me like this?" And she replies: "Are you becoming a woman or a bloody stupid?") and in minor roles, we find many of the actors from Les Amours Imaginaires (like lovely Monia Chokri).

Suzanne Clément - Fred

Melvil Poupaud - Laurence

Nathalie Baye - Laurence's mother

Being the first movie I have ever helped to produce (not a big contribution, but decent enough to be invited to the avant-première in Montreal last May), I feel particularly proud.

Whatever you think of this movie you can’t deny that, as everybody is telling to Laurence after his “change”: c’est special!

It’s Xavier Dolan, anyways...

Great Expectations

As you all know, I'm a huge fan of young québecois film director Xavier Dolan.
I have adored his first two movies, J'ai tué ma mère et Les Amours Imaginaires, and I have already dedicated many posts to him.
When, for his third movie, Dolan and the web site Touscoprod launched a subscription to raise money for its production, Zazie, and many other Dolan fans, answered the call and helped to finance the film. The plot was more than intriguing: Québec, during the 90s, Laurence, at his 30th birthday party, announces to his girlfriend and friends that he wants to become a woman. 
Well, how could you resist not to help Dolan on a story like that? 
The cast was also very promising: Melvil Poupaud as Laurence, Nathalie Baye as his mother, Suzanne Clément (the teacher of J'ai tué ma mère) as his girlfriend and Monia Chokry (the fabulous Marie of Les Amours Imaginaires) as one of his friends.
This week, there was a great surprise: the Dolan site published two different versions of the movie poster and it was possible to see the trailer of Laurence Anyways!

We all hope, of course, that the movie will participated to the next Cannes Film Festival competition, but in the meantime, looking at these images, I can already tell you that I'm feeling EXTREMELY proud of the first movie I have co-produced.
Bravo, Xavier!