When Zazie met Xavier

I live in a city where incredible things can happen.

Yesterday night I went to the housewarming party of Alex, a dear friend of mine. He shares an apartment together with 3 or 4 other people in Boulevard Magenta and each of them invited at least 40 friends. The result, as you can easily imagine, was a big mess. I love this kind of parties, where you talk to completely different human beings and you can meet amazing characters. I also love to look at the way girls dress at these parties, because you could see some very cool stuff. Yesterday night I have noticed a girl having a fabulous 50s bag and fabulous 50s glasses, and I stopped her in the middle of the living room to say that I loved her style. I told her: you look like the girl in "Les Amours Imaginaires", the film by Xavier Dolan, did you see it? She thanked me for the compliments and she said that yes, she knew the movie and she liked it a lot. And then she added: You know, there is a guy at the party who really looks like him! But then there was such a mess that was impossible for her to find him. I mentioned this to my friend Gianluca, who loved the movie as much as I do, but it was too crowded even to recognise our own friends, so we gave up the research.

Few hours and many glasses of champagne later, I saw Gianluca rushing towards me. He looked very excited but also very serious: I have something to tell you. I just met Xavier Dolan, he is in the kitchen. I looked at him in disbelief: What do you mean, you just met Xavier Dolan? I swear, he is there, he answered. I could hear Gianluca’s voice telling me something else, but at that point I was already marching through the kitchen, an almost impossible mission considering the number of people around me. I really thought that my friend bumped into the clone of the film maker and, as a matter of fact, I saw this Dolan-look-a-like in the corridor, but then I was very closed to the kitchen, and so I decided to have a look anyway.

And I found myself in a movie.

The scene was exactly the same one at Nicolas party in Les Amours Imaginaires: I could hear Jump Around by The House of Pain in my head, while I was walking in slow-motion through the kitchen to reach Xavier Dolan, who was actually there, standing near the fridge. The 50s style girl was two steps away from him. We looked at each other, both mesmerized. Her eyes seem to say: Hey, do you see? There is the clone... and even the real one! We smiled, très complices. I introduced myself to Dolan, who was stunningly gorgeous in an elegant black suit: Hi, I’m Zazie, I can’t believe I am meeting you.

He smiled, politely. I am one of the co-producers of your next movie.

Sorry? What did you say? I repeated it. And then he seems very surprised: Oh, really? You did that on Internet through Touscoprod? Thank you!

You’re welcome, I am crazy about your movies. He smiled again. While talking in French, I realized I was using the vous, and then I felt ridiculous, because I am 20 years older than this guy, so I advised him that I was about to use the tu (how can I manage to say such stupid things in moments like that?). I told him I knew he was in town because of the Festival du Cinéma de Québec, I told him I had a cinema blog and that I wrote about him a lot and then I looked again at him: you know, I really can’t believe this is happening. I’m so happy. I guess he was a bit embarrassed by my enthusiasm, so to convince him that I was serious, I added: I think you’re a genius!

It was then that I heard another voice and that I saw somebody else standing near him: Xavier doesn’t like to hear that. I looked at that voice: I beg your pardon? I realized there was this friend of him who was trying to protect Dolan from the assault of possible fans. He explained me that they wanted to be quite, there, without people making much of a fuss about his presence. That was exactly what I was doing. I said: you don’t have to worry, 85% of guys and girls here are architects, and believe me, they don’t know who Xavier is. As a matter of fact, while I was talking to them, nobody tried to approach Dolan and I couldn’t see a line of screaming fans behind me. As usual, I was the only screaming fan in the place.

How long are you staying in Paris? I asked Xavier. This is my last night. I have a plane early tomorrow morning for Montreal.

Oh, I see. The other guy told me: this is why we have to go now.

Oh, ok. I shacked my hands again with Xavier, we smiled and then we all tried to reach the corridor. I really don’t know how me made it, since the number of people at that stage was behind human comprehension. But we did.

Gianluca came to see me, asking me all the details of our meeting.

But I couldn't hear what he was saying, because Dalida was singing Bang Bang to my hear in a very loud voice.