From the start, Xavier Dolan got a lot of attention. He had just turned 20 when his first film, J’ai tué ma mere (I killed my mother), which by the way he produced, wrote, directed and co-starred was greeted with a standing ovation in the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes 2009, he was just 16 years old when he wrote it.
Dolan’s movies took over pretty fast. Les Amours Imaginaires was another success; a unique romantic triangle exploring different variants of sexuality. The young Canadian was born in Quebec in 1989 and is already established as the new appalling child of cinema, he keeps accumulating records, awards and controversy. His work generates extreme reactions. Some think of him as genius; others see him as pretentious, loud and redundant. But almost everyone recognizes his quest for innovation and originality.
In Mommy, for example, he shot in 35 mm and a 1:1 square screen format. He said he recognizes that such a format (sometimes generates strange illusion of watching a vertical film) and there are few restrictions, but it served to his purpose; to make the audience focus on the characters. It also creates a claustrophobic atmosphere that it was necessary.
But the charm within Dolan’s work is at the level of the image: perfectly balanced pictures, obsessively neat vintage looks to the last detail, Canadian forests, splendid photography that enhances the presence of some characters. Both script and aesthetics are a reflection of the generation to which he belongs, where the form to the substance is imposed, not for the emptiness but by the fascination of our days by the extravagant surfaces that hide the real human vulnerability.
Xavier seems in a hurry to conquer the world and he has already become a Canadian francophone fan favorite of the seventh art. Fun fact he directed the “Hello” music video for Adele.