Jean-Marc Vallée’s status cemented in Hollywood
Laura Dern gushed breathlessly: “Jean-Marc Vallée. Jean-Marc Vallée.”
Nicole Kidman marvelled: “Jean-Marc Vallée … your vision. You imbued this series with your passion, with your artistry. Thank you.”
Alexander Skarsgård trumpeted: “The indomitable Jean-Marc Vallée.”
The three actors were effusive in their praise for Montreal director Jean-Marc Vallée Sunday evening on the Emmy Awards podium at Los Angeles’s Microsoft Theatre. Dern and Skarsgård had just nabbed the Emmys for best supporting actress and actor in a limited series, while Kidman copped the best actress prize in the same category. The series in question is the HBO-produced Big Little Lies, which was to take eight Emmys (five at Sunday’s primetime gala), also including best limited series and, oh yeah, best director for Vallée.
Along with the Margaret Atwood-based The Handmaid’s Tale in the drama series category, Big Little Lies was a big Emmy winner on Sunday. And while The Handmaid’s Tale had many audiences scurrying for their dictionaries to find the definition for “dystopian” — as the series is always described — Big Little Lies probably had some audiences outside this country heading to the IMDb website to find out who Jean-Marc Vallée is.
Vallée’s stock — already high in the film industry, both here and around the planet — will probably increase considerably as a result of the Emmy honours.
Known as the “actor whisperer” — particularly among an array of A-list thespians — Vallée, 54, has received his share of acclaim in the past for such Hollywood films as Dallas Buyers Club, Demolition and Wild, as well as such Québécois efforts as C.R.A.Z.Y. and Café de Flore and the British-American Young Victoria.
Vallée, also an executive producer on Big Little Lies, was typically humble and gracious in accepting his directing Emmy on Sunday: “This is quite an honour … I thank you, girls, for making me look good like this … (Series writer) David Kelley, I want to thank you (for) your words, your brilliance, your intelligence, your humour.”
He then went on to thank new collaborators from HBO and old ones from the Quebec film scene: “You guys are such great partners.”
If one considers that the TV/ streaming world is now on a par with the film world in terms of the quality of stars, stories and directors — and some would say it is even superior — and that the Emmys are on a par with the Oscars, then Vallée’s award has to be considered one of the most prestigious North American prizes ever won by a dramatic filmmaker from these parts.
It has to be up there with the 2003 Oscar for Denys Arcand’s Les Invasions barbares for best foreign-language film.
Vallée had previously guided Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto to Oscar wins for, respectively, best actor and best supporting actor in Dallas Buyers Club. In fact, Vallée received an editing nomination for the same film, but under his alias John Mac McMurphy. Plus, Reese Witherspoon and Dern garnered, respectively, best actress and supporting actress Oscar nominations for Vallée’s Wild.
Vallée is hardly the only Québécois director making his mark in Hollywood.
Denis Villeneuve had been Oscar nominated in the foreignlanguage category for Incendies and in the director category for Arrival. Doubtless, Villeneuve
will again be flirting with Oscar in the coming Blade Runner 2049 and Dune.
Phillippe Falardeau and Kim Nguyen received foreign-language Oscar nods for, respectively, Monsieur Lazhar and Rebelle. And it’s only a matter of time until Xavier Dolan becomes a hotter ticket in Hollywood.
While Montreal may be considered Hollywood North thanks to the steady influx of U.S. films being shot here, Hollywood may soon be considered Montreal South thanks to the steady influx of local directors working there.
Big Little Lies was the first major TV production undertaken by Vallée. Clearly, it won’t be his last. Soon to hit the airwaves is another HBO series, Sharp Objects, starring Amy Adams.
And there is already big buzz about a second season of Big Little Lies — after it cleaned up on Sunday. “It would be great to reunite the team to do it,” Vallée was quoted as saying at the Emmys.
The success of Big Little Lies is not accidental. Apart from featuring a who’s who of the finest thesps around — Kidman, Dern, Witherspoon and Shailene Woodley — the seven-part series, adapted from the Liane Moriarty bestseller by Kelley, incorporates a particularly clever and engrossing plot line. A murder occurs at the beginning of the series set in a seemingly quaint but rather toxic oceanside California setting, but viewers don’t learn who the perp or the victim are until the last episode.
At the core of this dark dramedy are a group of mothers, all of whom have kids entering the first grade of a posh school and all of whom have enough issues — most of which are husband induced — to keep their town’s mental-health pros busy for a lifetime. Vallée is able to sustain intrigue throughout this nailbiter series all the while delving into the bizarro quirks of his characters. Not surprisingly, audiences have been hooked. No accident, either, how Vallée came to this project: “It’s Reese! It’s her fault,” he joked in our interview last February. “I was only supposed to direct the first and second episodes, but we wanted to recreate the experience we had in Wild.
“I didn’t want to do everything on Big Little Lies, but it just happened. (Reese) kept asking again and again for me to direct (all the episodes), so I just (gave in and) did it.”
Vallée, married and the father of two, has long been credited as being a woman’s director, which no doubt explains why Witherspoon had been so persistent in landing him.
“I’m really not sure I understand women more than anybody else. It’s just a connection,” said Vallée during our February interview. “I’m not afraid of intelligent women. But I wouldn’t have directed this piece differently if I had five (lead) male actors.”
(Reese) kept asking again and again for me to direct (all the episodes), so I just (gave in and) did it.