The success of Xavier Dolan Inc. to be admired
There’s plenty of evidence to belie director’s ‘ego-monster reputation,’ our columnist says.
When Milos Raonic, Canada’s No. 1 tennis star, was recently asked about surrounding himself with at least three coaches and a special adviser, John McEnroe, there was no ego on display in his answer. He simply pointed out that all of his people give advice and counsel, but there is only one chairman of the board at Milos Raonic Inc.: Milos Raonic.
What a smart, together young man, people wrote.
In the more emotional world of cinema, filled with glitz and egos, oversized cheques and lifestyles, it is far more difficult to establish and maintain a Xavier Dolan Inc., at least in terms of power and control, though the brand is certainly in place.
When was the last time a film director’s face was featured in a full-page ad for Louis Vuitton bags in the New Yorker?
After Dolan’s meteoric rise on the international film scene, his mediatic descent was inevitable. Still, the vitriol of the reviews for his Cannes-winning Juste la fin du monde (It’s Only the End of the World) in Vanity Fair and the Hollywood Reporter, among other places, seemed almost like personal attacks.
Dolan told the Los Angeles Times: “I know people think I like to indulge the ego-monster reputation that I have.”
There is plenty of evidence to belie that reputation in the people Dolan has surrounded himself for his latest film, The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, which has just wrapped its first leg of shooting here in Montreal and New York.
How many film directors would surround themselves with three other directors in key roles?
The script is co-written by director Jacob Tierney (The Trotsky), who — full disclosure — is my son.
The film is being shot by cinematographer-director André Turpin (Endorphine), and is being edited by director Mathieu Denis (Corbo).
No director hires other directors, even ones who are also very good at their other jobs.
Film directing is not a calling that we normally associate with sharing.
What’s the difference between God and a film director, goes the old joke?
God doesn’t think he is a director.
Then there is Dolan’s production design team, led by Anne Pritchard, a woman who made her debut in the film industry
in 1970 as art director on Paul Almond’s Act of the Heart with Geneviève Bujold and Donald Sutherland.
This is her second collaboration with Dolan after Laurence Anyway in a career that has spanned more than 45 years and includes work with such directors as Brian DePalma, Louis Malle, Claude Chabrol, Gilles Carle, Michel Brault and Ted Kotcheff.
When McEnroe was asked what is the most important quality in a tennis champion, he replied: “I would have to say desire.”
Xavier Dolan lacks none of that. And clearly he is the chairman of his own board. I suspect this is a good thing for cinema, here and elsewhere.