Xavier Dolan fights ‘irksome tics’
Quebec’s Xavier Dolan shows up for his Laurence Anyways promotional duties at TIFF rocking a different look and attitude. Gone are the big black eyeglasses and faux pompadour of two years ago, when his semi-autobiographical drama J’ai tué ma mère announced him as one of Canada’s brightest new filmmakers. Now it’s contact lenses and shaggy locks. “Sorry to disappoint you!” jokes Dolan, 23. “I’ve tried to change a little bit and try different things.” The changes he’d really rather talk about concern the film’s genderidentity issues. Laurence Anyways is a love story starring a man named Laurence (Melvil Poupaud) who believes he’s really a woman, and a woman named Fred (Suzanne Clément) who considers him her boyfriend — or maybe not.
Q: What was the impetus for this film? What were you trying to do?
A: To tell the ultimate love story from A to Z. From the first encounter to the last. Break up to reunion. From the best years of two lovers’ lives to the worst.
Q: When did you get the idea that you wanted it to be a gender reversal?
A: I thought, this is the ultimate challenge for a couple in society: transsexuality. It’s a movie of how authentic you are willing to be in a relationship. When you meet someone, you become a teen. You have this honeymoon. After this comes the moment where you start being some sort of persona, and you start being the person you are. Is the other willing to accept you that way? Laurence Anyways is about that. Q: Do you expect audiences to bring their sexual-identity baggage with them when watching Laurence Anyways?
A: People can bring their baggage to it. As far as I’m concerned, I’d rather have people bringing their own private baggage to this than their cultural baggage. Imposing references and influences on me is the irksome tic of analysis in movies. But for the rest of the people, the audience, or the people who review films, I’d love for them to bring their baggage and their privacy into the theatre.
Q: What “tics” have critics attributed to your films that you haven’t liked? Is it the comparisons to filmmakers like Pedro Almodovar?
A: Well, for example, I have absolutely no exhaustive knowledge of Almodovar’s work. I’m ignorant, literally, of his work. I’ve seen three of his films:
Volver, Broken Embraces and Talk to Her. I think we’re both gay and we like colours. Gay men protect women. They invent scenarios and situations where women are heroes, while their mothers have disappointed them. So maybe I think that’s something Almodóvar does, he writes very strong female leads. That doesn’t make us cosmic twins or something. I know people are being very flattering when they write things like this. I think what I’m really aiming for in this life and this career is to be versatile enough to never have a signature.
Q: So you’re not exactly thrilled about the idea of seeing the adjective “Dolanesque” any time soon?
A: What will it mean? It depends on the definition. I’m just going to work real hard on trying very different things, and I will always, always always read what people think about my work.