Depending which critics you choose to believe, Xavier Dolan is either the wunderkind or enfant terrible of Canadian cinema. This critic finds his talent both humbling and energizing, a rare excellence that's easily the equal to some of the best in world cinema.
"Mommy" is the fifth feature for the 25-year-old Dolan, who turned a quarter-century just two months before his third Cannes premiere. Joining Canadian luminaries such as Atom Egoyan and David Cronenberg at the festival, it was Dolan's film that took home one of the major festival prizes, with some murmuring that he should have been granted the Palme D'or award for this astonishing film about family, betrayal, and culture.
"Mommy" is slowing rolling out across the country, and it was recently selected as Canada's official Oscar entry, with many thinking it stands an excellent chance at winning a golden trophy. Moviefone Canada spoke to Dolan during the Toronto Film Festival in September.
Moviefone Canada: What has the response since Cannes been like? Do you see the film differently when you're playing it to a different audience?
In Cannes, I'm not sure I watched the movie, I was watching the room more, the theatre, I was looking at people and the response was amazing. They were so generous, and I think they were really touched by the movie. When this is the first thing you see, this is the first place, the first venue where you actually share the film, you start on a high.
Every festival is different. I had a blast in Telluride and I was happy to share the film here in Toronto and people seem to have responded quite well. So to answer your question, I have been travelling here and there all summer to do press, so it's been busy.
You just premiered in your hometown of Montreal.
This is the time when you get to bring it home, and it's always a little special. Journalists there always ask you, "What does it feel like to present the movie to the people from the place?" and you're like, well, yeah, obviously it feels good. But it's true. It's family and friends and colleagues. The true test is not the premiere in Montreal, the true test is when the movie is actually released, will the people go?
What was the first image that set you on the path to crafting "Mommy"?
I heard a song from Ludovico Einaudi called "Experience." That's the song that plays when Di dreams the life that she will never have towards the end of the film. When I heard that song, I saw that sequence and I started to write that scene, and then I wrote the script all around that.
It's no surprise the first trigger was a song, given how much music plays a role in the film. How did you arrive at the other song selections?
[Narratively], all the music in the movie comes from a mixtape the father made before he died, and those are mostly songs from the 2000s, from the Top 10 charts that you hear on the radio.
Yeah, you beat "Guardians of the Galaxy" to that one!
[Laughs] I just felt that the use of music in "Mommy" had to be diegetic. It was interesting that the music would be in the movie and not on the movie, that it would be what the characters are listening to and music that we are happy to hear. It makes me happy.
One of the unique aspects is the framing device, the different size of the image that you shoot. What did that framing mean in terms of the capturing of these incredible performances?
It was really had its downsides in terms of ergonomics [as] it's hard to have everybody in the same shot. It's a pretty narrow ratio, but it never was conceived as a gimmick or a device, it always was just a way to get closer to characters and avoid distractions on the left, avoid distractions on the right, and just really focus on the human beings.
There's so many words for mother, so many meanings, all differently loaded. Why did you use "Mommy"?
Because "mommy" is what children call their moms. They don't say "mom" or "ma" or "mother," except if they're on the Titanic. They say mommy when they're really small and I think both [mother] Di and [son] Steve are two children. They're just babies. Di is an eternal teenager and Steve will never really be a grown-up, he's a little baby.
There's a manic nature to both of their personalities.
The thing about mental illness is that it's unpredictable. Steve is not ill-intentioned, he means well. He wants them to be in order and he wants to stare at his little pictures and he likes them that way. He's a good kid, but he's also a ticking bomb, and he does not control any of those outbursts. It's important for me to illustrate how unpredictable those relationships are when mental illness is in a household.
Some have claimed it's you that plays the idealized version of Steve in the dream sequence.
Not at all. I'm very flattered. He's a beautiful French model who is seven feet tall.
You start the film with a statement about a fictional law.
[That is] just stating that this happens in a fictional Canada. Obviously correctional centres do not expel children, they are mandated by the state to protect citizens against violent and dangerous children, protect children from themselves. In no way would a correctional centre say, "Oh, we're giving him back to you."
Please talk about the use of language, the slang words that your characters create.
Di is creating many words, many idioms. She is a really intelligent woman and she's got a great sense of timing and rhythm and she is very talented when it comes to expressing herself. She's very creative, she's very colourful.
When you're doing English subtitles, which I know you write yourself, you're trying to get the subtlety of the language. You're translating something which is already something idiomatic, so you're having to have the subtitles also be playful.
It is hard, but it is fun. I work hard so that people have a sense of the characters' authenticity and truthfulness, and I don't want a robot to give the audience to give a couple of words and meaningless, robotic shortcuts. I don't want to water down the quality of her speech, the quality of her imagination, so if she invents something in French, she invents something in English, we've just got to face the music and the challenge and work hard and try to find something as funny or as imaginative.
You were performing in [TIFF film] "Elephant Song" at the same time as you were shooting this.
I shot "Mommy" in two blocks, so I got in "Elephant Song" two days after I'd wrapped the first block. I don't know how I stay on top of everything. I might not.
Do you sleep?
I do sleep. I sleep well, thank God. I don't have a personal assistant, I don't have enough money for that. I don't have a personal publicist, I don't have enough money for that. I receive something like 300 emails a day.
How do you get through that without going crazy?
Sometimes I ask myself that question, but most of the time there is an answer. Working with actors and working as an actor is really the sheer salute of this business for me. It's this sheer pleasure for me of understanding acting, fine-tuning it, exploring a variety of acting styles.
When do you recharge?
I go on vacation and I still get all of these emails and they're all urgent, and everybody's job depends on it, and people need an answer and sometimes there's only me to know the answer. I design the posters, I do the costumes, I edit the trailers, I do the press kit. I see no reason for any extension of an artwork to be made by someone else than the artist who originally had a vision for the film.
You've got tons of people who are responsible for tons of departments, but the fact is that I see things in a precise way. If someone on the way challenges me to see it in a different way and it's more interesting, then I'm grateful and I'm trying to surround myself with people who confront my vision and inspire me to go elsewhere.
One of the most memorable sequences is when the film literally opens up. What was the idea behind that sequence?
It's as easy as the first thing you would think of. Why would a character open up like this? What would you feel when after an hour you've been watching a square and it opens up? What do you feel?
Free?
Well, that's what it is. It's not more sophisticated or more intelligent or more surprising than that. It's just that. It's just a character in full control.
So, you weren't watching DeMille and thinking oh, that iris device, that's a great idea!
I have no culture. I'm ignorant. I have a high school diploma and I've seen eight films.
In fairness, five of them them are yours.
[Laughs] That's right.
"Mommy" is rolling out in select Canadian theatres. Check your local listings for showtimes/locations.
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