User:Nphza/Xavier Dolan

Xavier Dolan- Tadros, born March 20th, 1989 in Montreal (Quebec). He is a Canadian director, screenwriter, actor, and producer.

It was as an actor (director and screenwriter) that he became known during the screening of his first film, I Killed My Mother, during the 41st Fortnight of the 2009 Cannes Film Festival at only 20 years old.  Since then nearly one film a  year has been featured in a major film festival. He is regularly described as a “young prodigy of Quebec cinema.”

As an actor, Xavier Dolan is also active in Quebec dubbing. He is known as the Quebec voice of Rupert Grint (with the role of Ron Weasley) in the Harry Potter film series, Taylor Lautner in the Twilight saga, Timothée Chalamet, Kit Harrington or even Josh Hutcherson in the Hunger Games series. Xavier Dolan has dubbed more than 150 films and series.

In 2017, he received the Cesar award  for best director and best picture for Its Only the End of the World, which was released the previous year.

BIOGRAPHY

Son of the Egyptian- born, Quebec comedian and actor, Manuel Tadros and Genevieve Dolan, Xavier Dolan a Quebecois teacher began his career at the age of 6 on television in twenty or so advertisements directed by André Mélançon for Jean-Coutu pharmacies in Quebec.

His name appears in the credits of many Quebec feature films like Heads Or Tails, by Claude Fournier, or The Hidden Fortress by Roger Cantin as well as some other TV series like Omerta, Ayoye !, and  Miséricorde et L'Or.

In 2006 he portrayed “Julien” in the short film Mirrors directed by Etienne Desrosiers. The short film, among others,  was selected in Berlin  at the Festival of New Cinema at Image + Nation in Quebec, in Kiev and in San Diego. In 2007, he portrayed Antoine in the controversial film by Pascal Laugier, Martyrs.

EARLY WORKS (2008-2010)

In 2008, at only 19 years old, he taught himself production, and then directed his first feature film,  I Killed My Mother, based on The Matricide, a short story he wrote three years previously. Anne Dorval, Suzanne Clément, Patricia Tulasne, Monique Spaziani, François Arnaud and Niels Schneider were also a part of the cast. The film was submitted to the SODEC and Telefilm Canada, which was refused. SODEC then financed the film after à second submission to the independent section.

In April 2009, the film was selected for the 41st Fortnight in Cannes. On May 22, 2009 Xavier Dolan won three awards out of the three he was eligible for: the Art Essay award by the International Confederation of Art Cinemas and Essay (CICAE), the Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers (SACD), the award for screenplay and the regards for young feature films. The three juries underline the unique characteristics of the directing, the truth, the violence and the poetry of the language as well as the “sweat” (Xavier Dolan has a tattoo on his right leg, a quote from Cocteau “work is sweat”), the relentlessness of the young filmmaker, and his projects.

I Killed My Mother, then became Canada’s choice for the race for best foreign film at the 82nd Academy Awards, but it was not a part of the finalist. He was nominated at the Césars ceremony in the same category, and did not win the award. The film sold  55,000 tickets in France and 100,000 tickets throughout the European Union.

In the fall of 2009, Xavier Dolan wrote the screenplay for his second feature film, Les Amours Imaginaires, which he also produced with the financial assistance of three businessmen. with the financial assistance of three businessmen, through his production house Mifilifilms. Carole Mondello and Daniel Morin, respectively executive producer and associate producer of I killed my mother, support him again. Filming began in October, in the Lotbinière region, and lasted a total of 25 days. The rest of the filming took place in Montreal, notable in the Mile-End district. For his second film, Xavier Dolan held the positions of director, producer, actor, editor as well as supervising the costumes and artistic direction of the film.  

The film was selected for the category "Un certain regard" at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2010, where it returned for the second time in a year, the film received a highly favorable reception from the public (a standing ovation of 8 minutes), and enthusiastic criticism despite some caveats and mixed papers (notably in Liberation, Elle, Positif and Hollywood Reporter). In the introduction to the screening of the film at “Certain Regard”, Thierry Frémaux, general delegate of the event, speaks of a “completely exciting new generation”, referring to the style of Dolan. The style was thought to be authentic as said by several media, blogs, internet sites, The film sold 130,000 tickets in France and 230,000 tickets sold throughout the European Union.

FRENCH RECOGNITION (2011-2017)

In February of 2011 he began filming Laurence Anyways, his third feature film. This film is a sentimental drama telling the story of a trans woman and her partner in the 1990s. The film is co-produced by Lyla Films and MK2, and shot entirely in Quebec. The film was selected at the Cannes Festival in 2012 for the “Un certain regard” category. On the red carpet he, along with the entire film crew, wore a red square in support of the Printemps érable- a protest against increasing university tuition by students in Quebec.

In France, the film received favorable critical acclaim. Oliver Père considered the film to be exciting. On Slate.fr, Jean -Michel Frodo regretted that the film was not selected in the official competition and Julien Gester (Liberation) considered Laurence Anyways to be the most beautiful film by Xavier Dolan.  The film sold 30,000 tickets at start-up in France, (74,000 in total), public success was relative. The feature film won the awards for best Canadian film at the Toronto International Film Festival. A unanimous decision of the members of the jury declared “For its breathless cinematic energy and its entirely new love story, the jury felt honored to watch such unfettered genius at play. (The cinematic energy that emanates from it is breathtaking, it's a new kind of love story, we were honored to be able to watch this great genius at work) . "

In May of 2012, Dolan announced he was working on a fourth film which would be an adaptation of Michel Marc Bouchard's play: Tom à la ferme. In March 2013, Xavier Dolan directed the music video for the song “College Boy” by the group Indochine. It shows a teenager, played by Antoine Olivier Pilon, beaten and humiliated by his school friends. In early May 2013, the French Audiovisual Superior Council (CSA) planned to ban the clip to those under 16 or under 18. Xavier Dolan justified his choice by explaining that the violence shown in the clip is not free, but intended to denounce the same violence and he adds that this position taken by the CSA ultimately only gave greater visibility to his work.

His fifth feature film, Mommy, was selected for the official competition at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival and received an enthusiastic reception from journalists during its private screening. On May 24 at the awards ceremony, Mommy was awarded the Jury Prize, tied with Adieu au langue by Jean-Luc Godard.  If he occasionally expressed himself on social facts - in October 2014, questioned on the French situation, he declared to see a "demonstration of hatred and intolerance" and deplores the delay of the France compared to Quebec on the issue of homosexual rights.  However, Xavier Dolan does not want to be an author of “homosexual cinema”. Refusing to categorize his work, he expressed his antipathy for gay cinema awards, including the Queer Palm which he was awarded in 2012 at Cannes for Laurence Anyways: “That such awards exist disgusts me. What progress is there in awarding such ghettoizing, so ostracizing awards that claim that films made by gays are gay films? We divide with these categories. The world is being fragmented into small, water tight communities. The Queer Palm, I didn't go looking for it. They still want to give it to me. Never ! There can be homosexuality in my films, as well as there can be no homosexuality in my films” - for Romain Vallet, the editor-in-cheif of the magazine LGBT Hétéroclite, these proposals are “bad faith” and “an insult to all the LGBT prizes awarded by film festivals around the world”. Xavier Dolan considers that he is an “imaginary controversy”.

In May 2015, he was part of the jury for feature films at the Cannes Film Festival under the chairmanship of Joel and Ethan Coen, alongside actresses Rossy de Palma, Sophie Marceau and Sienna Miller; singer Rokia Traoré, actor Jake Gyllenhaal and director Guillermo del Toro.

In 2016, his sixth film, Just the End of the World, was released. The cast consists of Marion Cotillard, Léa Seydoux, Vincent Cassel, Gaspard Ulliel and Nathalie Baye, whom he finds again after Laurence Anyways, released in 2012. It is an adaptation of the eponymous play by Jean-Luc Lagarce. The story presents a writer who, back in his family after years of absence, announces his imminent death. The film received the Grand Prix of the Cannes Film Festival 2016 as well as two trophies at the Césars 2017, including that of Best Director.

INFLUENCES AND STYLE:

Dolan has said that he is not particularly influenced by any specific directors, though in 2009, Dolan identified Michael Haneke as one of his favourite directors for his precise camerawork and strong writing, citing Haneke's Funny Gamesand The Piano Teacher as favourites.

At the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, Dolan said that The Piano by Jane Campion was a major inspiration for him. He has also cited seeing the film Titanic as an early influence on his decision to enter the film industry. He has mentioned paying tribute to My Own Private Idaho with a sequence in I Killed My Mother, and that he was influenced by the frog rain scene at the end of Magnolia, but said in 2013:

What I'm trying to say is that I'm not that influenced by directors.... I've read basically every review of my films because I'm crazy and I focus on what's negative and I want to know what people think—and why they think it. So many times I've been bullied into references and influences that were never mine by viewers that would project their opinions and associations and assumptions on me.... But let's get real: ideas travel and everything's been done, it's all a matter of interpreting things again now.

PERSONAL LIFE:

Dolan is openly gay, and described his first film, I Killed My Mother, as semi-autobiographical.

FILMOGRAPHY:

Films

2009 : J'ai tué ma mère

2010 : Les Amours imaginaires

2012 : Laurence Anyways

2013 : Tom à la ferme

2014 : Mommy

2016 : Juste la fin du monde

2018 : Ma vie avec John F. Donovan

2019 : Matthias et Maxime

Video Clips:

2013 : Indochine - College Boy

2015 : Adele - Hello

As an Actor:

1997 : J'en suis ! directed by Claude Fournier : Édouard Samson

2001 : La Forteresse suspendue directed by Roger Cantin : Michaël

2007 : Suzie directed by Micheline Lanctôt : Punk

2008 : Martyrs directed by Pascal Laugier : Antoine

2009 : J'ai tué ma mère directed by himself : Hubert Minel

2010 : Les Amours imaginaires directed by himself : Francis

2010 : Good Neighbours directed by Jacob Tierney : Jean-Marc

2012 : Laurence Anyways directed by himself : un homme à une fête (apparition)

2013 : Tom à la ferme directed by himself : Tom

2014 : Miraculum directed by Podz : Étienne

2014 : La Chanson de l'éléphant directed by Charles Binamé : Michael Aleen

2018 : Sale temps à l'hôtel El Royale directed by Drew Goddard : Buddy Sunday

2018 : Boy Erased directed by Joel Edgerton : Jon

2019 : Ça : Chapitre 2 directed by Andrés Muschietti : Adrian Mellon

2019 : Matthias et Maxime directed by himself : Maxime

2021 : Illusions perdues de Xavier Giannoli : Raoul Nathan

TV Shows:

1994 : Miséricorde directed by Jean Beaudin (série TV) : Fils

1997 : Omertà II - La loi du silence directed by Pierre Houle (série TV) : Nicolas Favarra

2001 : L'Or directed by Jean-Claude Lord (série TV) : Jérémie Sullivan

Short Films:

1999 : Le Marchand de sable directed by Nadine Fournelle : Jeune garçon

2006 : Miroirs d'été directed by Étienne Desrosiers : Julien