Xavier Dolan

The brutal honesty of Xavier Dolan

Dulen Dissanayake

The young Canadian director Xavier Dolan's name itself is synonymous with controversy for his audience. Born in 1989 in Quebec, Dolan previously was a popular child actor before he made his directorial debut in 2009. He identifies himself as a homosexual and the manifestations of his sexual identity are largely present in all his films.

Dolan's first, 'I Killed My Mother' (J'ai tué ma mere), stunned the 2010 Cannes audience for its exploration of a turbulent love-hate relationship between a mother and her son in harrowing detail. Described as a semi-autobiographical work by Dolan himself, 16 year old Hubert's, played by Dolan himself, and his mother Chantale's daily lives full of conflict are explored in the film. Hubert expects manners from his mother but she deliberately ignores him. Growing increasingly frustrated with his life, Hubert submits an essay titled 'I Killed My Mother' for a school assignment.

Romantic relationship

Hubert is involved in a romantic gay relationship with his schoolmate, Antonin. The harmonious relationship between Antonin and his mother he sees, makes Hubert detest his mother further. A close relationship between him and Julie, his class teacher, also develops outside teacher-student bounds. Julie becomes emotionally intimate with fugitive Hubert as he continues to avoid home.

Upon discovery of Hubert's homosexuality and his becoming more and more uncontrollable, Chantale, with the help of her estranged husband, sends him to a far away boarding school. Hubert involves himself passionately with a fellow male student there, too. He, though, finds the atmosphere intolerable and flees with Antonin's aid. When school's principal calls Chantale to inform her Hubert's runaway and offer advice, she blasts him asking whether he knows to raise a child as a single mother. The film ends with a flashback of Hubert's childhood where he plays with his mother on the beach.

Laurence and Marie in 'Laurence Anyways'

Revealing monologues in black and white, colourful artistic adventures of Hubert and Antonin, surreal flashforwards and brilliantly illuminated scenes are the cinematic highlights of this emotionally charged film.

Lonely company

'I Killed My Mother' is predominantly about personal relationships; how they lack in substance despite family ties and how one feels lonely even in company. Traumatic adolescence, incompatibility, homoeroticism and coming-of-age are the other significant concentrations.

Some scenes of the movie, however, appear to be rather tediously long and ineffective.

Dolan's next, 'Heartbeats' (Les Amours Imaginaires), is a pop-culture film about juvenile infatuation. The sex workers and close friends Marie and, Francis, played by Dolan, meet the village lad Nicholas at a dinner party and harbour romantic feelings for him. Soon becoming close friends with Nicholas, they even share the same bed with him and secretly vie for his love. Nicholas, it seems, encourages their romantic feelings toward him unknowingly. Marie goes to the extent of expressing her desperation to a client and Francis, in one of the most visually and musically poignant of scenes, masturbates holding one of Nicholas's T-shirts to his face.

Many misinterpretations

Their friendship takes a critical turn when the three of them go to a country house owned by Nicholas's mother. Marie misinterprets that Nicholas and Francis are romantically involved and sets off to leave. She is then countered by Francis and they get into a brawl. Nicholas, now starting to comprehend the real situation, is vexed to see this and remarks that they can either love him or leave him. Back in the city, both Francis and Marie attempt to reconnect with Nicolas by leaving messages on his phone. Francis somehow meets him only to be heartbreakingly answered how could you think I was gay. Marie's meeting him on the street was also rudely cut short by Nicholas. The film ends as reunited Francis and Marie encounter Nicholas at another party, who upon approaching them tensely, immediately backs away from them due to the awkwardness of the situation. The ending, thus, is suggestive of their quests for love and romantic misadventures that will go on and on.

Dolan as Hubert in 'I Killed My Mother'

'Heartbeats', alternatively titled 'Love... Imagined', discusses the shallowness of youthful relationships, their emotional shifts and coming to terms with disappointment. The disconnected series of interviews with random people sharing their personal crises interposed into the film, offer the audience the opportunity to weigh those against the incidents dramatised in the film. Colourfully portrayed incessant smoking and drinking, loud but electrifying music scores including a French version of 'Bang...Bang' coupled with other antisocial and narcissistic acts of the characters lend this atmospheric film a distinctive post-postmodernist aura. 'Heartbeats', however, focuses more on the dramatic dimensions of love and breakup rather than its quiet personal aspects. Thus making the movie somewhat vulnerable to the criticism that it is a trivialization of complex processes surrounding infatuation.

Dolan's latest feature, 'Laurence Anyways' (2012), spans over ten years starting in 1989 and follows the life of a male-to-female transsexual, Laurence Alia, who is a writer and a teacher of literature. The effect this gender transformation has on Laurence's girlfriend, Fred, also runs parallel to Laurence's story. The film starts with the lovers sharing a delightful evening full of future plans in their car. Laurence, suddenly, shouts he cannot take it anymore and asserts that he wants a gender reassignment surgery done. Fred is badly shocked to hear this but after sometime decides to support Laurence by sticking to him.

Fellow teachers

After the surgery, Laurence is devastated to see the predominantly negative response he receives from her (now, a 'she') fellow teachers before being forced to resign from his job shortly after. Fred, too, constantly suffers from blackouts in supporting, defending and protecting Laurence. She leaves Laurence when her identity crisis worsens and starts a life with another man. Laurence, too, is romantically involved with another woman, Charlotte. After a series of valiant attempts, Laurence is able to reconcile with his cold mother as well.

In a shift to 1996, both Laurence and Fred, however, are bothered by a feeling of love is missing in their now relationships. Laurence takes the initiative as she sends Fred a copy of her recent poetry collection. Fred's letter in reply makes the platform for them to meet again. The reunion unfortunately ends in another argument. An abortion Fred underwent to support Laurence earlier with her new identity is also revealed here. By this time, both Fred's and Laurence's lovers had discovered their lasting attachment and left them. In a 1999 interview held to write Laurence's biography, it is made known that though she and Fred reconnected, it has not succeeded.

The film's end shows how Laurence and Fred first met at a commercial set, in which he introduces himself to Fred as "Laurence, anyways."

Francis, Nicholas and Marie in 'Heartbeats'

'Laurence anyways' explores the complicated personal and social issues that impact transgender relationships in different ways. Social conformity, gender roles, rejection and love under changing circumstances are also brought to the viewer's attention in cinematic detail.

Though the director does not indulge in sentimentality, 'Laurence Anyways' nonetheless is a moving piece of art in which human relationships are examined from a fresh perspective.

Emotionally disturbing

Dolan's all three films, collectively taken, demand a lot from the audience. They are charged, fierce and emotionally disturbing. This does not, however, affect the deep humanistic qualities that underlie all Dolan's so far works.

Gender and identity seem to be Dolan's main focus: many controversial aspects of gender such as homosexuality, sociosexuality, transgender relationships, homophobia and transphobia, heterosexism and genderisms, and how these affect one's sense of identity are scrutinized by him. Personal and romantic relationships, another recurrent theme of Dolan's films, are also delved into with refreshing variety.

Dolan's cinematic adventures are of prime importance when his age factor is considered. His films are an unrestrained retaliation at the choking circumstances in which we live in and suffer, unable to break free to live the life we wish.