Xavier Dolan’s Mommy: Still Remarkable 10 Years Later

“I don’t measure it,” explains Xavier Dolan, when asked about the impact of his film. Mommy on the world of cinema. However, he says he is flattered by the positive criticism of his work.

I guess it is [celui de mes films] which I am most talked about. But it is still balancedhe adds. There are some that no one ever tells me about.

Yet the film’s crew can attest to the film’s impact on filmmakers and moviegoers. In interviews, the actors have, for example, told anecdotes or said that work colleagues had confided in them their passion for Mommy.

Moreover, Antoine Olivier Pilon never ceases to be surprised when Xavier Dolan nonchalantly mentions to him that certain great artists – like Francis Ford Coppola – have seen and appreciated the film.

According to director of photography André Turpin, this continued enthusiasm for Mommy is also marked among master’s students in cinema, especially in Europe. Academics are looking at Xavier Dolan, his work or even the 1:1 ratio used in the film.

I often see, in applications for internships in photography direction – especially in Europe – that young students [nomment] often this film as the film that marked them. It is still often a reference when people talk to me about my filmsMr. Turpin emphasizes.

Learn from Xavier Dolan

André Turpin, responsible for the photography of many of Xavier Dolan’s works – including the clips Hello et Easy On Me by singer Adele – as well as other films like Fires, Simple as Sylvain et It’s not me, I swear!admits to having learned from this filming in the field himself aesthetics and technique.

He also admits to having changed his approach to reading scripts.

When I read the script, I really had a film in mindhe says. It always is, but I’m almost always wrong. But in this case, I was really, really wrong.

André Turpin explains that he had a film in mind very gray social realismsomething inspired by Mike Leigh (Secrets and lies, Mr. Turner), the Ken Loach (The wind is rising, I, Daniel Blake) or the Dardenne brothers (Rosetta, The child).

However, Xavier Dolan had another idea in mind.

When I started talking to Xavier about the image of the film, he said to me: “No, but you’re completely wrong. I want my characters to all be Californian heroes. I want it to be Erin Brockovich. I want the light that enchants their house to be golden and Californian. I want to treat them like heroes, I don’t want to treat them like losers.”

It knocked me off my feet. He taught me in a way – although Denis Villeneuve did it before him too – not to trust my first instincts as a screenplay reader.

I really feel that [Mommy] is a rather exceptional film […] in terms of the impact it had and how much it touched peopleadds the director of photography.

The passion of the public

Xavier Dolan himself claims that the main echoes of Mommy that he receives today come from the public.

People talk to us [du film] with a lot of passion, love and trauma too. We had a lot of super deep, super intense confidences from people who told us that the film had helped them a lotsays Antoine Olivier Pilon.

Sadness and tearsthe actor says he has seen a lot of them, especially in people who have mental health problems. He admits to feeling a kind of responsibility towards these people who come to see him.

In fact, there are many people who talk to him about this film. In fact, the actor believes that people talk to him about the film never with gaps greater than a month, or even a few weeks.

The day it annoys me, I dare to hope that my friends and family around me will give me a little check-up to bring me back to order. […] It always comes from a beautiful place, from a place where you feel that people have love for the project.he specifies.

It’s hard to imagine where I would be today without having seen this film.

An impact on local artists

Director Pascal Plante believes that Dolan created a tsunami that all young Quebec filmmakers are still riding today..

Without saying frontally inspired by aesthetics Dolanianthe man behind the films Fake tattoos, Nadia, Butterfly et The Red Rooms claims to have been undeniably intrigued by the director’s speech at Cannes.

He broke down the barriers of a national cinematography that was afraid of doing too much. He pushed me to see bigger in my own artistic practice, to be colorful and to dare.

However, he frankly admits that his admiration for the film and its director was initially tinged with a certain jealousy.

Being the same age as Xavier Dolan, his work was, from its very beginnings, an unattainable benchmark that generated a secret jealousy in me… and in almost all filmmakers of our generation, let’s be frank.confides this director from Quebec.

According to him, Mommy East the film that synthesizes all the filmmaker’s obsessions: a kind of final point to a first phase of his career, focused around the mythical figure of the mother-who-loves-badly.

Director Geneviève Albert sees in Mommy one of his Favorite Quebec films, all eras combined.

I return to it often, with renewed emotion, joy and admiration. It is a profoundly living work, a rare quality that I cherish and to which I aspire in my films.

I love the flamboyance of this film, its intensity, its humor grafted onto the tragic. And the trio of performers is simply masterful.

According to the director of Noémie says yesthe scene where Kyla announces to Diane that she is moving is anthology of Quebec cinema, a great lesson in interpretation, screenplay and staging.

Presumably, the film Mommy is still causing a stir ten years after its release. An anniversary book will be published this fall and will include photos taken by Shayne Laverdière, the set photographer and Xavier Dolan’s sidekick. A 35mm version of the film is also in the works.