I renounce the cinema and knowledge. I no longer have the desire or the strength to get involved in a project for two years and hardly see anyone anymore. “I put too much passion into it to make it so much of a disappointment,” the Mommy creator said in an interview with El País published Wednesday.
During the course of the interview, he explained that he had emerged weakened from the making of his miniseries The Night Laurier Gaudreault Woke Up. His work won over the critics but was only shown in four countries – Canada, France, Japan, Spain – falling short of the director’s expectations.
Why didn’t anyone else buy it? Because it was shot in French, because it only has five episodes? […] In the end, I wonder if my cinema is bad, but I know it’s not, he added in an interview with El País.
I didn’t win anything with the series. I invested my salary in the production and my father had to lend me money. It’s a very thankless process, I’m tired and discouraged. The simplest solution is to advertise and build me a house in the country.
However, he hinted that he would fulfill a contract with HBO for an English series before wrapping up.
Xavier Dolan wrote, directed and edited The Night When Laurier Gaudreault Woke Up, and also played the role of Elliott, the youngest member of the Larouche family.
Photo: Club illico/Quebecor Content
No, art is not useless, says Xavier Dolan
Earlier this week, El Mundo, another Spanish daily newspaper, published an interview in which the director criticized his profession and the state of the world, arguing that art is useless and cinema is a waste of time.
“I don’t understand the point of telling stories when everything is falling apart around you,” he said. We act like we have plenty of time, and if there’s one thing we don’t have right now, it’s time.
However, Xavier Dolan went back to his remarks in his short-lived post on Instagram on Thursday, saying that art and cinema naturally deserve our full attention. “Sometimes words are taken out of context and some things get lost in translation,” he wrote in English.
Xavier Dolan is a regular at the Cannes Film Festival.
Photo Credit: Getty Images / AFP/CHRISTOPHE SIMON
Announced break
For several months, Xavier Dolan has not hidden his exhaustion and tiredness from the cinema.
At the microphone of the program “Everything can happen” in May, the maker argued that the idea of making a film currently does not have enough money, promises and a future. I’ve been doing this for 15 years and I think it will be several years before it happens again.
I’m fine with it. “I have personal projects, I want to do advertising, I want to build an architectural house in the country,” he continued, a project he mentioned several times.
Xavier Dolan’s nuanced take on the controversies rocking Cannes
ICI PREMIERE SHOW • Anything can happen
Xavier Dolan’s nuanced take on the controversies rocking Cannes. 25-minute audio content, ICI Premiere broadcast. listen to audio.
Duration 25 minutes24:44
34-year-old Xavier Dolan has directed several successful films, including I Killed My Mother (2009), Laurence Anyways (2012) and Mommy (2014). He also signed the videos for Adele’s Hello and Easy on Me.