From Michel Tremblay to Maka Kotto to the author and teacher of the Cégep du Vieux Montréal, Claire Briffault, a good dozen authors and commentators have been involved about the fate of Xavier Dolan.
An avalanche of recommendations rained down on him. Somewhat more antidepressants, the yoga cure, thermal water, transcendental meditation or a spiritual stay in an ashram in India were recommended to him. All for an interview the Quebec filmmaker gave to the Spanish press in early July. He announced his retirement from the cinema, but still half opened the door to television.
There is no doubt that Dolan is a gifted filmmaker. Even a miracle. Whether his films are hugely successful, like I Killed My Mom, Laurence Anyways, Tom on the Farm, Mommy, and Just the End of the World, or less well put together, like The Death and Life of John F. Donovan”, “Matthias and Maxime” and his series The Night Laurier Gaudreault Woke Up did not leave anyone indifferent to any of Dolan’s works. His cinema is imaginative and breaks all established rules. His acting is sensitive and intelligent. His ellipses are brilliant and his montages are skillful. His flair for music is second to none.
A busy career
At just 34, Xavier Dolan has directed eight feature films, a five-part TV series and some notorious music videos like singer Adele’s. He has acted in 22 films, not counting his notable voice acting performances. For anyone, regardless of age, this would be a busy career. Xavier is only 34 years old. But what if he, as creator, had given everything he had to give?
Xavier Dolan is far from the first to give up his creative work and exhaust his dramatic resources at this age. I think of my late friend Marcel Dubé, who by the age of 30 had written the best of his works. To René-Daniel Dubois, who gave up writing plays at the age of 35. Émile Nelligan said it all at 20. I could also mention the very gifted Nelly Arcan or the great British playwright Sarah Kane, but let’s not imagine what they would have achieved if they hadn’t ended their lives prematurely.
French literature abounds with miracle writers who put down their pen in the prime of their life. Think of Arthur Rimbaud, Raymond Radiguet, Françoise Sagan and Antonin Artaud.
A great actor
Novelist Harper Lee was 34 when her masterpiece To Kill a Mockingbird was published, which won her a Pulitzer Prize and became a classic of American literature and cinema. Ms. Lee did nothing after that.
In 2009, another cinema prodigy, Quentin Tarantino, was 46 when he announced he would be retiring after his tenth film. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, his last film (10th), was released in 2019 and Tarantino still hasn’t said goodbye to the cinema. But on the contrary! It could be that one day Xavier Dolan will return to the cinema. I hope so, but the pathetic appeals some are making to him today will have nothing to do with it.
Until then, I will always have the greatest pleasure in finding Xavier Dolan as an actor.
