,Hayao Miyazaki says that making movies is just painful. I confirm”, This is the phrase used by Xavier Dolan to announce his intention to retire from the stage. At least from a cinema that no longer feels like its own. Less opportunities to be seen, lots of efforts, worries, responsibilities. He can’t bear it anymore. This is the typical cinematic “midlife crisis”. They come when they want, even when you’re a 34 year old director, Other times are carefully planned. he knows something Quentin tarantino, which for some time has given itself the exact time of honeymoon and abandonment. Soon, according to his words, he will also dedicate himself to some other work.
There are still television projects pending for Xavier Dolan that he’d like to honor (provided they give him the green light), but that’s about it. ,What once seemed a necessity, a necessity, has become secondary“, he says. Baby prodigy in times, untimely in success, untimely in trouble.
Where is Xavier Dolan in his career?
It had been almost ten years since Xavier Dolan was talked about as little as it had been in the last two years. For a decade he went into cinema like a star. He has built up a niche fan base, but is (proportionately) active, protective and young like Timothée Chalamet. Very active in festivals, he has earned a reputation as a director and actor as well as an accomplished writer. A cultured personality with a clearly recognizable style and poise. Entry level for a generation of cinematographers. He has taken to the most engaging cinema with young audiences, Utsav cinema, adopting and enriching the emerging audio-visual language. The way he shoots, the way he chooses costumes, colors and formats, for a time made him the best expression of the language of the new generation. Then something broke.
The toughest shot he took as Antoine in 2008 Martyrs, Xavier Dolan performed at Cannes the following year jai tue ma mere, just nineteen From there the race was on for director Dolan. 8 films in 10 years, many of which have rattled the keyboards of critics and essayists. Two such incidents happened in between, which many directors are not able to reach in their entire career. was the first Mother: The film that opened doors for him beyond the confines of the festival. Unattainable work, which you should expect not to do very soon. Because when you’re awarded the former prize at the Cannes Film Festival alongside Jean-Luc Godard and you’re 25, you have three choices: or you’ll completely derail yourself. Or try repeating yourself. Or shoot a video clip.
The second significant event in Xavier Dolan’s career is a work he probably thought about a lot (but not audiovisually) before deciding to leave cinema. The Hello video clip was shot for Adele. This led to the understanding that the Xavier Dolan brand is not about telling stories, but a way of capturing and capturing emotions. The music in the foreground, the gestures that enhance it, the fragility of memory, the epic emphasis on the little things: a handset is raised as the act that could change the world. To do this, you don’t need a feature film in theaters.
Is Your Crisis Inevitable?
I neither consider art useless nor cinema a waste of time. Art offers solutions to our stifling reality and saves lives. I will always be ready to encourage artists and directors. I don’t want to make films anymore because they don’t make me happy anymore. But he did and so did you.
Xavier Dolan writes in this way to justify his decision. This joy of making films, which he now lacks, is what made his early works special. That youthful naïveté, a lack of control as well as a great awareness of the medium, which allowed him to say things that had often already been analyzed by others but said in a new way. So for an artist like him, who is always entwined in the world of entertainment, it is normal to use the joy he feels in facing the production as the criteria to stay or leave.
There are some people who make cinema just out of passion. They are few. There are people who make cinema because it is (also) a job. They are too many. They are professionals who have talent, passion, but they also need to pay their bills. This also applies to Masters. ,one for them, one for youmore established directors often say. This means he has learned to accept making films for the industry in order to be able to throw himself into more personal projects.
When the strength and stubbornness of youth subside, fatigue, everyday life, work take over. but what’s left Xavier’s oscillation What if the same energy of his best films is denied? Those who express all the desire to go on stage only to reach the most spectacular feeling, the most impressive image. Making movies to see what happens, not caring about everything else.
Therefore, such a crisis in the career of Xavier Dolan was inevitable when it was not possible. And it is also a healthy crisis. It’s hard to believe that this is “forever”. It feels like a break to recharge yourself with new energy, the energy of maturity.
breaking point
Even if he made it this far and never picked up a camera again, Xavier Dolan’s career would be longer than that of many other directors. The three quarters, however, are an important dividing point, unbalanced. It was called John F. It’s called My Life with Donovan. First major failure of his career. Probably my most important film till date. Because it’s hard to drop off when everyone’s convinced that the next movie is going to be even more powerful than the last, and most of all, it’s hard to drop off when you actually manage to keep up the growth. But when something breaks, you lose the support to make the next leap (in English in John F Donovan’s case), you need to turn passion into profession in order to move forward. By knowing failure and being free from the fear of facing it, we also become perfect directors.
Mathias and Maxim were unlucky then. Releases in pandemic times have complicated distribution in many regions. There is another note about sightings in Dolan’s letter, perhaps as an outlet. It’s hard to lose power over an industry that would have handed it everything before the collapse. Struggling to get your films to the audience is tough. However, Dolan reiterates an important point that many directors struggle to say out of elegance or shame: movies are made to be seen. Art loses its existence without an audience.
Xavier Dolan’s environmental concern
I can direct series, but I don’t want to direct films anymore. The world is not doing well… and I want to contribute as much as possible. I’ve been doing this quietly for some time, but from now on I want to talk about it more openly.
One of the more puzzling pieces in the fan letter is this eco-concern. The idea that the world is going in one direction and cinema is not moving things even a millimetre. However, the desire to count, to be present, to impress still shines through. For this reason, the crisis in Dolan’s career now comes as a very coherent positive moment of reconsideration. The first failure was the moment of reaching maturity, of reaching a new view on his role and his art. This process, which is normal in the life of an artist, often leads to a new, different second time, which is still interesting.
You just have to be patient to understand what he will decide to do Xavier’s oscillation In the future, will he tell other stories, will he find new ways to express himself, or will he actually build a house with his friends to watch the world die. There’s still plenty of time to change your mind at 34.
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