BIOGRAPHY OF XAVIER DOLAN. Considered a young prodigy of the seventh art, the director of the acclaimed “Mommy” or “Just the end of the world” has announced his retirement from cinema.
It’s a promising career coming to an end. Xavier Dolan announced to stop the cinema. The 34-year-old director explained in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pais that he did not see the point of continuing his film career: “I no longer have the desire or the strength to devote two years to a project. which is barely seen. I put too much passion into my projects to take so many disappointments. I end up wondering if my cinema is bad and I know it’s not.”
The filmmaker to whom we owe Mommy, Just the end of the world or even Laurence Anyways does not speak much about his near future, and especially if this judgment concerns only his career as a director or also his career as an actor. “I don’t see the point of telling stories when everything is collapsing around us. Art is useless and devoting oneself to cinema is a waste of time”. We hope, however, that this early retirement is only a break to come back better.
Short biography of Xavier Dolan – Born March 20, 1989 in Montreal (Canada), Xavier Dolan-Tadros is the son of Quebec comedian and singer Manuel Tadros. From the age of six, he appeared in several commercials, notably for Jean-Coutu pharmacies. He landed small roles in films like “I’m in!” (1997), “The Hanging Fortress” (2001), and is filming for television. In 2006, the role of Julien, in the short film “Miroirs d’été”, brought him notoriety.
In 2007, he turns in the film “Martyrs”. The following year, he embarked on directing with “I killed my mother”, which was selected for the 41st Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes in 2009. In 2009, he shot his second feature film, “Les Amours imaginaires “. The film was part of the Un certain regard selection at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. In 2011, Xavier Dolan shot “Laurence Anyways”, his third feature film devoted to a transgender woman. The film earned him a new selection in the Un Certain Regard section and the award for Best Canadian Film at the Toronto International Film Festival. In 2013, he directed the clip for “College Boy”, by the Indochine group. In 2014, Xavier Dolan released his fourth feature film, “Tom à la ferme” adapted from a play by Michel Marc Bouchard. The film received the FIPRESCI Critics’ Prize at the 70th Venice Film Festival.
The consecration truly arrives with his fifth feature film, Mommy, selected in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014. He notably won the Jury Prize tied with Jean-Luc Godard’s Adieu au langue. Subsequently, the filmmaker released his first French film, Just the End of the World, in 2016, with Marion Cotillard and Gaspard Ulliel in particular. His first English-language film, The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, was released four years later and encountered several production difficulties. He then returned to his acting career, in Boy Erased and It: Chapter 2 in 2019, then Lost Illusions in 2019, which earned him a César nomination for best actor in a supporting role. His eighth film, Matthias and Maxime, is being released in parallel. Three years later, he aired his first series, The Night Laurier Gaudreault Woke Up.
