In an interview with the newspaper El Mundo last week Xavier Dolan said he was giving up acting. The young filmmaker struggles to find meaning in his work in a world that is no longer turning round. His remarks sparked heated discussions. Our two columnists discuss this controversial release.
Alexander Sirois: Nathalie, when I read that Xavier Dolan said he wanted to take refuge with his friends and watch the world burn, I first thought of Néron. Some say that this Roman emperor watched Rome burn while singing. But come to think of it, the statement – attributed to the filmmaker by the daily El Mundo1 – rather echoes an idea that is slowly gaining ground in our societies: it is too late, we are finished, we will never be able to make the necessary efforts to curb climate change so that the Earth remains habitable. What I find terrible about this – mistaken – idea is that it takes the form of a self-fulfilling prophecy. If everyone gives up, there will be no one left to put out the fires.
Nathalie Collard: Yes, Xavier Dolan’s statements – clarified on Instagram on Friday – caused shock waves. And I think that if people reacted so strongly to his cry from the heart, it was because he touched on several sensitive points: the state of the world, yes, but also the obstacles to the dissemination of works from small country, the pangs of creation, the general fatigue that we have felt since the pandemic… There are so many layers to analyze in the words of the filmmaker. And then there is the timing : this statement came to us in the middle of a heat wave, while forest fires are raging in Quebec and are compromising the quality of the air we have been breathing for several days. Let’s face it, Xavier Dolan has always had a sense of punch.
Alexander Sirois: Exactly ! The challenge to be taken up was for many of us, for a long time, theoretical. This is no longer the case. Heat waves, fires, floods… Every disaster is a call to action. It’s true, the ecological crisis is anxiety-provoking. It is also true that our efforts are insufficient. But to stop doing so would be illogical. When a boat goes in the wrong direction, do we take refuge in the hold and let it drift? No. We’re raising the bar! This is perhaps what Xavier Dolan wants to do. “The world is not well. And I want to help as much as I can,” he wrote Friday when he clarified his thinking. So much the better !
Nathalie Collard: But Xavier Dolan is not an ecologist or an environmentalist, he is an artist, a creator. Me, when I read: “I’m going to watch the planet burn”, I rather see a toga effect. The burning planet is a bit like the “no future” of the Sex Pistols or the No Logo by Naomi Klein. It’s a metaphor for everything that’s going wrong, for this society that’s going in circles and living in denial! And it is also the cry of frustration of an artist who gives himself body and soul to creation with a distribution that is not, according to him, up to the level of the efforts he has made. I am thinking among others of his series The night Laurier Gaudreault woke up, which was called a masterpiece, but whose ratings seem to have disappointed him. I understand Dolan – who has been repeatedly celebrated at Cannes for his films – to be frustrated. All that for this ? I admit it is discouraging. When you know how much you give of yourself in creation, I can understand that he thinks of saving himself.
Alexander Sirois: “I don’t understand what’s the point of insisting on telling stories when everything is collapsing around you,” the filmmaker also reportedly said. It does show a feeling of frustration, I agree. That said, he would never have declared that cinema “is a waste of time”, as has been reported. What he said instead was that he considers his work, in these circumstances, “a little useless”. But the reverse is true. In times of crisis, art is essential. Including his!
Nathalie Collard: I can’t imagine a world in which Xavier Dolan would no longer create. Luckily, he said he had TV plans. And who knows, maybe he will change his mind about the cinema. He is only 34 years old and therefore has his whole life ahead of him. But I understand why he sometimes wonders what all this rhymes with. We must turn to the side of the philosophers to remember the function of art in our lives. Nietzsche wrote: “Art is given to us to prevent us from dying of the truth” (thanks to Jean-Philippe Pleau for recalling this quote on Facebook). I deeply believe that art helps us to live. We need artists. The problem is that we take them for granted. While they consume themselves to create, we “consume” their creation in a chain, faster and faster. And when they have nothing more to give, we move on to the next one. We ask a lot of them, without consideration for all that they invest when they create. I can understand that an artist is fed up with this productivist and utilitarian vision of art. I can understand why he wants to get off this machine that squeezes him like a lemon.
Alexander Sirois: It is complex, the relationship between an artist and his public, it is true. But what you say about artists churning out one work after another for an insatiable, FOMO-stricken audience (fear of missing out/the fear of missing something) applies especially to the most popular artists. Yes, they may feel that their art is becoming a consumer good like any other. But how many others toil hard dreaming that their works are consumed on the chain? Art, to exist, needs an audience. On Friday, Xavier Dolan said what he wanted was to devote his time to his health, his friends and his family. Perhaps he should also do as the singer Leonard Cohen once did: retire for a while to a Buddhist monastery, to recharge his batteries.
Nathalie Collard: A Buddhist monastery or a cottage full of friends, and time to recharge. The important thing is that he does not lose the desire to create.
1. Certain remarks attributed to Xavier Dolan by the journalist ofEl Mundo were clarified and others disputed by the filmmaker on Friday in an Instagram post.