Posted at 6:00 a.m.
Marc Cassivi : Is this nomination for the Césars a sign that you are finally being considered as much an actor as a director, especially in France?
Xavier Dolan : Of course, there is a form of consecration behind this recognition. I say it, I weigh it and I think it: it’s not the fact of winning that would be a consecration, but just that people think about it, that they name me. It’s as if someone were saying to me: “We see you as an actor. The actors I work with always talk to me “as an actor”, about acting. It’s in the minds of directors and journalists that I’m not perceived as such.
CM: The film is interested in the complacency and self-interested wickedness of certain journalists at the beginning of the 19th century.and century. I read A great provincial man in Paris (the second part oflost illusions) and I was surprised to find that Balzac, who himself was a journalist, took such a cynical view of journalism. Even if the dialogues are different.
XD: When we read Balzac, we see that there are a lot of creative licenses that have been taken. Very nice rewrites and style appropriations from Xavier [Giannoli]. There was a form of ignorance on my part, because I hadn’t read this book. I read two or three Balzac books in high school. I was there a bit as a tourist. But reading the script, I was excited by the similarities. We love these mirror works that show us how history repeats itself.
CM: Balzac wrote: “Controversy is the pedestal of celebrities. We see it today with reality TV. You have already spoken about the effect that criticism has had on your journey: Just the end of the world was not distributed in the United States after criticism that you found in bad faith… Are you cynical vis-à-vis the media?
XD: I’m not cynical, because every time I make a film – or now a series – I hope that some people will like it and say good things about it. If I was cynical, I’d say it’s not worth reading the review. Me, I’m interested. Even if it was unhealthy, especially at the end of My life with John F. Donovan, and that I had to stop, because I was going crazy. At the beginning of my career, there were reviews that were very interesting. Has the world of criticism changed or is it because I have changed that now I have more difficulty finding interesting ones? That is, constructive, not hateful or vicious or personal.
CM: Do you find in lost illusions an echo of your own relationship with the media?
XD: While making the film, I was not so aware of it. I was just happy to play Nathan, an author who is respected and celebrated, despite all the shenanigans and shenanigans. It is by speaking to you about it that I make a parallel with what I experienced. Even before the critic sees John F. Donovan at the Toronto festival, I knew it was lost in advance. In the scene that’s the best oflost illusions in my opinion – the best movie scene of my whole life, in fact, all categories combined –, Lucien [le critique] says he can’t say anything bad about Nathan’s novel, because it’s good and sincere. His editor told him, “You can always say bad things about a book. If he’s smart, you say he’s pretentious. If it’s true, you say he’s a hotshot…” This scene, I can’t say how well written I find it. She is timeless. One can always speak ill of a work. You just have to search.
CM: You work on the editing of the TV series The night Laurier Gaudreault woke up [adaptation de la pièce de Michel Marc Bouchard, qui sera diffusée sur Illico l’automne prochain ainsi que sur Canal+ en France]. I sense a disaffection in you for the cinema. Are you still convinced that there are stories that are better told in 1h30 than in 10 one-hour episodes?
XD: Completely ! We will not discuss the format. I am not saying that the cinema is useless. Only that me, currently, it does not tempt me. No one has gone to see my latest films, Marc! They were sacrificed by completely inconsistent release dates, in the face of event films like Joker. I’m not telling you that the themes of these films were very popular, unlike that of Mommy. Others were criticized by critics. I’m not saying it won’t happen to me with TV, bad time slots or bad reviews. But so far, I’ve really enjoyed this format. This method of working, above all the fact of taking the time, challenged and inspired me enormously. I was happy to hear Denis [Villeneuve] say that Dunes was his best film. I’ve been criticized for saying that in the past…
CM: It’s what you’ve done best [Laurier Gaudreault] ?
XD: This series is my best movie! Matthias and Maxime was not my best film. I knew it when I did it. I intended to tell a good story, more humbly, through a more refined staging. It resulted in a film that didn’t have the character or personality of Mommy or of I killed my mother. I have never stopped myself from importing television ideas into cinema or cinematographic ideas into television. These concepts are very vague anyway. I wanted, more than ever, more than in all my last films, to direct. Acting out creative ideas. At the same time, it’s probably the most commercial product I’ve made in my entire life! All of this is possible.
CM: I hear you well. I’m a fan of series, too…
XD: The problem with the cinema is to find the necessary resources at the time of creation, and the public at the time of publication. When there is no one in the room, it’s all for nothing! For nothing ! That makes me bitter. And I don’t want to be bitter. I want to be a good artist, a good human, and to always grow. And to grow, I need to have some form of recognition.
CM: But you got recognition!
XD: Are you talking about price? I am speaking to you, in our modern vocabulary, of “views”. I want likes! (Laughs) It’s excessively vulgar, but you understand. I want people to look at my work, discuss it, and keep it alive! I don’t want to just go to a festival, come home and do interviews for three days for a film that no one is going to see. We are not going to the cinema! We’re just not going! The determining factor is: “Do I take my tank? »
CM: I understand. But you know that at the end of your days, it will be written that you won the César for best director for Just the end of the world (which exceeded one million admissions in France). Nobody’s going to remember that American critics didn’t like it.
XD: Human beings are such that we always seek validation from people who reject us. They are the ones we want to impress the most. It’s good, at the same time: it means that we give ourselves challenges and then we challenge ourselves.
CM: Your next project will be a TV series in the United States. It’s your Trojan horse to conquer the Americans by where they do not wait for you?
XD: That’s what I want to do! This is what I develop. You have to write it down. I have no idea if it will happen. I disappoint you, but…
CM: Not at all. Don’t get me wrong: I can’t wait to discover your series. But I also hope to still be able to see your films at the cinema.
X.D.: It’s just that now, in the equation and the thinking around wanting to make a film, there is: “How am I going to finance it, will people see it, and if I don’t, am i going to die? “That’s how I operated at the beginning of my career. I was 20 years old, I had a passion, an energy and a romanticism that made me say things like that. “If I don’t make this movie, I’m going to die. I think that was true at the time. Today, it’s: “If I don’t make this film, well, I’m going to read. (Laughs) Things are relativizing.
CM: You want to take more of your time. The pace you had was unbearable.
XD: You also have to want to make films and tell stories. These stories, at present, I do not have them. And neither does this desire.
CM: I know you never liked being compared to Pedro Almodóvar, but his career really took off in his late thirties. He made his best films at 50. I hope to see the films you will make at 50.
XD: Me, I think we’re all going to be in bunkers with tinfoil hats. But that is my personal opinion. (Laughs) At the same time, in 2012, when I was asked where I saw myself in 10 years, I replied that I saw myself at home, worried about the climate situation. They said to me: “Aren’t you a little alarmist? “Look at your thermometer! It is useless to project myself in 10 or 20 years. I want to plan for next year. I want to live well, I want to be able to take care of the people around me, I want to be able to improve myself, to grow. I’m in my thirties, I don’t mind not making one film a year, on the contrary. Being able to drop in and reflect, it allowed me to do this series of which I am extremely proud.