Young French-Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan is featured in this week's episode of The Close-Up, the Film Society of Lincoln Center's weekly podcast.
The Montreal-based director/actor/writer first attracted international attention with his debut feature, I Killed My Mother, which he wrote, directed, and starred in. It premiered in the Director's Fortnight program at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Art Cinema Award. His subsequent two films, Heartbeats and Laurence Anyways, also went to Cannes, while his fourth feature, Tom at the Farm, had its World Premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival in 2013.
His latest film, Mommy, premiered in competition at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, sharing the Jury Prize with Jean-Luc Godard's Goodbye to Language.
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Mommy stars Québécois actress Anne Dorval as Diane Després, a widowed mother who is overwhelmed by the difficulty of raising her troubled, sometimes violent son Steve (Antoine Olivier Pilon) as a single parent. Diane then begins to receive welcome help from her mysterious neighbor Kyla (Suzanne Clément).
The Film Society's Deputy Director Eugene Hernandez sat down with the 25-year-old filmmaker to discuss his film and creative vision as part of our ongoing year-round Free Talks series, sponsored by HBO. Mommy will begin its theatrical run at the Film Society of Lincoln Center on Friday.
