Arriving this weekend is what Xavier Dolan calls his first true U.S. release, Mommy, a film we named in top 50 of 2014, saying it’s “moving and painfully beautiful, with astounding performances throughout.” While Laurence Anyways and other films of his have gotten U.S. distribution, this is the first major release of sorts, coming from Roadside Attractions, and so that means a bigger press tour. We’ve rounded up the more extensive conversations below, which feature the director discussing aspect ratio changes, how he envisions trailers for his films very early in his process, his next film, and much more.
“I read them all. It’s hard for me to go back to one specific review,” he tells Huffington Post. “You know, when my second film was released, it was all about the visual flourishes and style over substance. There are so many interesting things that I’ve read and so many uninteresting things that I’ve read. So many of the uninteresting things that I’ve read were assumptions made about me and who I was and who people think I was and am, and that is not interesting. That is not criticism. That is diagnosis, and I don’t need a shrink.”
Check out the conversations below and another here from TIFF, amounting to well over two hours.
Mommy opens on January 23rd.