After the death of her mother, Mireille returns to her small hometown and sees her three siblings for the first time in almost thirty years. Their tense reunion may reveal the secret that had destroyed their family. The director of mother (2014) and Only the end of the world (2016) wrote and directed the five episodes of this miniseries inspired by a work by his compatriot Michel Marc Bouchard: It was an instant hit! », explains Xavier Dolan. His feature film Tom on the farm(2013) was already taken from a story by the same playwright, with a similar starting point. ” He is fascinated by this often urban character who returns to his more provincial surroundings, re-explores his past and confronts it. I love this story too. »
However, the filmmaker wanted to stay away from the camera of the room, in which all the family members paraded one by one in front of their mother’s body at the mortuary and told their part of the story to the public ” I didn’t want a linear story that unfolded in a few hours. What I liked about the play was also everything that we didn’t see, but that I wanted to film: the 90s, the character of the mother and this antagonist that is Laurier Gaudreault. »
A first thriller series
So sometimes it’s a bit artificial what he’s managed to do The eveningyou where Laurier Gaudreault woke upa thriller: the back-and-forth between past and present abounds, a few stylistic effects briefly tilt the story toward surrealism, each episode ending gives rise to its share of revelations, and a mysterious character lurks around the brothers, whose presence we find in credits worthy of a series of detectives. All in the service of a final revelation that will not really surprise family members with its universe. As does the fact that her favorite actress Anne Dorval reprises the role of the matriarch, next LAURENCE Anyway(2012) and mother .
Also read – Xavier Dolan: “The difficulty of saying I love you”
Xavier Dolan, however, pays homage to the many series he admires: ” I dreamed of rubbing myself with exercise for a long time. I grew up with television, a medium that has been with me throughout my life and has influenced me enormously, although I have only made films so far.. And the director cites the telenovelas of his adolescence Smallville , Buffy the Vampire Slayerienchanted then the discovery ofsix feet under(2001-2005), formidable dramatic saga centered on a family of undertakers (the profession carried out by Mireille inIn the night Laurier Gaudreault woke up !), and more recentlyThe Night Of(2016): “A lesson in coherence, unity and harmony from the first to the last second. He was one of my main references, even if my series is completely different stylistically.»
In front of the camera, the director and screenwriter faces the actors who already played Mireille and the two older brothers on the boards, but the one who is also an actor in most of his films took on the role of Elliot, the youngest. “He is a character who challenged me with his stakes, his complexity and his vulnerability. I adapted it to my profile and made it perhaps more existential. “Skinned and drug-addicted, the character made Xavier Dolan spend more than an hour in the makeup chair:”he’s covered in psoriasis, with a tattoo on his neck and red hair—ways to express who he is, where he’s from, or why he’s in pain, and he says it long before he’s even opened his mouth.»
A double dose of Dolan that should allow his admirers to wait before the next stage of his career. Anyone who says they need torebuild [son] wishbefore the world of cinema, he confesses that he wants to focus on other areas of interest, such as architecture, interior design and travel. “I need to take some time for myself… and make some money too, it would be nice once in a while“, he jokes.
Source : Le JDD
