Wednesday, July 01, 2015

The Auteurs #46: Xavier Dolan




Among the crop of new filmmakers to come out in the late 2000s, there is probably no one that has created as much excitement and ferocity better than Xavier Dolan. Though he would start out as a child actor in Quebec and do dubbing for films all over the world, his impact as a filmmaker is already immense as he’s only 26 years old with five films so far and two in the works. Openly gay and not afraid to define himself as a director of style, Dolan has managed to make the kind of films most young filmmakers would dare to dream. Even if they manage to be controversial or daring in ways that would even make those quite afraid or others who are just fascinated by how dangerous he is at times. Still, Dolan is someone that has managed to bring something new to the world of cinema as he is really just getting started.

Born Montreal in the Quebec province of Canada on March 20, 1989, Xavier Dolan was the son of the Egyptian-born Canadian comedian/singer Manuel Tardos and the schoolteacher Genevieve Dolan. Dolan would be part of the film and television industry in Canada early as a child where he became a child actor for many productions set in Quebec while getting work as a dubbing voice actor for many English-language based productions including the Harry Potter film series where he would dub the voice of the character of Ron Weasley as well as the Twilight film series as Jacob Black. While Dolan would get some financial stability and work as an actor, Dolan had the desire to wanting to make films as a director. After years of doing voice work and appearing in films and television, Dolan would get the chance to make his very first film.

More can be read here at Cinema Axis.

© thevoid99 2015

4 comments:

Brittani Burnham said...

The fact that Dolan was 19 when he made I Killed My Mother still astonishes me. The most impressive thing I did at 19 was not failing my college algebra class. lol

Anonymous said...

I LOVE so much that you are highlighting him in your Auteurs series!!! So deserved! I love that I'm learning things I didn't know about him too. Great work, Steven!

Dell said...

The only thing of his I've seen is Mommy which I just recently watched. I'm still hashing out my feelings about that one and hope to have a review up, soon. I definitely want to see more of his work, though.

thevoid99 said...

@Brittani-I didn't do anything at the age of 19 and I'm astonished that he was able to make that film at that age.

@Fisti-There's a lot of things about him that astounds me. Hell, he is managing to take those who are older and more established to school.

@Wendell-Tom at the Farm is coming to theaters this summer but in a very limited release so I hope you check it out as it is quite a tough film to watch but certainly riveting.