After having waited for nearly 6 months, I finally had the occasion to watch the last Xavier Dolan’s movie: **It’s Only the End of the World** released on the 21st of September. The film tells the story of Louis (Gaspard Ulliel) who, after twelve years of absence he dedicated to his theater career, comes back to the countryside to visit his family (Nathalie Baye, Vincent Cassel, Marion Cotillard and Léa Seydoux) in order to announce his upcoming death as he contracted AIDS. The heatwave weights on this familial afternoon and the storm approaches as the conversations escalate.
Dolan’s new piece is full of a restrained violence that weights on both the characters and the spectators. The only unit of space, this house with its closed shutters and its dark walls, literally enclose the characters. The Quebecois genius’ choice to capture his protagonists in close ups materializes their inability to communicate with each other. The mise-en-scène and the framing create an anxiety-provoking atmosphere allowing the audience to identify with the characters’ distress.
This violence, Dolan also poses it throughout his film through the power of the unsaid. Indeed, if the movie is very chatty, the characters are completely unable to formulate and articulated thought and to express what corrodes them from inside. That is: Louis’ terrible announce, the rest of the family’s sentiment of abandon they only reveal through their agressive behavior toward Louis’ success, but also and particularly this indescribable love that burns them all but that none of them is able to express.
This inability to communicate frustrates the spectators. It is all the more regrettable since the growing tension calms down at certain points of the story during very lyric flash-backs. These moments offer hope and imply that happiness is not unreachable. The cinematography’s poesy of these flash-backs- all awaken by and described through other senses that the sight- thrills the audience. The contrast they create with the rest of the movie amplify the emotions of the story: it seems easy to be happy; however, the characters are unable to reach happiness.
Xavier Dolan confrims, after **Mommy** that he grew up. He masters his camera better than ever and uses all the parameters (light, sound, framing, composition, cinematography, costumes and editing) to illustrate his statement with both efficacy and poesy. The young director does not stop to prove that he can evolve virtuously; he does not give any room on complacency and shows that he is perpetually improving.
The five stars casting incarnates perfectly these “crippled of familial love”. Baye, in her role of the whimsical mother who hides her emotions behind her constant good mood and her sometimes embarrassing humor, arrives at counterbalancing the heavy ambiance of the movie. Ulliel uses his facial expression to transmit what his characters cannot formulate and, despite the shortness of his lignes, succeeds in furnishing a very expressive performance. Cassel is, as usual, excellent and subtly reveals his character’s flaws- even though his protagonist is constantly trying to hide these weaknesses under a mask of anger. Special Mention to Seydoux who shines in her role of the little sister who tries to understand and forgive but whose spontaneity remains restrained by her inability to express what she really feels. The only disappointment is Cotillard’s performance: she cannot make the stuttered Catherine convincing.
Another downside is the fact the total mastery of Xavier Dolan as well as the perfect control he exercises on all the parameters make **It’s Only the End of the World** lose the lightness and the spontaneity that usually inhabits the director’s films- yes, even **Mommy**. That is true that the subject is not really a light one, but this impression to assist to a piece perfectly configured makes us regret a bit the sparkles of the “old” Dolan.
The spectacle is nevertheless very pleasant. Dolan magnifies Lagarce’s play and move deeply the audience. He is surprising and impressing; he is still able to push forward his limits as well as the ones of his actors who yet are not debutant. The film representing Canada for the upcoming Academy Awards, we can only wish he will have the same success he had at Cannes Festival.
It’s Only the End of the World. Directed by Xavier Dolan, With Nathalie Baye, Vincent Cassel, Marion Cotillard, Léa Seydoux and Gaspard Ulliel, Playing in theater since the 21st of September
