Brazilian Divas, Dysfunctional French Families, Mexican Marriage Equality: SIFF 2017 Is Global

Prodigious auteur Xavier Dolan (Mommy) enlists an all-star cast of top French actors―including Vincent Cassel, Léa Seydoux, and Marion Cotillard―for a bold and stylistically daring melodrama about a writer who returns to his hometown after more than a decade to announce to his family that he is dying.

The latest from French-Canadian “enfant terrible” Xavier Dolan is a dark family drama adapted from a 1990 play by Jean-Luc Lagarce. After a 12-year absence, Louis (Gaspard Ulliel, Saint Laurent) returns to his hometown to reunite with his estranged family and to break some important news—he’s suffering from AIDS. But when he arrives he can hardly get a word in. His mother (Nathalie Baye, Laurence Anyways) nervously chatters away and bickers with his younger sister (Lea Seydoux, Blue is the Warmest Color), who is almost a complete stranger to Louis now. His stone-faced older brother (Vincent Cassel, Jason Bourne) does little to mask his negative opinions about his long-lost sibling, while his timid wife (Marion Cotillard, Allied) sits quietly—as uncomfortable an observer as Louis is. As the evening wears on, tension and deep-rooted resentments come to a head, making for a series of explosive confrontations. It’s Only the End of the World creates an all-encompassing experience of domestic claustrophobia and high suspense, the intensity of the acting and invasive camerawork adding to the weight of this emotional family melodrama.

Director Biography

Xavier Dolan started his acting career at the age of four, appearing in hit TV series, commercials and movies. In 2009, he wrote, directed, produced and starred in his debut feature I Killed My Mother, selected at Cannes’ Director’s Fortnight, where it took home the Art Cinema Award, the Prix Regard Jeune and the SACD Prize. The movie was also Canada’s entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 82nd Academy Awards. His second feature film, Heartbeats, premiered in the Un Certain Regard sidebar in Cannes in 2010, and won the top award of the Sydney Film Festival. Laurence Anyways screened at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard as well, and won the Best Canadian Film Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, while Tom at the Farm premiered at the Venice Film Festival as part of the Official Competition, where it won the FIPRESCI Award. In 2014, Dolan’s fifth feature film Mommy, premiered in the Cannes Film Festival’s Official Competition, and won the Jury Prize. In 2015, Dolan was chosen to serve on the jury of the Cannes Film Festival official competition alongside, notably, the Coen brothers and Guillermo Del Toro. Later that year, he directed the music video for Adele’s hit single “Hello,” which won the Juno award for Video of the Year. In 2016, Dolan returned to Cannes with It’s Only the End of the World and won the Grand Prix.