Quebec filmmaking prodigy takes on the critics

Q: After the wild success of your debut, did you feel pressure to live up to that when you were starting Heartbeats?

A: Not really. In order to avoid the pressure, I knew that I had to make a very different film, so that the expectations would be here, but I’d be there. [He uses his hands to indicate opposite ends of the spectrum.] I thought that would be the only way – by offering something very different from I Killed My Mother, with a different mandate, with a different tone, with a different body, a different language. I thought that is the only way not to disappoint people – yet some people have already been disappointed, of course.

Q: I’ve read one or two reviews that suggest the film is more style over substance.

A: It’s just different [from the last movie].

From left, Xavier Dolan, Niels Schneider and Monia Chokri in a scene from Dolan's sophomore feature, Heartbeats. (TIFF)

Q: Stylistically, it felt like you were pushing yourself to try cool new things, like shooting from the top of Marie’s head in one scene, so we see the tip of her nose.

A: It’s not about trying cool new things. That’s not how I think. I just tried to make a movie that was very esthetic in order to show how shallow the love in the film is. But instead of thinking that I knew the film was overstylized, people immediately thought that it was just a case of style over substance, and did not think further.

But, I know! I know that the movie is very “looky” and everything. It’s a movie on illusions and a movie on shallow love. This guy [Nico] is neither interesting nor charismatic, he’s got no personality. The only thing he is, is beautiful. So the only thing the movie is, is trying to be beautiful. For me, that is just logical. People won’t allow me to be intelligent, because they think I’m 21 years old and that, obviously, anything in the movie that doesn’t respond to codes or rules is a mistake, not an intention.

What do we mean by “substance”? We mean emotions, I believe? Emotions are: being rejected, having no for an answer, being lonely, waiting for something that never comes – this is there in Heartbeats. And if people are not moved and they don’t see the substance, it is because they have their arms crossed, trying to correct my homework! A movie is not made to be watched with one’s culture or a Videotheque, it is made to be watched with your past, and your heart. And if you don’t do that, you are a critic, not a cinephile.

Q: I totally agree with you, even though I write criticism.

A: I know a lot of cinema critics who are great critics because they watch films with their lives. That’s the door they open to film – the doors of their life. Honestly, should a director really care about a BlackBerry-addicted cinema critic? Over-caffeined, arrogant, 90-year-old guy, who has no intention but to destroy you. How serious can that be? I have understood this soon enough in my life, and I am grateful that I did. I shouldn’t listen to good reviews or bad reviews, or if I listen to any of those, I’ll listen to both good and bad. But I’m just trying to please myself and be proud of my own improvements, trying to improve myself.

Q: What sparked the idea for Heartbeats?

A: A road trip in Arizona with Monia and Niels. We were doing a trip as friends, and we thought, hmmm … we should be reunited professionally, and we should start looking for a screenplay or something that would give us the opportunity to be together. So, I thought, well, let’s just have a love triangle. It’s the easiest way around. [Laughs.]

Q: There are documentary-like bits in the film. At what point did you know you were going to add that?

A: Oh, that was the first thing I had. I wrote the screenplay in the order you see the scenes. That’s the way I write. It’s not a puzzle that I complete afterwards. It’s written [pretends to type) da-da-da-da-da-da, end. The first thing I wrote was the first scene with the talking heads, and then these freaks of love.

Q: I loved the look of your film and was wondering if you generally use off-kilter framing to make a comment about your characters.

A: Generally, yes. I don’t like free camera moves or unjustified movements. I spike myself whenever I use a dolly, and think, “Why the f--- was that a dolly? Why wasn’t it just a static shot?” Sometimes I am very harsh towards myself.