Up Close and Personal

The Subjective Cinema of Xavier Dolan

Josie Taalman Date: 26th of June 2017 10003959 Word count: 23.783 MA Film Studies Thesis Supervisor: dr. Amir Vudka Second Reader: dr. Emiel Martens

Up Close and Personal

The Subjective Cinema of Xavier Dolan

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Abstract Since the release of his first feature film J’ai tué ma mère in 2009, Canadian director Xavier Dolan has been one of the most celebrated young talents of the independent film industry. Despite his expanding body of work and rising success, the academic attention for Dolan’s films has been relatively limited. This thesis aims to examine the oeuvre of this self-taught filmmaker. It is shown that subjectivity is a central element in Dolan’s work and the primary focus of this thesis is to examine this subjectivity. Following the articles that have been written on Dolan, that mainly focus on his recognizable style and his mentation, the subjectivity of the filmmaker is discussed in connection to auteur theory. A reading of Dolan as a modern-day auteur shows that, although he has a specific style, it’s impossible to recognize Dolan’s subjectivity in his films. Theories on passive and active spectatorship are used to examine the subjectivity of the spectator. Following theories on active spectatorship, it is argued that subjective cinematic experiences can’t be generalized. Finally, it is shown that Dolan himself provides an accurate theory on his films by stating that characters’ stories and subjectivity are central. Several theories on character subjectivity are discussed to show that Xavier Dolan uses specific techniques to create this subjectivity. The terminology of David Bordwell, Kristen Thompson and Jeff Smith is used to distinguish perceptual and mental subjectivity. Through formal analyses of his films, it’s argued that Dolan constructs perceptual subjectivity with shots that assume the spatial position of characters, shots that show characters’ interpretative perception and semi-subjective shots. Bruce Kawin’s theory on the mindscreen is connected to mental subjectivity and Gilles Deleuze’s theory on actual and virtual images is used to recognize memory-, dream- and crystal-images in Dolan’s films. Furthermore, Torben Grodal’s argument on the connection between subjectivity and control is discussed to show that Dolan subjectivises the objective. In these formal analyses a connection is made with the major themes in Dolan’s films, as these are constructed and shown through the characters’ conscious minds. It is argued that the subjective images reflect on characters’ isolated position in the film’s reality, their fractured family bonds, their yearning for an impossible love and their desire to retain control on their life.

Key words: Xavier Dolan – Character subjectivity – Perceptual subjectivity – Mental subjectivity – Mindscreen – Crystal-image – Subjectivising the objective

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Table of Contents

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………...4 1. Defining Subjective Cinema…………………………………………………………….....8 1.1 Subjectivity of the Filmmaker…………………………………………………………..8 1.2 Cinematic Experience…………………………………………………………………11 1.3 Subjectivity of Characters.…………………………………………………………….14 2. Subjective Techniques in Xavier Dolan’s films…………………………………………18 2.1 Perceptual Subjectivity………………………………………………………………..21 2.2 Mental Subjectivity……………………………………………………………………35 3. Subjectivising the Objective………………………………………………………….…..52 3.1 Enclosing Space……………………………………………………………………….53 3.2 Coloring……………………………………………………………………………….60 3.3 Soundtrack & Temporality…………………………………………………………….65 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………68 Notes……………………………………………………………………………………….....71 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………75

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Introduction

“The flamboyantly coiffed Quebecois writer-director who put the auteur into hauteur, Xavier Dolan has enjoyed a sensational career rise over the last five years, going from teenage actor to Cannes Competition contender at the ridiculously young age of 25.” (Stephen Dalton, 2014)

“Many critics have argued the age of the ‘auteur’ filmmaker is over. Dolan proves it’s back.” (Matthew Wade, 2014)

“In fact, of all the excellent directors currently working today, he seems to me to be the most potent auteur, who recalls the grandest of directors like Renoir, Truffaut, Varda, yes Fellini.” (Declan Cochran, 2016)

Despite his young age and lack of education, Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan has already enjoyed a thriving career. The now 28-year-old, self-taught filmmaker has released six feature films since 2009, that all premiered at prestigious film festivals and received international critical acclaim. As can be read in the quotations mentioned above, some critics have even stated that Dolan can be recognized as an auteur. These critics praise Dolan’s unique style and often recognize his films as being partly autobiographical. They connect the identity and mentation of the filmmaker to reoccurring themes, storylines and stylistic elements in his films. These reoccurring ‘autobiographical’ elements have also been recognized by various scholars, although the academic attention for Dolan’s films has been relatively limited. The first stirrings of scholarly attention have mainly focused on the films’ queer angle and Dolan’s queer identity, his take on family and mother-son relationships and his Canadian heritage1. Dolan himself has regularly contested the label of ‘auteur’ and argues that his mentation and identity can’t be connected to his films. He especially despises the term Queer cinema and states in several interviews that his queer identity does not define his craft or style. He prefers to be seen as a ‘storyteller’ (Musto, 2011). According to Dolan, an audience should be able to forget the filmmaker and watch the life-world of on screen characters, their story, identity and mentation. In an interview with Filmcomment he stated:

A lot of directors out there promote their own signature and their own trademark and I’m really happy for them, but it’s also very distracting when you watch a film to feel

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that someone is putting himself or herself up front and won’t give you a break from remembering that this is a movie directed by someone. When you watch a movie you want to forget this and think this is a microcosm created for you and for the story and not for someone to show off and say this is my oeuvre—it’s tiring.

Although Xavier Dolan clearly opposes the quoted critics and scholars that focus on his identity and mentation, a similar ground can be recognized in their claims. Both Dolan and these writers focus on the subjectivities that are involved in cinematic practices. They aim to define the conscious minds that are related to film. The critics and scholars try to locate the subjectivity of Dolan; they define the films as products of his mind. In doing so, their ideas can be connected to one of the earliest theories that has been formulated on cinema: auteur theory. Dolan, on the other hand, focuses on the construction of the story and mentation of his characters. He argues that the subjectivities of characters should be central in film. My personal fascination for this filmmaker started with another subjective mind; my own, as a spectator. In 2011, I went to a small cinema in Amsterdam to see a film of an upcoming director; it was Dolan’s Les amours imaginaires (2010). For 102 minutes I felt the hyper-stylized images were alternately attracting and repelling me. This interplay constantly reminded me of the constructed nature of the film and my position towards the screen. From that moment on, I’ve been intrigued by this maker and his films. I’m aware that my personal example can’t be generalized as the experience for all spectators, but it does show there’s another subjective mind that should not be neglected when looking at Dolan’s films.

The three subjectivities that are hereby exposed, that of the filmmaker, the fictional characters and the spectator, are involved in all cinematic practices and have been discussed extensively within Film Studies. The disagreement between the critics and Xavier Dolan and my personal experience show that these subjectivities have an important position in Dolan’s films. Because very little academic texts have been written on this director, despite his rising success, this thesis will investigate these subjectivities. In doing so, the following main question will be answered: What is subjectivity in the films of Xavier Dolan? This main question evokes several sub-questions that are interwoven throughout this thesis. First the notion of subjectivity will be examined, answering the question: How can subjectivity be defined or produced in cinema? This question will be answered by looking at theories on the three subjectivities that are dominant in Film studies. After these subjectivities are defined, this thesis aims to recognize the conscious minds in Dolan’s oeuvre. The

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following questions will be answered: How can the subjective minds of the filmmaker, the spectators and the characters be recognized in Dolan’s films? To answer these questions, different theories will be connected to Dolan’s films and to the existing texts that have been written on this filmmaker. It will be argued that only the constructed subjectivity of characters can truly be examined. This thesis will continue to focus solely on these conscious minds, answering the question: How does Xavier Dolan construct the subjectivity of characters in his films? This question will be answered through formal analyses of Dolan’s films. In order to make a valuable and cohesive statement on Dolan’s films, all his released feature films will be analyzed and compared. The main focus of these analyses will be the reoccurring visual and audial elements that construct subjectivity. Dolan also directed two music videos: Indochine’s College Boy (2013) and Adele’s Hello (2015). These videos will not be analyzed, as Dolan did not have the sole control on their creation and because these clips construct story and character in a different manner. This means the following films will be examined: J’ai tué ma mère (2009), Les amours imaginaires (2010), Laurence Anyways (2012), Tom à la ferme (2013), Mommy (2014) and Juste la fin du monde (2016). The first chapter will examine how subjectivity can be defined and produced in cinema and will aim to find these subjectivities in Dolan’s oeuvre. Following the critics and scholars that recognize Dolan’s conscious mind in his films, the subjectivity of the filmmaker will be defined through ideas that were formulated as auteur theory. A brief overview will be given on the development of this paradigm and ideas by well-known auteurists, such as Alexandre Astruc, François Truffaut, André Bazin, Andrew Sarris, Peter Wollen and Pauline Kael, will be discussed. Through a reading of Xavier Dolan as a modern-day auteur, it will be argued that the critics and scholars paint a limited picture of Dolan’s films by focusing solely on the identity and mind of the director. The subjectivity of the spectator will be examined by looking at important theories on the cinematic experience. The view on the spectator’s agency in this experience has shifted since the 1980’s, moving from the notion of a passive spectator, to a more active spectator that can interpret films in different ways. Established theories in both the passive and active tradition will be discussed in connection to ideas of Jean-Louis Baudry, Christian Metz, Stuart Hall, Torben Grodal and Richard Maltby. Following the theories on active spectatorship, it will be argued that it’s impossible to define the experience for the audience, as it consists of different thinking subjects that can’t be generalized. The subjectivity of characters will be examined in connection to their constructed nature. It will be shown that these conscious minds are the only subjectivities that can truly be

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analyzed, as they are not connected to an existing subject. To investigate the constructed nature, the terminology of David Bordwell, Kirsten Thompson and Jeff Smith will be used to distinguish characters’ perceptual and mental subjectivity. Bruce Kawin’s notion of the mindscreen has a close resemblance to mental subjectivity and will be used to elaborate this notion. Furthermore, the distinction between subjective and objective shots will be questioned and Torben Grodal’s argument on the connection between subjectivity and control will be used to argue that objective images can elicit subjective feelings. The second chapter will focus solely on the construction of character subjectivity in Dolan’s films. First, the construction of perceptual subjectivity will be examined. Through formal analyses it will be shown that Dolan constructs perceptual subjectivity with two different point-of-view shots: shots that assume the spatial position of a character to expose narrative information and shots that show a character’s interpretative perception. Dolan’s use of the semi-subjective shot, as defined by Jean Mitry, will also be discussed. The second sub- chapter will focus on the construction of mental subjectivity, or mindscreens, in Dolan’s films. It will be argued that Dolan constructs four different types of mindscreens. First, the inner voices that convey a character’s thoughts will be discussed. The other mindscreens will be defined using Gilles Deleuze’s theory on virtual and actual images; it will be argued that Dolan constructs memory-, dream- and crystal-images. The third and final chapter of this thesis will deal with images that can’t be categorized as perceptual or mental subjectivity. It will be argued that Dolan also uses images that are external to characters to construct these characters’ subjectivity. Dolan’s original use of aspect ratio and framing, color patterns, soundtracks and temporality will be analyzed to show that these elements reflect the emotional state of main characters. The characters assert control on these images, as the shots reflect a character’s emotional reaction at the exact time it sees or interacts with an object. As noted by Grodal, subjective feelings can thus be conveyed through this control. It will be stated that Dolan has the ability to subjectivise the objective. The conclusion reviews all findings and answers the main question. It will be argued that Dolan provides a useful theory on his own films by stating that characters’ stories and subjectivities should be central in film. Dolan has developed specific techniques to create the subjectivity of characters. He uses different shots to show perceptual and mental subjectivity, but he has also found a way to make the objective, subjective.

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1. Defining Subjective Cinema According to the Oxford English Dictionary the word subjectivity has the following definitions: “Relating to the thinking subject, proceeding from or taking place within the individual consciousness or perception; having its source in the mind; belonging to the conscious life”. Subjectivity thus refers to the conscious mind of an individual and is therein opposed to objectivity, which refers to the object of perception or thought that is external to or independent of the mind. In cinema different individuals and their conscious minds are involved. The first subjectivity that was investigated in connection to Film Studies is that of the filmmaker. With the rise of New Wave cinema in the 1950’s, the concept of the ‘auteur’ came to the forefront in film criticism. The first sub-chapter will look into this theory. A different conscious mind that is extensively examined in connection to film is that of the spectator. In the second sub- chapter some of the major theories on spectatorship will be discussed. The final sub-chapter will examine the subjectivity of characters. Although these subjects do not exist in our real world, it is possible for a film to construct and show their conscious minds. By looking at the conscious minds that are involved in cinema, a theoretical framework will be provided for the analyses of Dolan’s films in the upcoming chapters. It will be shown that subjectivity in film is produced and recognized in different ways. By connecting the different theories to Dolan’s oeuvre, it will be argued that the subjectivity of fictional characters is the only conscious mind that can truly be examined, as it’s impossible to access the minds of the filmmaker and the spectators.

1.1 Subjectivity of the Filmmaker Theories that focus on the conscious mind of the filmmaker are collectivized as auteur theory. Auteurist critics and scholars locate the controlling perspective of the director at the creative center of a film. They focus on theoretical and formal questions about personal expression in cinema and try to define who ‘authors’ a film and has agency for its meaning. This sub- chapter discusses auteur theory in order to see how the subjectivity of Xavier Dolan can be located in his films. The origin of auteur theory can be found in the article “Naissance d’une nouvelle avant-garde: la caméra-stylo” (1948) that was written by Alexandre Astruc. In this article, Astruc introduces the term caméra-stylo. He states that cinema has developed its own language and has become a means of expression, just as all arts have been before it (159).

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According to Astruc, directors oversee all audial and visual elements of the film and create this language. He therefore argues that the director should be considered as the author of a film. He states that the filmmaker writes with his camera, as a writer writes with a pen (161). The auteurist movement truly began with different articles that were published in Cahiers de Cinéma. This French film journal was founded in 1951 by Lo Duca, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and André Bazin (Pisters 2007; 39). Its foundation marked the beginning of film theory and the journal became a key organ for the propagation of auteurism. François Truffaut and André Bazin started this movement and wrote articles on the importance of directors in French and Italian New Wave cinema2. They argued that some directors, with an individuality of style, could be seen as ‘author’ of their films (Pisters 2007; 40). The critics made a distinction between two types of directors. They used the term metteurs-en-scène for directors who simply translate scripts into film, adhering to dominant conventions. Contrary to cinéasts who use mise-en-scène as a self-expression, both in formal aspects, like a characteristic style, and in reoccurring motives, themes and storylines (Pisters 2007; 40). The term ‘auteur theory’ was first coined by American film critic Andrew Sarris in his article “Notes on the Auteur Theory” (1962). He was inspired by the critics of Cahiers du Cinéma and argued that some filmmakers have a specific vision to create a cohesive and recognizable film-world. Sarris described that the way a film looks and moves should be in line with the way a director thinks and feels (562). He formulated three criteria that could help recognize an auteur: the outer circle (film techniques), the middle circle (personal style) and the inner circle (interior meaning). According to Sarris, the capabilities of an auteur cover all three of these circles (562). In summary, these critics constructed the foundation of auteur theory. They argued that the director is the driving force in the creation of a film and that some directors should be recognized as an auteur. These auteurs should master film techniques and have a recognizable formal style. But, auteurs should also create films as a means of self-expression, meaning their personality and mentation can be discovered in reoccurring motives, themes and storylines. Scholars and critics in the auteurist tradition thus locate the conscious mind of the director in his films. From the 1970’s, during the rise of structuralism, this conscious mind was further examined. According to structuralists, such as Peter Wollen, the texts that were written on auteurism ignored the unconscious meanings that can be decoded in film. They argued that the meaning and reoccurring structures in a film text can exceed the intentions of the filmmaker, adding unconscious layers. In this sense, the author also functions as an unconscious catalyst (Pisters 2007; 54).

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Xavier Dolan, an auteur? As can be read in the introduction, Xavier Dolan has been recognized by various critics as a modern-day auteur. In the tradition of auteur theory, these writers state that Dolan has a characteristic style that can be recognized in all his films. This specific style is created by certain cinematic techniques he has mastered. In his article in Daily Review, Matthew Wade mentions some of these techniques in connection to J’ai tué ma mère. He states: “Dolan constructs each frame in such detail that they become a thing of beauty. He also plays with colour and slow-motion. These stylistic techniques give the film and its director a distinct voice, one which Dolan is now becoming famous for.” As will be shown in the upcoming chapters, Dolan’s films indeed display reoccurring aesthetic elements, such as frequent use of unusual aspect ratios, slow-motion, close-up and a colorful pallet. These reoccurring aesthetic choices show that Dolan has a specific style that distinguishes him from other directors. However, the scholars that have criticized auteur theory state that the construction of style can’t fully be attributed to a director. One of the most famous writers that criticized auteur theory, Pauline Kael, already stated in the 1960’s that auteurism doesn’t take into account the collaborative process of filmmaking (Pramaggiore & Wallis 400). A film is not solely created by a director, other crew members also provide creative input. In the case of Xavier Dolan, this argument only seems to confirm his control on the aesthetic character of his films. Dolan doesn’t just function as a director, he’s involved in the entire production process; he writes the screenplays, functions as a production and costume designer, produces, edits and even acts in his first three films. In this sense, it can be stated that Dolan has control on many aspects of the stylization of his films, which truly makes them his creations. In connection to his specific style, Dolan could indeed be seen as an auteur who distinguishes himself from other directors. However, auteur theory is also preoccupied with the idea of film as self-expression of the filmmaker. Several scholars and critics connect Dolan’s identity and mentation to his films. Based on his personal life, they recognize reoccurring themes and storylines that (re)present his inner life-world. A central element of this self-expression is Dolan’s gay identity. Dolan has always been very open about his sexuality and states in several interviews that he has been attracted to men as long as he can remember (Musto, 2011). His films have often been categorized as Queer cinema, a term Dolan profoundly despises due to its ostracizing implications (Knegt 35). Indeed five of his released feature films have a central LGBT character, making it easy to see a connection with Dolan’s own identity and mentation. In his article, Jason D’Aoust even recognizes queer elements in Mommy, Dolan’s only film without any openly LGBT characters. D’Aoust

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focuses on the film’s competing diegetic voices, disruptive soundtrack and scenes of playback and lip-sync and argues that these ‘voices’ convey queer identifications (3). A different reoccurring element in Dolan’s films is the mother-son relationship. Dolan has stated that J’ai tué ma mère is based on the relationship with his mother and is partially autobiographical (Vaughan 157). However, the relationship between mother and son is, to different extents, a theme in all his films. In her text, Fulvia Massimi extensively discusses this theme in Dolan’s films. She finds a connection between this theme and Dolan’s Québécois identity, as he was born and raised in Montréal. Massimi states that the configuration of Québec as a matriarchal society can be recognized in the reinforcement of motherhood and the revision of patriarchal hegemony in the cinema of Xavier Dolan (9). This recognition of Dolan’s identity and mentation seems even more grounded, as he himself portrays the main characters in three of his films; he literally embodies the themes and storylines. In this recognition of Dolan’s self-expression, the aim to locate the filmmaker’s subjectivity can be found. However, in finding this subjectivity, a problem arises. The connections that are made between the reoccurring story-elements in Dolan’s films and his own mentation are purely based on biographies and information that he has provided. Although this information can be truthful, it’s external to his mind and understood and processed by other conscious minds. The auteurist film critics thus seem to confuse biography with subjectivity. As can be read in the definition of the Oxford English Dictionary, subjectivity proceeds from the individual consciousness or perception. We can only ever access our own, individual conscious mind. In this sense, it’s impossible to ever truly access Dolan’s mentation, as it will always be connected to this subject. It can thus be stated that, although the subjectivity of the filmmaker has been recognized in Film studies, we can never truly access this conscious mind. When examining subjectivity in Dolan’s films, it’s impossible to locate the filmmaker’s subjectivity.

1.2 Cinematic Experience Every human being views ‘reality’ subjectively, through its own conscious mind. A film is also watched through this conscious mind, making subjectivity a key component in film reception. In Film studies many different theories have been formulated on this reception and the position of the spectator. These theories look at the experience for the viewer, which is often referred to as the cinematic experience. This sub-chapter will discuss some important theories on the cinematic experience in order to see how the subjectivity of the spectator can be located in the films of Xavier Dolan.

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When Film studies began to establish itself as an academic discipline in the 1960’s, film scholars found inspiration in other academic fields. Most importantly, they were inspired by semiotics and psychoanalysis3. These disciplines are based on the understanding that larger cultural structures control the ways in which individuals engage with the world (Pisters 2007; 101-103). These structures are inevitable and inescapable, meaning individuals don’t have any control over their position within them. Spectators are seen as passive subjects; they don’t have any control on how they view films and the meaning they take from them. One of the most notable theories on the passive spectator is the cinematographic apparatus theory. This term was introduced by Jean-Louis Baudry in 1970. Baudry notes that the central role of cinema is to imitate, through its technological basis, an ideology of idealism; an illusory sensation that the spectator perceives an ‘objective reality’ (42). The entire function of the cinematic apparatus is to make the spectator forget this apparatus. Following this idea, Christian Metz wrote his text “The Imaginary Signifier” (1975). According to Metz, a connection can be made between film and the phantasmatic nature of filmic signs, which are related to dreams. In this sense, film is an imaginary signifier that reflects and circulates unconscious desires. Metz states that this imaginary signifier is created through the connection between film and the spectator. However, this spectator is controlled by the text, its desires driven by hidden ideological codes. In the 1980’s, theories were formulated that opposed the spectator as a passive subject. Several scholars noted that the spectator is actively involved in the process of understanding the images; he or she unites the signifying elements and accesses the film’s messages. It was stated that the spectator isn’t just watching the images, but reads the signs and interprets them. An important scholar that contributed to this theory, is Stuart Hall. In his article “Encoding/Decoding” (1980) he argues that makers encode certain meanings into images, but the spectator can actively find other meanings in the process of decoding these images4. A different approach that recognizes an active spectator, is the cognitivist tradition. Cognitivists look at mental and biological activity of viewers as the central object of inquiry. According to this approach, the embodied brains, that have been shaped through evolution, are central for the experience of film (Grodal 2009; 4). Cognitivists argue that, rather than only looking at cultural systems as a model for understanding audiovisual media, films should also be understood as simulations of experiences of and for embodied brains in the world (Grodal 2009; 5). According to this approach, spectators’ experiences rely on different competencies that are often based on innate dispositions that have evolved over millions of years of human ancestors’ interaction with their life-world.

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The different theories that have been written on active spectatorship have received newfound attention in a trend that has developed in the past two decades: New Cinema Histories. Scholars within this trend argue that the audience is often generalized. They state that theories on spectatorship almost never take into account the diversity of spectators, even though these viewers can actively find different meanings. Richard Malty notes:

Writing the social history of audiences is inevitably an activity circumscribed by indeterminacy. Because audiences are evanescent, unstructured social agglomerations who assemble for each event, dissolving without apparent trace on each occasion, it is tempting to generalize the elusive empirical reality they constitute into abstract but stable social categories. Thus a great deal of writing on film refers to ‘the audience’, or sociologically derived sub cohorts within this imagined totality: the female audience, the gay audience, the child audience, the Nigerian audience and so on. (13)

Maltby’s quote shows the problem in defining spectators’ subjectivity. As already mentioned in the introduction, a personal example can’t be generalized as the experience for all spectators. A cinematic experience is always described from our own position: I can explain how I felt during a screening of Les amours imaginaires; I can argue that the images alternately repelled and attracted me, making me aware of my position as a spectator; but, I’ll never be able to explain this experience for other spectators. As argued in the tradition of active spectatorship, every spectator can find other meanings in a filmic text. This can also be concluded by looking at the academic texts on Xavier Dolan’s films that were discussed in the introduction and previous sub-chapter. These texts show various possible readings of the films, often depending on the background and interests of the scholar. Jason D’Aoust and Jim Leach, for example, rely on Queer theory5. D’Aoust focuses on sounds in Mommy that, according to him, convey ‘queer identifications’ and Jim Leach defines the main character of Laurence Anyways as being in-between-states. Leach also relates this in-between-state to Canadian identity, which he argues, is also in an in-between condition. Leach thus also reads Dolan’s films through the prism of Canadian and national identity, just like Fulvia Massimi and Bill Marshall. Massimi, however, uses the mother-son relationship in Dolan’s films as a central element to define the Québec identity. In her Ph.D. dissertation6, Hannah Vaughan discusses the mother-son relationship in J’ai tué ma mère. She argues that Dolan’s film challenges conventional social and cinematic constructs in its use of narrative, visual, and sound techniques to reflect the fractured nature of the mother-son

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relationship. All these different arguments on the same oeuvre, confirm that different readings are possible and that the audience is not monolithic As these scholars formulated their opinion on the films’ meanings, their experience of Dolan’s films can, to some extent, be accessed. However, besides analyzing these written texts, it is not possible to ever truly access their individual conscious minds. For all the spectators that haven’t written down their experience, this becomes even more difficult. Nobody can grasp the meanings that are constructed in other conscious minds, making it impossible to produce a cohesive statement on the experience for the audience. It can thus be concluded that, although the subjectivity of the spectator has been extensively discussed in Film studies, this conscious mind can never truly be accessed. In this sense, subjectivity in Dolan’s films can’t be recognized by looking at the cinematic experience for the audience.

1.3 Subjectivity of Characters The previous sub-chapters discussed the subjectivity of people that exist in our real world. However, there’s another subjectivity involved in the cinematic practice, that is not connected to an existing subject. In film, the life-world of characters is created, often also providing access to their inner life-world. These inner life-worlds will be discussed in this sub-chapter. The films of Xavier Dolan can be categorized as narrative cinema. A narrative is an account of a string of events in space and time. Not merely a cluster of random elements, but an ordered series of events connected by the logic of cause and effect (Pramaggiore and Wallis 62). This can be summarized by stating that narrative cinema tells a story. In contrast to other narrative mediums, such as a book, a film doesn’t tell a story with words; rather, it uses moving images to show a story. The way in which these moving images present story information is called narration. In his Ph.D. dissertation, Edward Branigan has defined narration as “the textual activity of telling and receiving through which a narrative is realized” (142). A film’s narration can thus be seen as the act of telling. This act determines the range of knowledge that spectators have. But, this narration also manipulates the depth of this knowledge, which refers to the access viewers have into the psychological state of characters. When a story unfolds through information about what a character says and does, there’s a limited access to the character’s psychological state. The character is an object of perception, making the narration relatively objective. However, the story can also unfold through the perspective of a character, proceeding from its individual consciousness. Here, the narration is relatively subjective. David Bordwell, Kristin Thompson and Jeff Smith have formulated a distinction between two types of this subjective narration: perceptual and mental

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subjectivity (91). Perceptual subjectivity refers to the moments when spectators have access to a character’s senses. The film shows what a character sees and hears. Mental subjectivity can be recognized when the film goes beyond a character’s senses, into his or her mind. Spectators might hear an internal voice reporting the character’s thoughts or might see the character’s inner images, representing fantasy, dreams, hallucinations or memories. The notion of mental subjectivity has a close resemblance to a theory Bruce Kawin formulated in 1978. Kawin introduced the term mindscreen, referring to the field of the mind’s eye (10). According to him, a mindscreen shows what a character thinks, making it a tool to construct first-person narration. Kawin also uses the notion of the mindscreen in the tradition of auteurism. He states:

[..] many films as wholes literally present the mindscreen of their makers. Lest the term get out of hand, however, let me suggest that in such cases the authors are acting as narrators, and that not only certain first-person sequences, but also sustained narrations can be identified as the visualized mentations of their ‘speakers’. (12)

In this fragment, Kawin defines film as the screen of the filmmaker’s mind, which he refers to as the self-conscious mindscreen. Besides examining characters’ mindscreens, Kawin analyzes several films as self-conscious mindscreens and notes that makers are often the main ‘speakers’ in film. As stated in the first sub-chapter, however, it’s impossible to access the conscious mind of the filmmaker. Kawin’s analyses may provide an interesting view on the films, but are purely theoretical and hypothetical interpretations. The conscious mind of the maker, or the self-conscious mindscreen, is ungraspable for other conscious minds and will thus be ignored in the upcoming chapters. However, with the construction of perceptual and mental subjectivity, it is possible to grasp the conscious minds of characters. As stated by Edward Branigan, it should be emphasized that these subjective structures are not natural (1979; 145). This subjectivity is constructed and can’t be compared to real, conscious minds. In his book Esthétique et psychologie du cinema (1963) Jean Mitry also states that, although it’s an incomplete translation of a conscious mind, a film can visualize internal views that can’t be seen in real life (Kawin 191). This is precisely why character subjectivities are the only conscious minds that can ever truly be examined. We can access these subjectivities through their constructed nature. As a character’s emotions, thoughts and perception unfold on the screen, its constructed conscious mind appears before the spectator.

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Perceptual and mental subjectivity can be constructed using certain cinematic techniques. As mentioned in Film Art: An Introduction, moments of subjectivity often come in bursts. They are embedded in a framework of objective narration (92). Even though it’s stated that there’s a spectrum between objectivity and subjectivity, the embedding in objective narration shows that Bordwell, Thompson and Smith make a clear distinction between objective and subjective shots. Torben Grodal has questioned this distinction in his article “Subjectivity, Objectivity and Aesthetic Feelings in Film” (2000). Grodal explains that objectivity is mapped as belonging to a real, exterior space, where subjectivity is mapped as belonging to a non-real, interior space (89). The exterior space consists of all the phenomena on which actions can be performed with the use of the body. The interior space, on the other hand, are all the phenomena that impede or block this action (101). However, Grodal argues that it’s actually the viewer’s and protagonist’s control over what takes place in a film that is central to the experience of subjectivity (87). In this sense, techniques that are connected to objective shots, can also be used to elicit subjective feelings (90). In the upcoming chapters, Grodal’s theory will be used to look at objective shots that produce subjective feelings. As a cognitivist, Grodal is preoccupied with the spectator’s position and the intersubjective connection between the character and the viewer (88). This relation between the representation of character subjectivity and spectator subjectivity has also been discussed in other traditions within Film Studies. The use of subjective narration is often described as a crucial tool filmmakers have to engage the spectator’s thoughts and emotions with characters. An important theory on spectators’ engagement is the structure of sympathy, as formulated by Murray Smith. Smith recognizes three levels of this engagement: recognition (the spectator’s acknowledgement of a character), alignment (the perspective presented on the actions, thoughts or feelings of a certain character) and allegiance (the position of the spectator’s moral approval of a character). The connection between a character’s subjectivity and the conscious mind of the spectator have also been examined in the phenomenological tradition. Scholars within this tradition recognize intersubjectivity in the cinematic practice. They focus on the experience for the entire body, or ‘embodied experience’, which refers to a sensuous, tactile relationship between the body of the film, the bodies of the film’s diegesis and the body of the spectator. Jennifer Barker, for example, uses Merleau-Ponty’s concept of inspiration as an expression of the reversibility and suffusion between outside and inside and between self and other, that is at play in the cinematic experience (146). Although these theories forge an interesting connection between the characters’ subjectivity and the conscious mind of the spectator, this connection is purely theoretical. As

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discussed in the second sub-chapter, it is impossible to describe the thoughts and emotions of the audience. However, it should be noted that the upcoming analyses of Xavier Dolan’s films are written from the subjective perspective of a spectator. Although the main focus will be the construction of character subjectivity, it is insuperable to completely leave out my own personal experiences and interpretations.

As can be concluded from this chapter, there are three conscious minds that are involved in the cinematic practice: that of the filmmaker, the spectators and the characters. As argued in connection to the oeuvre of Xavier Dolan, it’s impossible to ever gain access to the subjectivity of the filmmaker and the spectators. These conscious minds exist in our real world and will always be connected to the subject. To others these are merely objects to their own subjective mind. That’s why these subjectivities will not be examined in the upcoming chapters. On the contrary, the subjectivity of characters can be accessed due to its constructive nature. In the second and third chapter it will be shown that Dolan creates images that express the subjective thoughts and feelings of characters. These characters seem to have control over these images, as they adjust to their inner life-world. It will be argued in chapter three that Dolan uses specific stylizations to subjectivise the objective. But first, the creation of perceptual and mental subjectivity will be discussed.

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2. Subjective Techniques in Xavier Dolan’s films This chapter is concerned with the representation of characters’ subjective relation to the ‘real’. The real hereby refers to what is represented as real in the film; the diegetic life-world that is constructed and displayed. As stated in the previous chapter, a character’s subjective relation to this reality can be created to unfold a story in the filmic space and time. Bruce Kawin has noted this subjectivity can include distortion, meaning a character can give a distorted interpretation of the film’s reality (10-11). When the story unfolds through an individual conscious mind, the reality of this mind is portrayed. Here it should again be noted that the subjective structures in film are not natural and can’t be compared to real conscious minds. A film can construct internal views that would be invisible in real life. It’s through this constructed nature that the subjectivity of characters becomes accessible. In the introduction of this thesis, it’s shown that Xavier Dolan values characters, their story and inner life-world as the most important elements in narrative cinema. But, the construction of these characters and their conscious mind are hardly ever discussed in connection to his films. Critics and scholars often discuss these characters in connection to Queer theory5, as the main characters in five of Dolan’s films do not conform to heteronormative gender codes. As mentioned in the first chapter, the LGBT characters have often been related to Dolan’s own mentation. Dolan himself despises the term Queer cinema and the connection that is made with his own identity. Moreover, he has repeatedly stated that the sexuality of his characters is never a central element in his films. In an interview with the Huffington Post in 2015, Dolan said: “I feel like in my movies, I’ve always made characters’ sexuality secondary. It is a trait of your personality. It is part of who you are, but it isn’t how a film should be defined and how a story should be defined”. Although sexuality and queerness are reoccurring elements in Dolan’s films, it can indeed be stated that it’s always just one aspect of a character’s identity and never the central theme or story element. The divergence from heteronormative gender codes is often an indication or motive for the characters’ position in the film’s reality. Although the word “queer” often refers to non-normative sexualities, originally it means “strange” or “displaced”. All main characters in Dolan’s films feel displaced in the film’s reality and society, as they experience feelings of loneliness and isolation. It’s this experience of loneliness and isolation that is the central theme in all of Dolan’s films. Besides sexuality, there are other underlying themes in Dolan’s films that construct this marginalized position, such as fractured family bonds, the desire for an impossible love and desire to retain control.

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The drama film J’ai tué ma mère tells the story of a difficult relationship between a single mother and her son. This relationship is seen through the perspective of the son, Hubert (Xavier Dolan), who often misbehaves as he feels misunderstood and unwanted. As he has fluctuating feelings of love and hatred toward his mother Chantale (Anne Dorval), it’s revealed that he desires to be accepted and loved by her. The fractured relationship makes him feel displaced and isolated. Hubert’s sexuality emphasizes this isolated position, as he deviates from the heteronormative gender codes in society. His sexuality also enhances the alienation between him and his mother, who discovers her son’s sexuality by accident. However, it’s the already existing incomprehension Hubert feels that is central in this film. As Dolan himself has stated in an interview with Flavorwire: “Is this movie about a gay son or about a son? Is it about a son fighting for his homosexuality? Is that what it is, his homosexuality, his burning secret is making him be an asshole to his mom? No, not at all. It’s a mother-son dynamic and it has nothing to do with homosexuality”. In Dolan’s second film Les amours imaginaires, that can be categorized as a romantic drama, the desire for love and the fear of rejection are important themes. The main characters Marie (Monia Chokri) and Francis (Xavier Dolan) become obsessed with Nicolas (Niels Schneider), the new boy in town. Their competition for his love causes them to drift apart. But, Nicolas only seems to be an objectification of their desire to be loved. They become isolated from the film’s reality, as they completely indulge themselves in their imaginary love. Francis’ homosexuality seems to be an additional indication of his isolated position. His deviation from heteronormative gender codes cause him to be rejected more often. In the romantic drama film Laurence Anyways, the heteronormative gender codes and their construction are to a greater extent a central theme. The title character Laurence (Melvil Poupaud), who is living as a man, reveals her inner desire to become her true self: a woman. During her transition period, she experiences the social pressure and disapproval of the heteronormative society she lives in. However, the isolated position of the main characters can’t solely be connected to Laurence’s deviation from heteronormative gender codes. As Xavier Dolan has noted in the interview with Flavorwire: “I’ve never thought of it as a story about a trans-person. The story does not revolve around LGBT issues or the hardships of sexual transition — it’s always been a love story from the very beginning”. Laurence’s transformation is merely used as an element that pressurizes the relationship between Laurence and Fred (Suzanne Clément). Their differences and lack of acceptance for each other are central to the story. As Dolan continues in Flavorwire: “Transsexualism seemed like the most promising and rich metaphor to talk about difference amongst a couple”. The central

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theme can thus be recognized as the desire for love and acceptance, that Fred and Laurence both feel. As this seems to be impossible in their relationship, they become isolated in their love for each other. In the psychological thriller Tom à la ferme, suppression of homosexuality is an important story element. Tom (Xavier Dolan) visits the funeral of his late lover Guillaume and meets Guillaume’s mother Agathe (Lise Roy) and brother Francis (Pierre-Yves Cardinal). Agathe doesn’t know her son was gay and Francis forces Tom to keep his sexuality a secret. As Francis becomes increasingly violent, Tom begins to succumb to his dominant attitude. Tom is isolated in the film’s reality because he’s not accepted in its heteronormative culture. However, it’s actually Tom’s inner conflict that’s central to the story. His desire to escape from his sadness and the reality that Guillaume has died, cause him to stay at the farm. Although he recognizes this farm life as ‘real life’, which he tells his friend Sarah (Evelyne Brochu), he’s imprisoned at the farm and becomes isolated between two realities. Dolan’s fifth feature film Mommy has a clear resemblance with his first film. As Peter Knegt states: “In a certain sense, Mommy is a full circle return to his directorial debut, bringing back that film’s primary actress Anne Dorval and once again tackling the dynamic between a mother and son in a titular manner” (33). However, in Mommy, the relationship is exposed through the perspective of the mother, who tries to raise her son Steve (Antoine- Olivier Pilon). Steve’s ADHD and aggressive outburst cause him to be misunderstood and marginalized in the film’s society. Diane, or Die as she is addressed throughout most of the film, also becomes isolated in the film’s society through her love for Steve and her desire to provide a normal life for him. When Steve and Die meet their neighbor Kyla (Suzanne Clément), who has an isolated position due to her speaking problems, they experience brief moments of freedom and happiness. In the drama film Juste la fin du monde, Louis (Gaspard Ulliel) visits his family after an absence of 12 years to announce his approaching death. Although his absence is never clarified, it’s shown that he doesn’t really belong with this family and is unable to communicate with them. Two central themes can be recognized: Louis’ desire to be accepted by his family and the fear of losing control over his life in the face of death. These themes connect to Louis’ isolated position in the film’s reality, as he is treated like an outsider and loses control when he can’t share his emotional message. Louis’ homosexuality doesn’t contribute to this isolated position. Rather it’s an additional motive for his displacement in the film’s reality, as he’s the only character that deviates from heteronormative gender codes.

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The central themes that can be recognized in Dolan’s films are often represented through the subjectivity of a character. Dolan constructs these subjectivities to show characters’ isolated position in the film’s reality and their relation to their life-world and other characters. In this chapter the construction of perceptual and mental subjectivity in Dolan’s films will be discussed. By analyzing these subjective images, it will be shown that Dolan has specific techniques to create the conscious minds of his characters. First, the construction of perceptual subjectivity will be investigated. The second sub-chapter will examine mental subjectivity in connection to Kawin’s notion of the mindscreen and Deleuze’s concepts of the recognition-, recollection-, dream- and crystal-image.

2.1 Perceptual Subjectivity Perceptual subjectivity can be recognized when a film shows its reality through the perspective of a character’s senses. Because film is an audiovisual medium, this perspective can only be shown through the vision and hearing of a character. The character whose perspective is shown, has control on these images and sounds of the film. This control is constructed through the use of different techniques. The archetypal device of this sort is the point-of-view shot (POV), where the camera assumes the spatial position of a character to show what this character sees. The camera lens seems to become the eye of the character. In general, this technique is based on the physical conditions of human eye-sight. The camera assumes an angle and distance that correspond with the anatomy of the human eye and the position of the character’s body. Here it should be noted that camera movements are often slower than actual eye movements, as the filmic images have to appear clear on screen. Following the characteristics of human eye-sight, a POV shot can also portray how a character sees objects. For example, by showing objects out- of-focus, myopia or drunkenness can be suggested. In this sense, as noted by Bruce Kawin, the vision of a character can show a distorted reality. Through a character’s perspective, objects can be seen that appear differently to other characters. In these moments, the POV shot, which Kawin refers to as subjective camera (8), has a close connection to a character’s mind’s eye. Besides looking at shots that imitate the physical eye of characters, the images that relate to the mind’s eye will also be discussed in connection to Dolan’s films. A POV shot is often preceded or followed by a shot of a character, to confirm whose perspective is shown. This construction will from now on be referred to as a point-of-view sequence. In his book Narrative Comprehension and Film (1992), Edward Branigan distinguishes the different elements that are used to construct a POV sequence as being

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implicit or explicit. In the subjective shot from the character’s perspective, this character can’t be seen and is implicitly present. The character can become explicit in the objective shot that shows the character looking (162). Several other scholars have analyzed the construction of the POV sequence purely as a formal parameter. In his book from 1973, for example, Noël Burch valued these sequences for their potential to bring shot transition to the spectator’s attention7 (79-80). In the upcoming analyses of Dolan’s films, the formal aspects of POV shots will be addressed. The main focus in these analyses will be the construction of the characters’ subjectivity through the use of the POV sequence. The subjective nature of the POV sequence has also been discussed by several scholars. An important theory was formulated by the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, who coined the term perception-image in Cinéma 1: L'Image-Mouvement (1983)8. This term refers to what is perceived, before a character reacts and acts (61-65). It encompasses POV shots and shots that are external to a character (71). However, Deleuze notes that the POV shot itself also is external to the character, as it is an external representation of what a character sees. A combination of shots can create the illusion that we’re seeing from a character’s perspective, but actually the ability to perceive the perception of a character is created. The perception- image thus collapses the distinction between subjective and objective and creates a perception of perception itself (71-85). Deleuze argues that the camera here acquires internal vision, which he terms as the consciousness of the camera. This camera, in combination with the human brain, manages to simulate the way a character sees things (Pisters 2003; 32). In this thesis, a connection to Deleuze’s theory can be found. It’s stated that subjectivity and perception of characters are constructed; meaning the conscious minds of characters are a representation, external to these characters. In this sense, these conscious minds are always objective. However, the co-operation that Deleuze recognizes between the human brain and the camera causes insuperable problems that relate to findings in the first chapter. A theoretical description of the subjectivities that are involved in cinema can be given, but it’s impossible to grasp the actual perception of conscious minds other than our own. That’s why the main focus in this thesis is the construction of subjectivity in the diegesis. The terms ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’ will be used in connection to the constructed reality in film, not to the actual reality and structure of the world that Deleuze is trying to examine. POV sequences will thus be discussed as the constructed subjectivity of characters that show a certain perspective on the reality of the film. During a POV sequence, films often also portray what a character hears from its point in space. The visual and audial elements are aligned in the character’s point-of-view, creating

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a mono-directional consciousness (Rabiger 471). However, films can also display an aural POV shot, where the microphone assumes the position of a character’s ears, without showing what this character sees. In these instances bi-directional consciousness, where eyes and ears are on different sources, is created (Rabiger 471). In his dissertation, Edward Branigan notes that the aural POV is problematic in the construction of character subjectivity. According to him, the subjective modality “I hear” bears a close relation to the subjective “I see” (194). When the visuals of a shot are neutral and objective, but the sounds are subjective, the spectator gets confused and the gap between this viewer and the character widens (194). In the analyses of aural POV shots in Dolan’s films the spectator will be ignored. However, the subjective sounds will be connected to the visuals that are simultaneously shown.

Constructing the vision of characters Xavier Dolan uses optical POV shots in all his feature films. By positioning the camera in the spatial location of a character, these shots provide access to the vision of this character and construct its conscious mind. In these shots, the physical conditions of human sight is simulated with the use of the camera distance, angle and movement. In Dolan’s films, two different types of POV shots can be recognized. First, the shots that merely use the spatial position of a character to expose narrative information will be discussed. Secondly, the shots that show a distorted reality through the perspective of a character will be examined. It will be argued that these distorted shots are related to the character’s mind’s eye, as they show a character’s subjective perspective and position in the film’s reality. Before analyzing the construction of these two types of POV shots, it should again be noted that POV sequences almost never exclusively consist of shots from the character’s perspective. In Dolan’s films these shots are often preceded or followed by an explicit shot of the character that is looking. These objective shots show whose position the camera assumes, in other words, who has control over the image. Furthermore, the objective shots are used to capture the response from a character. In Dolan’s films subjective and objective shots are thus often combined to create POV sequences. In this sense, it can be stated that ‘objective’ shots contribute to the creation of character subjectivity.

In Dolan’s films, a character’s vision is sometimes solely used to show the film’s reality from a certain angle. A different character situated in this position would see exactly the same. Dolan uses these POV sequences as a formal tool, to unravel narrative information, or, as Noël Burch has stated, to draw the attention of the spectator through shot transition.

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Examples of this construction in Dolan’s films can be found in most sequences that show a written text or a picture. The camera assumes the position of a character by simulating the distance and angle of the eyes that are looking at the object. With this construction the text or picture appears to be looked at through the perspective of this character, giving it control over the images (Fig. 1-3). The text or picture is exposed through a character’s eyes, confirming that he or she perceives the information. But, the main goal of these shots is to show certain information to spectators. Through a character’s vision, access can be provided to information that may not be visible from a different angle. An example of this exposition can be found in Tom à la ferme, where a central plot-element is introduced through a POV shot. From Tom’s perspective, his hand is seen while writing a eulogy on a napkin (Fig. 4). The written words reveal that Tom has lost someone very close to him, his lover Guillaume. This short introduction is necessary, as Agathe doesn’t know that her son was gay. A different example can be found in Mommy, when Steve enters Kyla’s bedroom and sees photographs standing on her nightstand (Fig. 5). Steve looks at pictures of Kyla’s daughter, but also sees photos of a boy who is not featured in the film. Although this isn’t confirmed, the pictures seem to hint at the reason for Kyla’s sabbatical and speaking problems; she lost her son.

Fig. 1 A postcard from Nicolas, read through Fig. 2 A poem written by Laurence, read Marie’s perspective in Les amours imaginaires through Fred’s perspective in Laurence Anyways

Fig. 3 Steve’s schoolbook, read Fig. 4 Through Tom’s perspective, the eulogy that through Diane’s perspective in he writes on a napkin is shown Mommy

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Fig. 5 The pictures on Kyla’s desk are seen from Steve’s perspective

Other examples of POV sequences that unravel narrative information can be found when characters are watching other characters. Besides simulating the distance of characters’ eyes and their viewing angle, these shots also often follow the eye-movements of these characters. Although these camera movements almost never correspond to actual movements of the human eye, they do follow the vision of the character that has control over the images. In Laurence Anyways a POV sequence of Laurence’s ex-girlfriend Charlotte (Magalie Lépine Blondeau), shows that she secretly watches from her car as Laurence and Fred leave for their trip to Île au Noir (Fig. 6). When Charlotte visits Fred’s husband (David Savard) during her absence, it’s evident that she will reveal what she saw, causing trouble for Fred’s marriage. In Tom à la ferme POV shots are often used to build suspension in the narrative. An example can be found when Tom tries to flee through a corn field. When Tom frantically looks around the seemingly abandoned field, it’s revealed that he’s expecting to be followed (Fig. 7). In Mommy a similar POV sequence is used to create suspension. When Steve is no longer behind Kyla in the supermarket, she looks around to find him (Fig.8). As he’s not in her eye-sight, it becomes clear that something might have happened to Steve.

Fig. 6 Charlotte watches from her car as Laurence and Fred leave for their trip in Laurence Anyways

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Fig. 7 Tom is looking through the corn field, to see if he’s being followed by Francis

Fig. 8 Kyla looks around in the supermarket to find Steve

As can be concluded from these examples, Dolan regularly uses POV shots of different characters, that are not necessarily main characters, in the same film. In these sequences the vision of a character is purely constructed to unravel narrative information; the conscious mind that is constructed is only perceptual. The examples all show the film’s reality from the spatial position of a character, but do not seem to distort this reality. The seen objects can also be witnessed by other characters, admittedly from a different spatial position. Contrary to these POV sequences, Dolan also creates sequences that show a distorted vision of the diegetic world. In these sequences the conscious mind of a character creates its interpretation of reality that can’t be seen by other characters. These sequences portray a character’s thoughts and feelings and have a close connection to the mind’s eye. However, these shots do not solely show an image of a character’s imagination and can’t be categorized as mindscreens. Rather, they show an interpretation of what a character is actually seeing; a character’s interpretative perception. This interpretative perception shows characters’ isolated position in the film’s reality and can be connected to central themes in Dolan’s films. The use of this technique can already be recognized in Dolan’s first feature film J’ai tué ma mère, when Chantale is introduced through the eyes of her son Hubert (Fig. 9). Hubert’s perspective presents a distorted image of the film’s reality and therein shows his view on the relationship with his mother. This distortion is created with the use of slow- motion, that prolongs the action of Chantale’s eating ritual, the use of an extreme close-up,

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that abstracts Chantale’s mouth from the rest of her physical body, and the lack of diegetic sound. This distortion emphasizes Hubert’s focus on his mother’s eating habits. The alternations between the POV shots and close-ups of Huberts eyes, show his averted reaction to his mother; in order to escape this view, Hubert closes his eyes. In this short sequence Hubert’s aversion to his mother is thus exposed, showing his subjective interpretation of their fractured relationship. The act of closing his eyes, that literally separates Hubert from his surroundings, symbolizes his isolation that is caused by this fractured mother-son relationship.

Fig. 9 A point-of-view shot introduces Hubert’s relationship with Chantale

In Les amours imaginaires, POV sequences that show a distorted image of the diegetic world are used to show Marie’s and Francis’ isolated position. The first POV shot in the film shows a distorted image of a group of friends, with Nicolas in the center of the frame. As vertical black lines move across the screen, the image seems to be out of focus, creating a distance between this group and the observer (Fig. 10). The next shot explains this distortion and shows that the scenery at the table is actually being looked at from behind a door curtain (Fig. 11). This view resembles a perspective from behind bars, as if the observer is imprisoned. This ‘imprisonment’ creates a literal distance between this observer and the group of friends. The next shot of Marie standing in the kitchen with Francis, confirms that her perspective was shown (Fig. 12). From this introduction of Marie and Francis, they are thus already portrayed as being isolated from their surroundings. The distance between the main characters and Nicolas also already shows that they can only admire him from a distance.

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Fig. 10 Fig. 11

Fig. 12

The distortion in this sequence is caused by the reality of the room, as the door curtain creates the vertical lines. The following POV sequence ignores this curtain and shows images that present the diegetic world through the distorted perspective of the main characters. Through the perspective of Marie and Francis, several medium shots of Nicolas are shown (Fig. 13). While the diegetic sounds are heard in real-time, the different shots of Nicolas, that are connected with jump cuts, are shown in slow-motion. This contrast between sound and image, reflects that time seems to move slower for Marie and Francis when they meet Nicolas for the first time; they are momentarily detached from the film’s reality. This sequence introduces their immediate affection for this new boy in town and a main theme of the film; their desire to be loved. As Marie and Francis are looking from a distance, it’s shown that they’re separated from the group and from Nicolas. They’re staring at Nicolas without him returning their gaze, which predicts their isolation in the film’s reality due to their unanswered love.

Fig. 13

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In Laurence Anyways several POV sequences show a distorted reality of people gazing at Laurence or Fred. Through these gazes the main characters’ isolated position in the film’s diegesis is constructed. Such a sequence can already be seen at the beginning of the film, when the camera moves through Laurence’s perspective along a street past onlookers, staring in apparent surprise (Fig. 14). By alternating between slow-motion and real-time and with the use of estranging non-diegetic music, the POV shots emphasize these shameless, surprised looks. With these gazes the onlookers are judging what they see as not ‘normal’, isolating Laurence at the margins of the film’s society. However, the image of Laurence, the object of these looks, is withheld; the first sight of this main character is a blurred female outline. In this sequence Laurence’s identity in the film’s society is thus solely constructed through the judgement of others. Here the film seems to reflect on the constructed nature of identity and marginalized positions, especially concerning the heteronormative gender codes in society. Jim Leach has also recognized this film’s reflection on the constructed nature of identity. In his article, he notes that the surprised faces of the onlookers emphasize how the sense of self is mediated through the look of others (99). As similar sequences from Laurence’s perspective are used throughout the film, for example with Laurence’s first female appearance at the school where she teaches, it can be stated that the constructed nature of identity is a reoccurring theme in the film. It’s also literally addressed during a scene of the interview, when Laurence notes that the interviewer hasn’t looked at her once. The interviewer asks if looks are important for Laurence and she answers by stating: ‘Vous avez besoin d'air pour respirer non?’ (You need air to be able to breath, right?). This comparison with breathing shows that Laurence recognizes looks as being crucial to exist in society.

Fig. 14 Screen grabs from the gazing-sequence, that is shown through Laurence’s perspective

Similar POV sequences are used to show Fred’s position in the film’s reality. Contrary to the sequences from Laurence’s perspective, Fred’s POV sequences do not relate to the theme of the constructed nature of identity and heteronormative gender codes. Rather, these images present Fred’s inner feelings of isolation and loneliness that can be connected to the central

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theme of the complicated love between her and Laurence. An example can be found during the cine-ball, where a POV sequence shows that Fred is being stared at during her entrance (Fig. 15). The gazes of the party guests position her outside the group, constructing her feelings of isolation. However, these feelings do not seem to relate to the party itself, but to Fred’s general state of mind. She visits the cine-ball to forget the fight she had with Laurence that afternoon; the entrance scene seems to be a reflection of her feelings elicited by this fight. As the party progresses, the looks of the guests disappear and shots of Fred among the other party guests are shown (Fig. 16). The ball thus succeeds in making her forget her emotions of solitude as she becomes part of the group.

Fig. 15 Screen grabs from Fred’s POV sequence Fig. 16

In Mommy a distorted perspective on reality is given to show Steve’s dependent relationship with his mother and his isolated position in the film’s society. During a visit to a karaoke bar with Diane and Paul (Patrick Huard), a neighbor who’s helping them with the upcoming trial, Steve sings Andrea Bocelli’s ‘Vivo per lei’ on stage. During his performance of the song, which literally translates as ‘I live for her’, other guests that are looking and laughing at Steve are shown through his perspective. Steve seems to accept this mockery, until he witnesses his mother getting physical with Paul. When Diane has an intimate conversation with the neighbor, the images start to distort. Steve could handle the mockery as he felt supported by the looks of his mother. When Diane turns her back to him and Steve is left out of the intimate moment she shares with Paul, he starts to feel his isolated position. Through Steve’s perspective, extreme close-ups of laughing mouths and judging eyes in slow-motion are shown (Fig. 17). The diegetic sounds blur together as Steve seems to lose it. These images emphasize that Steve is being treated as an outsider. His isolated position in these shots is also constructed through the use of lighting. Shots of Steve show the blue color of the stage lights, where the images of the observers have a red glow. He is portrayed as being different as he’s not part of the observers’ surroundings. Dolan’s use of colors to express subjective emotions will be discussed elaborately in the third chapter.

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Fig. 17 The images start to distort through Steve’s perspective

As a final example, a sequence from Juste la fin du monde can be examined. At the end of this film, when the emotion seems to have subsided, Louis’ announcement that he has to leave, rekindles the fight. His brother Antoine (Vincent Cassel) is angered by his sudden departure. While the rest of the family stands up for Louis and tries to keep him there, Antoine wants to speed up the process by kicking him out. He nearly punches Louis in the face, which is seen from Louis’ perspective. In this distorted sequence, the focus of the image shifts from Antoine’s face to his fist (Fig. 18). This change of focus shows the problematic family bond that is a central theme in the film. As Louis first looks Antoine straight into his eyes, trying to connect with his brother, it’s shown that Louis tries to be acknowledged by and to be part of this family. However, as the image shifts to the threatening fist, it’s revealed that the attempt to communicate and reconnect has failed. Louis’ isn’t part of this family, Antoine is literally kicking him out.

Fig. 18 A change of focus through Louis’ perspective

With these examples it is shown that Dolan uses several POV sequences, categorized as interpretative perception, that distort the film’s reality to show a character’s isolated position in this reality. These isolated positions can be connected to different themes in Dolan’s films. It can be concluded that Dolan only uses this technique to construct the conscious mind of the films’ main characters; their subjective relation to the diegesis is shown.

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Besides the POV sequences that can be recognized, a different technique Dolan recurrently uses should also be mentioned. What a character sees is often shown without the camera assuming the spatial position of this character. In these shots, what the character is looking at is shown while this character is present in the frame. This type of shot was already defined by Jean Mitry, who coined the term semi-subjective or associational image (214). According to Mitry, the semi-subjective shot arose in the 1930’s in order to overcome a limit in the classic POV shot. With the semi-subjective shot, it became possible to communicate the subjective reaction of a character in the same shot as the object that evokes this reaction (215). Objective images can thus become semi-subjective by showing characters’ subjective reactions. In J’ai tué ma mère Dolan uses this type of shot in a very specific way. Several examples have already been mentioned of POV shots that show texts to expose narrative information. In Dolan’s first film, he uses a semi-subjective shot to expose this information. By positioning the text on screen, access is provided to what Hubert is reading (Fig. 19). Instead of seeing it through his perspective, Hubert’s reaction is present in the same frame, creating a subjective reflection on the exposed information. When Hubert reads the confirmation of the boarding school application, for example, he throws away the letter and storms out of the frame in slow-motion, showing his anger. In this moment the objective shot has an emotional, subjective nature. As the texts are always related to the relationship with his mother, such as Hubert’s interest in poetry on the mother-son relationship, these images contribute to Hubert’s perspective on his mother. But, the stylization of written texts also reflect an important aspect of Hubert’s personality: his passion and talent for writing.

Fig. 19 Semi-subjective shot show narrative information

However, in Dolan’s films the subjective reaction of the character is often ungraspable in these type of shots. The character is present in the frame, showing that the camera isn’t assuming its spatial position, but his or her reaction is not displayed. Dolan most notably uses over-the-shoulder shots that position the characters as a blurry apparition (Fig. 20). Although these images can’t assume a character’s perspective, these characters often do have control

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over what is shown. The camera moves along with their gaze and shows what they’re seeing. Following Torben Grodel’s ideas, who has argued that control is central to the experience of subjectivity, these images can also provide insight in a conscious mind. Several examples can be found in Tom a la ferme, in which Dolan doesn’t use POV sequences that distort reality. Instead, semi-subjective shots are used, together with long shots that will be discussed in the third chapter, to show Tom’s isolated position in the film’s reality. When Tom arrives at the farm, for example, the camera follows his gaze while he’s present in the frame (Fig. 21). In this way, he’s positioned as a lonely figure in the vastness of the countryside and the desolated farmhouse. He’s isolated in the openness and doesn’t seem to belong in this reality.

Fig. 20 Examples of over-the-shoulder shots that position the characters as a blurry apparition Screengrabs from Mommy, Tom à la ferme and Juste la fin du monde

Fig. 21 Semi-subjective shots are used to show Tom’s isolated position

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Constructing the hearing of characters Xavier Dolan often creates mono-directional consciousness by aligning the visual and audial elements during POV shots. However, as can be seen in the previous examples, some visual POV sequences only use non-diegetic sounds, creating bi-directional consciousness. Dolan also creates this bi-directional consciousness by solely constructing the hearing of characters through an aural POV shot. In these shots the microphone assumes the position of a character, without aligning with the visuals from this character’s perspective. Just like the visual POV shots, aural POV shots are used in Dolan’s films to provide narrative information. The sounds expose information that can’t be heard from a different perspective. Several examples can be found in J’ai tué ma mère, during scenes in the car. The camera is often positioned outside the car, so both Hubert and Chantale can be seen in the space they’re occupying. However, the sounds are recorded from the spatial position of Hubert and Chantale inside the car, exposing the conversations they’re having. A different example can be found in Laurence Anyways, when everything that Laurence’s girlfriend Charlotte is saying seems to be drowned by non-diegetic music. When an image is shown of Laurence putting down her headphones, it turns out she was listening to this music and didn’t hear anything Charlotte said. However, Dolan also uses aural POV to show reality through the distorted perspective of a character. These moments of interpretative perception show characters’ position in the film’s reality and their subjective experience of this position. An example can be found in Les amours imaginaires, when Francis has just confessed his love to Nicholas. After Nicholas turns him down, Francis leaves his apartment and walks down the stairs. In this shot no (non-)diegetic sound is heard, there’s a complete silence. This lack of sound shows Francis’ distorted perspective on reality. He’s confronted with his isolation and loneliness, now that his illusion of love is shattered. A different example can be found in Laurence Anyways, when the sentence ‘l'addition s'il vous plait’ (the bill, please), as said by Laurence, is repeated several times from Fred’s perspective. This request for the bill marks the end of their break-up conversation and accompanies images of Laurence leaving the café. The repetition of this sentence emphasizes Fred’s loneliness, as Laurence leaves her and this is the last sentence she will say to her in five years. As a final example, an aural POV shot in Juste la fin du monde can be discussed. When Antoine and Suzanne start arguing, as is common for siblings, the sound assumes Louis’ perspective. The diegetic sounds of the argument slowly dissolve, emphasizing that Louis is not involved in this argument. He is an outsider to this family, isolated from their familiar conversations.

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It can be concluded that Xavier Dolan regularly shows the film’s reality through the perspective of a character’s vision and hearing. He constructs the perceptual subjectivity of characters to expose narrative information when the camera or microphone merely adapt a spatial position of a character. However, Dolan also uses main characters’ senses to show their distorted perspective on the film’s reality. This distorted perspective shows a character’s thoughts and feelings and has a close connection to the mind’s eye. Because an interpretation of the film’s reality is shown, these POV shots can be labeled interpretative perception. Dolan uses this interpretative perception to show characters isolated position in the film’s reality, that can be connected to other central themes in the films. It has also been shown that this position is occasionally constructed with the use of semi-subjective shots.

2.2 Mental Subjectivity Mental subjectivity can be recognized when a film shows its reality through a character’s mind. The film goes beyond a character’s senses, into his or her internal thoughts, dreams, memories or hallucinations. In these mental sequences, the conscious mind of a character creates its own interpretation of reality. As stated by Bruce Kawin, this mind can present the whole range of visual imagination, unverifiable memories and interpretative bias of private experience (11). It can thus be stated that images of mental subjectivity always show a vision of the film’s reality that is, to some extent, distorted. Bruce Kawin has referred to these internal images as mindscreens, constructing the field of the mind’s eye. As argued in the first chapter, this thesis will focus on the representation of characters’ subjectivity. Kawin’s auteurist theory on the self-conscious mindscreen will thus be ignored. Here it should be noted that this notion reflects on the constructed nature of film and the artificiality of the characters’ mindscreens, as it refers to the maker behind the images. As argued, it can be stated that mental subjectivities are always objective, they are constructions that are external to the character. However, the terms ‘subjective’ and ‘objective’ will again be used in relation to the film’s diegesis. Besides the mindscreen, Kawin recognizes two other constructions for the representation of conscious minds: subjectivity through what a character sees (subjective camera) and through what a character says (voice-over) (10). Kawin’s notion of the subjective camera has already been mentioned in the previous sub-chapter, but the voice-over will be discussed in connection to the mindscreen. In Dolan’s films, voice-overs are often mental voices that reveal a character’s inner thoughts. These voices can’t be heard by other characters and emerge from a conscious mind. Dolan also experiments with other techniques that

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construct inner voices; it will be argued that he creates images that relate to the format of the essay film in two of his films. Other mindscreens that will be discussed have a close connection to ideas that Gilles Deleuze formulated in Cinema 2: L’image-temps (1989)9. Following Henri Bergson’s theory as written in Matter and Memory (1896), Deleuze uses the concepts of actual and virtual as two aspects of perception of the real. Actual images refer to what can be witnessed in the physical present. Virtual images are not present in the moment, but are implied in this physical present; in its past, potential or future. According to Deleuze, there is a continuous coalescence between the actual and the virtual (Pisters 2003; 3). An example can be found when we meet someone we haven’t seen in a while. The actual image of this person triggers us to search through virtual images; images of the past in which we recognize this person. Both the actual and virtual are contained on what Deleuze calls the plane of immanence, which encompasses all images relating to a life (Pisters 2003; 4). According to Deleuze, filmic images are also contained on this plane of immanence and the coalescence between actual and virtual can also be recognized in a film’s reality. The actual image is relatively objective, as it shows what is present in the diegesis. The virtual images show what’s implied in this present; often through the conscious mind of a character. Here the connection with the mindscreen can be found. The virtual image can be described as a mindscreen that shows what’s in the past, or in the actual image’s potential and future. As there is a coalescence between the actual and the virtual, it can again be stated that objective images can contribute to the construction of character subjectivity. Deleuze distinguishes three levels of coalescence between actual and virtual images. First, he describes the process of recognition; the lowest level of digging into virtual images. Recognition happens relatively automatically, as a person dips into past memory to recognize the actual (44-46). The example of meeting someone we haven’t seen in a long time, would fit into this category. Recollection is the next level of depth, in which one dives into memory to reconstruct a scene from the past (47-50). In cinema, recollection can be constructed with the use of a flashback. Deleuze argues that recognition- and recollection-images function as signs, as they stand for, or relate to, (actual) images. He refers to recognition- and recollection- images as mnemo-signs, basically, memory-signs (335). Finally, Deleuze also recognizes an image that has little connection to the present, actual image; an image where a movement of world replaces action. He calls this image the dream-image, as one is absorbed in a dream or fantasy (55-60). Deleuze also refers to this image as oniro-sign (335). In dreams, the mind often has limited control, meaning it isn’t always conscious. In cinema, however, even the

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unconscious minds have control over the film in these instances. As these images show the character’s subjective relation to the real, their minds, consciously or unconsciously, control the image of the film’s reality. In Dolan’s films, mindscreens that relate to the recognition-, recollection- and dream- image can be recognized. Deleuze’s definitions will be used to analyze these mindscreens. Besides these different levels of coalescence between actual and virtual images, Deleuze also recognizes images that unite the actual and virtual, to a point where they can no longer be distinguished. In these images, past, present and future become interchangeable, like many facets of a crystal. Deleuze has called this type of image the crystal-image (68-77) or hyalo- sign (335). These images, that are infused with time, can also be recognized in Dolan’s films. By analyzing the sequences in Dolan’s films that show inner voices, recognition- and recollection-images, dream-images and crystal-images, it will be argued that these constructions of mental subjectivities show the characters’ position in the film’s reality. In these analyses the relations to other characters and central themes will again be highlighted.

Inner voices A voice-over can be defined as a voice that is heard, but isn’t related to a talking physical body on screen. This voice can emanate from a character or someone that has no connection to the diegesis. Dolan uses this technique in Juste la fin du monde and Laurence Anyways. In these films, the voice-overs are related to a mindscreen, as the inner thoughts of a character are heard or the voice indicates that images from a character’s imagination are shown. In Juste la fin du monde the voice-over of Louis can only be heard in the first scene of the film, during the flight that will take him to his family. As Louis isn’t talking on screen and he refers to himself in the second person, it’s clear an internal monologue is heard; a thought to himself about the film’s reality. This inner voice thus arises from his mind, creating an image that is very similar to a mindscreen. Louis’ voice-over introduces his subjective connection to some of the main story elements and themes of the film. First, he addresses the fractured relationship with his family. He mentions his fear to return and it’s exposed that he doesn’t feel connected to his family. This information isolates him from his family before he has even set foot in his parental house. Secondly, Louis discloses his reason for this reunion; he wishes to announce his approaching death. He mentions that he wants to be in control of his life until the very end. This element of control is a central theme in the film. Because of the voice-over, the spectator becomes part of Louis’ quest to tell his family about his illness. As time passes, which is shown several times with images and sounds of clocks, Louis chance

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to take control and tell his family decreases. At the end of the film, he has lost this inner battle. He didn’t get the chance to share his message, only death remains. Laurence Anyways also begins with the use of a voice-over. While the credits appear on a black screen, voices are heard from what seems to be a conversation between Laurence and a female interviewer. Throughout the first half of the film, sound extracts of this interview reappear as voice-overs. The images of the interview only become visually present in the last 20 minutes of the film. By withholding the images of the interview, the reoccurring theme can be recognized of the constructed nature of identity and the importance of the gaze in this construction. The gaze of the spectator is frustrated, as only the isolated voices are heard without showing the bodies of the talking characters. However, from the moment the interview is seen on screen, it’s revealed that the voice-overs exist in the diegesis and can’t be recognized as inner voices. The interview is the frame story of the film, which is narrated from Laurence’s perspective. In this sense, it can be stated that the film mostly consist of a flashback; a mindscreen that shows memories from Laurence’s subjective mind. However, as can be seen in the previous sub-chapter, the film also allows the presence of Fred’s subjectivity. As the relationship between Fred and Laurence is central to the story, their interrelation constructs the film. Following Kawin’s discussion of Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1961), a film can present the interrelated mindscreens of at least two characters. Kawin argues that it’s possible that the mindscreens of different characters don’t follow each other in sequence, but can alternate almost haphazardly (80). The interrelation between the characters’ subjectivities in Laurence Anyways shows the connection that exists between these characters and that they’re the isolated centers of the film. In his first two films, Dolan also experiments with other techniques to construct inner voices. He intermittently inserts non- or meta-diegetic monologues into the otherwise linear narrative, temporarily creating intimate portraits of characters’ thoughts and emotions. Following the definitions as given by Laura Rascaroli, these images have a close resemblance to the format of the essay film. In her book, Rascaroli notes that the essay film is irreducibly plural, but she refers to a number of distinguishing features these films often share. She notes that an essay film articulates a subjective, personal perspective from an extra-textual figure, as it represents the words of a single voice that gives his or her interpretation of the world. Moreover, the essay film constructs a particular communicative structure, largely based on the direct address to the spectator (2-3). In Dolan’s films, the inserted monologues also present an extra-textual voice of a character that addresses the camera and gives a personal interpretation of the diegetic world.

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In J’ai tué ma mère Dolan inserts monologues from Hubert into the otherwise linear narrative of the film. Shot primarily as black and white close-ups of Hubert’s face (Fig. 22), the monologues allow the main character to narrate and reflect on the film’s events. In these monologues, Hubert gives his interpretation on the fractured relationship with his mother and his fluctuating feelings of love and hatred toward her. Through his intimate confessions, it is shown that he feels unwanted and isolated in this relationship. An example can be found in Hubert’s statement: “Elle ne voulait pas m’avoir, elle n’est pasfaite pour être mère. Elle s’est mariée puis elle a eu un enfant, parce que c’est ce que tout le monde attendait d’elle” (She didn’t want to have me, she’s not made for motherhood. She got married, then she had a kid, because it’s what everyone expected of her). Throughout the first half of the film, the nature and origin of these recorded monologues remain mysterious. The inserts seem to be mindscreens, showing Hubert’s thoughts and emotions. However, midway through the film it’s shown that Hubert has been recording himself with a video camera (Fig. 23). These inserts thus aren’t mindscreens, as the images are present in the diegesis. However, due to their private and confessive nature, the images do represent the inner voice of a character who shares his interpretation of the diegetic world. Hannah Vaughan notes that these images also remind the spectator of the auteur designing and directing the film. She states: “Dolan plays the main character, and in filming himself (as Hubert) in the monologues, viewers are offered not only special access to the film’s protagonist, but also to its writer, director, and principal actor” (165). However, it should be noted that, although Dolan has admitted the film is semi-autobiographical, he is portraying a constructed character in these images. The spectator sees Dolan on screen, but it’s not his subjectivity they’re watching. Rather, they’re watching the subjectivity of a character that is constructed by the director, who also functions as an actor.

Fig. 22 Fig. 23

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In Les amours imaginaires Dolan intermittently inserts non-diegetic monologues into the linear narrative. In these monologues, that are shot in a distinct yet minimalist documentary style, several unknown characters tell their unhappy love stories (Fig. 24). Although it remains unclear throughout the film how these characters relate to the habitat of Francis and Marie, their emotions relate to the central themes in the story. All the unknown characters discuss their desire to be loved and fear of rejection in these monologues. It seems as if these characters express the subconscious emotions Marie and Francis feel in their desire for Nicolas’ love; they function as Marie’s and Francis’ inner voices. The connection to inner voices can be made due to the positioning of these fragments; they are inserted after setbacks for Marie and Francis. An example can be found when their competition becomes physical and they start a fight during their getaway with Nicolas. As Nicolas watches them in apparent disgust and tells them he will be leaving, Marie and Francis stay still on the ground and stare at the tree tops. Instead of showing a conversation or action that might follow, the film cuts to monologues of unrelated characters. These characters tell stories about break-ups and rejections, that seem to reflect Marie’s and Francis’ emotions in the previous scene. As different monologues construct the inner voices together, it is also confirmed that it’s mostly the selfish desire to be loved that is central for Marie and Francis. Nicolas is merely a catalyst for their desires, he’s one of many stories. The stylization of the monologues also add to the isolation the main characters feel. As they are shot as medium close-ups, the images show the characters as being isolated from their surroundings. Even though these characters seem to be looking at something or someone, they are alone in the frame. Their stories and desire for love literally isolates them from the film’s reality. Dolan’s use of framing to express subjective emotions, will be discussed extensively in the third chapter.

Fig. 24 Screen grabs (examples) from the inserted monologues

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Memory-signs: Recognition- and Recollection-images The dimension of time is crucial to understand the medium of film; images appear to the spectator through time, making it possible to perceive movement on screen. Moreover, a narrative film shows a string of events that move through space and time. This string of events in the story can be shown in chronological order, but can also be arranged non- chronologically. Many films that portray the story chronologically, do show images from the past of the diegesis as flashbacks. A flashback is often constructed with the coalescence of actual and virtual images. An actual image triggers an image that is implied in what’s physically present. Deleuze has labelled this level of coalescence, recognition. Recognition is often followed by recollection- images that dive deeper into the virtual to construct a scene from the past. These virtual images enter into a relationship with the actual image and extend it. In films, recognition and recollection are constructed through the conscious mind of a character, as a mindscreen. Together they form what Deleuze has labelled mnemo-, or memory-signs. In Dolan’s films these mnemo-signs can be recognized, as several actual images in the diegesis evoke the process of recognition and recollection. This can already be recognized in the analysis of the voice-over in Laurence Anyways. The questions during the interview trigger Laurence to search through her virtual images. These recollected images construct the story and show that the film mostly uses Laurence’s perspective. Different examples can be seen in Juste la fin du monde, where virtual images are triggered when Louis revisits his parental house. The scent and feel of his old mattress trigger a recollective mindscreen of a sexual encounter with his first love and a story his mother (Nathalie Baye) tells evokes virtual images of his father cleaning the car. As these virtual images are triggered and reflected by actual images, the subjective perspective of Louis on the actual becomes evident. Through this subjective perspective, Louis’ relation to his family and isolated position is shown. This can most notably be seen when the song ‘Dragostea din tei’ by O-Zone triggers recollection- images for Louis. When his mother and sister (Léa Seydoux) are dancing to the song, Louis winks at Antoine and tries to connect with him. As Antoine looks away, a mindscreen of Louis appears on screen, showing him and his brother during a family picnic in their childhood (Fig. 25). These virtual images of Louis and Antoine having fun together, are in contrast with the previous image and the current state of their relationship. Louis’ wink at Antoine, followed by this positive memory, shows he tries to rebuild their connection. As he receives no reply to his attempts, it is shown that the family, and especially Antoine, can no longer accept him as part of the family.

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Fig. 25 A recollection-image from Louis’ childhood is triggered

Music also triggers recollection-images in Tom à la ferme. At Guilaume’s funeral ‘Pleurs Dans La Pluiea’ by Mario Pelchat is played, a song that Tom has selected. This song reminds him of a karaoke session with Guillaume, which is shown through a mindscreen (Fig. 26). This virtual image shows the close relationship Tom had with Guillaume, but it also shows his displacement between two realities. The reality with Guillaume no longer exists and he can’t discuss this with the Longchamp’s as they never accepted this reality. The death of his boyfriend has created an isolation for Tom.

Fig. 26 A recollection-image shows Tom’s relationship with his late lover

Dream-images As mentioned in the first chapter, the cinematic experience has been equated with the dream state. Following the theory of the cinematic apparatus, Christian Metz has argued that a connection can be made between film and the dream-like nature of the filmic signs. But, the dream-metaphor was already introduced in the 1930’s, with the onset of psychoanalytic terminology that notes cinema reflects the conscious or subconscious desires of spectators. (Bordwell 76). Although this dream-metaphor has been a pervasive notion in Film studies, it was argued in the first chapter that it’s impossible to examine the cinematic experience in the analyses of films. The conscious minds of the spectators can’t be accessed and a personal experience can’t be generalized. However, in cinema a different type of dream state can be analyzed; several techniques are used to construct mindscreens of characters’ fantasies and dreams. Deleuze has

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termed these images as dream-images. According to Deleuze, dream-images often don’t have a direct connection with actual images, as the dreamer’s perception exists as a diffuse condition (56). In Dolan’s film, however, the dream-images do have a clear connection to the actual. The dream sequences are never used when a character is asleep or has hallucinations; rather, they show a character’s subjective reflection on the events in the diegesis. The actual images trigger virtual images that constitute a daydream. Through the use of these mindscreens, characters’ emotional responses are constructed. Hannah Vaughan, who tries to define the content-form relationship in J’ai tué ma mère, states that non-diegetic fantasy images and sequences are used to shed light on the inner workings of Hubert’s mind (171). Indeed, several visual breaks seem to show Hubert’s constant fluctuation of emotion and therein reflect the fractured nature of the relationship with his mother. Actual images of heightened emotion seem to activate Hubert’s mindscreens and emphasize his subjective reality. A striking example can be found when Chantale withdraws her offer to let Hubert have his own apartment. After this announcement, the image cuts to a high angle shot of Chantale’s body in a coffin. As this image is followed by a medium close- up of Hubert, it is revealed the previous image shows his fantasy about his mother’s death (Fig. 27). This image shows Hubert’s frustration with Chantale, but it also evokes the film’s title. However, throughout the film, there is no direct inference that Hubert really wants his mother to die. Rather, it seems to relate to his feelings of lack of understanding and love that makes it feel as if his mother is already dead. The title of the film refers to a paper Hubert writes after his teacher (Suzanne Clément) discovers he lied about his mother’s death. As he feels his desire for love and acceptance are unanswered by his mother, this death only seems to be metaphorical for his isolation and loneliness caused by the disrupted relationship.

Fig. 27

In Les amours imaginaires, dream-images are used to shed light on the inner workings of Francis’ and Marie’s conscious minds. One particular virtual image seems to show their subjective state and therein reflects on their conscious desire for Nicolas’ love. During

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Nicolas’ party, Marie and Francis do not join the dancing crowd, but watch from the sidelines. As they’re both staring at Nicolas, images from him dancing intercut with their fantasies; in Marie’s mind Nicolas compares to Michelangelo’s statue of David, while Francis imagines him as a drawing by Jean Cocteau (Fig. 28). Through the main characters’ subjectivity, it is thus shown that they appreciate Nicolas as a work of art. Although the extreme close-ups from the artworks show their desire to get close to him, they can only admire Nicolas from a distance, like an actual artwork in a museum. Their obsession with Nicolas disengages them from their surroundings and they’re losing themselves in their desire to be loved. This desire thus constructs their isolated position in the film’s reality.

Fig. 28 Dream-images for Marie and Francis are triggered at Nicolas’ party

In his text, Jim Leach recognizes the use of mindscreens in Laurence Anyways. He states: “The film’s surrealist elements create what amounts to a “mindscreen” that seem to be generated by the tensions in the relationship between Laurence and Fred” (99). Indeed, moments of heightened emotion between them seem to activate Laurence’s or Fred’s imagination and emphasize their subjective reality. However, the narration is so closely aligned with these characters that it’s often difficult to know where objective reality leaves off and subjective fantasy begins. An example can be found when Laurence asks Fred about the men she has been with. Her confession that she has fallen in love with someone else, is followed by a close-up of a butterfly emerging from Laurence’s mouth, literally showing he is speechless. The most notable example can be found when Fred and Laurence share an interrelated mindscreen during their escape to the island. It has been five years since their

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break-up, but Laurence hasn’t been able to stop thinking about Fred and secretly visits her house. Fred is isolated in an unhappy marriage and becomes very emotional when she reads Laurence’s poems. When they meet each other again and rekindle their romance, they decide to temporarily escape their current lives and go to Île au Noir. When they arrive at their destination, brightly-colored pieces of clothing fall from the clear blue sky, evoking their momentary happiness (Fig. 29). The clothes, twirling freely in the wind, express their freedom as they themselves are no longer bound to loneliness or a bad marriage. However, the colorful clothes also refer to Laurence’s transformation and her decision to no longer dress according to the heteronormative gender codes. In this moment with Fred she feels loved and can temporarily ignore the judgements and isolated position at the margins of the film’s reality.

Fig. 29

In this film, Dolan also reflects on his own style and reoccurring use of dream-images. When Laurence visits a cemetery, the film suddenly cuts to a dream-like image with Anne Dorval holding a chocolate pie (Fig. 30). Through the use of this cut, at the moment Laurence is sitting against a tree in silence, it seems as if the following shot presents his inner thoughts. However, the subsequent long shot in a film studio, shows that these images are actually part of a commercial Fred is working on (Fig. 31). Here Dolan thus uses this technique to trick the audience and reflect on his own style for constructing character subjectivity.

Fig. 30 Fig. 31

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A dream-image can also be recognized in Tom à la ferme. When Tom is in the shower at the Longchamp’s house, Francis intrudes his private moment (Fig. 32). This scene clearly refers to the famous shower scene in Hitchcock’s Pyshco (1960), where a shadowy figure intrudes a shower to kill the female protagonist. With this reference and the element of surprise, this scene predicts Francis’ aggressive nature and the upcoming threat Tom will experience. However, this sequence also presents Tom’s subjective reflection on the events in the film. Before Francis has opened the shower curtain, a distorted blur of Francis’ face can already be seen (Fig. 33). This image can be recognized as Tom’s mindscreen and it symbolizes his position in the film’s reality. The distorted face of Francis, without any clear features, shows Tom recognizes this life on the Longchamp’s farm as a different reality. Although the faceless form already predicts the hostile nature of this reality, Tom tries to be part of it as he succumbs to Francis’ violence. The fact that the shower curtain is actually still closed when he imagines Francis’ face (Fig. 34), shows that he’s not part of this reality. He is isolated between the life he wishes to forget and the life he doesn’t truly belong to.

Fig. 32 Fig. 33

Fig. 34 The shower curtain is closed during Tom’s dream-image, Francis opens the curtain after the distorted images appear

As a final example, a dream-image from Mommy can be examined. When Die, Kyla and Steve go on a trip to the beach, Die watches Kyla and Steve run around on the sand. This actual image triggers Diane’s fantasy about Steve’s future. In a chronological order she sees him graduating, going to college, falling in love and marrying (Fig. 35). At the end of this

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sequence, the images start to blur, waking Diane from her dream and showing this is not reality. In the next scene it is shown they are driving to a mental hospital where Steve will be committed. Diane has decided to take control and find a different way to create a future for Steve. The virtual images have thus triggered her to take actual action.

Fig. 35 Diane (day)dreams about Steve’s future

Crystal-images Dolan also creates mindscreens that do not solely show a coalescence between actual and virtual images. In these images the actual and virtual merge together, as past, present and future become indistinguishable. As these images split and refract time, similar to facets of a crystal refracting light, Deleuze has termed this image, the crystal-image. In Cinema 2: L’image-temps, the crystal-image forms the cornerstone of the time-image8. Deleuze uses this terminology to describe how the pastness of the recorded event fuses with the presentness of its viewing. But, the crystal-image also describes the images that are infused with time in the film’s diegesis (68-92). In J’ai tué ma mère several sequences construct this crystal-image. The most notable example can be found in the film’s final mindscreen sequence. Shortly after Hubert is attacked at the boarding school, he sits contemplating at his desk. The camera then jumps to his mindscreen of a forest in autumn, where Hubert chases his mother into the trees (Fig. 36). In this scene, Hubert is portrayed at the age he is in the present of the diegesis, but his mother seems to be in a flashback of her wedding day; the actual image of Hubert is merged with a

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virtual image of Chantale. The wedding dress evokes Oedipal implications, as Hubert’s chase could be interpreted as a quest to marry his mother. However, Hubert is not dressed as a groom. His chase rather recalls Hubert’s earlier video confessions in which he claims his mother never wanted to have him and just acted as was expected of a married woman at that time. In this crystal-image, Hubert seems to convince his mother to have him and, moreover, to love and accept him. As she pushes him away in this mindscreen, Hubert’s perspective on their relation once again becomes apparent. Although he tries to connect with his mother, he feels unwanted and alone.

Fig. 36

A different example can be found in Juste la fin du monde, in which the passage of time is an important theme. Several close-ups of a cuckoo clock, Louis’ watch and the sound of a ticking clock make recurrent appearances. These clocks seem to refer to the time Louis has to tell his family about his approaching death, but they also mark the limited time he has got left to live. In the final scene of this film, the element of time becomes visual, as the actual and virtual merge together. When Louis is about to leave, after the final fight with his family, the cuckoo in the clock comes to life and flies past Louis. After flying a brief instant, the bird dies on the carpet (Fig. 37). This seems to be a virtual image of Louis’ mind that comes alive in the actual, as it symbolizes the course of the story. As the cuckoo clock rings and marks the end of Louis’ visit, the bird, just like Louis, is set free. As the bird dies, however, Louis’ own inevitable death is symbolized. But, the dead bird also symbolizes that Louis’ visit and aim to discuss a serious matter with his family was already doomed from the beginning. The cuckoo clock, who’s appearance marks the passing of time throughout the film, releases a bird that is fated to die. This passing of time thus already encompassed the approaching and unsatisfying ending; Louis is unable to take control over his life one last time.

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Fig. 37 The cuckoo from the clock briefly comes to life, creating a crystal-image

Crystal-images can also be recognized in the frequent appearance of mirrors in Dolan’s films. Deleuze relates the crystal-image to a mirror, as it creates a virtual reflection of its material stimulus (70). The reflection that can be seen in a mirror is also a duplicate through time. An actual image is reflected as a virtual image. Due to the anatomy of the human eye and principles of physics, this virtual image is always witnessed with a very small, not noticeable, delay10. In all of Dolan’s films, mirrors are used to double the image of a character. Not coincidentally, these mirror-images always also relate to other virtual images. In these shots, time is literally refracted, creating a crystal-image. In J’ai tué ma mère a mirror reflects the actual image of a midnight conversation between Chantale and Hubert, who is high on drugs (Fig. 38). In this conversation, Hubert notes he wants to talk to his mother more often, like they used to when he was younger. He also reflects on the future by stating he wants to say everything before they die. His relationship with his mother in the past, present and possible future are thus merged in this conversation, just like Hubert’s mirrored reflection that combines the actual and virtual. As only Hubert’s reflection is seen and his mother hardly responds to his words, this scene again shows Hubert’s lonely and isolated position in this relationship. In Les amours imaginaires Marie looks into a mirror and imitates herself during a conversation with Nicolas a few minutes before (Fig. 39). This image shows a virtual image in the reflection, but also shows an image that could already be seen in the past. Marie’s repetition of this conversation shows her obsession to impress. As she’s now having the conversation alone, her loneliness and isolated position is confirmed. In Laurence Anyways, Fred’s reflection in the bathroom mirror is shown while the actual image of her physical body is not present (Fig. 40). This image cuts to a recollection-image of Laurence and Fred in the same bathroom. Laurence is doing her make-up with a mirror, but her reflection can’t be seen (Fig. 41). The recollection-image is thus literally mirrored, showing only a virtual image of Fred and an actual image of Laurence. In this sense they almost become each other’s reflection, showing their connection. In Mommy, Steve’s reflection can be seen on the glass of a photo frame (Fig. 42). In this frame a

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picture of Steve and his father can be seen. In the same image the past and present are thus merged, creating a crystal-image. This image confirms that Steve’s father is no longer part of this family and Diane and Steve need to manage everything together. As already mentioned, time is an important theme in Juste la fin du monde. In one scene, Louis looks at the cuckoo clock and then his watch, before he turns to a door where he sees his reflection (Fig. 43). While the clock is ticking, Louis looks himself in the eye. In this image it is emphasized that Louis’ time is running out. It won’t be long until only virtual images remain.

Fig. 38 Fig. 39

Fig. 40 Fig. 41

Fig. 42 Fig. 43

Heightening Sounds Although it was hardly discussed in the analyses, it should be noted that the mindscreens in Xavier Dolan’s films are accompanied by diegetic and non-diegetic sounds that help to construct the altered states. The use of soundtracks to signify characters’ subjective

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experiences of dream states has been examined in the article “Altered States, Altered Sounds”, by Gilbert Gabriel. Gabriel states that soundtracks often feature a deviation from the previous normative ambience, to signify a character’s transition from a normal conscious state to an altered one (189). According to Gabriel, this is often expressed by the use of heightening sounds, such as activation of pitch, higher volume or change of music texture (189). These heightening sounds can also be recognized in most dream sequences in Dolan’s films. For example, in the discussed sequence in Les amours imaginaires. Although the music is diegetic, as it is playing on the party, it changes during Francis’ and Marie’s mindscreens. In these sequences, the volume increases and predominates all other diegetic sounds. However, in Dolan’s films these techniques are not solely used in dream sequences. The heightening sounds also accompany recognition-, recollection- and crystal-images. During the discussed recollection-image in Juste la fin du monde, the song that is heard diegetically also changes during the mindscreen. The volume increases and no other sounds can be heard. This is also the case for the example from Tom à la ferme, but the loud music is accompanied by blurry voices from Tom and Guillaume as well. In the crystal-image of J’ai tué ma mère, the song ‘No Sleep, Walk’ of Surface of Atlantic can be heard. This slow song with a high pitched singing voice is the only sound that can be heard. All these heightening sounds contribute to the characters’ subjectivity and construct their mindscreens.

After the previous sub-chapter on perceptual subjectivity, this sub-chapter focused on the mental subjectivity of characters in the films of Xavier Dolan. It can be concluded that Dolan regularly constructs mindscreens to show the film’s reality through the perspective of a character’s mind. These mindscreens show characters’ inner voices, recognition- and recollection-images, dream-images and crystal-images. Because these images show an interpretation of the film’s reality, they show characters’ position in this reality, that can often be connected to other central themes. In the upcoming chapter different techniques that construct the characters’ isolated position and the central themes will be discussed. It will be argued that Dolan also constructs conscious minds in objective images.

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3. Subjectivising the Objective In the previous chapter the construction of perceptual and mental subjectivity in Xavier Dolan’s films was examined. It was repeatedly stated that Dolan also uses objective shots, that are external to a character, to create these subjective sequences. To explain why these objective shots contribute to a character’s subjectivity, a statement by Torben Grodal was emphasized. According to Grodal, the experience of subjectivity can’t solely be linked to what is exterior, interior, real or not real. Rather, the experience of subjectivity is constructed through the extent of control over what takes place in a film (87). When an image is independent to a character’s mind, but the action is blocked by this character’s perception or thoughts, the image can still elicit subjective feelings (90). Grodal’s argument has a connection to Deleuze’s theory, as he also questions the distinction between the exterior, real space and interior, unreal space. Deleuze argues that the actual and virtual image are both aspects of perception of the real. As virtual images are implied in the physical present, these images are often constructed through the conscious mind of a character and are relatively subjective. Contrary to Grodal, Deleuze questions the presence of subjectivity in film altogether. According to him, ‘subjective’ shots are always already external to the character, as the consciousness of the camera and the human brain simulate this subjectivity. As mentioned in the previous chapters, the subjectivity of characters can indeed only be recognized in the diegesis. In Dolan’s films, the characters do not only seem to control the actual and virtual images through perceptual and mental subjectivity. The hyper-stylized images that are relatively objective often mirror characters’ state of mind, giving them control over what is seen. Through the use of framing, color, soundtrack and temporality devices, Dolan constructs the characters’ emotions and thoughts in images that seem to be external to these characters. It can be stated that Dolan subjectivises the objective. This technique was already recognized by Jean Mitry in 1965, who argues that a character’s psychological point-of-view can be shared in images that result from subjectivising the objective (61-79). In his dissertation, Edward Branigan notes that time is a critical factor in these images, as this connects several elements on screen. He states: “At the exact time that the character sees or interacts with an object, we also see both the character’s reaction and the object of attention. The conjunction of character and object allows us to judge the character’s emotional state and simultaneously see the cause or effect (reflector) of that state in the object” (428). As can also be understood from Branigan’s quote, images that subjectivise the objective depend on continuous interpretation and reading of character psychology. Grodal

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has also stated that subjectivity is dependent on the spectator’s experience of the film, as a spectator recognizes the subjective feelings and therein also controls these feelings (90). However, this thesis tries to avoid making personal interpretations and generalizing statements on the spectator’s experience. That’s why this chapter will focus on the reoccurring techniques that have a clear connection to the films’ themes. The first sub-chapter will discuss Dolan’s original use of aspect ratio and framing of his characters. Then the use of color in lighting and production design will be analyzed. The third sub-chapter will investigate the use of the soundtrack and the construction of temporality.

3.1 Enclosing space In the films of Xavier Dolan, the presentation of visual elements in the images, especially the placement of characters in relation to each other and to the filmic space, is used to construct the subjective state of characters and their position in the film’s reality. Although Dolan has worked with four different cinematographers11, who all bring their specific visual style to the films, this use of framing is a reoccurring element in Dolan’s oeuvre. The most striking technique Dolan uses to position his characters in the frame, is the use of aspect ratios that differ from the cinematic standards. His films Laurence Anyways, Tom à la ferme and Mommy are all shot in aspect ratios that deviate from the customary 1.85:1 and 2.39:1. The first film in which Dolan experimented with the aspect ratio is Laurence Anyways, that was shot in Academy Format (1.33:1). Although this format was the standardized aspect ratio for cinema until 1953, in the current times of widescreen format it seems to enclose the characters and spaces. The cramped images can only show two characters at once in a medium or long shot and, when shot as close-up, often completely isolate the characters from their surroundings. In this sense, this aspect ratio reflects the isolated position of Fred and Laurence; it imprisons them like their impossible love for each other. However, this tight frame is also used to show the narrow mindedness of other characters and the pressure that Laurence feels in the heteronormative society. In scenes where Laurence is placed at the margins of society, all characters are enclosed in their own narrow frame. The most striking example can be found when Laurence is fired from the school due to her transformation. Because of the aspect ratio, the medium long shots can only show one character in the frame (Fig. 44), but at the end of the conversation it’s shown they’re all sitting at the same table (Fig. 45). This narrow framing therein emphasizes the narrow mindedness Laurence is confronted with.

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Fig. 44 Fig. 45

Tom à la ferme is mostly shot in a common 1.85:1 ratio, but the film shifts into a different format during three of the more suspenseful sequences. When Tom is beaten by Francis in the cornfield, strangled by Francis at night and chased before he escapes, the aspect ratio subtly changes into a 2.35:1 format. In these scenes, Tom is confronted with the aggressive nature of the reality at the farm; the narrow aspect ratio seems to reflect his position between two realities. During the semi-erotic strangling scene, for example, Tom succumbs to Francis’ violence and allows him to grab his throat (Fig. 46). While Francis strangles him, Tom says that Francis smells and sounds like Guillaume. He’s unable to forget his deceased lover; it seems to be the memory of him that grabs him by the throat. The actual strangulation by Francis, also shows that he can’t belong to the reality on the farm. The cropped frame, that only allows a close-up of Tom’s face, confirms this isolated position (Fig. 47).

Fig. 46 Fig. 47

With Mommy, Dolan took the use of an unusual format to another level, as he shot the film in a 1:1, square, aspect ratio. Dolan already experimented with this aspect ratio when shooting the music video for Indochine and felt that this format translated into a “unique emotion and sincerity” (Knegt 34). Even more then in Laurence anyways, the images can barely hold two people at once and restrict the visibility of the characters’ movements. The characters are enclosed in this frame, just like they´re enclosed in the film’s reality. The control of the characters’ emotional state over this tight framing is confirmed when the aspect ratio is widened during two brief moments when they escape the isolated position and feelings. In one

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sequence, Steve even takes control by pushing against the sides of the frame (Fig. 48). In an interview with Indiewire Dolan stated: “It mirrors how he feels and how the story feels. I would have never done that in a moment where it would have been only about me as a director or an artist doing that. There is no point in that. I’m not doing it, the character is doing it”. Indeed this scene seems to reflect that Diane, Steve and Kyla have become less isolated as they´re working on a better future together; Die has found a job, Kyla is slowly reentering her working field as she home teaches Steve, who has a better chance of graduating and pursuing his dreams. The aspect ratio is again narrowed when Die receives a letter about the lawsuit, that once again puts pressure on their future and position in the film’s reality.

Fig. 48 Steve opens up the narrow frame

Besides the unusual aspect ratios, Dolan also uses the position of characters in the frame to construct the subjective emotions of these characters. The positioning in the images, that is often very stylized and symmetrical, reflects the mentation of characters and therein shows the relationships and dynamics between the characters. In J’ai tué ma mère Dolan often metaphorically cuts the scenery of Hubert and Chantale in half and presents each character inside his or her own frame (Fig. 49). In these moments, the characters are seated next to each other and could easily be shown in the same frame. However, by placing them in their own space and connecting these shots with hard cuts, the emotional distance between the two characters is highlighted. It is shown that their fractured relationship isolates them, as they’re positioned as being alone while they’re actually together. When Hubert shares an intimate or positive moment with a character, for example with Antonin (François Arnaud) or his teacher, Dolan positions them in the center of the same frame together (Fig. 50). The framing is thus used to convey Hubert’s emotional connection to other characters. On several occasions, Hubert and Chantale appear in the same frame when they experience a brief moment of connection. This can most notably be seen at the end of the film, which conveys a positive message. After Hubert ran away with Antonin,

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Chantale follows him and finds him sitting on ‘the rocks’. First they have separate frames, but as Chantale joins Hubert, they finally connect and share the center of the frame (Fig. 51).

Fig. 49 Example of the separate frames for Hubert and Chantale

Fig. 50 Examples of a shared frame

Fig. 51 Ending with a shared frame

In Les amours imaginaires a different framing technique is used to construct the emotional state and isolated position of Marie and Francis. Throughout the film, Dolan uses depth of field to show the distance between the main characters and Nicolas. Although they’re in the same frame, Nicolas is often positioned on a different level of depth (Fig. 52). Just like the scenes that were discussed in the second chapter, this spatial positioning also shows that Marie and Francis can only admire Nicolas from a distance. As they are secluded in their surroundings, it is shown their desire to be loved isolates them from the reality around them. As Nicolas is often in the background, it is also shown that he is merely a pawn in their quest for love. Marie and Francis are always upfront, as they themselves are central in their love

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story. The competition and desire for love are more important than Nicolas, the object of affection. By using depth in the frame, it is thus shown how shallow their love actually is.

- - Fig. 52 Examples of the use of depth to position the characters in the frame

As mentioned in the previous chapter, the images of the countryside in Tom à la ferme emphasize Tom’s isolated position in the film’s reality. It was argued that semi-subjective shots are used to construct this position. However, Dolan also uses extreme longshots to position Tom as a lonely figure in the vastness of the countryside. At the beginning of the film, for example, Tom’s car is followed with an aerial tracking shot and a long shot on eye- level (Fig. 53). In these images, the car is a small speck in the desolated, rural openness. From the moment Tom enters this landscape and the story begins, he is thus already positioned as being isolated in these surroundings. This position mirrors his feeling of isolation due to the death of his lover, but it also shows that he’s doesn’t truly belong in the new reality he’s trying to enter. He’s displaced between the reality that’s hard to face and the reality he can never truly belong to.

Fig. 53 Extreme long shots positon Tom as a lonely figure in the countryside

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In all his films, Dolan frequently uses close-ups to enclose his characters and to scrutinize their facial expressions and responses. In his latest feature Juste la fin du monde this framing technique dominates the film, as it’s almost entirely shot in close-ups. These close shots reveal every imperfection in the characters’ faces, both physical and emotional. The communication between the characters fails; they are continuously talking and fighting, but they never truly talk and listen to each other. For example, they do not discuss why Louis was absent for twelve years and why he has returned. However, with the use of close-ups, the internal crises are revealed on the characters’ faces. Every eye twitch, smile, tear or outcry can be seen and are more communicative than the words that are spoken. It is shown that, although they hardly discuss it, the entire family is confused and emotional because of Louis’ visit. Moreover, by constantly framing the characters alone, in a tight, claustrophobic close- up, their inability to listen and understand each other is confirmed. This can most strikingly be seen in the final scene, when Louis takes one last effort to reach out to his family. As he apologizes for his absence, his family hardly responds to his words. They’re all enclosed in their own frame, isolated from their surroundings, and pay little attention to each other (Fig. 54).

Fig. 54

Sporadically, a break arises from the film's close-ups, but the wider shots never show the complete scenery. Objects or characters in the setting always block parts of the scenery in these shots, which seems to symbolize the conversations that also show a blocked version of reality. In most of his films, Dolan uses the setting as an additional framing device. In

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Laurence Anyways this technique is recurrently used to mirror the emotional state of characters. The first shots of Fred after her marriage, for example, use the layout of her house as additional framing; she’s seen through hallways and doors (Fig. 55). With this additional use of framing, Fred seems to be enclosed in the space of her own house. This mirrors her negative feelings of imprisonment in her marriage, which she briefly escapes by taking the trip with Laurence. A different example can be seen in Mommy, when Die and Kyla share their first moment of contact. As they wave to each other, they see one another framed through the dirty window of Die’s house (Fig. 56). This framing mirrors the isolation they both feel the moment they meet. Kyla is on a compulsory sabbatical as she is struggling with speaking problems that arose after a traumatic experience and Die is struggling to find a job and take care of Steve after he was banned from the institution.

Fig. 55

Fig. 56

A setting that is often used as an additional framing device in Dolan’s films, is the inside of a driving car. When two characters are sitting in this cramped up space that they can’t leave, a conflict often arises. The car therein induces the fights, but it also symbolizes the imprisonment the characters feel. In J’ai tué ma mère several fights between Hubert and Chantale start during a car ride (Fig. 57). The conflicts start as they’re cramped together, but the inability to leave the vehicle also shows that they’re both imprisoned in this fractured

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relationship. In Laurence Anyways, Laurence confesses her true identity to Fred when they’re in a car wash. They´re cramped up in the car that is surrounded by sponges and water (Fig. 58). Their isolated position in the car reflects their emotional connection. After the confession, Fred walks out of the car wash by herself, temporarily escaping the relationship. In Mommy, Diane secretly drives to an institution during a trip, to get Steve hospitalized. As Steve is lying in the car, he sees people approaching and realizes he is trapped (Fig. 59). In this scene it is also shown that, although she has tried to have a ‘normal’ life with Steve, Diana has to accept that her love will not be sufficient to provide this ‘normal’ life. At the end of the film they’re still positioned at the margins of the film’s society. In Juste la fin du monde a car ride, that is mostly shot in one take, causes a fight between Louis and Antoine (Fig. 60). After Louis starts a conversation, Antoine is immediately triggered to snap at his brother. As he dangerously speeds op the car, it is shown that Louis literally can’t escape the vehicle, just like he can’t overcome this fractured relationship.

Fig. 57 Fig. 58

Fig. 59 Fig. 60

3.2 Coloring Xavier Dolan has received critical acclaim for the detailed stylization in all his films, but he has also been accused of valuing style over substance. Especially the use of lavish color pallets, that is often compared to the films of Pedro Almodóvar and Wong Kar Wai, have been criticized as being over-stylized. Indeed each of Dolan’s films has its own distinct color

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palette, but this can’t be separated from the films’ content. Dolan, who also functions as a production and costume designer on his films, chooses the color pallets of the setting and lighting to convey the emotional state and conscious mind of the characters. Although Dolan has stated in an interview with Filmcomment that there’s no specific color scheme in J’ai tuè ma mère, the use of lighting does seem to have a connection with Hubert’s emotional state. At the home of Chantal and Hubert the lighting is relatively dark and yellow, often coming from a visible source of light in the frame (Fig. 61). Outside of this house, for example at Antonin’s home, the lighting is bright and more blue (Fig. 62). The contrast between the lighting schemes seem to reflect how Hubert feels in these surroundings and with these characters. The darkness at his parental house shows the negative emotions Hubert has towards his mother, as it creates a gloomy ambience.

Fig. 61 Example of Lighting at Chantale’s Fig. 62 Example of Lighting outside Chantale’s and Hubert’s home and Hubert’s home

In Les amours imaginaires a more distinct color palette can be recognized, as the two main characters both have their own color scheme. Francis mostly wears blue shades, that can also be seen at his home. Marie, on the other hand, is mostly dressed and surrounded with red shades. These conflicting colors, that are both primary, show their clash over Nicolas. In her article, Katrina Sark states that Dolan’s colorful ‘sartorial vocabulary’ helps to identify the links between the protagonists’ individual quests and their social environments (128-129). Although Sark mostly recognizes these colors in connection to gender identity, this statement can also be applied for other story elements and themes. This can most strikingly be seen in Les amours imaginaires, when the color of either Marie or Francis is dominant to show who has the upper hand in their competition. An example can be found when Marie wants to have a romantic dinner with Nicolas, but they run into Francis who ruins her plans. The restaurant is decorated with blue colors, in which Marie’s red outfit seems to be out of place (Fig. 63). However, to show their isolated position in the film’s reality, Marie and Francis are often also positioned in environments where both their colors don’t match. During Nicolas’ party, for

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example, the yellow lighting completely displaces them (Fig. 64). Their brightly colored blue and red outfits do not correspond with this environment, nor do they stand out. Although they want to impress Nicolas, they remain isolated and have no connection to other characters.

Fig. 63 Fig. 64

However, in this film, the bright colors also seem to reflect the superficiality of the main characters’ romantic yearning. Marie and Francis are mostly concerned with their looks to impress Nicolas, which is shown in the many different scenes of them preparing before an appointment. The use of the bright color palette reflects the façade they create, and moreover the lack of content they have to actually seduce Nicolas. This superficiality of their love is also expressed through the reoccurring colored sequences of Marie’s or Francis’ intimate moments with sexual partners. During these sequences, which are clearly inspired by Jean- Luc Godard, the bright lighting creates a red, green, yellow or blue scenery (Fig. 65). The bright colors seem to symbolize how one-dimensional these sexual relationships are, as they are mostly an expression of Marie’s and Francis’ desire to be loved.

Fig. 65 Brightly colored sequences of Marie’s and Francis’ intimate moments

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In Laurence Anyways the screen is often suffused in colored light and decoration, that can be related to an early scene in which Laurence and Fred discuss the emotional and sexual implications of different colors. Especially the colors red, brown and yellow seem to play significant roles in defining characters and feelings. According to Fred and Laurence, red is the color of passion, seduction and anger. Throughout the film this color is most notably associated with Fred’s passion and ferocity, as she is stuck between two different emotions; she finds it difficult to accept Laurence’s true identity but can’t bear to lose him. Fred’s dyed red hair provides for the most striking moments that show this emotion. When Laurence and Fred are having lunch, for example, Fred loses her temper when a waitress makes remarks on Laurence’s ‘look’. During her emotional outburst, Fred’s hair, that was tied up in a bun, gets loose and suddenly shows the bright red color which reflects her emotional state (Fig. 66). The color yellow, on the other hand, is defined by Laurence and Fred as being selfish and egocentric. Following this statement, a yellow setting is often used in scenes were selfishness is central, for example in the scene where Laurence is fired. But this color also introduces self-minded characters, such as Fred’s sister (Monia Chokri) who is very inconsiderate towards Fred (Fig. 67). Finally, Fred and Laurence define the color brown as rejecting sexuality. But, Laurence does state that he loves this color. In the film, Laurence’s mother (Nathalie Baye) is associated with brown shades, especially in her home decoration (Fig. 68). This color reflects Laurence’s love for her, even though she literally rejects his sexuality.

Fig. 66

Fig. 67 Fig. 68

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In Mommy, the use of a bright color palette reflects the energetic quality of the characters’ subjectivity, as they’re alternately sad, scared and ebullient. This can most strikingly be seen in the different lightings inside Die’s and Steve’s house (Fig. 69). The colors change as easily as the character’s moods and reflect their conscious states. At the end of the film, colors are used to show Steve’s imprisonment at the margins of society. Contrary to the bright colors at Steve’s and Die’s home, the institution is a white and sterile environment. In this institution, just like society, Steve is seen as a problem child, a patient without any emotional depth. When he sees the colorful sunset through the window at the end of the hall, he escapes towards the bright colors, towards a world where he can be free (Fig. 70).

Fig. 69 Examples of the elaborate color pattern inside the house

Fig. 70

In Juste la fin du monde the characters recurrently discuss the current heat wave, but the color pattern does not convey this heat. The used colors, especially inside the house, are mostly brown, dark blue and white, creating a cold and gloomy atmosphere. This atmosphere mirrors the tension between the characters and the fractured relationships. Only when the film dives into the Louis’ past, the sunset and bright colors emerge. This contrast between the happy memories and dark atmosphere in the present, reflects Louis’ current position in the family.

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3.3 Soundtrack & Temporality For all of Dolan’s films, except for Les amours imaginaires, an original soundtrack was composed12. These non-diegetic soundtracks are used to highlight certain emotions for spectators, so they can sympathize with the characters and situations. In creating these emotions for spectators, the non-diegetic songs often distance these spectators from the characters’ subjectivity. In Tom à la ferme, for example, the ever-present ominous score emphasizes the suspense that Tom is not always aware of. Starting from Tom’s entrance at the desolated farm, the score mostly highlights the potential danger to the spectator. Different examples can be found in J’ai tué ma mère, with most notably the scene of Hubert getting brutally assaulted. During this scene, the non-diegetic soundtrack is dominant, emphasizing the dramatic event that is occurring in the diegesis. However, this non-diegetic music also allows the spectator to escape this diegesis; to witness the terrible event from their position as spectator, instead of sharing Hubert’s s perspective. Besides these composed original scores, Dolan is also known to partly select the soundtrack himself; all his films utilize existing pop songs. To a greater extent than the composed soundtracks, these songs reflect and construct the characters’ subjectivity. As discussed in the previous chapter, these songs contribute and construct the mindscreens of the characters. But, the soundtrack is also used to convey the emotional state and mentation of characters in scenes that can’t be categorized as mental or perceptual subjectivity. In all of Dolan’s films, there are scenes where characters literally have control over the music in the diegesis. This can most strikingly be seen in Mommy, as all pop songs come from a mix-tape Steve’s father made during a family road trip to California. Steve is obsessed with the mix-tape and often plays songs that mirror the characters’ emotional state. An example can be found when Kyla comes over for dinner and Steve invites her and Diane to dance to Celine Dion’s ‘On ne change pas’. As they sing and dance together, it seems Diane and Steve have finally found someone that accepts them and Kyla has found an escape to her loneliness. The upbeat song, which translates as “We do not change”, reflects these emotions and shows they no longer feel the need to conform to the pressure exerted by society. In Laurence Anyways, Fred and Laurence also dance to a Céline Dion song during their brief escape to the island. As the camera circles around them in the café, the intimacy of this moment becomes evident. The Céline Dion song ‘Pour que tu m’aimes encore’ (So that you love me still) reflects their mind state. The melody and lyrics of this love song shows they have never stopped loving each other and they can finally be together again.

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However, the pop songs also provide a non-diegetic sound layer. Dolan’s films are known for moments where the narrative almost seems to pause and descends into a music-video-like sequence. During these sequences, Dolan plays with the temporality of the images. As could already be seen in the previous chapters, Dolan often uses slow-motion or fast-motion as a visual style. The music and manipulated time often reflect the mentation of characters. The use of such a sequence can be recognized in J’ai tué ma mère, when Hubert comes home from boarding school and creates an artwork in the office of Antonin’s mother (Patricia Tulasne). As the song “Noir Désir” by Vive la Fête is heard, the images of Hubert and Antonin dripping the wall and making love are alternately shown in slow- and fast- motion. The alteration in this use of time, the energetic beats of the song and the splashing colorful paint, reflect Hubert’s feelings of freedom and happiness, now that he is together with his lover that accepts him for who he is. In this moment, Hubert can temporarily escape the strict environment of the boarding school and the fractured relationship with his mother. Different examples of these music-video-like sequences can be found in Les amours imaginaires, which’ soundtrack consists of pop songs from the 1960’s and ‘70’s. Dolan uses the Italian version of Nancy Sinatra’s “Bang Bang”, by Dalida, to accompany recurrent slow- motion images. This song and the images of Marie and Francis walking towards each other in slow-motion, resemble a shoot-out scene in a Western film (Fig. 71). These scenes mirror the competition they both feel for Nicolas’s love. As the scenes often focus on their clothing and are preceded by images om them dressing-up, it is shown that, instead of guns, Marie and Francis bring their looks in this superficial battle.

Fig. 71

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Concerning temporality in Dolan’s films, a remark should also be made on the passing of time. As stated in the previous chapter, this is a central element in Juste la fin du monde. In Laurence Anyways, that is set in the 1990’s, the passing of time is important as well. Laurence reveals her history bit by bit; the 168 minutes running time encompasses ten years of her life. Contrary to these films, the story time in Dolan’s other features is often hard to grasp. In these films, the element of time is a crucial element as well, as it seems to reflect the characters’ emotional state. As the characters seem to move through the story time indistinctly, it reflects their isolated position; they are never truly able to be part of the story’s reality. This can most strikingly be seen in Tom à la ferme. Although the film shows images of days and nights, it remains unclear for how long Tom stays at the farm. He seems to be disconnected from the passing of time as he is hesitant to return to his normal life, but doesn’t belong at the farm either. When Sarah visits the farm on Tom’s request, she discloses that he is actually already staying there for three weeks. Sarah’s presence and this announcement mark the beginning of Tom’s realization that he has to escape. Although Sarah leaves that same night, she has brought him back to his reality and Tom starts to question Francis’ nature and his place at the farm.

As can be concluded in this chapter, Dolan uses several techniques that subjectivise, relatively objective images. These images are independent to a character’s mind, but the action is controlled by this character’s perception or thoughts. Through the use of framing, colors, sound and temporality, Dolan is able to construct characters’ subjective feelings in images that can’t be categorized as perceptual or mental subjectivity.

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Conclusion For the past eight years, Canadian director Xavier Dolan has been one of the most celebrated young talents of the independent film industry. His feature films all premiered at prestigious film festivals and received critical acclaim. The central aim in this thesis was to examine the oeuvre of this celebrated filmmaker, as the academic attention for his films has been relatively limited. Based on (non-)academic articles on his work, my personal experience and statements by Dolan himself, it was apparent that subjectivity is a central element in his work, which resulted in the main question: What is subjectivity in the films of Xavier Dolan? To answer this question, the first chapter aimed to define the different subjectivities that are involved in the cinematic practice. First, the subjectivity of the filmmaker was discussed. It was shown that the existing texts on Dolan’s films often relate to auteur theory; they mainly focus on Dolan’s unique style and connect central themes and storylines to his identity and mentation. It was confirmed that Dolan, who is involved in all aspects of the film’s production, has a recognizable style. However, it was argued that a problem arises in defining the connection to his conscious mind. Subjectivity proceeds from the individual consciousness or perception, meaning we can only ever access our own conscious mind. In this sense, it’s impossible to discuss Dolan’s mentation, as it will always be connected to this subject. It was argued that a similar problem arises for the subjectivity of the spectator, that’s also involved in the cinematic practice. Following the arguments in the tradition of active spectatorship, it was stated that the audience can’t be generalized as every spectator can find other meanings in a filmic text. As these different interpretations arise from individual conscious minds, it was stated that the subjectivity of the spectator can’t be analyzed. Contrary to the subjectivities of the filmmaker and spectators, that exist in our real world, the final subjectivity that was recognized in the cinematic practice relates to fictional characters. It was argued that the subjectivity of characters is constructed on screen, making it possible to access and analyze these conscious minds. However, in connection to this statement, it was argued that this subjectivity is always external to the characters, collapsing the distinction between subjective and objective. It was therefore concluded that the notions of ‘subjective’ and ‘objective’ could solely be used in connection to the film’s diegesis. As the subjectivity of characters turned out to be the only conscious mind that can be analyzed, the second chapter investigated the construction of this subjectivity in Dolan’s films. First, perceptual subjectivity was discussed; a formal analysis of several examples showed that Dolan creates two different types of POV sequences. When the camera or microphone merely adapt a spatial position of a character, perception is used to expose

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narrative information. When characters’ distorted perspective on the film’s reality is constructed, their thoughts and feelings are shown through interpretative perception. It was argued that Dolan uses this interpretative perception to show the characters’ isolated position in the film’s reality. Furthermore, the characters’ perspectives show the major and reoccurring themes of the films; the images reflect on their relationship with other characters, most strikingly the fractured family bonds, and the sequences show how they yearn for impossible love or have a desire to retain control over their life. Moreover, these central themes were recognized in the sequences that show characters’ mental subjectivity. These sequences show a character’s thoughts and were connected to Bruce Kawin’s notion of the mindscreen. Several examples were analyzed to show that four different types of mindscreens can be seen in Dolan’s films. First, it was argued that Dolan uses voice-overs and inserts that resemble essay-films to construct inner voices. Then, Deleuze’s notion of the recognition- and recollection-image were used to recognize images that show scenes from the past. Deleuze’s dream-image was seen in sequences that showed characters’ daydreams and the crystal-image was recognized in images that are infused with time and in mirror-images. Finally, it was shown that Dolan uses techniques outside the diegesis to construct character subjectivity. Following the theory of Torben Grodal, it was stated that the characters’ control over what takes place in a film is central to the experience of subjectivity. In this sense, techniques that are connected to objective shots, can also be used to elicit subjective feelings. This was already recognized in the perceptual semi-subjective shot, but Dolan also uses several aesthetic devises to reflect the characters’ mind state. Dolan subjectivies the objective with the use of framing, coloring, soundtrack and temporality.

All the different techniques Dolan uses to construct character subjectivity are summarized in the schedule below (Fig. 72). As can be concluded from this overview and all the examples that were analyzed in this thesis, the cinema of Xavier Dolan is preoccupied with characters, their story and mentation. Although Dolan has been accused of hyper-stylization and valuing style over substance, his unique style, that perhaps does make him a modern-day auteur, always relates to the content of the stories. Dolan’s statement on the importance of characters in film, as was quoted in the introduction of this thesis, thus seems to be a very accurate description of his own oeuvre. It is very likely that Dolan’s oeuvre will greatly expand in the upcoming years and that he’ll receive more critical acclaim and international fame. Continuing on a steady pace, Dolan

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is already shooting his next film The Death and Life of John F. Donovan; his first English- language film. As this thesis arose from my own personal fascination with this director, I hope the academic interest for Dolan will also increase. Moreover, I hope scholars will widen their view on Dolan’s films by looking beyond his gay and Canadian identity and possible fractured relationship with his mother. This talented director should be appreciated for his most outstanding feature; being a great story-teller.

Fig. 72

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Notes

1. D’Aoust, Jason R. “The Queer Voices of Xavier Dolan’s Mommy.” European Journal of American Studies 11.3 (2017): 1-16. Dyer, Kester, Andrée Lafontaine and Fulvia Massimi. “Introduction: Locating the Intimate within the Global: Xavier Dolan, Queer Nations and Québec Cinema.” Synoptique 4.2 (2016): 1-7. Leach, Jim. “In-Between States: Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz and Xavier Dolan’s Laurence Anyways.” Brno Studies in English 39.2 (2013): 91-106. Marshall, Bill. “Spaces and Times of Quebec in Two Films by Xavier Dolan.” Nottingham French Studies 55.2 (2016): 189–208. Massimi, Fulvia. “A Boy’s Best Friend is His Mother: Québec’s Matriarchy and Queer Nationalism in the Cinema of Xavier Dolan.” Synoptique 4.2 (2016): 8-31. Richards, Stuart. “A New Queer Cinema renaissance.” Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture 1.2 (2016): 215-229. Sark, Katrina. “The Language of Fashion and (Trans)Gender in Dolan’s Laurence Anyways.” Synoptique 4.2 (2016): 127-134. Vaughan, Hannah. “Filming Fracture in Xavier Dolan’s J’ai tué ma mère.” Quebec Studies 2013; 107-115.

2. In his article “Une certaine tendance du cinema français” (1954), François Truffaut introduces the concept of la politique des auteurs. He wrote this manifesto in protest of the filmmakers that were receiving critical acclaim for their well-crafted, but voiceless, literature adaptations. In his article Truffaut advocates for filmmakers to include their own personal experiences in their films. According to him, film is an art form that deserves storylines that were created specifically for visual storytelling and the director should have more creative power in this creation. André Bazin supported Truffauts ideas and wrote “La Politique des auteurs” in 1957. In this article, he recognizes the importance of auteurism, but he also warns that it shouldn’t become a personality cult where a film’s value is based purely on the praise for its director. According to him, mediocre auteurs can make admirable films and directors that have been recognized as auteurs can make mediocre films.

3. Semiotics has its foundation in the theories that were written by Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles Sanders Peirde in the early 20th century. In semiotics, signs are studied in connection to each other, which produces a network of meaning. In Film studies this theory was used to define signs in cinema in order to recognize meaning of films. Other film scholars defined parallels between the cinematic experience and psychoanalytic ideas on unconscious states of

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being. They drew on theories of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan to explain the process of a spectator experiencing film. They suggested that the cinematic experience recreates a dynamic between what Lacan defined as the imaginary and symbolic worlds (Pisters 117). Film makes the viewer feel immersed in its world, causing the spectator to relive the pleasurable state of being in the imaginary stage. Film thus reflects and circulates unconscious desires.

4. Cultural studies scholar Stuart Hall, already formulated the encoding/decoding model in 1973 in his article “Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse”. This model of communication offers a theoretical approach of how media messages, especially messages in television, are produced, circulated and interpreted. According to Hall, audiences can interpret, or decode, the messages in different ways, depending on an individual's (cultural) background. Hall’s theory had a major influence on Media studies and is still used to examine media audiences and active spectatorship.

5. Queer theory posits that sexuality is a vast and complex terrain that not only encompasses personal sexual orientation, but also the cultural, social and historical conditions that define and create sexual orientations and behaviors (Benshoff and Griffin 1). The word ‘queer’ is used to refer to any sexuality that is not defined as part of a normative heterosexual sexuality. Queer film study, similarly, understands cinematic sexualities as complex parts of human identity that cannot be viewed separately from cultural, social and historical contexts. While often giving emphasis to traditionally ignored or censored non-straight sexualities, Queer film study explores how fluidity of all sexualities is related to film production or reception (Benshoff and Griffin 2).

6. A shortened version of Vaughan’s chapter on Dolan’s J’ai tué ma mère was published in the academic journal Quebec Studies in 2013. The first note refers to this article. Although the shortened article constructs the same arguments, the chapter in the Ph.D Thesis elaborates a bit more on the different techniques Dolan uses in his films.

7. In his book Theory of Film Practices, Noël Burch describes the POV shot as being strictly a formal parameter, controlling the divergence and convergence of image and word – form and content. Divergence is hereby connected to external shots of characters and convergence to ‘subjective’ shots. According to Edward Branigan, Burch sees the POV shot as a subset of the general class of temporal and spatial articulations between shots (10).

8. In his first book on Film theory, Cinéma 1: L'Image-Mouvement (1983), French philosopher Gilles Deleuze deals with the development of images in classical representational cinema.

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Following theories of Henri Bergson, these images have been contextualized as the movement- image by Deleuze. For the movement-image, there’s an continuous interplay between action and reaction, which creates movement. In these images, the arrow of time is a continuous elaboration of past, present and future. This results in an indirect representation of time, where time is communicated through movement. In movement-images, characters are always positioned in a diegetic situation where they perceive, react, and act in a direct and logical manner. Deleuze defines this process as the sensory-motor schema. Deleuze distinguishes three different types of movement-images: perception-images (that focus on what is seen), affection-images (that focus on what is felt) and action-images (that focus on the duration of action).

For further reading: The Matrix of Visual Culture: Working with Deleuze in Film Theory (Pisters, 2003)

9. In his second book on Film theory, Cinema 2: L’image-temps (1989), Deleuze deals with the development of images in modern cinema, which appeared after the Second World War. To define the time-image, Deleuze follows Henri Bergson’s theory that all images are situated on a plane of immanence where past, present and future coexist and can be ordered in various ways (Pisters 2003; 3). Contrary to the movement-image, time is not subordinated to a series of movements and the sensory-motor schema in the time-image. It doesn’t follow the chronological order or rational connection between action and reaction. The time-image is infused with time, a maze in which the relationship of past, present and future is disrupted and forks into different dimensions, on the actual and virtual plane.

For further reading: The Matrix of Visual Culture: Working with Deleuze in Film Theory (Pisters, 2003)

10. Light is essentially made up of photons, tiny particles/waves that move at the staggering speed of approx 300.000km/s, the speed of light. When photons are reflected of a person, to a mirror, and again reflected to the person's eye, they have traveled the distance to the mirror and back. The time that it takes to travel this distance is close to zero, however, it can never be exactly zero. In other words, the photons which reach the eye show the way the person was a fraction of a second before.

11. The cinematography in J’ai tuè ma mère was done by Stéphanie Weber Biron and Nicolas Canniccioni. Dolan continued to work with Weber Biron on Les amours Imaginaires. For Laurence Anyways the cinematographer was Yves Bélanger. Dolan worked with

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cinematographer André Turpin on his latest three films: Tom à la ferme, Mommy and Juste la fin du monde.

12. The original soundtrack for J’ai tué ma mère was composed by Nicholas Savard-L'Herbier. Eduardo Noya Schreurs, who works under the stage name N.O.I.A., composed the soundtrack for Laurence Anyways and Mommy. On Tom à la ferme and Juste la fin du monde Dolan worked with composer Gabriel Yared.

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Films J’ai tué ma mère. Dir. Xavier Dolan. Rezo Films, 2009. Juste la fin du monde. Dir. Xavier Dolan. Les Films Séville, 2016 Laurence Anyways. Dir. Xavier Dolan. Alliance VivaFilm, 2012. Les amours imaginaires. Dir. Xavier Dolan. Remstar Distribution, 2010. Mommy. Dir. Xavier Dolan. Les Films Séville, 2014. Tom à la ferme. Dir. Xavier Dolan. MK2 Diffusion, 2013.

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