I cant keep starting from zero each time.
I need to build something and have a sense that Im advancing.
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I cant make a film because someone asks me to.
Xavier Dolan at the Lumiere Film Festival in LyonGetty Images
Dolan revealed over the summer that he had completed a script for a period movie set in 1880s France.
Its going to be a genre film, thats for sure.
Is it going to be a horror movie?
I might have spoken too soon.
Theres a lot of comic elements in the writing.
There will certainly be horror moments, but its rather an amalgam of lots of genres, he said.
I know I could never sustain the same rhythm that I had before.
I was younger and I was different.
During my first years at Cannes, people would say to me, Arent you a bit alarmist?
I always found that stupid, because I get up in the morning and I read.
I want to understand what world were in, he said.
Sometimes cinema becomes a bit secondary.
These things distract me from my small artistic endeavors.
Another obstacle has been the challenge of financing films amid rising production costs and falling resources.
Dolan suggested Quebecs existence within the predominantly Anglo-American culture of North America also contributed to this.
Quebec is an island, a nation.
Its a film of inconceivable violence.
They perceive this as negative.
I perceive it as something essential about people being incapable of communicating.
As well as the masterclass, Dolan is at the Lumiere Film Festival for a special screening ofMommy.
The director acknowledged that strong friendships were intrinsic to his storytelling and his private life.
Its not something that comes naturally to me to talk about because Im living it.
Friendship is my entire existence.
All the big love stories that Ive lived have been big loving friendships, he said.
Love has always been complicated for me.
I surrounded myself with my best friends.
