The Cinematic Style of Xavier Dolan: A Video Essay | TIFF 2015

Cinematic style emerges from deliberate formal choices: 4:3 aspect ratio creates character isolation within groups, color palettes derived from locations become fundamental stylistic elements, and slow motion captures heightened emotional moments. These decisions serve narrative purposes—rain during parents' evening adds atmospheric weight, while slow-motion sequences like gym warm-ups capture fleeting moments of normalcy before conflict escalates.

Professional video editing begins with assembling the sequence before adding sound. Editors should gather all shots into a cohesive timeline, then adjust clip timing for pacing. Frame rate manipulation (like slowing 120fps footage to 59%) creates slow-motion introductions. Color grading follows a workflow: base correction in Cinema Grade (dragging mid-tones down, increasing shadows), then Color Finale for teal/orange looks (increasing temperature, adjusting tints, using curves with Luma Preserving mode). This creates moody, cinematic atmospheres with warm tones and intense sun effects.

Technical film editing involves multiple interconnected decisions. Aspect ratio selection (2.0 vs 2.35:1) affects cinematic scope and visual presentation, with 2.0 offering a balanced approach for both dialogue and action. Color grading ensures visual continuity with other franchise films by removing oversaturated tones. Audio format selection depends on target viewing platforms, with stereo often preferred for fan edits since most viewers watch on phones or computers where surround sound cannot be fully realized.

This segment explains the fundamental difference between diegetic and non-diegetic music in filmmaking. Diegetic music exists within the film's universe and can be heard by characters, while non-diegetic music is part of the soundtrack only the audience hears. The video demonstrates this through a scene where headphones are shown, and the music changes based on whether the character is wearing them. This technique allows filmmakers to create immersive audio experiences that connect the audience to the character's perspective.

In film terminology, 'diegetic' refers to sounds and music that can be heard by the characters within the movie. 'Non-diegetic' refers to sounds and music that are only heard by the audience. For example, a character's voice or a sound effect within the scene is diegetic, while background music that only the audience hears is non-diegetic. The term 'love' in tennis scoring refers to zero score.

Xavier Dolan's cinema is characterized by volatile characters alternating between imperious and melancholic states, symmetrical and asymmetrical compositions, and a focus on marginalized identities such as single mothers, LGBTQ+ individuals, and those with disabilities; Dolan uses visual elements like colors, silences, and screams not as superficial decoration but as essential tools to explore the relationship between dreams and realities, and to express the pain of individuals broken by the world, ultimately creating empathy while positioning the audience as aware of characters' conditions without knowing their true suffering.

This segment explores how queer cinema uses historical and contemporary settings to explore identity and relationships. Benediction examines the relationship between war poets Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, dealing with sexuality and anti-war sentiment. Girl Picture is a Finnish coming-of-age film about three young women discovering first love, sex, and pleasure at the cusp of adulthood. The History of Sound is a World War I romance based on an award-winning short story, combining epic and intimate elements. These films demonstrate how queer cinema explores universal themes of love, identity, and growth across different time periods and cultural contexts.

Queer coding is a narrative technique where filmmakers imply a character's queerness through visual and behavioral cues (such as effeminate mannerisms for male characters or masculine presentations for female characters) rather than explicit acknowledgment, which originated during Hollywood's Hays Code era (1930s-1968) when the US government pressured studios to censor LGBTQ+ content; this practice initially served as a survival mechanism for queer representation but often reinforced harmful stereotypes, leading to the 'bury your gays' trope where sympathetic queer characters died, and later evolved into problematic modern practices like queerbaiting, where characters appear queer without ever acknowledging their sexuality.

Hollywood studios spent decades pretending queer people didn't exist, but their biggest classics were dripping with forbidden desire hidden in plain sight. These films smuggled LGBTQ+ stories right past the censors, creating a secret history of queer representation that audiences could only access through coded performances and subtext. From Hitchcock's coded killers to Garbo's gender-bending queen, these films became essential viewing for understanding how Hollywood communicated forbidden identities through gesture, costume, and carefully chosen words.

The Old Guard takes the idea of lost queer history and turns it on its head. Queerness is no longer a 'new phenomenon' but very old. When a society is so concerned with hiding something, it can have the opposite effect where everything becomes implicated by that denial. Tolkien wrote in the mid-20th century when mainstream writers were not allowed to talk openly about homoerotic feelings or relationships.

Quebec cinema represents a legitimate and existing film industry that preserves cultural identity and serves as a tool for language learning. The speaker presents three films that collectively explore Quebec's historical journey: the Rebellions of 1837-1838, when French-speaking Canadiens established a brief independent republic in North America; the Duplessis era (1930s-1950s), characterized by systemic discrimination against French Canadians; and the Quiet Revolution (Révolution tranquille) of 1960, which transformed Quebecois society. Maurice Richard emerges as a unifying national hero whose hockey career elevated Quebecois status across North America. These films demonstrate how cinema preserves collective memory, documents social struggles, and celebrates the transformation of Quebecois identity from marginalized community to confident nation.

Quebecois cinema is characterized by hybridity (blending genres like melodrama, fantasy, and comedy), freedom of tone, and focus on adolescence and family dynamics. The industry features young filmmakers and female directors, partly due to early adoption of gender equality in 2007. Montreal's bilingual identity (French and English communities) creates a distinctive cultural perspective. Quebecois cinema has been influenced by American culture through American film productions shot in the province, combining French-language storytelling with American production values. The industry operates with smaller budgets (around one million euros), which paradoxically fosters creative innovation and artistic authenticity.

This segment explores the prominence of French Canadian cinema in Canada's film industry. Films like The Barbarian Invasions (winning Canada's first Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film) and Mommy (winning nine Canadian Screen Awards) demonstrate how Quebec filmmakers achieve critical acclaim. Despite limited budgets, these films earn standing ovations at Cannes and multiple international awards. The segment reveals how French Canadian cinema addresses complex social issues including family dynamics, cancer, and personal struggle while achieving artistic excellence that rivals Hollywood productions.

Quebec cinema, despite having a population of only 8 million people, has developed a remarkably prolific film industry driven by its geographic position surrounded by 360 million English speakers, which created pressure to develop a French-language cinema as a form of cultural identity. The industry evolved from early films like 'Danse indienne' (1898) through significant periods including the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s-70s, which saw films like 'Jésus de Montréal' and 'Le déclin de l'empire américain' win international recognition, to contemporary success with directors like Xavier Dolan and Denis Villeneuve. Quebec's strategic advantages for film production include its ability to transform into various American and European cities, high-quality special effects and post-production capabilities, favorable tax incentives up to 40%, and strong animation and dubbing industries, which have attracted major Hollywood productions like Marvel's 'Pirates of the Caribbean' and 'Star Wars'.

Quebec cinema serves as an excellent resource for learning and understanding Quebec French. The video presents five films that demonstrate different aspects of Quebec French: 'Crazy Crazy' shows traditional Quebec Christmas celebrations and family gatherings; 'Mommy' by Xavier Dolan uses extreme, exaggerated language with many anglicisms; 'The Year' by Ricardo Trogi features authentic childhood dialogue from the 1980s; 'Séraphin' adapts classic Quebec literature; and 'Bon cop, bad cop' explores Quebec-Ontario relations. Each film provides exposure to authentic Quebec French pronunciation, vocabulary, and cultural context, helping learners develop their listening skills and comprehension of the accent.