Xavier Dolan confirms new film in which horror and ‘Comic Elements’ come together

Just over a year after announcing his retirement from filmmaking, Xavier Dolan has confirmed he is working on a new feature film project, which he hopes to film next year.

The Québécois director was speaking during a masterclass at the Lumiere Film Festival, a fest organized by Cannes chief Thierry Fremaux, in Lyon. Dolan will host a special 10^e anniversary screening of his Cannes Jury Prize winner “Mommy” in the 2,000-seat auditorium in Lyon.

He says the script has been written and hopes to shoot it next year. Dolan explained that the film won’t really be a horror film, but will have “definitely gruesome aspects or moments” as well as “a lot of comedic elements” in the text. “It will be a fusion of different genres.” He also revealed that the story “is set in 1895 in the world of the elite, the Parisian literary world and also in the countryside.”

Dolan, often called the Québécois wunderkind, directed eight feature films in ten years. However, he hasn’t directed a film since the 2019 drama “Matthias & Maxime,” although he did create the Canadian drama series “The Night Logan Woke Up,” which aired in 2022. Last year, he stunned fans after announcing on Instagram that his “current state of mind and the state of the world do not inspire me to pursue what was once an inevitable calling.”

When asked about this hiatus, the 35-year-old director said he feels like he has entered a second chapter in his career.

“I get up in the morning, I read, I want to understand the world we live in, and sometimes cinema becomes secondary in this world. Film is a way to escape this world, but it is difficult to ignore what is happening in Gaza and Lebanon. It is impossible for me to deny our fragile environment, to deny that everything I see distracts my attention from my small artistic gesture,” he told the newspaper. Lyon audience, carefully searching for the right words in his characteristic intense style.

“If I waited so long to make another film, it’s because I no longer had the desire or the energy, and I knew there’s no point if you do it without this passion, this strength,” he explained out.

When asked what he would do differently in his career if given the chance, the famously demanding director answered enigmatically: “There are certain choices that are difficult to talk about, because it would be indecent to reveal…,” hesitated he, before continuing: ‘Maybe I wish that certain collaborations had led to more generosity or inventiveness, but things are what they are, and you have to come to terms with certain decisions that have had an impact on the depth, or lack of depth, of certain films.” he said, causing the crowd to wonder who he meant.

On the role of friendship, a recurring theme in his films, Dolan replied: “My whole life, my existence, revolves around friendship, all my love affairs are great friendships. Love is complicated for me; I have been madly in love, without it being reciprocated. The greatest love stories in my life are friendships, so it makes sense that this comes out in my films. I made “Matthias and Maxime” because I have experienced failures. It was a healing movie, a movie where I surrounded myself with my best friends,” he said, referring to the box office hit of “The Death and Life of John F. Donovan.”

Dolan is in Lyon for the launch of his new book, ‘A Friendship Through Film’, on the occasion of the 10^e ‘Mama’ birthday. The book features hundreds of never-before-seen photos from the shoot to the trip to Cannes, captured by longtime friend and collaborator Shayne Laverdière.

The Lumière Film Festival takes place from October 12 to 20 in Lyon.