From Xavier Dolan to Monia Chokri: five popular Quebec directors

Xavier Dolan, the gifted

The Pearl : Laurence Anyways (2012)

Selected at the Cannes Film Festival from his first feature film, I Killed My Mother (2009), at just 20 years old, the Montrealer has established himself in eight films as a total author with a unique style, between intimacy on the edge of pop skin and flamboyance. Treated as a brother by the critics and the French public (three Césars including that of the best director for Only the end of the world in 2016), the actor-screenwriter-director is an ardent defender of the Belle Province. Regularly subtitled, his dialogues draw on the most sibylline local slang, so much so that Quebecers themselves complain of not understanding everything… An aesthetic and political gesture for those who say they are fighting against “extinction linguistic”.

Denys Arcand, the boss

The Pearl : Jesus of Montreal (1989)

Denys Arcand is the only Canadian to have won the Oscar for best foreign film with Les Invasions barbares, in 2004. Worked by the social and political reality of his country, he has built a prolific body of work since the 1960s, ranging from documentaries, such as Champlaindedicated to the founder of Quebec, or We are cottonon the textile industry, to fiction, including his famous “trilogy of Western decadence” with The Decline of the American Empire, The Barbarian Invasions and The Fall of the American Empire, without ever losing its bite or its taste for controversy. At 81, the one who gladly ridicules “Canadian political correctness” is preparing a satire entitled Testament. Irreducible…

Denis Villeneuve, the exile

The Pearl : Sicario (2015)

Dune, Premier contact, Blade Runner 2049… His films have established him as the great architect of Hollywood science fiction, a specialist in technological challenges and pharaonic budgets. So much so that we almost ended up forgetting that Denis Villeneuve was born in Bécancour and speaks with a Quebec accent. The direct competitor of Christopher Nolan (who admires him) began in 1991 thanks to the short film prize organized by Radio Canada, then shot his first four features in Quebec (including Polytechnique, which looks back on the 1989 massacre), before answering the call of the dream factory and becoming a master of blockbuster top of the line. He describes himself as “the opposite of Xavier Dolan”.

Jean-Marc Vallée, the disappeared

The Pearl : Wild (2014)

On December 25, 2021, at the age of 58, Jean-Marc Vallée succumbed to cardiac arrest. Revealed internationally in 2005 with the success of CRAZY, pure concentrate of seventies nostalgia, he was spotted by Martin Scorsese who entrusted him with the production of Victoria: the young years of a queen (2009). His musical direction and his romantic writing have a good effect in Hollywood, where he collects Oscar nominations (including six for Dallas Buyers Club) before making a transition to the series (Big Little Lies and Sharp Objects, critically acclaimed). On his death, Denis Villeneuve paid homage to this “big brother” whose flair opened so many doors to Quebec filmmakers. We will never see his romance inspired by the story of John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

Monia Chokri, the next generation

The Pearl: Babysitter (2022)

Labeled “Xavier Dolan’s muse” from her first major roles in Les Amours imaginaires (2010) and Laurence Anyways (2012), after an appearance in The Dark Ages by Denys Arcand in 2007, Monia Chokri could have contented herself with shining among her fellow citizens. It was to misunderstand this cinephile actress, fed on B series and direct cinema (a movement close to the New Wave, which appeared in Quebec in the 1960s), who considers cinema as “an art of exploration”. Moved to directing with his short film someone extraordinary (2013), she reveals her sense of comedy in My brother’s wife (2019) then Baby sitter (2022), a post-MeToo tale packed with dark humor and visual audacity.