December 15th: LAURENCE ANYWAYS (Xavier Dolan, 2012)

Note: this film will be shown in the high-definition Blu-ray format.

A couple struggles to preserve their relationship when a schoolteacher previously living as a man informs her partner she wishes to identify as female.

Quebecois filmmaker Xavier Dolan began his career as a child actor, as well as dubbing French language tracks for many popular Hollywood films.  At 20 years old, his debut feature I Killed My Mother won several awards after its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival's Director's Fortnight section.  His follow-up Les Amours Imaginaires (a.k.a. Heartbeats) also played at Cannes, and drew comparisons to the work of Jean-Luc Godard and Wong-Kar Wai.

Dolan's third film marks a leap forward as the subject matter is removed from his own milieu, writing about characters in their 30s and 40s, setting the story in 1989, and looking through the perspective of a transgender individual.  He began the screenplay while still at work on his debut feature, inspired by a story told to him by a crew member.

The cast includes French actor Melvil Poupaud (Mysteries of Lisbon, A Christmas Tale), former Dolan collaborators Suzanne Clément and Monia Chokri, and Nathalie Baye (Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can).

In addition to writing and directing, Dolan also edited and co-designed costumes for the film, as he had with his two previous features. For Laurence Anyways, the decision was made to frame the image in the old "Academy" 1.33:1 format, creating a boxier screen, and to bring the focus tighter on his characters. It was shot on location in Montreal and surrounding areas by cinematographer Yves Bélanger (Brooklyn, Dallas Buyers Club).

Despite the more mature themes, Dolan alternates intimate realism and handheld camerawork with flourishes of style, including surreal imagery and music video-like sequences (the film's 80s-heavy soundtrack was handpicked by Dolan). He spends as much time on the emotional journey of his cisgender female protagonist as on his transgender title character, giving full weight to their relationship and respective viewpoints.

The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard competition, and earned the Best Actress award in that category for Clément's performance, as well as the "Queer Palm", an independent award for LGBT-relevant works throughout the festival.  It was also nominated for 10 Genie awards from the Canadian film industry including Best Picture, Screenplay, Direction, Actor, and Actress, and won the Best Canadian Feature award at the Toronto Film Festival.

Running time is approx. 2 hrs, 40 min.