Ten years after I KILLED MY MOTHER was screened within the Directors’ Fortnight section, Cannes Film Festival veteran and Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan is back at the Festival with his 3rd competition entry, MATTHIAS & MAXIME.
MATTHIAS & MAXIME chronicles the dynamics of a group of friends entering their late 20s. Dolan’s film focuses on two of the group’s members, Matthias (Gabriel D’Almeida Freitas) and Maxime (played by the director himself). The protagonists come from two very different backgrounds. Matthias is conventionally handsome, a promising lawyer and well educated – a feature which he never misses a chance to prove. On the other hand, Maxime comes from a lower-class background, he has no career prospects and is forced to take care of his alcoholic and abusive mother. Maxime has a skin pigmentation disorder which has turned his face into a canvas, and he dreams of a better life abroad and plans to leave for Australia.
Mathias and Maxime have been friends since primary school and are closer than ever at the beginning of the film. The group enjoy a weekend at Rivette’s (Pier-Luc Funk) lake house in the Québécois countryside when the host’s comical younger sister asks Matthias and Maxime to perform for a short film that she is making. She tells them to kiss for the camera which instantly sparks something within the duo and rekindles a repressed desire. This moment of connection begins a series of obstacles which the friendship will have to face before Maxime’s departure in the next 12 days.
“Dolan wrote, directed, edited and acted in a film which feels very personal. MATTHIAS & MAXIME is essentially about friendship, and sexuality is communicated as a secondary aspect. The film makes one question whether friendship is love or vice versa.”
The story is not necessarily original but there is certain sweetness in this film that is beautiful to witness. Everything about MATTHIAS & MAXIME is natural. The actors are actual real-life friends and their chemistry is perfectly visible on screen. The cinematography also supports this. Being shot on film, feelings of nostalgia are inevitable and occasional whip pans and zooms serve to heighten dynamic and tense moments, making one feel present within the scenes. Many have described this film as a “transition piece” for the Canadian prodigy. Compared to the rest of his filmography, MATTHIAS & MAXIME shows a real amount of maturity from the filmmaker. It is toned-down, soft and gentle, three adjectives that would never be used to describe his previous films.
Dolan wrote, directed, edited and acted in a film which feels very personal. MATTHIAS & MAXIME is essentially about friendship, and sexuality is communicated as a secondary aspect. The film makes one question whether friendship is love or vice versa. As the filmmaker noted in the press conference delivered on Wednesday, “this film is not gay, it’s life”. MATTHIAS & MAXIME is the beginning of a new age for Dolan.