Refocus: The Films of Xavier Dolan

Ever since his first feature film I Killed My Mother premiered at Cannes, every film from the 29-year-old director Xavier Dolan has generated significant critical interest. A recipient of numerous awards, Dolan has recently taken his career to an international level with The Death and Life of John F. Donovan.
As the first book-length study about Dolan, with case studies of key films like Mommy (2014), Tom at the Farm (2013) and It’s Only the End of the World (2016), this volume explores the global reach of small national and subnational cinemas. In particular, it uses Dolan’s cinema as a departure point to reconsider the position of Québec film and cultural imaginary within a global cinematic culture, as well as the intersections between national, millennial and queer filmmaking.

Andrée Lafontaine is Assistant Professor of Anglophone Literature and Culture at the University of Tsukuba (Japan). She received a PhD in Film and Moving Image Studies from Concordia University (Montréal, Québec). She was Managing Editor of Synoptique-An Online Journal of Film and Moving ImageStudies, and has published in the International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies and the Canadian Journal of Film Studies.