This spring at the Cannes Film Festival, our own Jessica Kiang wrote a particularly sharp edged review of Xavier Dolan‘s “It’s Only The End of The World,” one that found the director himself responding to her directly and citing the piece in an interview with the Los Angeles Times when discussing the critical response to the picture. Indeed, Kiang’s was far from the only negative notice, but the filmmaker took issue what he perceived as personal attacks on his work, and it has made him wary about bringing his next movie, “The Death And Life Of John F. Donovan” to the Croisette.
Dolan recently revealed he was unlikely to bring the movie starring Jessica Chastain, Kit Harington, Taylor Kitsch, Kathy Bates, Susan Sarandon, Natalie Portman, Nicholas Hoult, and Thandie Newton to Cannes partially because filming would only be wrapped next year, but also because he feared that because it’s about the American media, “people would think it’s my revenge project,” though he notes it was written five years ago. Now, hitting Instagram, Dolan has further clarified his position on ‘Donovan’ and called out critical culture for “bullying and unwarranted hatred” among other things:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BKfsoPrAtvu/?taken-by=xavierdolan
The statement makes clear his dismay for some of the critical response to his work, and it seems he’s leaving the door open to submitting ‘Donovan’ to Cannes in 2018. However, as he stated previously, being a movie about the media, he’s well aware of how it might be perceived.
Thoughts? Let us know what you think of Dolan’s statement in the comments section. [CBC Montreal]