Xavier Dolan on the small screen

Madeleine Larouche, a former local figure in a small Quebec town, is dying. His three sons, the youngest of whom has just come out of rehab, follow one another at his bedside. Mireille, her only daughter, has broken ties but, the day after her death, this renowned thanatologist is called to embalm her, according to her mother’s last wishes. Her return brings back an old trauma that has poisoned family relations for three decades: in 1991, Mireille accused her brother’s neighbor and best friend, Laurier Gaudreault, of rape, shattering the friendships and personal ambitions of both sides. others (the mother’s mayoral race and the brother’s baseball career).

Since his first film in 2009, I Killed My Mother, the troublemaker of Quebec cinema Xavier Dolan has never stopped exploring dysfunctional families and questions of identity, with a singular, radical tone. His first series for television, adapted from a play by Michel Marc Bouchard, is in the same vein.

A great fan of TV series since adolescence, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Six Feet Under, Xavier Dolan intertwines eras, from the colorful 1990s to the dark present, like genres, passing from family drama to thriller, with incursions in horror (through terrifying phantasmagoria revealing the deep anxieties of the characters).

Supported by a remarkable cast (notably Anne Dorval, his favorite actress, in the role of the mother, and Julie Le Breton, overwhelming in Mireille), his virtuoso staging leaves plenty of room for silences and moments of intimacy. Over the episodes, we measure the devastating impact of the unsaid on the various members of the family, including the youngest brothers, still children at the time of the tragedy. The wanderings of these dented beings take to the guts. Be careful, however, scenes of violence and explicit sexuality can offend.

Source