King of Death: In the 21st issue of " Garden ", we are going to talk about Xavier Dolan's new work "Matthias and Maxim" last year, which was nominated for the 72nd Cannes Film Festival.
Now at the age of 30, Dolan’s "genius director" aura has dimmed; even if fans always love him, they have to admit that his works in recent years such as "Just the End of the World" and "John Donovan" "The Death and Life", etc., are indeed not as agile and creative as their fledgling works.
For Dolan, the "Matthias and Maxim" based on gay themes may be more like a return to the normal heart. As we said in the film review we pushed in Cannes last year: Dolan is not just a man. He just needs precipitation more .
Section | Garden
Author | What time is your world
He met him. One is called Matthias and the other is called Maxim. They are good friends, but they are more than that simple. Because one day... they kissed.
This is the starting point of a story in Xavier Dolan's film "Matthias and Maxim". After the kiss, the two began to play tacitly, but their relationship became more tense and awkward, even stiff and at a loss.
All of this may be thanks to that movie, who let them participate in it, and who knows that there is a kiss scene.
But it's not a bad thing. This may be a good time to open up the hearts of the two. As the French novelist Zola said: "A kiss is a secret that is told to the mouth instead of to the ears."
The secret between two men is like an invisible wall. They are often powerless and courageous to break it.
Dolan is very good at and very accurately captures this feeling: a highly saturated suffocation, constantly turning in the air, and then slowly being diluted. The secret thoughts between each other are so long, but they still have to greet each other with smiles. With eyes flowing, the inadvertent silence was fleeting.
The surrounding joy made this feeling slowly fermented, quietly; like the blood on Maxim's forehead inexplicably oozing out, like Matthias wandering in the water with a sense of loss.
This feeling is mysterious, sensitive, romantic, and subtle. It aims to convey an inner anxiety to the audience: a dangerous relationship will inevitably occur between Matthias and Maxim.
Maxim, played by Dolan himself, is a distressing role in the film. Physiologically, he is a person with "blemishes", with a birthmark on his face; and psychologically, he has a mother who makes him a headache, and the "I Killed My Mother" reappears between mother and child. Classic tearing scenes.
Many times, Maxim seems to be alone, and he always bites his fingers alone at friend gatherings. He longs for love, longs for the future, he puts his life bet on Australia: he is about to leave for Melbourne.
At the same time, he also needs a letter of introduction. Matthias's father wrote this letter for Maxim. The letter has been written long ago and passed on by Matthias, but it has not been delivered to Maxim for a long time.
Because Matthias knew that once the letter was handed over, the day of parting would come, so it might as well be delayed for a few days.
When creating a state of mind between the two, Dolan seemed quite knowledgeable. He did not give each other the opportunity to confront each other many times, but showed the lives of the two separately, using partial details to condense their emotions.
For example, the potted plant in the office, Matthias had been watching for a long time before. Later it was moved away, leaving dispensable traces. What does this mean? We can say that this potted plant is Maxim who left, and Matthias missed him very much; it can also be said that this potted plant is a memory between the two of them, the best time for each other, but now things are different. .
Think of the painting that appeared in the second half of the film: when they were seven years old, they had painted a farm called "Matthias and Maxim". Perhaps this potted plant reminded him of the farm with his childhood dreams.
Both have a "farm complex", and both have an involuntary destiny. Their bodies are far apart, but their hearts have been tightly dependent on them. They are a kind of people, and their secrets will be known to us outside the screen on that stormy night.
It is undoubtedly romantic and destined to see two men cautiously making each other through the window of a stormy night. They ended up just kissing and caressing. They are still good friends. They are more in line with what Dolan had in mind: Friendship is love without sex.
So you will find that friendship takes up more space than same-sex love. The whole film uses too many tireless short shots to focus on the happy hour between friends. They chatted and joked with each other and played games, as if they had inexhaustible energy. They seem to have nothing to do, like clouds in the sky, floating aimlessly all day long.
They are always immersed in the seemingly restless state, and the breath of youth surrounds them, seeming to fill in too much boredom and emptiness. They surround Matthias and Maxim, as an indispensable existence in life. Presumably, as the director, Dolan aims to create a balance, one is the joy of their friendship, and the other is the life of the protagonists.
The most rare thing is that the emotional relationship between these friends is so reasonable, true and natural. Their vigor, their wanton, their infinite vitality. They are like a gang of young teenagers, disturbing this unsatisfactory world.
Rather than saying that this is a same-sex movie, it is more like a movie about friendship. Dolan impatiently showed the friendship between men, in fact, he was telling the audience: Hey! Friendship is a wonderful thing!
Think of the boys in the movie. They don’t seem to have grown up. They are inevitably entangled, confused, passionate, and naive; but what a group of sincere, cute, and funny people they are!
So, I have already guessed what the ending will look like. I just knew that on the day Maxim was about to set off, his good friend would definitely be waiting for him at the door, looking like he could not do anything, with a smile in his eyes.
He parted with him. One is called Matthias and the other is called Maxim. They are destined to be good friends for life.
Column | Garden; Author | What time is your world
Official Account | Watching a movie and seeing death
Edit | Riding a Rooftop Boy; please specify when reprinting
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