Canadian Cannes wunderkid Xavier Dolan, who walked away from the south of France last year with three prizes last year — SACD Prize (Director’s Fortnight), Prix Regards Jeune and CICAE Award — for his debut film “I Killed My Mother” returns to the Croisette with his sophomore effort which finds the director graduating to the Un Certain Regard programming of the Cannes Film Festival.
In “I Killed My Mother,” Dolan tracked the fractious relationship between a mother and her teenage gay son as he comes of age. It was a remarkably assured debut and with “Les amours imaginaires” (“Love, Imagined”) it seems the writer/director is once again diving into the complexity of love. Here’s the roughly translated synopsis from the film’s Facebook page:
The story of Francis and Mary, two friends who love the same person, engaged in an unhealthy competition to win her affection. From one encounter to the next, the tension rises, and soon everyone interprets ambiguous obsessive and destructive behavior of the object of their desire.
The film, which will be released in Canada on June 11th (there is no U.S. distributor at this time), has a beautiful new poster. Until we have an official trailer, take a look at at the spot for Dolan’s previous film “I Killed My Mother.” It gives a good idea to his visual style and it’s a film well worth tracking down.