It’s Only the End of the World

[projekktor id=’25436′]

It’s Only the End of the World (Juste la fin du monde) is the newest film from Canadian writer/director Xavier Dolan (Mommy). The film, which is based on the play by Jean-Luc Lagarce, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this year and won the Grand Prix prize. The cast features some A-list French talent including Nathalie Baye, Vincent Cassel, Marion Cotillard, Léa Seydoux, and Gaspard Ulliel.

After 12 years of absence, a writer goes back to his hometown, planning on announcing his upcoming death to his family. As resentment soon rewrites the course of the afternoon, fits and feuds unfold, fuelled by bitterness and fear, while all attempts of empathy are sabotaged by people’s incapacity to listen, and love.

Dolan was given a copy of the play from his friend, actress Anne Dorval, and it took him a while to really digest it. “I didn’t get much of a kick out of it. And to be honest, I felt, quite on the contrary, a disinterest for the material, and perhaps even an aversion for the language. Because of an intellectual blockage of some kind, I couldn’t engage with the characters nor the story, and wasn’t able to love the play my friend so deeply worshipped.” Four years later, after rereading it again and finally understanding it, he decided it was time to put it on film.

It’s Only the End of the World is rated 14A.