Please note: Cinemateket screenings are advert-free, so please arrive on time.
Tickets are sold via Odeon Cinema Stavanger.
Director: Xavier Dolan. Canada/France, 2012
Starring: Melvil Poupaud, Suzanne Clément, Nathalie Baye
2 hrs 48 mins. French dialogue, English subtitles. Age rating: 12.
Laurence and Fred are passionately in love and have created the perfect little bubble for two. It’s them against the rest of the world and anything that diminishes their happiness. One day, Laurence declares that he wants to live as a woman. Laurence Anyways follows Laurence and Fred over a ten-year period, through highs and lows, in their fight for love and their struggle to remain true to themselves.
This was Canadian wunderkind Xavier Dolan’s third film, following his debut I Killed My Mother and Heartbeats. Since then he has delivered powerful works such as Tom at the Farm and Mommy. Dolan is a classic auteur who writes his own screenplays in addition to directing and acting, and on Laurence Anyways he also contributed editing and costume design.
Laurence Anyways is an ambitious, complex, thought-provoking and moving film. Transformation is a key word, in both content and form. Visually the film is overwhelming, with Yves Bélanger’s captivating cinematography, striking colours, arresting staging, the use of water as a symbolic motif, subtle references and the editing rhythm. The soundscape is equally hypnotic, thanks in part to the effective use of music (Fever Ray, Moderat, Duran Duran, Visage) and a voiceover that binds the story together.