On Monday, July 3rd, an interview with filmmaker Xavier Dolan was published in the newspaper El Mundo under the title "Art is useless and dedicating oneself to cinema is a waste of time."
The interview was done via Zoom. Suffice to say, it made headlines. Dolan was quoted as saying that he had no particular interest for cinema anymore and that he was quitting filmmaking.
Immediately, after I picked up on the story, translated it and published it, Dolan’s comments went viral. This pissed him off. He proceeded to deny, via instagram, that he had said those things and went as far as to say that the El Mundo journalist had fabricated the entire thing.
El Mundo just told Dolan to hold their beer. Given his denialist reaction, the Spanish outlet has made available to their readers, and non-readers, the translated audio so that we can hear for ourselves what Dolan actually said, and it clearly falls in line with what was first reported.
Hey, sometimes things are said that one regrets, and maybe Dolan should have just blamed it on his mood that day, but, no, he blamed it on the journalist. Now there is proof of what he said.
So, much to the excitement of some, and the mass disappointment of others, it does sound like Dolan is regretting his retirement claims. He will continue making movies.
This, on the surface level, looks like a total shitshow for Dolan, but what it has done instead is reacquainted his name in the public eye. Not many people have been paying much attention to him lately, so this can only benefit his star. I wouldn’t be surprised if he starts shooting a new film soon.