Exclusive: Pulsar Content has acquired world sales rights for Joséphine Japy’s upcoming feature The Wonderers following a family navigating the severe disability of the youngest daughter.
Produced by Cowboys Films, the feature marks Japy’s first time in the director’s chair.
The actress was recently seen in Netflix’s BAFTA-winning fictionalized Bernard Tapie biopic Class Act, with previous credits including On The Wandering Paths, Love At Second Sight, Breathe, as well as Claude François biopic My Way, early on in her career.
Set against the backdrop of a summer on the French riviera, the drama revolves around the Roussier family and its fragile equilibrium shaped by the uncertain diagnosis of its youngest daughter, 13-year-old Bertille, who suffers from a severe disability.
Her parents and 17-year-old older sister Marion live in constant fear of losing her. Disconnected from typical teenage dreams, Marion seeks escape in a relationship with an older boy.
Produced by Cowboys Films, the feature marks Japy’s first time in the director’s chair.
The actress was recently seen in Netflix’s BAFTA-winning fictionalized Bernard Tapie biopic Class Act, with previous credits including On The Wandering Paths, Love At Second Sight, Breathe, as well as Claude François biopic My Way, early on in her career.
Set against the backdrop of a summer on the French riviera, the drama revolves around the Roussier family and its fragile equilibrium shaped by the uncertain diagnosis of its youngest daughter, 13-year-old Bertille, who suffers from a severe disability.
Her parents and 17-year-old older sister Marion live in constant fear of losing her. Disconnected from typical teenage dreams, Marion seeks escape in a relationship with an older boy.
- 9/4/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Filmmaker Monia Chokri loves a zoom lens. Such is the fun aesthetic of her third feature The Nature of Love. Often the image jumps forwards or backwards, accenting an emotional moment with a punchy, visual exclamation point. It shouldn’t work, yet it does. The film stars Magalie Lépine Blondeau as Sophia, a 40-year-old professor in a comfortable marriage to Xavier (Francis-William Rhéaume). “Not unhappy,” she describes herself at one point. Early on, Sophia is intrigued and quickly entranced by Sylvain (Pierre-Yves Cardinal), the craftsperson renovating Sophia and Xavier’s country home. The affair is immediately sexy, exciting, and passionate.
Cinematographer André Turpin’s camera matches the excitement. When things are turbulent––be they good or bad––the camera gets a bit impatient. When things are stale, the camera gets a bit complacent. Consider one of the best moments of the film: Sylvain’s seductive introduction. The camera runs slowly down a corridor,...
Cinematographer André Turpin’s camera matches the excitement. When things are turbulent––be they good or bad––the camera gets a bit impatient. When things are stale, the camera gets a bit complacent. Consider one of the best moments of the film: Sylvain’s seductive introduction. The camera runs slowly down a corridor,...
- 7/8/2024
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
The task of crafting an intellectual definition of love — a feeling so indescribable and transcendent that empires have crumbled and countless lives have blown up just because humans craved a little more of it — is, by definition, an impossible task. It’s a feeling that inspires so much art because it can’t be explained or rationalized away. At its best, it’s so overpowering that even the smartest among us have no choice but to suspend their need to analyze and accept that they’ve fallen prey to an emotion better summarized by a three-minute pop song than anything in a textbook.
But the impossibility of the assignment hasn’t stopped the great thinkers of every generation from trying. From ancient Greek philosophers who argued that love couldn’t be separated from unfulfilled sexual desire and obsession to more modern interpretations that see it as a state of being...
But the impossibility of the assignment hasn’t stopped the great thinkers of every generation from trying. From ancient Greek philosophers who argued that love couldn’t be separated from unfulfilled sexual desire and obsession to more modern interpretations that see it as a state of being...
- 7/5/2024
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
Monia Chokri’s 2023 film The Nature of Love offers insight into humanity’s most complex emotion. Set in Montreal, it centers on Sophia, a university philosophy teacher played brilliantly by Magalie Lépine-Blondeau. For a decade, she’s been with her partner, Xavier, but their relationship has lost its spark. This changes when rugged contractor Sylvain, portrayed with charm by Pierre-Yves Cardinal, is hired to renovate Sophia’s country home. Their connection is electric, sweeping Sophia into a passionate affair behind Xavier’s back.
As a philosophy professor, Sophia is well-versed in the theories of love put forth by great thinkers. Yet finding herself irresistibly drawn to Sylvain exposes how imperfectly her intellect aligns with her heart. Chokri explores how even the most well-read among us can struggle to understand love in practice.
She depicts Sophia swept up in irrational desire, grappling with conflicting emotions as passion for Sylvain collides with loyalty to Xavier.
As a philosophy professor, Sophia is well-versed in the theories of love put forth by great thinkers. Yet finding herself irresistibly drawn to Sylvain exposes how imperfectly her intellect aligns with her heart. Chokri explores how even the most well-read among us can struggle to understand love in practice.
She depicts Sophia swept up in irrational desire, grappling with conflicting emotions as passion for Sylvain collides with loyalty to Xavier.
- 7/1/2024
- by Shahrbanoo Golmohamadi
- Gazettely
A middle-aged woman’s has a giddy fling in Monia Chokri’s latest film – at first all is roses, but then moral murkiness creeps in
Middle-aged women enjoying torrid flings were treated with solemnity in Claire Denis’s Both Sides of the Blade and Harry Wootliff’s True Things. The Québécois actor-director Monia Chokri takes a gentler, livelier tack in her third movie and first as solo screenwriter. It kicks off at a choppily edited dinner-party where a gaggle of erudite pals are bantering about the end of the world (“We’re in extinction denial”), then narrows the focus to one couple. Sophia (Magalie Lépine-Blondeau), a philosophy professor whose lectures amount to little more than listing quotes about love from the likes of Schopenhauer, Spinoza and Plato, is a decade into her cosy, unchallenging relationship with Xavier (Francis-William Rhéaume). Hiring the rugged labourer Sylvain (Pierre-Yves Cardinal) to spruce up her holiday chalet,...
Middle-aged women enjoying torrid flings were treated with solemnity in Claire Denis’s Both Sides of the Blade and Harry Wootliff’s True Things. The Québécois actor-director Monia Chokri takes a gentler, livelier tack in her third movie and first as solo screenwriter. It kicks off at a choppily edited dinner-party where a gaggle of erudite pals are bantering about the end of the world (“We’re in extinction denial”), then narrows the focus to one couple. Sophia (Magalie Lépine-Blondeau), a philosophy professor whose lectures amount to little more than listing quotes about love from the likes of Schopenhauer, Spinoza and Plato, is a decade into her cosy, unchallenging relationship with Xavier (Francis-William Rhéaume). Hiring the rugged labourer Sylvain (Pierre-Yves Cardinal) to spruce up her holiday chalet,...
- 7/1/2024
- by Ryan Gilbey
- The Guardian - Film News
The premise of writer-director Monia Chokri’s Quebec-set The Nature of Love makes it sound like your standard-issue rom-com. Sophia (Magalie Lépine-Blondeau), a university philosophy teacher stuck in a static relationship with Xavier (Francis-William Rhéaume), is one day suddenly swept off her feet by Sylvain (Pierre-Yves Cardinal), the hunky, charming contractor tasked with renovating Sophia and Xavier’s lakeside getaway.
But after scenes depicting Sophia lecturing her classes about history’s great thinkers and their philosophies of love, it becomes clear that Chokri isn’t so much interested in the central couple’s meet-cute as she is in all that the affair triggers for Sophia. And much like what Todd Haynes’s Far from Heaven did with the aesthetic of the Sirkian Hollywood melodrama, The Nature of Love engages with the stylings and bubbly tonality of the classic rom-com in ironic fashion, along the way exploring complex aspects of human behavior.
But after scenes depicting Sophia lecturing her classes about history’s great thinkers and their philosophies of love, it becomes clear that Chokri isn’t so much interested in the central couple’s meet-cute as she is in all that the affair triggers for Sophia. And much like what Todd Haynes’s Far from Heaven did with the aesthetic of the Sirkian Hollywood melodrama, The Nature of Love engages with the stylings and bubbly tonality of the classic rom-com in ironic fashion, along the way exploring complex aspects of human behavior.
- 6/30/2024
- by Wes Greene
- Slant Magazine
"I'm too romantic. Love should be simple." Music Box Films has revealed an official US trailer for an indie romantic comedy called The Nature of Love from Quebec. This French-language Canadian comedy first premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival last year, and is just now getting a summer debut in limited US theaters. The original title is Simple comme Sylvain in French, or Simple as Sylvain, referring to the man she falls for in this film. Sophia's life is turned upside down when she meets Sylvain. She's from a wealthy family, while Sylvain comes from a large family of manual workers. Sophia questions her own values after abandoning herself to her great romantic impulses – she enjoys sleeping with Sylvain much more following 10 years of marriage and can't stop. So what comes next for her? Starring Magalie Lépine-Blondeau as Sophia and Pierre-Yves Cardinal as Sylvain, plus Monia Chokri, Francis-William Rhéaume,...
- 5/30/2024
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
“The Nature of Love,” Monia Chokri’s sexy romantic comedy that beat Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” in the best foreign-language film race at this year’s Cesar Awards, has been acquired by Music Box Films for the U.S.
“The Nature of Love” world premiered at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard to strong reviews, followed by a North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Chokri’s film stars Magalie Lépine-Blondeau and Pierre-Yves Cardinal. Music Box Films will open “The Nature of Love” in theaters this summer with a home entertainment release to follow. The film is produced by Metafilms and co-produced by Mk Productions.
“The Nature of Love” follows 40-year-old philosophy professor Sophia, who abandons her stable and conventional marriage for a passionate affair with Sylvian, a craftsman renovating her country house. Their romantic impulses are complicated by intellectual and social differences.
“Monia Chokri takes a familiar romantic comedy...
“The Nature of Love” world premiered at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard to strong reviews, followed by a North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Chokri’s film stars Magalie Lépine-Blondeau and Pierre-Yves Cardinal. Music Box Films will open “The Nature of Love” in theaters this summer with a home entertainment release to follow. The film is produced by Metafilms and co-produced by Mk Productions.
“The Nature of Love” follows 40-year-old philosophy professor Sophia, who abandons her stable and conventional marriage for a passionate affair with Sylvian, a craftsman renovating her country house. Their romantic impulses are complicated by intellectual and social differences.
“Monia Chokri takes a familiar romantic comedy...
- 4/4/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Monia Chokri’s “The Nature of Love” has been acquired for U.K. and Ireland distribution by Vertigo Releasing.
The film stars Magalie Lépine Blondeau and Pierre-Yves Cardinal. In the film, the cosy married life of lecturer and intellectual Sophia (Blondeau) takes a bold new turn when she meets Sylvain (Cardinal), the ruggedly charming handyman at her new chalet and she embarks on a steamy and all-consuming affair.
“The Nature of Love” premiered at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard strand earlier this year and since then has played Toronto and Zurich among other festivals. It has its U.K. premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on Oct. 13 and will play Chicago post that.
“Female mid-life crises are not explored in this mode of storytelling as often their male counterpart: While the tragedy of the woman who f—s around and finds out is a mainstay of plenty of great literature and cinema,...
The film stars Magalie Lépine Blondeau and Pierre-Yves Cardinal. In the film, the cosy married life of lecturer and intellectual Sophia (Blondeau) takes a bold new turn when she meets Sylvain (Cardinal), the ruggedly charming handyman at her new chalet and she embarks on a steamy and all-consuming affair.
“The Nature of Love” premiered at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard strand earlier this year and since then has played Toronto and Zurich among other festivals. It has its U.K. premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on Oct. 13 and will play Chicago post that.
“Female mid-life crises are not explored in this mode of storytelling as often their male counterpart: While the tragedy of the woman who f—s around and finds out is a mainstay of plenty of great literature and cinema,...
- 10/10/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Maple Syrup Massacre is an editorial series where Joe Lipsett dissects the themes, conventions and contributions of new and classic Canadian horror films. Spoilers follow…
There’s a moment, very late in Tom at the Farm, when the film’s antagonist Francis Longchamp (Pierre-Yves Cardinal) wears a denim jacket with USA emblazoned on the back. The film’s protagonist – Tom – has been held hostage by Francis for several weeks by this point while the pair role play domestic roles in a psychosexual power game. Francis, it should be noted, is also the older brother of Tom’s recently deceased lover and Tom submits to the ruse, in part, because Francis smells and resembles his ex.
At the end of the film, however, Tom finally flees into the Québec woods, steals Francis’ car, and escapes back to the safety of Montreal, the largest city in the province and the third biggest in Canada.
There’s a moment, very late in Tom at the Farm, when the film’s antagonist Francis Longchamp (Pierre-Yves Cardinal) wears a denim jacket with USA emblazoned on the back. The film’s protagonist – Tom – has been held hostage by Francis for several weeks by this point while the pair role play domestic roles in a psychosexual power game. Francis, it should be noted, is also the older brother of Tom’s recently deceased lover and Tom submits to the ruse, in part, because Francis smells and resembles his ex.
At the end of the film, however, Tom finally flees into the Québec woods, steals Francis’ car, and escapes back to the safety of Montreal, the largest city in the province and the third biggest in Canada.
- 9/20/2023
- by Joe Lipsett
- bloody-disgusting.com
The rom-com has always appeared to be in safe hands with French-language cinema, but Quebecois director Monia Chokri wanted to push the boundaries of the genre even further with her new film “Simple comme Sylvain.”
“French people like to talk about love but they always do it in the same way of toxic relationships. And there aren’t so many [rom-coms] made by women,” says Chokri, who was last in Cannes in 2019 with her debut feature, “A Brother’s Love,” which won Un Certain Regard’s Jury Cup de Coeur.
“Simple comme Sylvain” centers on a posh French-Canadian woman in a sexless marriage who turns her life upside down when she has an affair with her contractor.
The Quebec-born actor broke out in meaty roles in Canadian auteur Denys Arcand’s “The Age of Darkness” and Xavier Dolan’s “Heartbeats” and “Laurence Anyways.” She also acts in “Simple comme Sylvain,” playing her protagonist’s outspoken best friend,...
“French people like to talk about love but they always do it in the same way of toxic relationships. And there aren’t so many [rom-coms] made by women,” says Chokri, who was last in Cannes in 2019 with her debut feature, “A Brother’s Love,” which won Un Certain Regard’s Jury Cup de Coeur.
“Simple comme Sylvain” centers on a posh French-Canadian woman in a sexless marriage who turns her life upside down when she has an affair with her contractor.
The Quebec-born actor broke out in meaty roles in Canadian auteur Denys Arcand’s “The Age of Darkness” and Xavier Dolan’s “Heartbeats” and “Laurence Anyways.” She also acts in “Simple comme Sylvain,” playing her protagonist’s outspoken best friend,...
- 5/20/2023
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
Monia Chokri’s “The Nature of Love” opens by introducing us to 40-year-old philosophy professor Sophia (Magalie Lépine Blondeau) and her husband Xavier (Francis-William Rhéaume), as they enjoy a dinner party with friends. Said friends (one of whom is played by the director) are similarly middle-class progressive types with nice homes and comfortable lives; Sophia’s job in particular allows a strand of metatextual self-commentary in an otherwise predominantly broad and sexy comedy. It is, of course, a cast-iron rule of cinema that if a film opens with a middle-class dinner party, you’re about to see somebody’s bourgeois certainties undermined, and Chokri doesn’t disappoint.
On the drive home, Sophia and Xavier gossip about their friends’ love lives. Supposedly one of the other couples has sex three or four times a week, but also fights constantly. Xavier is of the opinion that a peaceful but sexless life is preferable,...
On the drive home, Sophia and Xavier gossip about their friends’ love lives. Supposedly one of the other couples has sex three or four times a week, but also fights constantly. Xavier is of the opinion that a peaceful but sexless life is preferable,...
- 5/18/2023
- by Catherine Bray
- Variety Film + TV
In Monia Chokri’s “The Nature of Love” (“Simple comme Sylvain”), a posh French-Canadian woman in a sexless marriage turns her life upside down for an affair with her contractor.
The film, which is being shopped to buyers in Cannes by Mk2 Films, will world premiere in Un Certain Regard on May 18.
Magalie Lépine-Blondeau delivers a powerhouse performance as Sofia, a 40-year-old philosophy professor in a stable yet stifling relationship with long-term partner Xavier.
When they buy a chalet to refurbish, she meets the strapping, jovial Sylvain (Pierre-Yves Cardinal), who arrives one day to provide a quote for the renovations. The pair jump headlong into a steamy relationship, but as their romance wears on, Sofia realizes that their backgrounds and interests make them far more different than she first thought.
Chokri previously directed “My Brother’s Wife,” which won the Jury Prize in Un Certain Regard in 2019. Chokri, who directs and wrote the screenplay,...
The film, which is being shopped to buyers in Cannes by Mk2 Films, will world premiere in Un Certain Regard on May 18.
Magalie Lépine-Blondeau delivers a powerhouse performance as Sofia, a 40-year-old philosophy professor in a stable yet stifling relationship with long-term partner Xavier.
When they buy a chalet to refurbish, she meets the strapping, jovial Sylvain (Pierre-Yves Cardinal), who arrives one day to provide a quote for the renovations. The pair jump headlong into a steamy relationship, but as their romance wears on, Sofia realizes that their backgrounds and interests make them far more different than she first thought.
Chokri previously directed “My Brother’s Wife,” which won the Jury Prize in Un Certain Regard in 2019. Chokri, who directs and wrote the screenplay,...
- 5/12/2023
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
Directed by former competitive swimmer Pascal Plante and featuring a two-time Olympic athlete in the title role, “Nadia, Butterfly” qualifies as both a sports movie and not-a-sports movie — which is to say, Plante’s aloof, intermittently engaging second feature takes a backstage look at a defining moment in a swimmer’s career, but it does so in a way that violates nearly all the rules of the game.
For starters, the film opens with the final race of Canadian swimmer Nadia Beaudry (Katerine Savard), at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, rather than building up to the big event and hitching drama on the question of whether she wins or loses. The genre has trained audiences to watch sports movies the way they do the events themselves, driven by the suspense of the outcome. Here, we know relatively early on that Nadia will go home with a medal, but not the best one,...
For starters, the film opens with the final race of Canadian swimmer Nadia Beaudry (Katerine Savard), at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, rather than building up to the big event and hitching drama on the question of whether she wins or loses. The genre has trained audiences to watch sports movies the way they do the events themselves, driven by the suspense of the outcome. Here, we know relatively early on that Nadia will go home with a medal, but not the best one,...
- 8/5/2020
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
After struggling with gender identity, Punjabi Canadian Sid (Debargo Sanyal) finally makes the decision to live a life as a transgender woman outside the home, and to undergo the process of gender transition. Sid, born male, has always known she was a woman, but never took the step of dressing like one in public until making this important decision. As fate would have it, at the same time that Sid is planning for her new future and taking steps towards living her life fully as a woman, she meets Ralph (Jamie Meyers), a teenaged boy who, when confronted by Sid as to why he’s hanging around her suddenly, reveals that Sid is his father – Sid was involved, briefly, with Ralph’s mother (Amber Goldfarb), and Ralph, it seems, was the result.
Director Eisha Marjara (Desperately Seeking Helen) brings much warmth and wit to Venus. As much an exploration of modern,...
Director Eisha Marjara (Desperately Seeking Helen) brings much warmth and wit to Venus. As much an exploration of modern,...
- 6/15/2018
- by Katherine Matthews
- Bollyspice
Review by Peter Belsito‘Venus’ is a serious comedy about a family’s grudging, confused and difficult but slowly positive acceptance of their family member Sid (who is middle aged) as he transitions to a ‘she’ identity and becomes female.
This is the second ‘transgender’ feature I’ve seen recently.
First let me mention the other recent one from Chile, entitled A Fantastic Woman. It deals with a trans woman dealing with the sad death of her longtime lover and the vicious rejection of her by his family.
I mention that because this one also deals with family but in a very different way.
At once hilarious and serious, smart and sassy, Eisha Marjara’s articulate, absorbing and lively gender-shifting Canadian comedy is the witty tale of Sid, a transitioning woman going through a difficult time whose life takes a big turn when a 14-year-old boy named Ralph (Jamie Mayers...
This is the second ‘transgender’ feature I’ve seen recently.
First let me mention the other recent one from Chile, entitled A Fantastic Woman. It deals with a trans woman dealing with the sad death of her longtime lover and the vicious rejection of her by his family.
I mention that because this one also deals with family but in a very different way.
At once hilarious and serious, smart and sassy, Eisha Marjara’s articulate, absorbing and lively gender-shifting Canadian comedy is the witty tale of Sid, a transitioning woman going through a difficult time whose life takes a big turn when a 14-year-old boy named Ralph (Jamie Mayers...
- 4/13/2018
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Horror films are built on our voyeuristic impulses. Our desire to witness or experience the obscene, the taboo, and the grotesque draws us into films about crazed killers or unseen forces. We don’t just want to be shocked, we want to be vulnerable. The stalking scene is a staple of the genre because it involves us in the filmmaking process by providing us a point of view: usually third person from a victim or first person from a killer. Unlike a chase scene, where both parties are aware of the game, the stalking often involves an oblivious participant. These are the slowest and most methodical scenes. There’s no rush to where we’re going because there is no destination to get to. Once the participant becomes aware, there’s only four options: run, hide, fight, or die.
****
The Birds (1963) – Bird’s eye view
Although not as shocking as Psycho,...
****
The Birds (1963) – Bird’s eye view
Although not as shocking as Psycho,...
- 10/18/2015
- by Staff
- SoundOnSight
Before you press play on the following video, we’ve got a question to ask: How cool are your co-workers? If you tell them that you’re going to watch a clip from the new Xavier Dolan movie, will they know that Dolan is the acclaimed young actor-writer-director behind movies like the Cannes-honored Mommy? Might they even remember that his latest release, Tom at the Farm, was actually filmed before Mommy, but it’s finally making its Stateside debut this Friday (in theaters and on Digital HD)? If your colleagues still require a plot synopsis, tell them that Dolan plays the titular Tom, who visits the family of his deceased ex-lover, Guillaume, only to find out that Guillaume had never even told them he was gay. Tentative Tom switches up his story and claims only to be a friend of Guillaume’s, but the late man’s conservative, domineering brother...
- 8/13/2015
- by Kyle Buchanan
- Vulture
I Need a Lover with a Farm Hand: Dolan’s Latest a Filet of Self Loathing
For his fourth feature, Xavier Dolan adapts the material of another for the first time with Michel Marc Bouchard’s play, Tom at the Farm, a rural set psychological thriller that’s been described as queer noir, but perhaps homoneurotic would be a better descriptor. A foreboding set-up leads to an uncomfortable exploration of self-loathing that sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t, as the material, which exemplifies a vicious and virulent homophobia still very much alive today, somehow still feels like a period piece character study.
We quickly gather that Tom (Dolan) has recently lost his lover Guillaume in a mysterious accident as he scrawls desperate notes to himself on a napkin, trying to rationalize and contain the raging heartbreak he’s experiencing all by himself. He travels to visit Guillaume’s estranged mother...
For his fourth feature, Xavier Dolan adapts the material of another for the first time with Michel Marc Bouchard’s play, Tom at the Farm, a rural set psychological thriller that’s been described as queer noir, but perhaps homoneurotic would be a better descriptor. A foreboding set-up leads to an uncomfortable exploration of self-loathing that sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t, as the material, which exemplifies a vicious and virulent homophobia still very much alive today, somehow still feels like a period piece character study.
We quickly gather that Tom (Dolan) has recently lost his lover Guillaume in a mysterious accident as he scrawls desperate notes to himself on a napkin, trying to rationalize and contain the raging heartbreak he’s experiencing all by himself. He travels to visit Guillaume’s estranged mother...
- 8/10/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Way back in 2013 at Tiff, we first got a look at Tom at the Farm, a psychosexual thriller in a Hitchcockian vein by the prolific Canadian director still in his 20s, Xavier Dolan. Edgar Chaput championed Dolan’s vision and style as a young auteur, but felt it didn’t have the energy or coherence of some of his equally stylish earlier features.
The film however never got released in American theaters, and since Tom at the Farm first debuted, Dolan managed to put out yet another film, 2014’s Mommy. Now the chance to see it has finally arrived along with a new trailer, and unlike Mommy, it’s thankfully in the right aspect ratio.
Dolan’s next film due for 2016 stars Marion Cotillard, Lea Seydoux, and Vincent Cassel in It’s Only the End of the World, but in the mean time Tom at the Farm will hit theaters...
The film however never got released in American theaters, and since Tom at the Farm first debuted, Dolan managed to put out yet another film, 2014’s Mommy. Now the chance to see it has finally arrived along with a new trailer, and unlike Mommy, it’s thankfully in the right aspect ratio.
Dolan’s next film due for 2016 stars Marion Cotillard, Lea Seydoux, and Vincent Cassel in It’s Only the End of the World, but in the mean time Tom at the Farm will hit theaters...
- 7/2/2015
- by Brian Welk
- SoundOnSight
Tom At The Farm Movie Trailer. Xavier Dolan‘s Tom At The Farm (2013) movie trailer stars Xavier Dolan, Pierre-Yves Cardinal, Lise Roy, Evelyne Brochu and Manuel Tadros. Tom At The Farm‘s plot synopsis: “A grieving man meets his lover’s family, who were not aware of their son’s sexual orientation.” This trailer is pretty captivating. By the end I was excitedly […]...
- 7/2/2015
- by Marco Margaritoff
- Film-Book
His first three films are on Netflix, his most recent work "Mommy" is out on disc and Digital HD, but young Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan's fourth and arguably most widely accessible film - his 2013 Hitchcock-style psychosexual thriller "Tom at the Farm" - is still not available in the United States.
Despite strong reviews in all corners and winning the Fipresci Prize at Venice, no U.S. distributor had scored the film until recently when Amplify picked it up. The plan is now for a simultaneous limited and VOD release on August 14th and today the distributor released the U.S. trailer for the film.
In the film, Dolan plays Tom, a copywriter who heads to the remote country farm for the funeral of his boyfriend Guillaume. Arriving there, he's shock to find Guillaume's family don't know who he is or the truth about his relationship to Guillaume.
Tom keeps things quiet for now,...
Despite strong reviews in all corners and winning the Fipresci Prize at Venice, no U.S. distributor had scored the film until recently when Amplify picked it up. The plan is now for a simultaneous limited and VOD release on August 14th and today the distributor released the U.S. trailer for the film.
In the film, Dolan plays Tom, a copywriter who heads to the remote country farm for the funeral of his boyfriend Guillaume. Arriving there, he's shock to find Guillaume's family don't know who he is or the truth about his relationship to Guillaume.
Tom keeps things quiet for now,...
- 7/2/2015
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
"Is that all you've got?" Amplify Releasing has debuted the official Us trailer for Xavier Dolan's other film Tom at the Farm, which he wrote and directed (and starred in) back in 2013. The film first premiered at festivals two years ago and has been waiting for a Us release ever since, despite hitting theaters in Canada and Europe in spring of 2014 (and in the meantime releasing his other film Mommy). Dolan stars as Tom, a grieving man who heads to a rural farm to meet his lover's family. It's a very mysterious, quirky, odd, but beautiful thriller of sorts. We featured another trailer for this two years ago, but this new one is also worth watching. Co-starring Pierre-Yves Cardinal, Lise Roy & Evelyne Brochu. This one is recommended. Here's the new official Us trailer for Xavier Dolan's Tom at the Farm, in high def from Apple: Tom (Dolan) has...
- 7/1/2015
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
I saw Xavier Dolan's psychological thriller Tom at the Farm at the Toronto Film Festival two years ago, but it never found its way to U.S. theaters following that screening. Thanks to Amplify it's finally making its way stateside, set to release on Aug. 14 and the first official domestic trailer is now here. Written, directed by and starring Dolan, the film centers on Tom, a young advertising copywriter, travels to the country for a funeral. There, he's shocked to find out no one knows who he is, or his relationship to the deceased, whose brother soon sets the rules of a twisted game. In order to protect the family's name and grieving mother, Tom now has to play the peacekeeper in a household whose obscure past bodes even greater darkness for his trip to the farm. readmore postid="136687" As much as I love Dolan and will gladly watch...
- 7/1/2015
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Going on almost two full years since it landed in competition for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, Amplify Releasing have made their first foreign film language pick-up and have set it up Tom at the Farm with an August 14th release. Labeled as his homage to Hitch despite the filmmaker not being versed in the MacGuffin, Xavier Dolan’s fourth film and what I describe as bully porn and best work to date (I’m in the minority with this one) is the only film in his five film filmography to not have premiered in Cannes.
Gist: After the sudden death of his lover, Guillaume (Caleb Landry-Jones), Tom (Dolan) travels from his home in the city to Guillaume’s family’s remote country farm for the funeral. Upon arriving, he’s shocked to find that the family knows nothing of him and was expecting a woman in his place.
Gist: After the sudden death of his lover, Guillaume (Caleb Landry-Jones), Tom (Dolan) travels from his home in the city to Guillaume’s family’s remote country farm for the funeral. Upon arriving, he’s shocked to find that the family knows nothing of him and was expecting a woman in his place.
- 6/2/2015
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Xavier Dolan’s psychosexual thriller has found a Us home and will open on August 14.
Dolan wrote, directed and stars in Tom At The Farm, about a gay man who attends his lover’s funeral and tries to keep his sexuality hidden despite the suspicions of the deceased’s aggressive brother.
Caleb Landry Jones and Pierre-Yves Cardinal also star in the film, which is based on the stage play by Michel-Marc Bouchard.
Dylan Marchetti brokered the deal with MK2’s Victoire Thevenin acting on behalf the filmmakers.
New York-based Amplify’s next release is Felt on June 26.
Dolan wrote, directed and stars in Tom At The Farm, about a gay man who attends his lover’s funeral and tries to keep his sexuality hidden despite the suspicions of the deceased’s aggressive brother.
Caleb Landry Jones and Pierre-Yves Cardinal also star in the film, which is based on the stage play by Michel-Marc Bouchard.
Dylan Marchetti brokered the deal with MK2’s Victoire Thevenin acting on behalf the filmmakers.
New York-based Amplify’s next release is Felt on June 26.
- 6/2/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Read More: Watch the Intense Trailer For Xavier Dolan's 'Tom at the Farm' Amplify Releasing has acquired U.S. distribution rights to writer-director Xavier Dolan's 2013 psychosexual thriller, "Tom at the Farm," based on the stage play by Michel-Marc Bouchard. The film, starring Dolan opposite Caleb Landry Jones and Pierre-Yves Cardinal, first premiered back at the Venice Film Festival in 2013 but was never released in the United States. The official plot synopsis reads: "After the sudden death of his lover, Guillaume (Jones), Tom (Dolan) travels from his home in the city to Guillaume's family's remote country farm for the funeral. Upon arriving, he's shocked to find that the family knows nothing of him and was expecting a woman in his place. Tom keeps his identity a secret but soon finds himself increasingly drawn into a twisted, sexually charged game by Guillaume's aggressive brother (Cardinal), who suspects the truth." "Xavier has made a phenomenally.
- 6/2/2015
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
Xavier Dolan’s Mommy was nominated for 11 Jutra Awards, Quebec’s top film prize, and last night won 9. Mommy won nearly every major category and Pierre-Yves Cardinal won Best Supporting Actor in another Dolan film,...
- 3/16/2015
- by Ryan Adams
- AwardsDaily.com
Xavier Dolan tied contemporaries Philippe Falardeau and Denis Villeneuve by winning his second Best Feature award at the 17th annual Jutra Awards. Quebec’s answer to the Oscars was a rather suspense-less affair as Mommy claimed nine (plus the top box office award honor) awards winning in all major categories with the exclusion of Best Supporting Actor category win, which would only end up going to Dolan’s other nominated film, Tom at the Farm. Pierre-Yves Cardinal was sublime in his predatory type role and as was the case for several nominees, was hard at work on another project and therefore not on hand for trophyware. Ricardo Trogi’s throwback to awkward teen years tale 1987 did win a trio of awards, but if there were any surprises in the Dolan camp it was the acceptance speeches: Dolan delivered a keynote speech type quality for the last win of the night...
- 3/16/2015
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
★★★★☆Prodigious Canadian writer and director Xavier Dolan's fifth feature, Mommy (2014), took home a Jury Prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Before Mommy comes to UK cinemas next year, Dolan's fourth film, Tom at the Farm (2013), based on a play by Michel Marc Bouchard, arrives on DVD and Blu-ray. Tom at the Farm is a strange, off-kilter drama starring Dolan himself as Tom, a recently bereaved gay man visiting his deceased lover's home for the funeral. It soon becomes clear that his mother, Agathe (Lise Roy), is unaware of her dead son's sexual orientation, an ignorance that her older son, Francis (Pierre-Yves Cardinal), is determined to preserve.
- 8/26/2014
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
“To me, music is the soul of the film,” Xavier Dolan said in an interview with Slant Magazine in 2012, just as his third feature Laurence Anyways was about to makes it premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section. More than most directors, it seems, Dolan seems to blur the line between film and music video, bringing the two together tastefully, offering interludes that are just as important to the whole of the film as any dialogue scene. These scenes, perhaps, allow Dolan to exercise his more indulgent side, but they give his films a gorgeous full bodied appeal. Also giving him the opportunity to experiment with technique, Dolan brings an inventiveness and assuredness to both forms unlike any director.
The 25 year-old director has taste, certainly, allowing the music he chooses (from The Knife to Celine Dion, from Duran Duran to Rufus Wainwright) to ebb and...
The 25 year-old director has taste, certainly, allowing the music he chooses (from The Knife to Celine Dion, from Duran Duran to Rufus Wainwright) to ebb and...
- 7/14/2014
- by Kyle Turner
- SoundOnSight
A friend of mine in film studies once grimaced when I mentioned the name Xavier Dolan, bottling up the same rage that a film student would typically give to Uwe Boll or Michael Bay. The anger was misplaced: Dolan has not yet directed anything that would be considered bad or even close to bad, but he is an extremely prodigious young filmmaker. Dolan is only 25, yet earlier this week, he screened his fifth film, Mommy, at the Cannes Film Festival – one that is already being touted as a major contender for world cinema’s most prestigious prize, the Palme D’Or. It is his fourth film to screen at Cannes. When you have reached that peak of critical adoration by your mid-twenties, it is hard not to be a bit envious.
Dolan is a Québécois director who often tells stories about the fractious relationships between gay children and their parents.
Dolan is a Québécois director who often tells stories about the fractious relationships between gay children and their parents.
- 5/22/2014
- by Jordan Adler
- We Got This Covered
★★★☆☆ French-Canadian filmmaking prodigy Xavier Dolan (Heartbeats, I Killed My Mother) takes Oscar Wilde's "The love that dare not speak its name" adage to new extremes in repression thriller Tom at the Farm (2013). Dolan inserts himself into the title role of Tom, an ad agency editor who finds himself in the backwaters of Canada for his dead boyfriend Guillaume's funeral. Established in the creaky farmstead, Tom finds a wide-eyed, white-haired mother (Lise Roy), who is oblivious to her son's homosexuality and more than a little off her rocker. Also present is the bullish Francis (Pierre-Yves Cardinal), a threatening figure who milks cows to mask his own latent desires.
- 4/8/2014
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
An overwrought pastiche of Hitchcock that makes less sense and renders its protagonist far less plausible the longer it goes on. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing
I’m “biast” (con): haven’t been a fan of Xavier Dolan’s work so far
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
Tom is at the farm, in the countryside outside Quebec, for the funeral of his boyfriend. Except his lover’s mother, Agathe (Lise Roy), has no idea her dead son was gay, so she believes Tom is simply his friend from the ad agency where they work(ed), and laments that “that whore” whom she believes to be her son’s girlfriend — thanks to the machinations of her other son, Francis (Pierre-Yves Cardinal), who has been “protecting” Mom from the truth by inventing stories — hasn’t shown up.
Writer, director, and star (he plays Tom) Xaviar Dolan...
I’m “biast” (con): haven’t been a fan of Xavier Dolan’s work so far
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
Tom is at the farm, in the countryside outside Quebec, for the funeral of his boyfriend. Except his lover’s mother, Agathe (Lise Roy), has no idea her dead son was gay, so she believes Tom is simply his friend from the ad agency where they work(ed), and laments that “that whore” whom she believes to be her son’s girlfriend — thanks to the machinations of her other son, Francis (Pierre-Yves Cardinal), who has been “protecting” Mom from the truth by inventing stories — hasn’t shown up.
Writer, director, and star (he plays Tom) Xaviar Dolan...
- 4/4/2014
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
Tom at the Farm boasts an atmospheric, Bernard Herrmann-like score from Gabriel Yared – but the movie doesn't live up to its music. The young French-Canadian director Xavier Dolan, who also stars as Tom, shows visual flair but seems uncertain whether he is making a gay psycho-drama, a thriller or a study in bereavement. Tom is in the countryside for the funeral of his boyfriend. The boyfriend's psychotic brother Francis (Pierre-Yves Cardinal) terrorises him and insists he keep up the fiction that the dead man was straight. Tom seems to relish being menaced by Francis – one key reason why the film lacks a real sense of menace or conviction.
- 4/3/2014
- The Independent - Film
Tom at the Farm (Original title: Tom à la ferme)
Written and directed by Xavier Dolan
Canada, 2013
Since 2009’s I Killed My Mother, Xavier Dolan has been one of the darlings of Québec cinema. More so than Podz, Éric Canuel, Denis Côté, and rivaled probably only by Denis Villeneuve, the release of a new Dolan film brings with it mouth-watering anticipation. His movies straddle the line between the mainstream and the arthouse, glittering with cool cinematography tricks and crowd-pleasing soundtracks, but anchored by stories and characters not so popular amongst the general public. Each project earns considerable critical reputations, a lustre rarely matched by box office receipts. His latest, Tom at the Farm, despite having the blueprint of a more accessible film, continues his odyssey as an idiosyncratic filmmaker.
Tom (Dolan), a leather-jacket-wearing, bleach-blonde-haired Montrealer, drives to a small town in the provincial country to attend his friend Guillaume’s funeral.
Written and directed by Xavier Dolan
Canada, 2013
Since 2009’s I Killed My Mother, Xavier Dolan has been one of the darlings of Québec cinema. More so than Podz, Éric Canuel, Denis Côté, and rivaled probably only by Denis Villeneuve, the release of a new Dolan film brings with it mouth-watering anticipation. His movies straddle the line between the mainstream and the arthouse, glittering with cool cinematography tricks and crowd-pleasing soundtracks, but anchored by stories and characters not so popular amongst the general public. Each project earns considerable critical reputations, a lustre rarely matched by box office receipts. His latest, Tom at the Farm, despite having the blueprint of a more accessible film, continues his odyssey as an idiosyncratic filmmaker.
Tom (Dolan), a leather-jacket-wearing, bleach-blonde-haired Montrealer, drives to a small town in the provincial country to attend his friend Guillaume’s funeral.
- 3/28/2014
- by Edgar Chaput
- SoundOnSight
With the dust fully settled on the Academy Awards, we point our attention northward with tonight’s 2014 Canadian Screen Awards. Many of the television winners have already been announced in glitzy fashion during this Canadian Screen Week, but with baited breath, we’re more keen on seeing how the film award honors will pan out. Last year’s Tiff saw Denis Villeneuve bring not one (Prisoners), but a pair of feature films and it is the offbeat, doppelgänger delight Enemy that should reap in the top awards of the evening. Here are my predictions of who will win, who should win, and who should have been nominated in each of the most anticipated film categories.
Best Motion Picture:
The nominees are: Enemy, The Dismantlement, Empire of Dirt, The F Word, Gabrielle, The Grand Seduction, Maina, Tom at the Farm
Screenie voters tend to favor Canada’s yearly submission for the...
Best Motion Picture:
The nominees are: Enemy, The Dismantlement, Empire of Dirt, The F Word, Gabrielle, The Grand Seduction, Maina, Tom at the Farm
Screenie voters tend to favor Canada’s yearly submission for the...
- 3/9/2014
- by Leora Heilbronn
- IONCINEMA.com
Xavier Dolan's latest film, Tom at the Farm (Tom a la ferme), premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year and while it has yet to land a domestic distributor, it will be hitting Quebec theaters in March. Today a new trailer for the film arrives along with a poster that's been floating around since last December. As I wrote in my review of the film back in September 2013, Tom at the Farm is something of a departure from Dolan's first three features -- I Killed My Mother, Heartbeats and Laurence Anyways. It's a psychological thriller based on Michel Marc Bouchard's play of the same name, in which Dolan plays the title character, a young ad agency employee who takes a trip out to the country to attend a funeral only to learn the mother (Lise Roy) of the deceased doesn't know who he is or his relationship to her dead son,...
- 2/19/2014
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
The Academy Of Canadian Cinema & Television has announced the Canadian Screen Awards nominees.
“We are exceedingly proud today to reveal the nominees for the 2014 Canadian Screen Awards,” said Academy chair Martin Katz.
“This was a year marked by a record-breaking number of submissions, reflecting a robust level of activity in the screen-based industries in Canada which we will celebrate during Canadian Screen Week, March 3-9. Congratulations to all.”
David Cronenberg will receive the lifetime achievement award. For the full list of winners invcluding television, digital and special awards click here.
The feature nominees in full:
Best Motion Picture
The Dismantlement (Le Démantèlement) – Bernadette Payeur, Marc Daigle
Empire Of Dirt – Jennifer Podemski
Enemy – Kim McCraw, Luc Déry, Miguel A Faura, Niv Fichman, Sari Friedland
The F-Word – Andre Rouleau, David Gross, Macdara Kelleher
Gabrielle – Kim McCraw, Luc Déry
The Grand Seduction – Barbara Doran, Roger Frappier
Maïna – Karine Martin, Michel Poulette, Yves Fortin
Tom At The Farm (Tom À La Ferme) – [link...
“We are exceedingly proud today to reveal the nominees for the 2014 Canadian Screen Awards,” said Academy chair Martin Katz.
“This was a year marked by a record-breaking number of submissions, reflecting a robust level of activity in the screen-based industries in Canada which we will celebrate during Canadian Screen Week, March 3-9. Congratulations to all.”
David Cronenberg will receive the lifetime achievement award. For the full list of winners invcluding television, digital and special awards click here.
The feature nominees in full:
Best Motion Picture
The Dismantlement (Le Démantèlement) – Bernadette Payeur, Marc Daigle
Empire Of Dirt – Jennifer Podemski
Enemy – Kim McCraw, Luc Déry, Miguel A Faura, Niv Fichman, Sari Friedland
The F-Word – Andre Rouleau, David Gross, Macdara Kelleher
Gabrielle – Kim McCraw, Luc Déry
The Grand Seduction – Barbara Doran, Roger Frappier
Maïna – Karine Martin, Michel Poulette, Yves Fortin
Tom At The Farm (Tom À La Ferme) – [link...
- 1/13/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The Academy Of Canadian Cinema & Television has announced its nominees.
“We are exceedingly proud today to reveal the nominees for the 2014 Canadian Screen Awards,” said Academy chair Martin Katz. “This was a year marked by a record-breaking number of submissions, reflecting a robust level of activity in the screen-based industries in Canada which we will celebrate during Canadian Screen Week, March 3-9. Congratulations to all.”
David Cronenberg will receive the lifetime achievement award. For the full list of winners invcluding television, digital and special awards click here.
The fearure nominees in full:
Best Motion Picture
The Dismantlement (Le Démantèlement) – Bernadette Payeur, Marc Daigle
Empire Of Dirt (pictured) – Jennifer Podemski
Enemy – Kim McCraw, Luc Déry, Miguel A Faura, Niv Fichman, Sari Friedland
The F-Word – Andre Rouleau, David Gross, Macdara Kelleher
Gabrielle – Kim McCraw, Luc Déry
The Grand Seduction – Barbara Doran, Roger Frappier
Maïna – Karine Martin, Michel Poulette, Yves Fortin
Tom At The Farm (Tom À La Ferme) – [link...
“We are exceedingly proud today to reveal the nominees for the 2014 Canadian Screen Awards,” said Academy chair Martin Katz. “This was a year marked by a record-breaking number of submissions, reflecting a robust level of activity in the screen-based industries in Canada which we will celebrate during Canadian Screen Week, March 3-9. Congratulations to all.”
David Cronenberg will receive the lifetime achievement award. For the full list of winners invcluding television, digital and special awards click here.
The fearure nominees in full:
Best Motion Picture
The Dismantlement (Le Démantèlement) – Bernadette Payeur, Marc Daigle
Empire Of Dirt (pictured) – Jennifer Podemski
Enemy – Kim McCraw, Luc Déry, Miguel A Faura, Niv Fichman, Sari Friedland
The F-Word – Andre Rouleau, David Gross, Macdara Kelleher
Gabrielle – Kim McCraw, Luc Déry
The Grand Seduction – Barbara Doran, Roger Frappier
Maïna – Karine Martin, Michel Poulette, Yves Fortin
Tom At The Farm (Tom À La Ferme) – [link...
- 1/13/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
As everyone around these parts knows, I'm a big fan of 24-year-old writer/director/actor Xavier Dolan whose first three films -- I Killed My Mother, Heartbeats and Laurence Anyways -- are all excellent watches, the latter of which hits DVD and Blu-ray next Tuesday. Dolan's latest film, Tom at the Farm, is a departure from all three however. In my review out of Toronto I wrote, "Cinematically it feels unique in its own right and my first instinct is to call it some sort of B-movie thriller, though that too doesn't feel right, just as a tonal comparison to something like Repulsion or Diabolique is similarly wrong. Tom at the Farm has a madness all its own." Dolan adapted the film from Michel Marc Bouchard's play of the same name, and he plays the title character, a young advertising copywriter who takes a trip out to the country...
- 10/4/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Now that the dust has settled and the behemoth Tiff is in our rear-view mirror, the Ioncinema.com team are comparing notes, grading films and looking back at our personal experiences, our rapport with the films we saw and the characters that vividly remain with us. Among our favorite fest recaps, our discerning fivesome (Eric Lavallee, Jordan M. Smith, Nicholas Bell, Leora Heilbronn, Caitlin Coder) have created a Top 20 List of New Faces from the 2013 of up-and-coming actors and actresses (of all age demos) that stole some thunder in lead or supporting player roles. Here they are:
#20. Zoe Levin (Palo Alto, Beneath the Harvest Sky)
Unlike the characters of Emily and Tasha in Gia Coppola’s Palo Alto and Aron Gaudet & Gita Pullapilly’s Beneath the Harvest Sky, Zoe Levin‘s future is a a bright one. Respectively playing a teens suffering from suburban and country-setting ennui, in Palo Alto...
#20. Zoe Levin (Palo Alto, Beneath the Harvest Sky)
Unlike the characters of Emily and Tasha in Gia Coppola’s Palo Alto and Aron Gaudet & Gita Pullapilly’s Beneath the Harvest Sky, Zoe Levin‘s future is a a bright one. Respectively playing a teens suffering from suburban and country-setting ennui, in Palo Alto...
- 9/19/2013
- by IONCINEMA.com Contributing Writers
- IONCINEMA.com
Tom at the Farm
Written by Xavier Dolan
Directed by Xavier Dolan
Canada/ France, 2013
Quebecois director Xavier Dolan returns to Tiff in the Special Presentations programme with the gorgeously atmospheric psychological thriller, Tom at the Farm (Tom à la Ferme), shedding some of his visual compositions while embracing the themes of desire, loss, and attachment with mixed results in its overall plotting. The film is an adaptation of a French-language play of the same name by Michel Marc Bouchard, who worked with Dolan to bring the story to the big screen. Tom (played by Dolan) leaves Montreal for rural Quebec to attend the funeral of his lover, Guilliaume. While this would usually provide opportunities for a sense of closure and some semblance of inner peace, Tom is initially met by confusion and then eventual acceptance by Guilliaume’s world-weary mother Agathe, played by Lise Roy. Tom settles in, Agathe makes him a delicious home-cooked meal,...
Written by Xavier Dolan
Directed by Xavier Dolan
Canada/ France, 2013
Quebecois director Xavier Dolan returns to Tiff in the Special Presentations programme with the gorgeously atmospheric psychological thriller, Tom at the Farm (Tom à la Ferme), shedding some of his visual compositions while embracing the themes of desire, loss, and attachment with mixed results in its overall plotting. The film is an adaptation of a French-language play of the same name by Michel Marc Bouchard, who worked with Dolan to bring the story to the big screen. Tom (played by Dolan) leaves Montreal for rural Quebec to attend the funeral of his lover, Guilliaume. While this would usually provide opportunities for a sense of closure and some semblance of inner peace, Tom is initially met by confusion and then eventual acceptance by Guilliaume’s world-weary mother Agathe, played by Lise Roy. Tom settles in, Agathe makes him a delicious home-cooked meal,...
- 9/18/2013
- by Gregory Ashman
- SoundOnSight
Toronto - MK2 has unveiled a raft of international sales for Canadian director Xavier Dolan's Tom à la ferme (Tom At The Farm), which will be picked up by Network in the UK and MK2/Diaphana in France. The Canadian film, which was adapted from a stage play by Michel Marc Bouchard and stars Dolan, Pierre-Yves Cardinal, Lise Roy and Eveylne Brochu, was also sold to ABC Cinemien in the Benelux, Sweden's Folkets Bio, Spectator in Poland, Korea's Atnine Film, Taiwan's Filmware, and HBO in Latin America. Photos: Toronto 2013: The Films Continental also picked up the psychological thriller for the ex-Yugoslavia,
read more...
read more...
- 9/9/2013
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Xavier Dolan has quickly become one of my favorite modern directors. His appeal, for me, goes beyond his stories (though they're great in their own right). It's his tonal approach to filmmaking, his understanding of cinema and ability to embrace the past and make it his own that's so intoxicating. So often a director influenced by the past gets caught up in mimicry and the final product feels somewhat alien. Dolan has no such issue. Up until now all of his films have felt like they came from somewhere extremely personal and now, here comes Tom at the Farm, a psychological thriller that's been hard to describe to anyone that's asked. It's a departure from Dolan's first three films -- I Killed My Mother, Heartbeats and Laurence Anyways -- for a wide range of reasons. While he wrote it, just as he did the other three, it's an adaptation, the...
- 9/7/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
This is Xavier Dolan’s fourth film and he has spoken of his first three features inadvertently being a trilogy about impossible love. Tom à la ferme is more of a psycho thriller and may not be about impossible love but it is about a love that cannot speak its name.
The first scene is a close-up of a napkin. A man is writing a love letter to his lover and the letter is also saying farewell. We then cut to the titular Tom (Xavier Dolan), all bleach blond curls and cute punk pixie, driving in the vast expanses of the Quebec countryside. Arriving at his destination, an isolated farm, he finds nobody home. Letting himself in, he falls asleep and is woken by the elderly female home owner, Agathe (Lise Roy).
Is he here for a job? No. Tom’s an advertising copywriter in Montreal and he’s here for his boyfriend’s funeral.
The first scene is a close-up of a napkin. A man is writing a love letter to his lover and the letter is also saying farewell. We then cut to the titular Tom (Xavier Dolan), all bleach blond curls and cute punk pixie, driving in the vast expanses of the Quebec countryside. Arriving at his destination, an isolated farm, he finds nobody home. Letting himself in, he falls asleep and is woken by the elderly female home owner, Agathe (Lise Roy).
Is he here for a job? No. Tom’s an advertising copywriter in Montreal and he’s here for his boyfriend’s funeral.
- 9/3/2013
- by Jo-Ann Titmarsh
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
★★★☆☆ Filmmaking prodigy Xavier Dolan directs and stars in Venice pick Tom at the Farm (2013), an absurd, blackly funny thriller set in rural Canada and based on the play by Michel Marc Bouchard. Tom (Dolan) is a dishwater-blonde city boy in an oversized leather jacket who drives from Montreal into the rainy countryside to attend his lover's funeral. Stopping at the farm where his partner grew up, he first meets his boyfriend's mother Agathe (Lise Roy), who knows nothing of his relationship or her son's homosexuality - an ignorance which Tom maintains. However, Agathe's other son Francis (Pierre-Yves Cardinal) is suspicious.
Francis insists that the deception goes further, with Tom being coerced and then violently bullied into embroidering tales of an invented girlfriend, Sarah, and staying on at the farm for a few days to please Agathe. Days become weeks as Tom is trapped and beaten by the psychopathic, tango-dancing Francis,...
Francis insists that the deception goes further, with Tom being coerced and then violently bullied into embroidering tales of an invented girlfriend, Sarah, and staying on at the farm for a few days to please Agathe. Days become weeks as Tom is trapped and beaten by the psychopathic, tango-dancing Francis,...
- 9/3/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
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