La Folie d’Amour: The Xavier Dolan Collection DVD – Melvil Poupaud , Xavier Dolan

Collection of three films from French-Canadian director Xavier Dolan. In ‘Heartbeats’ (2010), after meeting confident, free-spirited traveller Nicolas (Niels Schneider) at a party, Marie (Monia Chokri) and her best friend Frankie (Dolan) quickly become infatuated with him. Before long, the three end up in bed together, but Nicolas, whose primary desire is securing a place to stay, provides neither Marie nor Frankie with the deep connection they were hankering after. In ‘I Killed My Mother’ (2009), 16-year-old Hubert (Dolan) appears on the surface to despise everything about his mother Chantale (Anne Dorval), from the way she dresses to her table manners, but Chantale has reasons to be displeased with her son as well – having found out that he is gay from a friend who mentions his boyfriend, Antonin (François Arnaud), she feels betrayed that Hubert has not told her about his sexuality. Partly as an act of vengeance, she separates the two boys by sending Hubert to boarding school. Will the relationship between mother and son ease with distance, or will the disaffection merely increase? In ‘Laurence Anyways’ (2012), literature teacher Laurence (Melvil Poupaud) and his partner Fred (Suzanne Clément) have shared a long and stable marriage, but Laurence has been harbouring a secret. One day he announces to Fred that he feels he has been living a lie for years, and that he can no longer go on living as a man when he knows that he is meant to be a woman. Initially shocked and saddened, Fred eventually pledges to support Laurence throughout his transition and they aim for a shared future. However, the pressure on their relationship proves greater than either could have anticipated. Can their partnership survive such a monumental change?

Episode Comprise: I Killed my Mother: Hubert Minel has a love/hate relationship with his mother. Desperate to escape the suffocating atmosphere of his mother’s working-class, suburban home, Hubert drifts through the mysteries of an adolescence both marginal and typical: artistic discoveries, illicit experiences, the opening-up to friendship, sex, and ostracism. Heartbeats: Francis and Marie are close friends. One day, during a lunch, they meet Nicolas, a young man from the country newly arrived in town. Each of the two friends slides deeper into obsessive fantasies around their object of desire, and the deeper they slide, the more their once cast-iron friendship begins to crack under the pressure of competing for the new kid on the block. Laurence Anyways: The epic love story of a man (Melvil Poupaud) who decides to undergo a sex change and thedramatic effect it has on his relationship with his girlfriend (Suzanne Clment). Thought-provoking and stylishly shot the film dazzles, featuring music from Fever Ray, The Cure, Duran Duran, Visage, Depeche Mode and Scottish composer Craig Armstrong. Special Features: Filmed interview with Suzanne Clement and Melvil Poupaud Trailer