NEW YORK — Sam Fuller, the cigar-chomping master of the American B-movie, had an indelible cameo in Jean-Luc Godard’s 1965 film “Pierrot le Fou.” While he has the screen, Fuller offers a credo.
“Film is like a battleground,” he exclaims. “Love. Hate. Action. Violence. Death. In one word … emotion.”
Though he came of age a couple of generations later, the Quebecois filmmaker Xavier Dolan has come to exemplify those words like few of his contemporaries. Only 25, he has five features behind him, each more accomplished than the last. His latest, “Mommy,” is so fearlessly alive with feeling that audiences may wonder whether the screen can contain it all, as stubborn, screwed-up human beings struggle with and, sometimes, transcend the chaos of their lives.
“I hate to say this, because I think it’s such a crass expression, but it is an emotional roller coaster,” said Dolan, chatting in the lobby of the Mercer Hotel in Soho during a recent visit to New York. “I hate myself for using that expression, but it is. You descend and that’s the rush, but then you’ve got to get all the way up again.”
An actor since childhood, Dolan wrote and directed his semiautobiographical debut, “I Killed My Mother,” when he was 18, starring with the seasoned French-Canadian actress Anne Dorval, who reprises a maternal role as the title character of “Mommy.” As Diane “Die” Despres, she is, in Dolan’s parlance, a “cougar mom,” coping with the long aftermath of her husband’s death and her troubled teenage son, Steve (Antoine-Olivier Pilon), whose violent mood swings have been diagnosed as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Although committing him to a state institution is an option, Die is determined to keep him at home, a full-time job since he is no longer allowed in high school.
The pair’s rock-‘em-sock-‘em relationship veers between the abusive and the vaguely incestual, and it’s more than Die can handle, until a mysterious neighbor comes into their lives. Kyla (Suzanne Clement) is a mousy housewife of few words — her conversation is inhibited by a speech impediment — who becomes obsessed with the psychodrama she witnesses from across the street.
“She is awestruck by these ebullient, flamboyant, loud, brash, colorful, funny, politically incorrect people,” said Dolan, casual in a red pullover sweater and striped blue track pants. “She’s all in pastel tones and faded and broken, and she is seeking rebirth.”
The dynamic allows for dramatic balance in a film that can feel like an unfiltered blast of adrenaline.
As Dolan suggested, “It’s a bit of a blissful thing for actors to be able to scream and pound on the wall and break things on someone’s head. Those weren’t the real challenges of the film. We have some pretty serious introspective scenes where people have to go down the rabbit hole not in a very exuberant way.”
For the most part, he’s not talking about the soundtrack, which revels in Dolan’s pop sensibility and rock video flair. The movie buzzes with thematic songs from Lana Del Rey, Celine Dion, Oasis and Beck, often cued to highly visual interludes designed as buffers between the film’s most intense sequences.
“It’s not the most discreet and humble filmmaking,” Dolan said. “It’s pretty lavish in terms of style, but it’s a moment where you can get your peace back.”
Those elements, as well as Dolan’s affinity for gumball machine color schemes, are strongly reflective of the filmmaker’s personality.
“He has such an energy,” said Clement, who was the lead actress in Dolan’s 2012 film “Laurence Anyways,” about the unconventional relationship between a woman and her lover, a male college professor who determines one day to change gender. She first met the director when he was 17 and showed her a script for “I Killed My Mother,” in which she took a small role.
“I think he’s always been three steps ahead of people his age,” she said.
Clement pointed to Dolan’s father, the Quebec entertainer Manuel Tadros, as a formative model.
“This guy was very showbiz,” she said. “He was sometimes a little too much, but he doesn’t care about that. Xavier is a little bit like this, but with a lot more aesthetic taste and a lot more ideas about where he wants to go. There’s something in him that is more than courage — it’s boldness.”
That helps explain the unusual instinct to shoot “Mommy” in a 1:1 ratio — a square. The result can look a bit odd on a conventional theater screen but encourages a stronger sense of intimacy with the characters.
“The thing about 1-to-1 is that it’s hard to try to make it what it isn’t,” Dolan said. “It’s the portrait aspect ratio of old cameras, like the Hasselblad. What worked was very tight close-ups and very, very large shots.”
The director’s soulful connection with his leads allowed for more risk-taking.
“We have absolute faith in each other,” he said. “They trust every one of my indications and also are able to confront them. They challenge me, and I challenge them. They can’t lie to me. I can’t lie to them. I know how they laugh, I know how they think. It allows me to see their performance in not only a fangirling way. I can ask, ‘Can we go somewhere else?’”
Now preparing to shoot his first American film, “The Death and Life of John F. Donovan,” with Kit Harington and Jessica Chastain, Dolan may be about to emerge beyond his status as Montreal’s arthouse phenom. He’s already an established actor’s director, and that can’t hurt.
“We’re in this to play, and a lot of times as actors we don’t get to play that much. We’re waiting to give half of something we thought would be interesting,” Clement said. “When Xavier’s on the set, he’s a lot of different things. Sometimes he’s very adult, very mature. And sometimes he’s like a kid, he’s jumping around he’s so happy.”