Laurence Anyways e il desiderio di una donna...

This is a strong, disconcerting, highly unconventional movie that is not easy to review, or to watch. Although it is the story of a transgender experience and how it affects existing relationships, it is much more than that.

The movie is so strong and so complex--and so long--that I'm reluctant to say much more about it, partly because I don't know much else to say about it now. I'll need to watch it at least one more time before I'm ready even to think about doing that. I can say, though, that anyone expecting a love story about attractive and sympathetic characters will be severely disappointed and probably angry.

Anyone expecting a positive account of what it's like to change gender identity will probably be disappointed too. Anyone who needs the orderly development of a story and the relatable characters that are essential in Hollywood movies will be furious after having sat through these nearly three hours of VERY unconventional and challenging movie-making.

Finally, anyone who enjoys picking a movie apart and saying what he or she would do to make it better--eliminate peripheral characters, cut an hour off the movie's length, etc--will have a field day with this one. Unfortunately for them (and for anyone who takes what they say seriously), they will have denied themselves most of what this remarkable movie offers them.

The only way to receive what a movie (or any other work of art) offers is to accept it AS IT IS, on its own terms, WITHOUT trying to analyze it or change it to fit some outside notion ("outside" meaning in YOUR mind, as opposed to the author's) of what it OUGHT to be.

Instead of trying to make this (or any other) movie "better", either make your own movie or let go of your compulsion to control what happens to you as you watch this one. If you don't like the experience, that's fine, but if you really believe you could have done it better, you're a fool. You're impressing (and cheating) nobody but yourself and anybody else who takes you seriously.

But anyone who wants to see the latest work of an extraordinarily gifted and original young artist (Xavier Dolan, who is not yet 25 years old), whose genius is exploding into the world with such power and such speed that even he probably can't explain everything he does--and is willing to let go, to give up control of the experience and see what DOLAN is showing you instead of what you want to see--will be changed by this astonishing movie.

With this film, Xavier Dolan confirms his excellent style. The starring is incredibly well-chosen (distinction for the actress). A photography without mistake, there are numbers of beautiful shots. And too a good soundtrack, that is very eclectic (french's or qubecois's songs, classical's songs as Brahm or Bethoveen, or rock ballads), and first and foremost an original screenplay. In fact, I found the plot very interesting because I don't know film about the transsexualism. For a discovery, we can't dream a better movie.

So, check out his film (Les amours imaginaires, J'ai tué ma mère are too to discover).

A young film maker watch this space. The Quebecois's cinema too.

My review is not gonna be long. It will not contain spoilers, either. I made an account on IMDb only to rate this movie and to write a short review, letting people know my opinion, so hopefully even more people will watch this movie.

The acting, the scenes, the music - everything was for me completely breathtaking. Yes, its a long movie - but it's not just a movie, or one story out of an entire life - it's LIFE, it's several chapters. Of course it's long... it has to be. I, myself, wanted to keep watching when it was over. Because it wasn't over. The story hadn't finished. There was more. This is not a movie to entertain people. This is real life, real characters... no bullshit... Many scenes, changing times, development of the different characters... Love, pain, laughter, sorrow. I enjoyed EVERY bit. I never write reviews on anything - this is my first one I ever made on a movie, book, etc... I just finished watching it, and it had me sitting on my sofa with tears streaming down my face.

Even though this movie is about a man who has the wish to become a woman, and even though the couple's struggle kind of revolves around that, I could identify so much with some of the things they go through together. It doesn't matter whether he is a transvestite or not... It reflects very familiar feelings, and I believe that people who have loved deeply, who have loved hard and fiercely, they will recognize these feelings too. And no matter what, this is a great movie to educate people with potential prejudice against transsexual men or women.

I hope that more people will watch it.

Great performance... left me with a feeling of joy and sadness, all in once. I really, really loved this movie. And I will be watching it again, no doubt...

Thank you for that.

As a trans woman. Seeing this film made me feel very conflicted. I had high hopes for a film that took trans characters seriously and portrayed them delicately. Sadly, it did anything but.

The first part of the film, when Laurence is pre-transition, is very good at depicting Laurence's inner stress of being perceived as a man, and was very powerful. The problem is that the film never really allows Laurence to transition. The way she is depicted, she remains, as the top review says, "a man who wants to be a woman", never a transgender woman. No real change, physical or psychological, occurs with transitioning, except for minor cosmetic alterations and failed attempts at clothes and makeup. This feeds into the classic trope of the "pathetic transsexual" who is doomed to forever remain a man who fails at womanhood.

Much of the problem lies with the decision to cast a cis male actor as Laurence. Melvile Poupaud does not succeed in portraying a trans woman. No trans woman I know is remotely like this. The lack of realism and sensibility to trans life is especially jarring since Laurence is an intelligent and resourceful character whom would be able to learn to navigate the norms of womanhood. Also, the film moves many years into transition, and even if hormones is mentioned at an early point, they don't seem to have any effect on Laurence except for some supposed breasts.

This type of depiction is dangerous. It feeds into a collective imagination of us as essentially men, which is what makes us susceptible to homophobic violence and lack of access to basic material needs, such as bathrooms and proper healthcare.

ALL THAT BEING SAID, the film is otherwise very good. The cinematography is excellent, the colors, the camera work, the locations, the use of sound and music. Except for Laurence, the acting is great. And the love story, that serves as the main plot of the film, is captivating. All in all, there were many parts of the film I could enjoy and where I felt immersed. And while I felt a deep discomfort with the depiction of Laurence as the film progressed, the early parts of pre- and early transition was relatable and emotional and found resonance with my own trans experiences.

It is Canadian prodigy Xavier Dolan's third feature, after I KILLED MY MOTHER (2009, 7/10) and HEARTBEATS (2010, 5/10), the first one he doesn't hog a leading role for himself. LAURENCE ANYWAYS chronicles a 10 year up-and-down relationship between Laurence Alia (Poupaud), a man with GID (Gender Identity Disorder) and determines to dress up like a woman, and his girlfriend Fred Belair (Clément) from 1989 to the looming millennium.

Scale wise it is Dolan's boldest and most ambitious one (save his two subsequent films TOM AT THE FARM 2013 and MOMMY 2014, which I haven't seen yet), extending around 168 minutes, Dolan strenuously spells out a panorama of struggles of Laurence and Fred, for the former, it is a life-or-death judgement call, without opening up to embrace his true id, life is pointless and meaningless to him; more thoughtfully and unconventionally, the film generously grants maximum space for the latter, to zoom in on Fred's striving for breath and co-existence when her world is equally capsized by the blunt decision made by the man she loves.

As early as the opening introduction of Laurence through onlookers (deceitfully) spontaneous responses till the very end, Laurence and Fred separately exit the barroom with posh slo-motion against the brisk gust, stylistically Dolan comes much more at ease with his ostentatious aesthetic codes, Day-Glo disco, subdued lighting, kitschy ornamentation, pop art, avant-garde tableaux vivant, chic party, campy or crammed locale confinement, highlighted by Les Five Roses, and all aided by a killing mixtape (from Fever Ray, The Cure, Visage to Moderat) to leaven the zeitgeist and propel the storytelling.

It is a pure melodrama, spearheaded by two impressive leading performances by Poupaud and Clément, especially the latter, her explosion which bookends the midway of this drawn-out feature is intensely electrifying and utterly breathtaking. She also impeccably handles the unvoiced implosion of her character, shepherded by hairstylists, costume designers and Dolan's unerring determination to lay bare all the subtlety with abstract symbolism and his own perceptive sensations.

Most of the time, Poupaud conceals his handsome contour under a ridiculous wig, heavy make- up doesn't help either, but nothing can hide Laurence's intrepidity, sensitivity and charm through his less flamboyant but more realistic rendition. Nathalie Baye, plays Laurence's negligent mother, pungently bespeaks both parenting and gender-identity are not innately fitting to anyone.

LAURENCE ANYWAYS is a solid corroboration of Dolan's prowess to explore and conquer a wider scope out of his comfort zone, visually distinct and artistically eclectic, although in any event he needs to be polished up a little bit and get himself out of the self-indulgent pitfall, let me just suppress a dash of jealousy and get ready to rejoice in the wunderkind's another output, hopefully is the much-anticipated TOM AT THE FARM.