Spaces and Times of Quebec in Two Films by Xavier Dolan

Abstract

After an introductory section which places the film career of Xavier Dolan within the context of the transnational and other changes that have affected Québec cinema since 2000, this article seeks to explore two of his films,Laurence Anyways(2012) andTom à la ferme(2013), by bringing together insights from queer theory, cultural geography, and Foucauldian analyses of space and power. The space of the cinematic frame is explored in conjunction with examinations of the ‘outside belongings’ of Montreal balconies, the place of the suburbs, heterotopias, rural/urban, and the ‘closet’. This approach in turn sheds light on Dolan's probing of the boundaries that regulate the ‘normal’, and the way his multiple framing techniques point to altered perceptions amongst millennials of Québec's place in North America and the wider world.