Xavier Dolan hasn’t stopped moving since his directorial debut, “I Killed My Mother.” After skipping Cannes, and going Hollywood with his last film, “The Death and Life Of John F. Donovan” starring Natalie Portman, Kit Harington and more (and it still doesn’t have a North American distributor), Dolan has returned to his Montreal roots for “Matthias & Maxime,” which had been welcomed back to the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.
READ MORE: Xavier Dolan’s ‘Matthias Et Maxime’ Sparks A Magnetic Love Story [Cannes Review]
Much more intimate in scale, the film finds Dolan taking a co-starring role in this story of a friendship that’s tested after a single kiss. Here’s the official synopsis:
READ MORE: Xavier Dolan’s ‘The Death and Life of John F. Donovan’ [TIFF Review]
Two childhood best friends are asked to share a kiss for the purposes of a student short film. Soon, a lingering doubt sets in, confronting both men with their preferences, threatening the brotherhood of their social circle, and, eventually, changing their lives.
“Matthias & Maxime” also stars Gabriel D’Almeida Freitas, Pier-Luc Funk, Samuel Gauthier, Antoine Pilon, Adib Alkhalidey, Micheline Bernard, Anne Dorval, Marilyn Castonguay, and Catherine Brunet. And while IMDB has Harris Dickinson (“Beach Rats“) among the cast, and he filmed a role for the movie (calling it “a beautiful experience“) he wasn’t even listed on the Cannes site or in the press release from the Canadian distributor. Perhaps he got Chastain-ed out of the picture, as the actress did on ‘Donovan,’ or maybe he’ll appear in an uncredited cameo.
A subsidiary of Entertainment One, Les Films Séville will release the film in Montreal, Quebec on October 9. Distribution in the U.S. is still apparently up in the air.