It's Only The End Of The World (play)

''It's Only the End of the World'' () is a 2016 drama film written, directed and edited by Xavier Dolan. The film is based on the 1990 play by Jean-Luc Lagarce, Nathalie Baye, Marion Cotillard, Léa Seydoux, and Vincent Cassel. It is about a young playwright who reunites with his family after a 12-year absence to inform them he is going to die.

A co-production of Canada and France, it was shot in Montreal and Laval, Quebec, beginning in 2015. The small core of actors were selected against typecasting, with Ulliel and Cotillard challenged by the awkwardness in dialogue inherent in Lagarce's work.

The film made its world premiere at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or and received mixed reactions from critics. The film won the Cannes Grand Prix - making Dolan the second Canadian director to receive this award, and the Ecumenical Jury Prize at Cannes. It also won six Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Motion Picture, and three César Awards: Best Director, Best Actor and Best Editing. ''It's Only the End of the World'' was shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Plot

In a place identified only as "Somewhere," Louis, a 34-year-old playwright dealing with a terminal illness, takes a short flight to his home to reunite with his family, whom he has not seen in 12 years. His younger sister, Suzanne, has little memory of him. Upon arriving at the house, Louis' mother, Martine, is surprised to realize Louis has never met the wife of his brother Antoine, Catherine, as Louis was not present at their wedding. Catherine begins telling Louis about her and Antoine's children and nervously stammers to explain why they named one of their boys Louis, after Louis and Antoine's father. Antoine creates tension and snaps that Louis is uninterested in hearing about their children. Louis talks on the telephone to someone and says that he plans to tell his family about his impending death and then leave, and he expresses uncertainty as to how they will react.

Louis and Catherine awkwardly meet in the hallway and attempt to apologize to each other for the tense conversations. Louis remarks that he assumes Antoine has attempted to give her a negative opinion of Louis. Catherine replies Antoine actually speaks little of Louis, and Antoine feels that Louis has little to no interest in their lives, and she openly suspects that belief may have some truth in it. She questions Louis if he knows what Antoine does for a living and explains that he makes tools in a nearby location. Martine also lectures Louis about taking responsibility in the family and says that his status, success, and courage give him some authority. She learns that he has moved from the address where she had been sending his mail, and he had not told her where he currently lives.

Louis expresses interest in seeing the family's former house and cites nostalgia, which bewilders the others, who regard it as a ruin. The family argument that follows puts an end to his wish. He rides with Antoine to the shops for cigarettes and makes small talk, which angers Antoine, who is sick of all the secrecy surrounding Louis's life and the reason that he has returned. He later tells Louis that his former lover Pierre died about a week ago from cancer.

During a meal, Louis promises to visit home more and tells Suzanne she is welcome to visit him. However, it soon becomes apparent Louis is about to leave. Seizing upon this, Antoine tries to remove him from the house and insists on driving him to the airport, and the family shouts back at Antoine for his brutality. Antoine lashes back by saying that he is tired of being treated as the family's freak. After a pause, Louis leaves without having told his family of his prognosis.

Production

Development

Canadian director Xavier Dolan said that when he originally read Jean-Luc Lagarce