Retiring from filmmaking

Dolan first publicly contemplated the idea of quitting cinema last year, saying that he wanted to spend more time with his friends and family. But in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pais this week, he confirmed this decision. “I don’t feel like committing two years to a project that barely anyone sees,” he said. “I put too much passion into it to have these disappointments. It makes me wonder if my filmmaking is bad, and I know it's not.”

Part of the problem, Dolan suggested, is how volatile the world has become, and the threat of a “civil war” caused by intolerance. At a time when “everything around us is falling apart,” he says he doesn’t see the point in telling stories. “Art is useless and dedicating oneself to the cinema, a waste of time,” he said.