At the 2014 Cannes Film Festival , Dolan said that '' The Piano '' by Jane Campion was a major inspiration for him . He has also cited seeing the film '' Titanic '' as an early influence on his decision to enter the film industry . He has mentioned paying tribute to '' My Own Private Idaho '' with a sequence in '' I Killed My Mother '' , and that he was influenced by the frog rain scene at the end of '' Magnolia '' , but said in 2013 : What I 'm trying to say is that I 'm not that influenced by directors ... . I 've read basically every review of my films because I 'm crazy and I focus on what 's negative and I want to know what people think — and why they think it . So many times I 've been bullied into references and influences that were never mine by viewers that would project their opinions and associations and assumptions on me ... . But let 's get real : ideas travel and everything 's been done , it 's all a matter of interpreting things again now . Dolan is openly gay , and described his first film , '' I Killed My Mother '' , as semi-autobiographical
2014 Cannes Film Festival
2014 Cannes Film Festival
Xavier Dolan