It looks as though Xavier Dolan’s Cannes entry “Matthias & Maxime,” will not be going to TIFF. Dolan has been a mainstay of the Canadian film festival ever since his debut (“I Killed My Mother”) premiered there in 2009 . The Quebecois writer-director was there just last year for his misbegotten and ill-received “The Life and Death of John F. Donovan.” The source for this news is The Globe and Mail’s Barry Hertz.
I can confirm that Joel Coen’s “Jack of Spades” is based on Frances Frederica Montrésor’s 1901 novel “The Alien: A Story of Middle Age.” It’s a ghost story. A gothic mystery.