THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS (LES INVASIONS BARBARES)
When Montreal college professor Rémy (Rémy Girard, "The Decline of the American Empire") is hospitalized with a fatal prognosis, his ex-wife Louise (Dorothée Berryman, "The Decline of the American Empire") pleads with their son Sébastien (Stéphane Rousseau) to come over from London. Sébastien and his wife Gaëlle (Marina Hands) arrive and despite his father's caustic reception, Sébastien is soon orchestrating a special send off, including gathering his father's friends and mistresses to his bedside, in Writer/director Denys Arcand's ("Stardom," "The Decline of the American Empire") followup to "The Decline of the American Empire," "The Barbarian Invasions."
This 2003 Cannes winner (best screenplay and best actress for Marie-Josée Croze, "Ararat") is both the tale of a father and son's rediscovery and the portrait of a man surveying his broad, lusty life looking for meaning. The film sustains an emotional build that is undercut by cutesy directorial choices in the film's last act.
We're given a strong dose of Rémy right away when his wife tells a nurse that she threw him out fifteen years prior and he's been humping coeds ever since. Rémy grouses about his son's never having read a book, calling him a video-game player (he's actually a very successful investment banker) and it's clear we have a battle between culture and commerce.
The warmup between father and son begins when Sébastien accompanies Rémy across the border to a hospital for tests ('Hallelujah' they tartly reply when a nurse welcomes them to the U.S.). Sébastien finds a hospice in the States, but his father refuses to leave because 'I'm not going to the States to be murdered by rabid Mohammedans.' A nurse, Carole (Micheline Lanctôt, "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz"), gives Rémy a new look at his son and himself when he must compare his own handling of his father's demise to what Sébastien has done.
Sébastien visits a hospital administrator (who amusingly dishes out programmed doublespeak, another barb at national health care) and declares that 'money is no object' in trying to procure a private room for his father in the overcrowded hospital. After a little bit of bribery, Rémy's ensconced on his own floor where the visitors Sébastien's gathered prepare meals and enjoy cocktail hour! Sébastien even goes so far as to ask a cop where to procure heroin to ease the old man's pain. When the cop doesn't oblige, he asks Diane (Louise Portal, "The Decline of the American Empire"), his dad's ex-mistress who has a junkie daughter Nathalie (Croze), and the young girl is brought back to life herself by the complex relationship she develops with father and son. Sébastien's laptop is the portal to his sister Sylvaine (Isabelle Blais, "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind"), who sends moving video messages via a satellite link from a boat in the Pacific (the sibling's electronic ties to their fast-paced worlds are subtly contrasted against their father's extensive library of paper books and the cushy academic lives of his generation). The point of Gaëlle's visit to assess the value of a warehouse full of Catholic artifacts, however, is less clearly stated.
When the group repairs to the lake cottage of old friend Pierre (Pierre Curzi, "The Decline of the American Empire"), though, Arcand can't resist lining them up to spout pseudo-intellectual soundbites on the 'isms' of their lives which the camera captures like a singalong's bouncing ball. Still, Rémy's admitted Cretinism when he recalls telling a young victim of the Chinese Cultural Revolution how wonderful it was is a touching admission. Better yet is his reminisce on the glories of the thighs of religious actress Inés Orsini, serially replaced by images of Francoise Hardy, Julie Christie and Chris Evert until old age brought dreams of the Caribbean. 9/11 is used to further the barbarian invasion theme which runs throughout the film on multiple levels, a device that may be met with shock in the U.S. A TV commentator is heard to say 'What's important is that they struck at the heart of the empire,' a metaphor for the principals' emotions.
Arcand has created a sentimental homage to a big, broad life that rarely turns mawkish. His cast, particularly Rémy Girard, Rousseau, Croze and Lanctôt, are a good ensemble. Visually the film is pedestrian, its emphasis on dialogue. Original music by Pierre Aviat owes a debt to Philip Glass.
B+
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