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The Barbarian Invasions (Les Invasions Barbares) |
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By David N. Butterworth A sequel, of sorts, to 1996’s The Decline of the American Empire and Canada’s official Academy Award® selection–and subsequent winner–for this year’s Best Foreign Language Film, Denys Arcand’s The Barbarian Invasions (Les Invasions Barbares) is a caustic yet compassionate look at a dying man taking stock of his questionably misguided life. The cast and characters of ‘Decline are back as Rémy (a terrific Rémy Girard), an idealistic history professor diagnosed with terminal cancer, reflects on how bohemian living has grown on him, the successes he’s had, the mistakes he’s made, all the while surrounded by the people who influenced him in one way or another, from his estranged son and his ex-wife, to his aging mistresses and loyal, doting friends. The film also garnered a Best Original Screenplay nomination (Sofia Coppola’s splendid Lost in Translation walked away the worthy recipient) which is a little odd since Arcand’s script is very much a hybrid of Akira Kurosawa’s classic Ikiru, about a dying Japanese businessman looking for life’s meaning, and The Big Chill, Lawrence Kasdan’s nostalgic ode to passing. That said, the writing, especially the dialogue between the disparate band of individuals gathered at Rémy’s bedside, is both witty and wicked, with the Québécois director never missing an opportunity to trash his country’s healthcare system (or lack thereof–there’s an almost wordless tracking shot down an overpopulated hospital corridor that speaks volumes about the sorry state of the nation). Fortunately Rémy’s son Sébastien (Stéphane Rousseau) is a capitalist millionaire who has no problems, either financially or ethically, securing his father a private room on an undeveloped floor, or providing him with medicinal doses of heroin, some eight times more potent that the morphine his notably absent doctor’s have prescribed. For an ensemble piece like this to work the performances, as well as the writing, have to be top notch, and Arcand once again manages to elicit high caliber contributions from his familiar cast plus a few unfamiliar faces, including Marie-Josée Croze as the drug-addicted daughter of a former lover who supplies the illicit substances. Alternately arch, touching, and meditative, The Barbarian Invasions functions on many levels, none the least of which is the opportunity for others to reflect on their own mortality in the face of impending loss. It’s not the best foreign language film of the year–that honor should go to Brazil’s City of God, deemed ineligible this time around–but it’s probably Arcand’s most indelible work to date. |
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