The Barbarian Invasions (2003)

Everything invades from the outside in

This 2003 Academy Award Winner for Best Foreign Language Film is definitely not a light,frothy piece of fluff.If you are settling in to be amused,BARBARIAN INVASIONS would not be the film for you.This Quebecian film from Denys Arcand (The Decline Of The American Empire) is fraught with symbolism of life,death,decline,change and is one of those,every- scene,every- word,every- character- stands -for- something films that in order to extrapolate all of the meaning you must pay strict attention.INVASIONS is a tightly written expose of the decline of not only the Quebecois and their policy choices over the last 50 years, but more largely an observant look at how people and their mores change and how they go through them.INVASIONS discusses euthanasia,education,social medicine,world history,religious belief,familial relationships,drug use,sex etc. and asks us not to judge it,but to observe it.That is very tough for some folks to do.This film offers NO answers,but rather raises questions.It is one of the singlemost profound pieces of film work that has elicited a lot of discussion afterwards.In fact, the DVD itself,offers a great open conversation with all of the actors concerning their interpretation of Arcand's work.One of the best films I have seen in a while.I am sorry that it took until now to see it.
February 18, 2008

The barbaric invasion of time.

"I haven't found a meaning. I have to keep searching"--Rémy, just before his death.

Winner of France's 2004 César Award for Best Picture, The Barbarian Invasions (Les Invasions barbares) is the 2003 sequel to Denys Arcand's 1986 award-winning film The Decline of the American Empire and is followed by the 2007 Days of Darkness. In The Decline of the American Empire, eight intellectual friends (four men and four women) at the Université de Montréal discuss sex and politics (and more sex) while having dinner together at a lakeside retreat. While the four men prepare the food and reflect upon their promiscuity, the four women discuss their own sexual exploits at a nearby gym. Over dinner, one of the women reveals that she has had affairs with two of the men present, one of whom is married to one of the other women in the group. The Barbarian Invasions continues the story seventeen years later.

The film takes its title from a passing reference to September 11 as a sign of America's inability to keep "the barbarian at the gate," and centers around one character, Rémy's battle with terminal cancer, and his estranged, investment-banker son Sébastien's efforts to make him more comfortable in his final days. (Rémy is played by Rémy Girard, and Sébastien is played by musician Stéphane Rousseau.) Sébastien invites friends and family from Remy's past to visit his father. In his dying days, Rémy and his old friends including Diane (Louise Portal), Dominique (Dominique Michel), Claude (Yves Jacques), Pierre (Pierre Curzi), discuss philosophy, politics, academia, and their sexual and intellectual adventures. In the course of the conversation, it becomes evident that they are comparing notes on their journeys as they grow older and perhaps wiser in a world under attack by violence, epidemics, drugs, and everyday affronts upon the senses. This is ultimately a film about how the dynamics of love and friendship enable friends and family to talk and talk for hours about the things in life that really matter, oblivious to their surroundings. (Such conversations, in my opinion, make life worth living.) The resulting film is, witty, humorous, enchanting, and profound, and is as much a reunion film in the genre of The Big Chill (only more intelligent), as an talkfest in the genre of Louis Malle's My Dinner with Andre (only more poignant). The most intense action in this highly-recommended film occurs in the dialogue.

G. Merritt December 20, 2007

Incredible

A non-extravagant plot that offers so much in its crevices. One of the best movies I've ever seen. December 7, 2007

An engaging story!

The Barbarian Invasions (Les Invasions Barbares) I really enjoy French Canadian films and I find their story/ plots and humour quixotic. This one is no exception. The characters develop well throughout the film as does the simple storyline. November 29, 2007

Refreshing Honest and Mature Storyline

This movie is best seen as a sequel to Denys Arcand's first masterpiece; The Rise and Fall of the American Empire. In this movie, Arcand has undergone a trasnformation in his thinking, like most of the characters in his movie. From their self-indulgent and smug liberalism of their youth, the now older characters seem to awakened to many of the harsh realities of the world, as captured by the opening scene of the attack on the World Trade Center towers. This stands as a metaphor for their lives, which are shocked from their complacency by the serious illness of one of their intellectual brethren. What follows is an brutally honest and hilarious look at Canada's socialist medical system and the tragedy of western liberal complacency in an increasingly hostile and dangerous world. An excellent movie definitely worth being in your collection. November 23, 2007

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