Impusivelad:
Both films are about friendship, failure, hypocrisy, deceit, pain, loneliness and death. And fucking. Humanity, I guess.
"Le déclin de l'empire américain" is about a group of unfaithful ex-socialist University professors and their decadent and hypocritical lifestyle which represents the fall of America.
"Les invasions barbares" is set 17-years later and the most sympathetic character, Rémy, is dying of cancer. His son Sébastien, a puritanical capitalist millionaire, visits him from London. The film depicts the failure of the socialist dream through the failing Canadian healthcare system and corrupt unions, the failure of capitalism through the September 11th attacks and Sébastien's belief that everyone can be bought. The Catholic church has failed, the University has failed, and now Rémy is dying...
"The Barabarian Invasions" (as a concept) refers not only to the September 11th attacks, but drug dealers in Montréal, the cancerous cells killing Rémy and the semi-literate younger generation in the eyes of Rémy and his friends.
It ties up all of the themes from both "Le déclin" and "Jesus de Montréal". Bloody amazing. The end is as tragic as that of Jesus de Montréal.
Some Americans have attempted to misrepresent the film as a critique of socialised healthcare. Hogwash. That is an overly literal (and banal) reading of (the first 15 minutes) of the film. Arcand is himself a socialist. He wrote the film because both of his parents died of cancer and a friend committed suicide on learning he had alzheimer's disease. |
