Denys Arcand
- 2007
A civil servant gradually regresses into a fantasy world while falling for a beautiful movie star (Diane Kruger) in director Denys Arcand (The Barbarian Invasion)'s dark comedy. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 2007
A civil servant gradually regresses into a fantasy world while falling for a beautiful movie star (Diane Kruger) in director Denys Arcand (The Barbarian Invasion)'s dark comedy. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marc Labreche, Diane Kruger, (more)
Director Denys Arcand revisits the situations and relationships that informed his international breakthrough The Decline of the American Empire with this dialogue-driven character study. Set 17 years after Decline, The Barbarian Invasions, like its predecessor, examines the varying politics -- economic, personal, and sexual -- at play among an aging group of friends, lovers, and ex-spouses. This time around, leads Remy (Rémy Girard) and Louise (Dorothee Berryman) are divorced, with their son Sebastien (Stéphane Rousseau) living in capitalist splendor in London. But the slightly estranged family is brought together by Remy's losing battle with terminal cancer, and the hedonistic, ex-radical father and straight-laced son have to overcome their differences. Along the way, Remy waxes nostalgic with many of the same pals who made up the dinner party of the first film. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rémy Girard, Stéphane Rousseau, (more)
French Canadian director Denys Arcand pushes the boundaries of the mockumentary with Stardom, the tale of a fictional neophyte supermodel (Jessica Pare) told entirely through clips of her appearances on talk shows, television interviews, and documentaries. Originally titled 15 Moments, Stardom begins its portrait at a women's hockey game in the nether regions of Ontario, Canada. When the team's formidable teenage forward Tina (Pare) pulls her helmet off, letting her brunette tresses fly, a bystander snaps a photo, and Tina soon becomes the buzz at the country's hottest fashion houses. Her rise through the industry, however, is plagued by advances from older men with sundry motives: a smitten French photographer (Charles Berling), a smarmy entrepreneur (Dan Aykroyd), the Canadian Ambassador to the U.N. (Frank Langella), and a slick promoter (Thomas Gibson, the latter half of TV's Dharma and Greg). Stardom was the closing film at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, marking the first time in over 50 years that a Canadian production was chosen for such an honor; it would go on to open the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival before its theatrical premiere. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jessica Paré, Dan Aykroyd, (more)
- 1996
- NR
Episodic and unflinchingly realistic, this docudrama offers a seldom-seen look into the lives of Montreal's homeless as it tells the story of a veteran beggar, Marcel, and his neophyte panhandler-buddy Joseph. Most of the time, the down-and-out duo spend their days walking about, talking to their equally less-fortunate and very eccentric peers. Though such wandering is seemingly aimless, Marcel is actually quietly searching for his long-lost and suicidal friend Stanley, in hopes of saving his life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gaston Lepage, Benoit Briere, (more)
- 1993
- R
Based upon a play by screenwriter Brad Fraser, Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love, Denys Arcand's dark-humored drama Love and Human Remains follows the lives of a group of young Canadians, with a particular focus on their romantic and sexual experiences. The central characters are two roommates, David and Candy. The cynical, witty David is a former television actor turned waiter, the lonely, dissatisfied Candy a book critic; the two were formerly lovers, before David proclaimed his homosexuality. Candy is also questioning her sexuality, having begun a lesbian affair after wondering if her failures with men indicates she might be happier with a woman; meanwhile, David is becoming acquainted with Kane, a handsome, young busboy of uncertain sexuality who idolizes the older David. The other members of the ensemble are also somehow connected to the roommates, through friendship or romance, including Benita, a young dominatrix and part-time psychic, and Bernie, a boastful but insecure young businessman. The couplings and shifting relationships of these characters are intercut with the rather more severe story of a serial murderer who has been terrorizing the city's women, allowing Arcand to place the film's melodramatic elements in an edgier context. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Thomas Gibson, Ruth Marshall, (more)
Jean-Claude Lauzon's highly praised film tells the strange story of Léolo, a young boy from Montréal. Told from Léolo's point-of-view, the film depicts his family of lunatics and Léolo's attempts to deal with them. Not one individual in the boy's life is well adjusted. His brother, after being beaten up, spends the film bulking up on growth protein. The grandfather hires half-naked girls to bite off his toenails and, in a brutal rage, almost kills Léolo. As he witnesses his family decay around him, Léolo retreats into himself and the fantasy world he has constructed. In response to the weirdness of his daily life, Léolo creates a little mental mayhem of his own which Lauzon renders in an amazing series of free-form, surreal images. Eventually, this precarious balance of reality and fantasy cracks and Léolo is hospitalized after attempting to murder his grandfather. The score by Tom Waits underscores the narrative arc of Léolo's breakdown. On its release, the film won numerous awards including the International Fantasy Film Award for Best Director (1992) and a Genie Award for Best Original Screenplay (1992). ~ Brian Whitener, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maxime Collin, Ginette Reno, (more)
- 1991
Six short movies by six successful Canadian directors are gathered in this anthology film, commissioned to celebrate the 350th anniversary of Montréal in 1992. The first film, directed by Patricia Rozema, humorously follows a bewildered Toronto housewife as she frantically attempts to enjoy her visit to this aggressively French-speaking city. She knows only English and must on one occasion resort to following the film's subtitles in order to understand what is happening. The second short feature by director Jacques Leduc attempts to encapsulate more than three centuries of history in brief documentary form. The third feature by Michel Brault parallels the action in a hockey game at the Montréal Forum with the divorce games of a young couple. In the next feature by Atom Egoyan, a lonely tourist experiences communication only from the headset narration provided by his electronic walking tour device. An automobile accident provides the occasion, in the next segment by Pierre Mignot, for a woman to have her life flash before her eyes. Finally, Denys Arcand shows an important governmental representative is quite innocently mangling the introductions being made to him as he stands in the receiving line of a cocktail party. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sheila McCarthy, Charlotte Laurier, (more)
A modern-day Passion Play becomes a reenactment of the life and death of Jesus Christ in more ways than one with this critically acclaimed drama from Quebec filmmaker Denys Arcand. Lothaire Bluteau stars as Daniel Coloumbe, an intense young actor in Montreal who is hired by church fathers to restage and update the city's annual Passion Play, which over the course of the past 40 years has begun to seem hidebound. Daniel hires a group of struggling young actors that become devoted to him and his creative vision as he devises an extremely avant-garde production that takes Christ's rebellious teachings literally. Revolving around set pieces reflecting passages from Christ's life rather than a traditional re-creation of events, Daniel's revisionist work also incorporates blasphemous ideas about his subject, questioning his true nature. Daniel's play is a critical smash and wows mesmerized audiences, but greatly disturbed church officials order the labor of love dismantled. Real life begins imitating biblical events as the actors become cast-outs and Daniel smashes up an audition in which the actress portraying his Mary Magdalene (Catherine Wilkening) is asked to disrobe by a prurient producer. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lothaire Bluteau, Catherine Wilkening, (more)
- 1987
Marcel (Gilles Maheu) emerges from prison in hopes of a reconciliation with his dying father Albert (Roger Le Bel) in this thrilling crime drama. Raped in prison, Marcel encounters a homosexual cop involved with drug smuggling who presses him for information and sex. Marcel fights his way out of the cop's lecherous advances and is reunited with his father. The two catch up on old times on a fishing trip, and Albert reveals he has both money and cocaine stashed away for Marcel's return. Marcel and his homosexual cellmate later corner the crooked cops in a sleazy hotel to exact revenge. Julie (Lynne Adams) is Marcel's former girlfriend who works in a sex club peep show. Gay and straight scenes of rough sex permeate this film which marks the directorial debut of Jean-Claude Lauzon. The film took home Genie awards (Canada's answer to the Oscar) for "Best Film," "Best Actor," "Best Supporting Actor," and "Best Director" in 1988. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roger Le Bel, Gilles Maheu, (more)
- 1986
- R
- AddThe Decline of the American Empireto QueueAddThe Decline of the American Empireto top of Queue
A rousing "he said/she said" endeavor, The Decline of the American Empire begins by separating the boys from the girls. Preparing a gourmet dinner, four male intellectuals begin trading stories of their sexual experiences. At the same time, four well-read women, all working out in a gym, exchange their own tales from the love front. The film is set in the lofty circles of academia, a world well known to Canadian director Denys Arcand. The anecdotes related herein are based on actual events in the lives of Arcand's professorial friends. There's nothing bookish, however, about the subject matter of the stories themselves, which ranges from mild philandering to S & M. The Decline of the American Empire was the winner of eight Canadian Genie awards (that's the above-the-border equivalent of the Oscar), including Best Picture. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre Curzi, Rémy Girard, (more)
- 1973
In this early work from director Denys Arcand (Jesus of Montreal), Vincent Padovani (Jean Lajeunesse) is a French-Canadian contractor whose new superhighway is about to open. At a party he throws with the local money-men and political honchos, Padovani willingly indulges in the sort of debauchery that is permissible only in the highest social circles. The revelry is interrupted -- briefly -- when the ex-wife of the highway financier turns up; the financier's bodyguards promptly rub her out and have her body dumped in cement...and by film's end, the unfortunate woman winds up a left turn on Padovani's highway. The anti-establishment ambience of Réjeanne Padovani has a bite-the-hand-that-feeds-you feel, inasmuch as the film was financed by a government grant. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1972
This French-Canadian crime/action drama, which satirizes U.S. crime films, was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 1972 and was well received. In the picture, perfectly ordinary people murder, steal, and torture one another with casual abandon in order to solve their everyday problems. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1967
A young man (Claude Gauthier) sets out from his hometown of Quebec and travels to Montreal to seek his fortune. He takes a succession of odd jobs before hitting it big as a singer. He has eyes for a waitress (Genevieve Bujold) in a greasy spoon diner before his crooning career takes him to hang out in more upscale restaurants. The young man falls for another girl who leaves him, and he is just as lonely as he was in his small town in Quebec before he found success. All the money in the world won't bring back his girl in this independent feature with the backdrop of burgeoning speeches of Quebec declaring independence from the rest of Canada. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Geneviève Bujold, Claude Gauthier, (more)
- 1960
The Wednesday-afternoon anthology Canada's Story consisted of twenty short films, produced through the auspices of the National Film Board of Canada. Each 30-minute episode was about the early exploration of Canada, and/or recent developments in the country's history. Individual titles included "The Last Voyage of Henry Hudson" and "Selkirk of Red River"; other installments chronicled the story of the St. Lawrence Seaway and Quebec's 300th anniversary celebration. Some episodes were produced under the title History Makers and were shown in groupings of several episodes each, under the titles "The Struggle for Self-Government" (1961), "Prelude to Confederation" (1962), and "Explorers" (1964). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
