Denys Arcand’s dynamic triple-bill

Last updated on: March 19, 2005 at 3:04 pm by Peter T. Chattaway

Denys Arcand’s dynamic triple-bill 2005-03-19T15:04:00-08:00 Peter T. Chattaway

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

You know how some films just grow on you? I saw The Barbarian Invasions (2003) at the Vancouver film festival two years ago, and didn’t get around to seeing it a second time until a few weeks ago — and I find it has occupied my thoughts quite a bit since then.

This is partly because I was working on an article on the subject; and partly because I watched the film on a DVD double-bill with its predecessor The Decline of the American Empire (1986), which I had probably last seen when I was studying Denys Arcand’s films at UBC almost a decade ago; and partly because the closing song — Francoise Hardy’s ‘L’amitie’ — is just one of those really haunting, wistful, elegiac tunes that fits perfectly over the last images of this film, and fit even more when I tracked down the lyrics and ran them through an online translation engine.

It is also partly because, a few nights ago, I finally watched the DVD’s one bonus feature — a 50-minute promotional TV program in which most of the actors sit around a dinner table and discuss the film’s themes and such. (You could say the Canadian DVD offers one other bonus feature, inasmuch as it includes both a longer version of the film and a shorter version, but I have no interest in the shorter version, at this point; apparently only the shorter version is available on the American DVD.)

In one of several excellent posts here, M. Leary observes: “Arcand’s genius is that he has built a drama around a large number of characters that are completely round, even dare I say ‘opaque’. . . . We are allowed to walk around in the story with no leading from the director in any specific direction.” And that interesting mix of sympathy and detachment extends even to this TV program — while all the actors sit around trying to make sense of the characters they played and what their story means to two generations of Quebeckers, we are told that Arcand declined (no pun intended!) to take part in the show because he had said everything he wanted to say in the film itself. But then, in the very last minutes, we hear Arcand’s voice, as he explains the joy he feels when he sees actors give flesh to the characters he has written.

The program is, thus, completely of a piece with the film it was intended to promote. And the actors make some very interesting, even pungent, statements of their own. For example, Remy Girard suggests — a bit too optimistically, I think — that “invasion” is not necessarily a bad thing if it can transform and improve an otherwise stagnant environment; and one actress notes that to give someone the gift of life is also to give them the gift of death (the film is all about terminal illness, and Arcand has said it was motivated by his own realization that he would probably not be around to see his daughter grow as old as he would like).

Why do I say “triple-bill” in the title of this post? Because, while The Barbarian Invasions is a sequel to The Decline of the American Empire, Arcand also brings a few characters from Jesus of Montreal (1989) into his newest film. Back in the 1980s, Arcand had kind of intended Jesus as a follow-up or response to Decline — after exploring the dead-end hedonism that comes when people abandon dead-end ideologies, he wanted to push and probe and see if there was any greater, deeper, more mysterious sort of meaning out there — and I think it is very, very interesting that he brought the spirit of Jesus into the world of Decline when he decided to make a sequel to the latter film.

In the articles and lectures I have done on Jesus films, I have always made a point of explaining how Decline provides the social, cultural, political, provincial, moral, and even dramatic backdrop to Jesus of Montreal. Now that characters from Jesus have been explicitly brought into the world of Decline, via Barbarian, I think this point needs to be emphasized even more.

It is especially interesting to see that Constance Lazure (Johanne-Marie Tremblay), the compassionate single mother in Jesus who had the affair with the priest and then went on to join the theatre group founded in Daniel Coulombe’s honour, has gone on to become a nun by the time Barbarian begins. In Jesus, Constance and the other people who found the theatre group seem to represent, allegorically, the “organized religion” that rose up after Jesus died, and the fact that Mireille walks away from the group comes across like an indictment of the others, who may be on the way to losing the purity of Daniel’s vision, just as the Church supposedly lost the purity of Jesus’ vision. So does Constance becoming a nun — a servant of the established Church — make this parallel even more pronounced? Or does it show that she has turned her back on the presumably corrupted theatre group and found something more true, more good, more meaningful? (In fact, now that I think about it, while Barbarian spends a lot of time looking at how the children of Remy and Diane have rebelled against their libertine parents — one by becoming a “puritan capitalist”, the other by becoming a heroin junkie — I find myself wondering what Constance’s offspring made of her decision to become a nun.)

It is also interesting to see that Fr. Leclerc (Gilles Pelletier), the jaded priest who once said that institutions live longer than individuals, is now concerned about the apparent demise of his institution. (In fact, he claims in the new film that the demise of Catholicism in Quebec can be dated to a single moment in the mid-1960s — which may be somewhat at odds with his claim in the earlier film that the churches are regularly crowded with people who come looking for something to believe in.)

The only other character who appears to have returned is the Security Guard played by Gaston Lepage, who worked for the church in the earlier film and now works at the hospital. A few other actors have come back, too, but they seem to be playing different characters — a few, like Remy Girard and Yves Jacques, appeared in both Decline and Jesus and are now reprising their Decline characters, rather than their Jesus characters; while others, like Roy Dupuis, Sylvie Drapeau and Denis Bouchard just seem to have been given different roles altogether.

Gadzooks, that’s a lot more than I intended to say when I started this post. Anyway, all three films are very good on their own, but together, they’re quite the experience.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

March 19, 2005

Chattaways on film

Next Post

March 19, 2005 The Amityville Horror -- the original

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Anglican Planet Articles BC Christian News BC Report Bible Movies Bible Review Blog Books & Culture Campus Times CBC Radio Christianity Today ChristianWeek Essays Faith Today Festival Cinemas Guide Film Journals Georgia Straight Interviews MB Herald National Catholic Register Salvationist Today's Christian Two Chairs Ubyssey Uncategorized Vancouver Courier Vancouver Sun

Select a Month August 2025 April 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 May 2024 February 2024 December 2023 May 2023 March 2023 November 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 September 2019 July 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 April 2012 January 2012 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 November 2003 October 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 March 2002 January 2002 December 2001 November 2001 September 2001 August 2001 July 2001 June 2001 April 2001 March 2001 February 2001 December 2000 November 2000 October 2000 September 2000 August 2000 July 2000 June 2000 May 2000 April 2000 March 2000 January 2000 October 1999 August 1999 May 1999 April 1999 February 1999 January 1999 December 1998 November 1998 October 1998 August 1998 July 1998 June 1998 April 1998 March 1998 January 1998 November 1997 September 1997 July 1997 June 1997 April 1997 March 1997 February 1997 January 1997 December 1996 October 1996 September 1996 June 1996 March 1996 February 1996 January 1996 April 1995 November 1994 September 1994 September 1991

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What did the angel say at the tomb?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Be still and at peace. Fear not, for I bring news. Go and sin no more. He is not here; He has risen!