Directed by Denys Arcand. 112 minutes.
Starring Remy Girard, Stephane Rousseau, Dorothee Berryman, Louise Portal, Dominique Michel, and Yves Jacques. Released by Miramax Films.
In his best film since 1989’s Jesus of Montreal, director Denys Arcand gives us a glimpse of an unraveled family in The Barbarian Invasions, the Cannes sensation, without succumbing to clichés, as many other films of its type typically do. That is not to say that the film is perfect- it does have its problems here and there- but Arcand elicits sympathy out of us and gets us emotionally involved by nudging the heartstrings and not playing tug of war with them. Like Jesus of Montreal, the film involves characters that take upon weighty responsibilities and roles and only later realize how well they are suited by them.
Remy Girard plays Remy, a fiftyish French-Canadian man dying of an unnamed disease. His is the film’s finest performance, a man with many regrets, namely that of the disconnect between he and his children, as well as the anguish felt by his former wife of the numerous affairs he conducted in the past. Remy is still a frisky old codger and describes in lurid detail many of his escapades to those willing to listen. Meanwhile, Sebastian (Stephane Rousseau), the estranged son, is a successful businessman, living in London. He and his attractive wife come to the bedside, which is crowded in a room full of other patients, of Remy, only to set off nasty arguments. The room and disorganization of the hospital are a continual running joke in the movie. It seems as if Arcand is making some sort of criticism of Canadian hospitals, but who knows? The doctors are constantly getting the patients mixed up and, in vengeance; Remy refers to them by their incorrect names as well.
There are numerous other characters here, namely Louise, the ex-wife and mother of Sebastian, Marie Josee Croze, who plays a junkie and friend of the family that supplies Remy with some heroine to kill the pain, and a variety of former friends, all attuned to Remy’s former days of debauchery. If, at any point in the film, it appears that we have intruded on a story that began years ago, it is because it did. Invasions is actually a sequel to Arcand’s 1986 film, The Decline of the American Empire. Story-wise, there is absolutely nothing new here. That does not fault the film, however. The acting here is superb, the script mostly astutely written, and the direction quite lovely. There are a number of amazing, haunting moments in the film that range from simple landscape to video footage of long forgotten films.
If the film stumbles at any point, it is when it tries to go political. There is a conversation towards the end involving Remy and his friends that mentions Marxism, socialism, Godard, the Situationists, Camus, and Sartre, all seemingly for the sake of intellectual name-dropping, rather than to prove any real point, give any real insight, or move the story forward. That is forgivable. What is strange is the use of September 11 footage, graphic footage at that, that jolts you a short while into the film. A critic addresses the terrorist attack as the barbarians invading the United States. Whatever significance this plays into the film is slightly lost on me. The film seems to stop for a moment for this scene to occur and then picks up again. It’s not that I oppose to the use of the footage so much as I am curious exactly what Arcand’s agenda was in the film during this scene.
All in all, however, The Barbarian Invasions is a sad and often wonderful movie about lost lives- whether at the expense of drugs, bitterness, the inability or refusal to learn, or regret. The characters in Arcand’s film fight, some up to the very end of their lives, to recapture glories and right wrongs. Remy says that he loves life, has a lust for it, and is afraid of dying. This is not one of those films in which he overcomes his fear of death, but continues to be afraid up until the last moment. Why? Because he can’t imagine the earth spinning without him on it. He can’t imagine being nothing. For a movie preoccupied with the death of its main character, this one is truly alive.