Table Of ContentDENYS ARCAND’S
LE DÉCLIN DE L’EMPIRE AMÉRICAIN
and LES INVASIONS BARBARES
The release of Denys Arcand’s Le Déclin de l’empire américain (The Decline of
the American Empire) in 1986 marked a major turning point in Quebec cin-
ema. It was the first Québécois film that enjoyed huge critical and com-
mercial success at home and abroad. Arcand’s tragicomedy about eight
intellectuals gathered around a dinner table relating sexy anecdotes
became the top-grossing film of all time in Quebec and was the first
Canadian feature to be nominated for an Oscar in the foreign-language
category. Seventeen years later, Arcand won an Academy Award for the
sequel, Les Invasions barbares (The Barbarian Invasions), where the amusing
insouciance of the thirty-somethings talking dirty in Le Déclin is replaced
by a sense of moral responsibility and serene resignation.
In this study, André Loiselle presents the first in-depth analysis of
both films within the context of Quebec culture. Through close read-
ings and concise cultural analysis of two of the most important films in
the history of Quebec cinema, Loiselle demonstrates the ways in which
Arcand’s work represents a snapshot of the evolution of the French-
Canadian film industry since 1980. The companion films trace the
decline of Quebec’s national dream and the Québécois’s attempts to
cling to their identity against the forces of barbaric globalization.
The second title in the new Canadian Cinema series, Denys Arcand’s ‘Le
Déclin de l’empire américain’ and ‘Les Invasions barbares’ is essential reading
for cinephiles, film critics, and anyone with an interest in cultural stud-
ies and Canadian and Quebec history.
(Canadian Cinema)
andré loiselle is Professor of Film Studies and Director of the School of
Canadian Studies at Carleton University where he also teaches film
studies.
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CANADIAN CINEMA 2
DENYS ARCAND’S
LE DÉCLIN DE L’EMPIRE
AMÉRICAIN
and
LES INVASIONS BARBARES
ANDRÉ LOISELLE
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
© University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2008
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
Printed in Canada
isbn: 978-0-8020-9933-4 (cloth)
isbn: 978-0-8020-9623-4 (paper)
Printed on acid-free paper
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Loiselle, André, 1963–
Denys Arcand’s Le déclin de l’empire américain and Les invasions
barbares / André Loiselle.
(Canadian cinema ; 2)
Includes bibliographical references.
isbn: 978-0-8020-9933-4 (bound) isbn: 978-0-8020-9623-4 (pbk.)
1. Arcand, Denys, 1941– – Criticism and interpretation. 2. Déclin de
l’empire américain (Motion picture). 3. Invasions barbares (Motion
picture). I. Title. II. Series: Canadian cinema (Toronto, Ont.) 2
pn1998.3.a72l64 2008 791.4302(cid:99)33092 c2008-904902-0
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its
publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts
Council.
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian
Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to
Scholarly Publications Programme, using funds provided by the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support of its
publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book
Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP).
Contents
Introduction 3
LE DÉCLIN DE L’EMPIRE AMÉRICAIN 15
1 The Production and Reception of Scabrous
Conversations 19
2 The Decline of Patriarchy and the Death of
the Feminine 31
3 The Death of Quebec History 59
4 Friends in the Landscape, or Was Louise Right
All Along? 73
LES INVASIONS BARBARES 85
5 From an Obsession with Death to an Oscar 91
6 ‘Death of a Bon Vivant’: A Tragicomedy in Three Acts 111
7 Sex, Death, and the Cinema 145
Conclusion: Sex, Death, and Boredom 155
Filmography 161
Notes 173
Bibliography 187
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DENYS ARCAND’S
LE DÉCLIN DE L’EMPIRE AMÉRICAIN
and LES INVASIONS BARBARES
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Introduction
The release of Denys Arcand’s Le Déclin de l’empire américain in 1986
marked a turning point in Quebec cinema. It was the first French-
language film made in Canada to enjoy huge critical and commercial
success at home and to become a genuine hit abroad. There had been
critically acclaimed films from Quebec, such as Mon oncle Antoine (1971,
Claude Jutra) and Les Ordres (1974, Michel Brault), and some movies such
as Deux femmes en or (1970, Claude Fournier) and Les Plouffe (1981, Gilles
Carle) had been quite lucrative at the box office. But none before Le
Déclin had managed to garner awards from around the world,1 win
almost unanimous international praise from critics, and play for
months in theatres from Montreal to Paris. Arcand’s tragicomedy about
eight intellectuals relating sexy anecdotes while sipping expensive
wine became the top-grossing film of all time in Quebec and was the
first Canadian feature to be nominated for an Academy Award in the
foreign-language category. It lost the Oscar to the Dutch war movie, The
Assault (1986, Fons Rademakers). But seventeen years later, Arcand
returned to the Academy Awards with the sequel of Le Déclin, Les Inva-
sions barbares and this time walked away with the coveted prize.
Revisiting the main characters from the 1986 film, whose financial
success it actually surpassed,2 Les Invasions barbares (2003) does not
merely rehash the old formula. Rather it shows the original’s characters
