Denys Arcand's Le déclin de l'empire américain and Les invasions barbares

André Loiselle presents the first in-depth analysis of both Arcand films within the context of Quebec culture.

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 cinema. It was the first Québécois film that enjoyed huge critical and commercial 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 engrossing study, André Loiselle presents the first in-depth analysis of both films within the context of Quebec culture. Through close readings 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' 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 studies and Canadian and Quebec history.

Contents 5 Introduction 7 LE DÉCLIN DE L’EMPIRE AMÉRICAIN 21 1. The Production and Reception of Scabrous Conversations 21 2. The Decline of Patriarchy and the Death of the Feminine 37 3. The Death of Quebec History 65 4. Friends in the Landscape, or Was Louise Right All Along? 79 LES INVASIONS BARBARES 91 5. From an Obsession with Death to an Oscar 91 6. ‘Death of a Bon Vivant’: A Tragicomedy in Three Acts 117 7. Sex, Death, and the Cinema 151 Conclusion: Sex, Death and Boredom 161 Filmography 167 Notes 179 Selected Bibliography 193