The Barbarian Invasions

Director: Denys Arcand

2003 / 99min / DCP

Reuniting the cast of characters he introduced in his 1986 arthouse phenomenon Decline of American Civilization, Arcand’s unusually lively and immensely moving deathwatch film finds serial seducer and unreconstructed ’60s lefty Rémy (Rémy Girard) now stricken with cancer, teetering on the edge of mortality. Reconnecting with his “capitalist prude” son Sebastian (Stephane Rousseau) and a stream of familiar old friends and lovers, Remy retreats with them to the lakeside cottage where Decline took place to resume their crackling, sharply written discussions of sex, politics, and the dashed dreams of yesteryear. “A moving elegy to a generation that defined modern Quebec and has seen its passions rendered obsolete.” —Maclean’s