A director in his prime: Denys Arcand's Les Invasions barbares

TAKE ONE, Sept-Dec, 2003 by Peter Howell

Cannes, France -- After 33 years of emotionally rich filmmaking, Denys Arcand has finally learned how to cry at one of his own movies. It caught him totally by surprise.

It happened while the veteran Quebec writer/director was early in production of Les Invasions barbares (The Barbarian Invasions), the long-gestating sequel to Le Declin de I'empire americain (1986), his satire of 1980s attitudes and sexual mores. Les Invasions, recently named as the gala opener to this year's Toronto International Film Festival, tracks the reaction of friends and family to the impending death of Le Declin's "sensual socialist" Remy (Remy Girard), the philandering Montreal academic who is as fond of sex as he is of intellectual discourse.

The first scene shot was on a boat in the North Atlantic. It shows Sylvaine (Isabelle Blais), Remy's grown-up daughter, sending her ailing father a video postcard via e-mail, expressing her love and concern for him. "When I saw it, I cried like crazy," Arcand said, speaking at the most recent Cannes Film Festival, where Les Invasions won awards for screenwriting and acting (Best Actress for Marie-Josee Croze). "And as I was crying, I was thinking, 'Poor Isabelle.' I knew what she was about to say every time, but I was just so moved by it. During the whole movie, I felt the same way. It's very strange. It's the first time I did a movie like that, where I felt so moved by a story I wrote." His previous work has afforded many opportunities for a range of emotional responses. Anyone who recoiled in horror at the brutal gang-rape scene in Gina (1975), or who watched with wonder at the miraculous ending of Jesus de Montreal (1989), or who roared at the barbed humour of Le Declin de I'empire americain or Arcand's more recent satire Stardom (2000), may wonder how he managed to hold back tears of either sorrow or joy for so long.

He's been wondering, too. "For some mysterious reason (Les Invasions) is a very sad movie. I don't know why. Sometimes it's funny because we don't understand what we do when we make a movie and there's a magical sadness that comes out." The genial Quebecer is the first to admit that introspection isn't his forte. "I'm not too good at self-analyzing," he said, looking relaxed and cheerful as he lounged in leisure attire inside a garishly decorated beach cabana next to the azure waters of the Mediterranean. (It's a locale he knows well: Les Invasions is Arcand's ninth feature and the sixth to be invited to Cannes.)

But Arcand, a youthful 62, knew why he wanted to revisit the characters of Le Declin de I'empire americain 17 years after he brought them to life. "I wanted to make a movie that talks about someone who is facing death. I've been thinking about it for 20 years. I was always obsessed by death, lf I were analyzed, my analyst would tell you. Over the 20 years, I tried to write some scripts. The first time I did a draft of this film was for the CBC. And it didn't work because it was mawkish, it was sombre and it wasn't interesting. It was morbid. When I got the idea two years ago to make the movie with the people from the previous movie [Le Declin], everything started to build in my mind. One of the reasons I came up with this idea is because of the love and respect there is between the cast members, lf I were to tell that story through those characters, then it would work, because I knew that these guys would smoke a joint until the last night. They would open champagne bottles. They would shoot heroin and they would laugh at it. Which was the way I wanted to make this film."

Wasn't he worried about repeating himself, or having people get bored with his characters? "I never think about risk. I'm sort of fearless--although not in my private life. But in terms of movies, I'm too old to think about risks. It's behind me. So whatever happens with this film, it's not going to change my life at 62." (The risk appears very small. Les Invasions has been playing in Quebec theatres since May and earning impressive box office.) Arcand had little trouble reuniting the major cast members: Dorothee Berryman, who plays Louise, now divorced from the philandering Remy; Louise Portal and Dominique Michel, who play Remy's older and wiser ex-lovers, Diane and Dominique; and Pierre Curzi and Yves Jacques, who play Pierre and Yves, the forever cynical members of Remy's boys-will-be-boys club.

Les Invasions introduces several important new characters, including Stephane Rousseau as Sebastien, Remy's adult son, a wealthy London money man estranged from his father, though he still cares for him; Marie-Josee Croze as Nathalie, Diane's junkie daughter with a needle and a pointed attitude; and former pop star Mitsou Gelinas as Ghislaine, Pierre's sexy and snappish young wife. It's a combination of the old and the new, of looking back and moving forward, but Arcand insists he doesn't think in such terms. "Each film is an adventure; each film is new," he said. "Each film is something that I can't really control, in the sense that I'm suddenly thinking about a subject and then I have this idea of phoning these people and seeing should we get back together and make another film, and then the film happens. It may look as if it's calculated or it's planned. In fact, it's not. I go from film to film never knowing exactly what will be the future for me. It just happens like that."