The Decline of the American Empire

Rating:
Summary: Fun, uneven, choppy
Review: "Decline of the American Empire" is a difficult movie to define, mainly because it straddles both European and New World cinematographic tendencies (i.e., ponderous and talky on the one hand, ponderous and talky about sex on the other). Briefly, it's the story of four or five friends who, with one exception, discover that their relationships are declining and disintegrating because they come to know more and more about themselves and their lovers. Is it supposed to be some complex metaphor that somehow ties back in to the movie's title? That's never really clarified or implied. But the diologue is fun (Quebecois French, English subtitles), and the characters aren't sympathetic enough to make you feel sorry for them, so enjoy this film as an offbeat comedy-drama-farce.

Rating:
Summary: Fun, uneven, choppy
Review: "Decline of the American Empire" is a difficult movie to define, mainly because it straddles both European and New World cinematographic tendencies (i.e., ponderous and talky on the one hand, ponderous and talky about sex on the other). Briefly, it's the story of four or five friends who, with one exception, discover that their relationships are declining and disintegrating because they come to know more and more about themselves and their lovers. Is it supposed to be some complex metaphor that somehow ties back in to the movie's title? That's never really clarified or implied. But the diologue is fun (Quebecois French, English subtitles), and the characters aren't sympathetic enough to make you feel sorry for them, so enjoy this film as an offbeat comedy-drama-farce.

Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable watch, though not as good as its sequel.
Review: I guess like a lot of other viewers, I hadn't watched "The Decline of the American Empire" until after I had watched its sequel. Four men and four women get together in a house by the lakeside in Quebec and what follows will keep you engrossed till the end. Director Denys Arcand has the characters play out how they would spend a normal holiday, but "normal" for them has a slightly different meaning than for us ordinary folks.

There's a much younger Remy, the professor at the University of Laval, womanizer par excellence, alongside his (comparatively) straightlaced wife Louise. Pierre, the host, is seeing Danielle, a history student at the university, who was his masseur at a parlor where he is a regular. Their gay friend Claude lives alone because of his compulsive urges to cruise. Then there's the naive and innocent Alain, both Remy and Pierre's ex-mistress Dominique and finally Diane, who's in a BDSM relationship with a guy who scoffs at Claude's Russian trout dish, wine and pilsner but still turns him on as he resembles one of his ex-lovers. The movie follows their conversations over the course of the day, the night and the next morning, interspersed with flashbacks. As Louise says to the BDSM guy, intellectuals love to talk ... and boy, do they talk! Constantly trading barbs, reeling off historical accounts, offering informed opinions on issues (though not as engaging as those in the sequel) and above all, discussing their sex lives (which are nothing short of spectacular) ... the interchanges won't feel dull for a moment. Remy, as usual, is utterly lovable in his depravity.

On a personal note, I like "The Barbarian Invasions" better as I feel that Arcand has refined his style even more over the years so that he is at his peak by this time, but nevertheless this is an enjoyable (if a bit uneven) watch ... not to mention the deja vu that fills you the entire time as you recognize the characters and relate to them as scenes from the other movie come back to you.

Rating:
Summary: A pithy, straight to the heart view of people and humanity.
Review: One of the warmest, coolest and most bracing films I have seen. I cried with laughter and sadness and realisition at a film that is refreshingly bold about human weakness and strengths. Very funny, stirring, sad...true. SEE THIS FILM.

Rating:
Summary: A dull French sex talkathon
Review: Well, I have to confess I didn't actually make it all the way through this film -- it just wasn't worth it. I rented it because I'd heard such high praise for its sequel, "The Barbarian Invasions," and thought it might be nice to have some background on the characters that continue on through that new film, which had just come out on video. Gawd. What a waste of time. This is a tedious film, one that replies on the bluntest of "arch" dialog and most banal shock tactics, outlining the profoundly uninvolving sexual escapades of eight French-Canadian intellectuals, academic buddies and married couples who sleep with everything that moves and cheerfully cheat on one another, then kiss-and-tell about nearly every detail. I'm sure that their unlikeability is intentional, but their cheaply outlined raffishness is not compelling enough to balance things out: they simply aren't interesting characters, and their affairs are tawdry and implausible. It's just boring. Plus, the token gay character is poorly realized and unfairly stereotyped -- he's as much of a skeeze as the hets, but portrayed with an extra gloss of condemnation, as if non-straight promiscuity were in and of itself more dangerous than the mindless, voracious immorality of the straight characters. (At the time, I guess, AIDS was still seen as a "gay" disease...) Anyway, my wife walked away from this film after about forty minutes, a half-hour later, I joined her. I doubt I'll follow up with watching the new film as well.

Rating:
Summary: Witty snapshot of relationships among decadent academics
Review: When I first saw this film I was a faculty member at a Canadian universty- the insights on society and relationships are hilarious and ring true.