The Decline of the American Empire is a grandiose title, but since the movie director Denys Arcand studied history and is knowledgeable about the Roman Empire, he used a historic concept to express his theme. The meaning of the title is not clear if you only watch the movie casually. I would say it is nearly impossible to understand what this movie wants to say if you only watch it once. If the viewer does not understand the intention of the movie, I think they may be frustrated. In fact, I read some of these frustrated thoughts after I watched the movie.
Dominique is the dean of the school of history at a university in Quebec; she published a book recently in which she proposes the theory that the strong trend happening today (1980s) of people pursuing individual happiness is correlated with the decline of the nation. Diane, a teaching assistant in the history department, works part-time at a broadcasting station as the host of an interview program. In an interview on this station, Dominique brings up as examples of the pursuit of individual happiness the free and uncontrolled lifestyle of the intelligentsia, the liberation from conventional sexual morality, and an increase in women not marrying. Dominique is of course single, and Diane is a divorcee with a daughter.
The professors in the history department led by Dominique gather at one of their houses in order to enjoy dinner. Professors Rémy, Pierre, and Claude, and graduate student Alan make up the men, while Dominique, Diane, undergraduate student Danielle, and Rémy’s wife Louise make up the women. Rémy, Pierre, Claude, Dominique, and Diane are intelligentsia, and have arguments about grand topics. Rémy is married to Louise, but is involved in all sorts of extramarital affairs. Pierre was married, but wanted freedom and so divorced, and he now dates Danielle. Claude is gay. Diane, while the other four people have developed their careers smoothly, laments that she doesn’t have a great career since she is divorced and has to spend most of her time raising her child; Louise consoles her by saying that having a child is life’s greatest accomplishment. Louise gets carried away and starts to say that Dominique, Pierre, and Claude, who don’t have children, are missing something important even though they have successful careers, and the three people, especially Dominique, get annoyed.
At the climax of the dinner party, the members listen to the later part of Dominique’s interview. She continues on in the interview to say that after Marxism-Leninism collapsed, there was no longer a principle to guide people, and society without a principle is doomed to collapse. Louise, who had not been participating in the loud argument between the intellectuals, innocently objects without hesitation, “I don’t know why you say the times we live in are bad. We may actually be living in wonderful new times full of scientific advancements.” Dominique interprets these comments as being a personal attack—scorning her work and pitying her lonely life resulting from prioritizing her career—and discloses her relations with both Pierre and Louise’s husband Rémy. To make matters worse, she cruelly notes Rémy’s excitement to have relations with a powerful and intellectual woman such as herself, Rémy’s boss. Louise learns that Diane also had relations with her husband Rémy for two years, and is shocked.
Since 99.9% of this movie is conversation, and 95% of that is each person bragging about their sexual exploits, one would think that is the focus of the movie, but I think that the focus of this movie is quite different. To say it briefly, it is the confusion people feel when their conventional value systems are collapsing. One was the value system of the Catholic Church, which always had a big influence on Quebec society. The other was Marxism-Leninism, which had captured the hearts of young people of the 1950s and 60s. I think Marxism was a bright guiding principle for those who specialized in studying history. However, it had collapsed by the 80s. As a result, pursuit of individual happiness and narcissism spread during the 80s, as seen with the trends that Dominique mentions of people preferring free love over marriage, and the thought that a family and children are burdensome and snatch away one’s freedom. Also, this sense of liberation produced a new culture in the 80s that included acceptance of interracial as well as gay relations.
This idea seems to have been very novel in 1986, and this movie received high praises. However, it seems that director Denys Arcand grew up with the times, and made a sequel, The Barbarian Invasions, addressing this theme 17 years later. I plan to talk about this movie in a separate entry.