Movie: Les Invasions barbares – The Barbarian Invasions (2003)

Director Denys Arcand, who made The Decline of the American Empire in 1986, made this sequel, The Barbarian Invasions, 17 years later. Unlike how The Decline of the American Empire focused on the school dean Dominique, The Barbarian Invasions focuses on the lives of Rémy and Louise, but the main characters are Rémy and Louise’s son Sébastien and Diane’s daughter Nathalie.

Sébastien, who works vigorously and earns a lot of money as an investor in London, is informed that his father Rémy is sick with cancer, so he and his fiancée Gaëlle return to his hometown Montreal. Since his parents are divorced, Sébastien doesn’t have many memories of living with his father, but upon his mother’s request, he decides to make his father’s last days enjoyable.

This hospital that is ruled by labor unions is very inefficient, and the patients are put into the hallways even though there are many vacant hospital rooms. Utilizing the power of money, Sébastien secures a private room for Rémy; he invites his father’s former coworkers—Diane, Dominique, Pierre, and Claude—and the private room becomes something like a class reunion and a party. Pierre, who despised the idea of being married, is now married with a young wife, is working hard every day to raise a small child, and really looks happy. Claude, a gay man who had uncommitted relationships with many different men, seems to be living a stable life with a partner. Sébastien bribes former students to come to the hospital and tell Rémy how excellent of a teacher he was, which delights Rémy.

Rémy’s cancer is already terminal; it cannot be treated, and Rémy suffers from pain. Sébastien plans to ease the pain with heroin, so Diane introduces him to her daughter Nathalie, who uses heroin. Sébastien hires Nathalie to care for his father by administering him heroin. Through the course of this, Sébastien and Nathalie become attracted to each other; Nathalie decides to stop using heroin and follows through.

Since Rémy approved of the socialization of Quebec and supported the hospital’s labor union, he made up his mind to not complain about the poor medical treatment he got as a result of what he supported, but what gave him peace in his final moments was his son, who succeeded in the capitalist society that Rémy so denied. With death close at hand, he sadly realizes that, even though he tried hard and played around with many things, he didn’t accomplish anything; but he unexpectedly finds that his best achievement is his child, whom he didn’t realize until then was an achievement, and passes away peacefully.

Quebec is unique within Canada. This area was historically a French settlement in the 17th century, but it was occupied by the British army since the Seven Years’ War in the 18th century. USA, independent from Great Britain since 1776, invited Quebec to join the United States since they understood the anti-British sentiment present in Quebec, but Quebec decided to remain in Canada after careful consideration. However, Quebec continued to oppose Canadian federalism after Canada’s independence, and in Quebec, French is the only official language; even now, a little less than half the residents of Quebec insists on independence from Canada.

The socialization of Quebec that progressed since the 1960s and did not rely on violence was called the “Quiet Revolution,” and was founded on nationalism and social democracy (leftist thought); it established anti-Catholic laws, socialistic medical insurance policies, and strong labor standard laws that gave people the right to go on strike. Canada is the model child of the Commonwealth of Nations, and incorporates mild socialism, like Europe, regarding issues such as medical care and working conditions, but Quebec took it one step further.

Since director Denys Arcand was born in 1941, he was greatly influenced by the Quiet Revolution in Quebec. The characters of The Decline of the American Empire and The Barbarian Invasions are generally the same generation as or just slightly younger than director Denys Arcand, since they were in their forties in 1986. In the 1980s, this generation wondered what the doctrine for life would be, since Catholicism and capitalism were both weakening, and Marxism turned out to be disappointing; but capitalism remained healthier than they thought it would, and after all, family—which tends to be overlooked—is the core of our life. This is the point of this movie. All things considered, I am surprised that the six actors are able to star together in both movies. In 17 years, someone could have died, someone may have resigned as an actor, or the negotiation of the performance fee for the actors may not be easy due to the status of the actor having gone way up or down, but everyone seems to be in good spirits and gives a good performance. I think as actors, they recognize the value of this movie, and that director Denys Arcand has the power to attract actors.

日本語→

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.