Comedies involving Denys Arcand

Denys Arcand was credited as writer, director and actor in the following film.
At the time, he would have been about 66 years old.
The Age of Ignorance (a.k.a Days of Darkness) (L'Age des Tenebres)
      2007 | Canada | Laughs: 4.0 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 6.9
      wikipedia | who was involved?

This is a terrific movie about a civil servant who escapes the crushing pressures of modern decay by constructing grandiose, colorful daydreams. It's funny and has its shares of chuckles, but the humor is on the level of piece of chocolate that slowly melts in the mouth—not of explosive laughter. I never much liked The Decline of the American Empire by the same director, while I loved his Barbarian Invasions. The third installment in that loose trilogy is not a letdown. (Last viewed: July 2014)

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Denys Arcand was credited as writer and director in the following film.
At the time, he would have been about 45 years old.
The Decline of the American Empire (Le Déclin de l'Empire Americain)
      1986 | Canada | Laughs: 2.5 (Don't Bother) | imdb: 7.2
      wikipedia | who was involved?

I didn't much like this movie when it came out nearly thirty years ago. It has aged very well, because I still don't like it today. Although I'm a big fan of Denys Arcand's later work The Barbarian Invasions, this earlier film, which features many of the same characters, does nothing for me apart from the French-Canadian accent, always a delight on the ears.

The whole movie features men and women engrossed in conversation about their sexual adventures. For some reason, I have never been drawn to this kind of conversation. To make matters worse, most of the characters (who gravitate around academia) are unbearably pedantic. The film's original success may have been caused by the novel openness with which the characters discussed their love live. Nowadays, that is hardly original, and there is no good reason to revisit this old bore. (Last viewed: May 1987 March 2014)

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Denys Arcand was credited as writer and director in the following film.
At the time, he would have been about 77 years old.
The Fall of the American Empire (La chute de l'empire américain)
      2018 | Canada | Laughs: 0.8 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 6.8
      wikipedia | who was involved?

A philosophy graduate working as a delivery man witnesses a robbery gone awry and appropriates the loot. In his efforts to protect his fortune from gangsters and the police, he meets a series of interesting characters.

This is a light-hearted movie rather than a laugh-out-loud comedy. I found it highly enjoyable as well as strangely ethical, but I have no formal training in that discipline, so what would I know?

Denys Arcand has shot his share of mediocre movies, but this is not one of them. A worthy successor to The Barbarian Invasions.

(Last viewed: March 2020)

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