A comedy about sex, friendship, and all other things that invade our lives.
Overview
In this belated sequel to 'The Decline of the American Empire', middle-aged Montreal college professor, Remy, learns that he is dying of liver cancer. His ex-wife, Louise, asks their estranged son, Sebastian, a successful businessman living in London, to come home. Sebastian makes the impossible happen, using his contacts and disrupting the Canadian healthcare system in every way possible to help his father fight his terminal illness to the bitter end, while reuniting some of Remy's old friends, including Pierre, Alain, Dominique, Diane, and Claude, who return to see their friend before he passes on.
A sharp, bittersweet dramedy about mortality, memory, and the messy obligations of family, with enough wit and political bite to keep it from becoming purely somber. It works best if you like talky, idea-driven films that mix emotional honesty with satire.
Best for
viewers who like intelligent dialogue-driven dramas
fans of bittersweet family reconciliation stories
people interested in social satire and generational conflict
audiences comfortable with melancholy humor and mortality themes
Skip if
you want a fast-moving plot or heavy action
you dislike talky, essay-like films
you prefer sentimentality over irony
you are looking for a purely uplifting illness drama
Overview
Denys Arcand turns a terminal illness premise into something more expansive: a reckoning with a life spent chasing pleasure, status, and ideas, and the people left to sort through the wreckage. The film is funny in a dry, cutting way, but its real strength is how it lets regret, tenderness, and resentment coexist without smoothing them over.
Worth noting
What makes it linger is the balance between private and public life. Hospital bureaucracy, class privilege, old friendships, and the failures of a generation all fold into one intimate family story. The result feels both sharply observed and emotionally lived-in, even when the film leans heavily on speeches and philosophical banter.
Bottom line
It is less outrageous than its predecessor, but more focused and humane. If you appreciate films that use conversation as drama and treat death as a lens for examining a whole society, this is a rewarding watch.
Top Letterboxd reviews
russman (3.5★) · 149 likes
A Canadian going to the United States for healthcare reasons? That must be a first.
shahbakht (3.5★) · 40 likes
While a bit softer and tender than its predecessor, The Decline of the American Empire, this is no less interesting, thought-provoking, sometimes very funny, enormously nostalgic and witty.
It has its fair share of sexual stories, the promise of a life lived fully and the pangs of it passing by so quickly. The relationships we destroy in our bid to conquer life and get the most out of it. It really seemed to be filled with questions I have (and… more
Julian (Seeking Film) (3.5★) · 37 likes
With The Decline of the American Empire, Denys Arcand became the first Canadian director to have a film nominated for the Oscar for Best International Feature. It only seems fitting, then, that the film’s sequel, The Barbarian Invasions, would go on to be the first (and so far, only) Canadian film to win the award. Whatever nostalgia is held for Arcand’s seminal sex comedy—of which there appears to be very little in this, the year of our lord 2023—probably contributed… more With The Decline of the American Empire, Denys Arcand became the first Canadian director to have a film nominated for the Oscar for Best International Feature. It only seems fitting, then, that the film’s sequel, The Barbarian Invasions, would go on to be the first (and so far, only) Canadian film to win the award. Whatever nostalgia is held for Arcand’s seminal sex comedy—of which there appears to be very little in this, the year of our lord 2023—probably contributed… more
Rafael "Mister Movie" Jovine (3.5★) · 31 likes
A college professor whose at the cliff of dying try to make amends with everyone on his life.
So to refresh everyone's mind, a few months back I get to review "The Decline Of The American Empire," a sex "comedy" about a group of old people just talking about sex for almost two hours. My rating for that movie, as you may expect, was bad. I still kinda hate it, and find it completely boring.
However, this belated sequel was… more
Jaime Grijalba (2.5★) · 28 likes
Les invasions barbares (2003)
5/10
This is like a "smart 16-year old" idea of what an "adult art movie" is. Filled with references to sex, jerking off and blowjobs (but without the actual presence of a bare breast, a penis or anything remotely close to a sexual act, God Forbid we sink into that immaturity), as well as name-dropping various people from history of around the world, as well as writers and philosophers (they even make time to mention Solzhenytsin… more