About the Book:

The release of Le Déclin de l’empire américain (The Decline of the American Empire) in 1986 marked a major turning point in Quebec cinema. It was the first Québécois film that enjoyed huge critical and commercial success at home and abroad. Denys Arcand‘s tragicomedy about eight intellectuals gathered around a dinner table relating sexy anecdotes became the top-grossing film of all time in Quebec and was the first Canadian feature to be nominated for an Oscar in the foreign-language category. Seventeen years later, Arcand won an Academy Award for the sequel, Les Invasions barbares (The Barbarian Invasions), where the amusing insouciance of the thirty-somethings talking dirty in Le Déclin is replaced by a sense of moral responsibility and serene resignation.

In this engrossing study, André Loiselle presents the first in-depth analysis of both films within the context of Québec culture. Through close readings and concise cultural analysis of two of the most important films in the history of Québec cinema, Loiselle demonstrates the ways in which Arcand’s work represents a snapshot of the evolution of the French Canadian film industry since 1980. The companion films trace the decline of Québec’s national dream and the Québécois’s attempts to cling to their identity against the forces of barbaric globalization.

Denys Arcand’s Le Déclin de l’empire américain and Les Invasions barbares is essential reading for cinephiles, film critics, and anyone with an interest in cultural studies and Canadian and Québec history.

About the Author:

André Loiselle is Director of the School of Canadian Studies at Carleton University where he also teaches film studies.