Cheap The Barbarian Invasions (Les Invasions Barbares) (DVD) (Dorothée Berryman, Marie-Josée Croze, Rémy Girard, Stéphane Rousseau) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Barbarian Invasions (Les Invasions Barbares)

Great movie, but hits some hot buttons
A somewhat lovable epicurean womanizer (Rémy Girard as Rémy) is dying of cancer in the hallway of a crowded Quebec hospital. His accomplished millionaire son Sebastian (Stéphane Rousseau) decides that as a fitting last gesture of love for his partially estranged father he will make dad's last days as happy and comfortable as possible. To this end he gets him not just a private room, but a private floor in the basement of the hospital by bribing the right people. He recruits a handful of Rémy's old friends and ex-lovers to come and visit him amid sumptuous servings of food and wine. He pays some ex-students to come and remember their not exactly beloved teacher. And finally he gets a strayed family member Nathalie (Marie-Josee Croze who won the Best Actress award at Cannes for her performance) to procure and administer heroin to Rémy for his pain. <
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>Girard is excellent in the part (although he carries a bit too much weight for a guy about to die of cancer); but what makes this an outstanding film is the award-winning script and direction by Denys Arcand. This is a movie that is witty, honest, funny, sentimental (but not too sentimental), deeply human, candid about life, love, sex, and death, and filled with the kind of sharp, satirical dialogue that all screenwriters wish they had the ability to write. However this movie will offend some people, which accounts for some of the nasty reviews. <
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>First, there is the little matter of heroin. Arcand makes the experience seem like something wonderful and absolutely necessary in a medical sense. But a closer look reveals that this justified use is only for Rémy who is a terminal patient in excruciating pain. Note that Nathalie is a junkie who is ruining her life and knows it. <
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>Second, there is the candor about Rémy's sex life and the many risque jokes including some from an old gay couple that may offend some mainstream viewers. And there is an elitist feel to the intellectual atmosphere of the gathered friends that will not set well in America's (or Canada's) Heartland. And some will be offended by the implication from Sebastian's arrogant and successful behavior that money can buy almost anything and that corruption is the order of the day. And finally there is the matter of euthanasia which some viewers find immoral. <
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>However this is not primarily a political movie. The dialogue that refers to the evolution of some of the characters from socialists to deconstructionists, is kind of like somebody from say Texas recalling that "I used to be long-haired hippy but now I'm clean-shaven evangelical." It's appropriately atmospheric talk from Rémy's academic world. The real story here is about how to live and how to die. Arcand's prescription is to live life to the fullest and to die peacefully in your sleep. This is the civilized way, and that is part of the reason that the film is ironically called "The Barbarian Invasions" (from a line in the film). When it comes to civilization the barbarians are always at the gate. <
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>Of course if we want to get symbolic, the barbarian invasions could include the cancer itself, especially when we consider that Rémy is a history professor who has spent a lifetime reading, writing and lecturing about barbarian invasions. (By the way, whether the 9/11 attacks on the US are barbarian invasions is again beside the point of the movie.) <
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>Bottom line: this film won a slew of international awards including the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2004. It is one of the best films I've seen in a while. I would rate it in my top one hundred of all time.

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Politically Correct Schmaltz
I whole-heartedly agree with David Light's review. This was a stupid, pretentious, totally affected movie. Who really cares about any of these people? The only thing that could have made any of it convincing or believable would be if we learned the son was paying EVERYONE to be there and act so f'ing moved by this useless man's useless death. The scene where he turns over his classroom evoking nothing but presumably well-earned and richly deserved apathy from his students was the only truly genuine moment in the film, as he walks down the hall so easily replaced and immediately forgotten. <
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> Would be more aptly titled "Invasion of the Self-Absorbed Narcissists" If I could give it fewer than zero stars, I would.

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Of life, death, and the fragile ties that bind us
Québécois director Denys Arcand (Jésus de Montréal, Le Déclin de L'Empire Américan) brings his vision of the horrors of Canadian socialized health care (previously criticized in Jésus de Montréal) to our attention as we follow the decline and death of Rémy, previously seen the "The Decline of the American Empire." Rémy, an amorous, very liberal university professor, has advanced terminal liver cancer. There are no treatment options, no privacy (he is crammed into a hospital room with several patients and their families), and no friends or family to comfort him in his final days. His wife begins to call their children and Rémy's old friends and lovers with the news. His past mistresses (many) and intellectual friends soon flock to his new bedside. <
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>Rémy's son Sébastian flies in from London. Father and son do not get along: the father is an intellectual liberal, his son a very uptight, conservative investment banker constantly closing deals via cell phone (in English). Sébastian resorts to large cash bribes to get things done: he bribes hospital administration to let him move his father to the next floor down, currently empty. He bribes the union to refurnish a room. He eventually enlists Natatlie, a heroin junkie, daughter of one of Rémy's lovers, to procure heroin for his father, since morphine doesn't work (Natalie, played by Marie-Josée Croze, won Best Actress at Cannes for her role). <
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>Most of the film is a series of deep discussions and reflections by Rémy and his friends on the nature of life, life's pleasures, what he would have done differently. We see his pain as his health deteriorates, the discomfort of his guests at the spectre of death in their midst. The friends spend a night on the lake wrapped in blankets, telling bawdy stories by the campfire, and then it is time for final goodbyes. Rémy is surrounded by good food, wine, and good company. <
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>Although the majority of the characters are from "The Decline of the American Empire," it is not necessary to have seen that film in order to enjoy this one. This is a touching film on the nature of life and death and the fragile ties that bind us to this life. Barbarian Invasions is rated R for profanity, drug use, and explicit sexual dialogue.