INDEPTH: TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL
Sequel surprise
CBC News Online | September 4, 2003
We all agree sequels suck, right? We all agree the proliferation of sequels is a bad thing, lamentable, a sign of cultural decline. Don't we? So what the heck is a sequel doing kicking off the Toronto International Film Festival?
Thursday evening's gala is Les invasions barbares (or, as it's known in English, The Barbarian Invasions). It's the latest film from Quebec director Denys Arcand and the follow-up to The Decline of the American Empire, which opened the 1986 edition of the festival.
Gala Presentations is the program for films that get the festival's full red-carpet treatment. And opening night is usually reserved for a Canadian production the organizers really want to get behind. So why a sequel?
To be fair, Arcand doesn't want people to think of The Barbarian Invasions as a sequel. It's not a sequel, the party line goes, it just features the same actors playing the same characters several years down the road. (Why that's not a sequel is anyone's guess.)
Maybe it's a question of marketing. The logic might go something like this: People are less likely to see a film from Quebec because they aren't familiar with the original.
If that's the case, that's too bad. Arcand and his people should have had more confidence in this film's pedigree. In fact, they should have had even more confidence than that because this is a very strong piece. How strong? It's a safe bet viewers who didn't see the first film will be inspired to go to the neighbourhood video store in search of an old copy of Decline.
Which isn't to say it's the same kind of story. Where Decline was an ensemble piece in the same mould as The Big Chill, Invasions is mostly about a single relationship: the one between dying libertine Rémy (Rémy Girard) and his son, Sébastien (Stéphane Rousseau). Rémy's fellow Quiet Revolutionaries do return, but Arcand uses them mainly to give context to Rémy's reflections.
At the heart of the story is a clash of cultures. The socialist father spits venom at the millionaire son because the young man would rather play video games than read.
"I voted for medicare, I'll accept the consequences," Rémy says when his son tries to move him from the decaying Montreal hospital where he's confined. Sébastien answers with his motto - "Money's no problem" - then sets about bribing health-care officials and union leaders alike to get the best care. (Look for the director in a cameo as a union heavy.)
The backdrop for the final act is Quebec's autumnal cottage country. The friends talk about all the important things in life – film, politics, oral sex – as Rémy's last days approach. Overhead, a flock of Canada geese flies south, while Rémy explains that for a time in his life Karen Kain was the lover of his dreams. These are allusions that prove Arcand understands this country.
Even better, the director never lingers too long on one scene. There's a lot going on in this film, but Arcand resists the temptation to pack too much into any given moment. What we have left at the end is one great big contradiction: in one scene, Rémy laments that he wasted his life on petty trysts; but then, several scenes later, he says the best thing about living was the women.
It's no wonder Les invasions barbares stirred up a lot of buzz when it debuted.
Of course, there's a chance Arcand's hesitation to call Invasions a sequel is a cultural thing. It's possible that sequels are thought of differently outside the English-speaking world.
Take something like Polish director Krysztof Kieslowski's Blue, White and Red films. They're part of the same trilogy, but no one made a big deal of them being sequels when they came out in the early 1990s.
And look at Robert Rodriguez's Desperado, his follow-up to the Mexploitation flick El Mariachi. Was Desperado a sequel? Was it a remake? It looked like a bit of both.
Or maybe, just maybe, Arcand knows what he has on his hands. Maybe he's astute enough to be worried that Les invasions barbares is so strong, it will eclipse the reputation of the film that spawned it.
Dan Brown will be attending the Toronto International Film Festival for its entirety, from Sept. 4 to 13. Throughout the 9-day festival he will bring you reports on the latest Canadian films. Read his dispatches and follow his comments by clicking on the links.
^TOP
|
|
 |
 MENU |
|
|
| ABOUT DAN BROWN: |
|
Dan Brown is the site's senior arts editor/reporter. Before joining us he was a lineup editor and senior writer for Newsworld International. Dan helped to launch the National Post's Arts & Life section, where he was a columnist and reporter. A former editorial writer, copy editor and journalism instructor, Dan has degrees from three universities.
|
|
| FROM CBC ARCHIVES: |
|
|
| MORE: |
|
|
|
