Thursday, January 10, 2008

"The Barbarian Invasions" (Language - French) (2003) - Movie Classics

I want to die like Rémy (Rémy Girard) in the French Canadian film “The Barbarian Invasions”, one of the life altering films one should never miss. And when the people who say those lines in the film are called for dining (extra features of the DVD), I want to dine with them, I want to listen to them, I want to tell about myself openly without any fence insecurity and not be haunted by judgmental eyes, I want to be myself. When we are done with the film and I stress to watch the dining sessions with the actors/actresses, we remain ourselves with our confusions, beliefs, sins, happiness and serenity.

It’s the one another bitter returning son in a movie, which is Sébastien (Stéphane Rousseau) to visit his father dying of terminal cancer, Rémy. They do not talk much. He despises his father for abandoning him and his mother along with a sister. Rémy despises him for not being the bookish and philosophical son, he wanted. He is the person who worships women and from the peace love era of the 60s. The age of liberalism to its extreme stretch and the revelries in heaven which they thought goes on for eternity. Time, the gifted betrayer has news for them, old age. He is in the brink of his life and still egotistical, still womanizing and yet clueless. But clueless is not bad and coming to terms with relationships are the part to coming to terms with death, and more than that with themselves.

Sébastien is called by his mother Louise (Dorothée Berryman), Rémy‘s ex-wife. He comes flooded with cash from London. With eventual altercation with his dad, he wants to return back with his fiancé Gaëlle (Marina Hands), but Louise reminds him of the days of sleepless nights Rémy had for him. We have heard many actors saying those in very many lines in numerous movies and when Louise tells those, it is the simplicity of the obvious. He slaps money to every nook and corner to get the luxurious facility in a poorly systemized health care system in the hospital. He calls his dad’s friends, invites them over and reunites them for one last time, at least for Rémy. He buys heroine through Nathalie (Marie-Josée Croze) daughter of one of his dad’s friends/mistresses, Diane (Louise Portal). There appears a tension of an unknown past in between them, but she has turned into a junkie and he has turned into the defined human of the 21st century.

Director/Writer Denys Arcand’s second venture in his trilogy (First being “The Decline of the American Empire” and third being “Days of Darkness”, both of which will be the next things to see), has a vision of his thoughts so lucid and eloquent to put in these people’s mouths. The film has its terms of irritability but those are the instruments of modernization, generation of economics and the absence of admiration over life. We do not know the real problems Rémy’s friends have, but they are the most accommodative and understanding people any one can be acquainted upon. They are believable because of the situation. Their friend is dying and more or less, it is the reflection of their lives ending too or at least the beginning of the end. Arcand does not use abundance of drama but the striking force of value system and liberation. He uses one’s own evaluation of life and it would be astonishing to see Rémy thinking about it as he is the character who has lived his life to fullest. But it is the grip of the unknown. “Embrace the mystery” says one character who believes in god to Rémy. How easy it would be if we practice that?

Existence, art and love were in limitless quantity during the times of 60s as they say. Philosophies explored, free love/sex and complete surrender to the hallucinations represents those three. It is a world of new revolutions as humans and it was embraced to unbelievable strengths, it exceeded and succumbed to its own uncontrollable growth. Now is the era of running towards perfect life. An era of straight lined path of money, power and the mirage word to be attained in life, settle. Rémy and Sébastien represent those two generations, and find truce. Not giving up their beliefs but respecting it.

Rémy has regrets. He believes himself as a failure not to leave behind a legacy as he describes. The fear of being unnoticed even when they are not going to be there is the power of death. What will become of us when something leaves from us and evaporates into the void of mystical questions? Will it be shine of light or wrath of darkness? Will it be nothing at all? The film is not the answers for those or not even questions it. It induces those questions. We live our life as we wish and become some one as we wish and control it. Rémy does that. He is no saint nor is he the evil sinner. He is the slice of the millions getting up in the morning to see the shine of light, called life.

6 comments:

Howard Roark said...

>> Philosophies explored, free love/sex and complete surrender to the hallucinations represents those three <<

The present day India is going thro' this same path now. And as the failure of it in the 60's for the US, it will fail miserably here as well. Of all the things that US represent, Indians seem to pick up all the wrong things to ape. Luckily, the cultural roots of India are stronger than for the US and hence we will recover faster from that disaster.

Cheers,
Nagesh.

mathi said...

Nagesh,
You have NOW Stirred the hornet's nest :) .IMHO, 60's had a reason for all that.There was an urgency in men and women to explore the forces behind the loss of millions of lives in two world wars.Lives were lost in the name of abstract forces - Patriotism,National fervor and what not.
It would be in my opinion too shallow to compare the west of 60's to current scene in India.I would say the west of 60's was so much opposite to what India goes through now.The 60's identified the blind consumerism and the emptiness of "The American Dream".Hallucinogenic drugs were rampant but then most of them weren't banned then.The contribution to arts - literature,cinema - in the 60's was immensely profound.Sartre,Ken Kessey,Alan Ginsberg,Jack Kerouac the list is endless.The morality factor crept in when the govt wanted to get into moral policing.Drugs were banned, hippies were termed anti social.I don't see them by any means more anti social than a government which was funding toppling of governments in Latin America.
I wouldn't term them a failure as you had specified they were just misfits in a society whose morals were(are!) sufficiently ambiguous, hypo critic and merely a diktat arising out of the tyranny of the majority.
Basically my point is the 60's did not represent a moral or a cultural deterioration.It was termed so by the same abstract forces that it shunned away from.

Ashok said...

I have to agree upon Mathi's point on this because "cultural roots" is such a free lanced word to "morally" set things up. An individual supposedly says he understands certain principles the society condemns and may be not follow it but respects it and says its not for me is taken to be the follower of it too. And those are also "cultural blaming". Culture is an evolving process. I remember seeing a Kamal's interview in the midst of "Virumandi", he puts it nicely. Aravind showed me that video, I hope he sends me the link. I believe US evolved their culture of manners (this does not account wars or anything) in the coming generation. It will be passed on to next and so on. It is sad that the country did not take the good things from that era, in the sense openness and peace. What happens in India as said by Mathi is no beat generation or hippie culture. In the 60s no one definitely cared about career or any other thing. I am sure in India the people who you say to fall in to this category will definitely be aware of the economic consequences they will be facing. To much I have seen, it appears fake. Every belief should be true and appreciate the existence of others. The 60s era people, they just wanted to explore the limits and be within themselves among those who respected it. You can label moral terms towards it, but end of day its demise is the economic and religious wave accumulated by the majority. True, in India most of the nice things from US is not taken and I would not compare the 60s to the taken concepts from US. They were not fake and truly they had a strong belief of changing something, living their life and for once appreciate the existence of one another. True it had its issues, but I would believe (assume) it did not come from within.

Howard Roark said...

(Why is it that it is always me who ends up stirring the hornet's nest?!?!? :-) )

Mathi,
One of the primary reasons for the 60's being that way is the economic growth that US experienced during that period. Combined with the technological growth that they had, they had all the resources to push themselves into realms unknown and explore things like sex, drugs & their personal philosophies. India is presently hatching the egg called 'Economic Independence'. The creature that tumbles out of this egg will not be much different from what the US went through is what I humbly feel. The point about moral policing is something highly debatable.

The Indian contribution to art can be expected to grow as well. The present day Tamil cinema can be a taken as a sample of the things to come in the next few yrs.

I termed it as a failure for its inability to sustain itself. There are so many aspects in a society that have survived the onslaught of bad govt rules. The shallowness of the whole thing and the perception of freedom that the ppl felt during this time might have been the main contributing factors than any other thing for its failure.

It was never a moral or a cultural deterioration. It was merely a temporary state of things in a BIG state machine kind of thing. Sustenance forever in that state would have been impossible.

Ashok,
When I talk about the cultural roots, it is not about Thirumavalavan or Karunanidhi kind of moral policing. It is more about the strong philosophical base on which our cultures are built. The strength of this base would act as an insulation for the fall that can be expected.

There will come a hollow feeling when U have pushed & explored things to its maximum limit. Not many ppl will know what they should do once they reach this point. The search for meaning in our lifes would not be answered by exploring external things to the maximum.

Peace.
Nagesh.

Barath said...

I remember the spate of comments but never thought it was for "Barbarian Invasions"! An awesome movie and truly enjoyed the crux of it though I am against any form of killing. There is such a honesty in the characters and what they speak that it evokes a shock to us but slowly recedes as we watch. Nice review boss!

Ashok said...

Thanks Boss! Glad you watched this film ! Its been such a long time since I read these comments :-). Interesting to read it back. Let me know when you finish watching "Man on the Train" my top 5 best films of all time!