La decadencia del imperio americano

This film, made in the mid-eighties about yuppies and their lives still holds up 15 years later. It was a contemporary movie then, it is now an impressive period piece. A drama/comedy about four man who are cooking, waiting for their wives who are at the gym and all 8 talk about sex, their lives, sex, fine wine, sex and living in the suburbs! The dialogue is witty and true and never the battle of the sexes has been fought so ferociously and with such verve! You will have a treat remembering how our lives were then. A perfect 10

Each time I see this film, I know how truly wonderful cinema can be at its best. This film, which amazingly is 16 years old (don't know where the time went - frightening!!) is still as fresh, witty and engrossing as it ever was. The story revolves about a group of academics, getting ready to attend a dinner party, the men and women separately(prior to the dinner) discussing with each other their lives loves hopes and fears - sounds dull doesn't it? Well dont you believe it!! Considering its such a dialogue based film, the time flies by due to the superb performances by all involved. Yves Jacques is outstanding as the gay character, whose facial expressions and body language in the film convey what only an actor of the finest calibre could. Louise Portal as the unattached woman longing for a meaningful relationship is also worth a mention amongst the cast. I enjoyed this film so much, that I turned my rusty 'o' level French into fluency so that I could appreciate other French language movies fully, prompted my first visit of several to Montreal where once I actually, believe it or not, bumped into Remy Girard (one of the actors) in the street and started a lasting love of non-English speaking /and or art house movies when previously I had only watched popular box office. I can't guarantee you will love this movie as much as I do, but if you approach it with an open mind, I am sure that you will thoroughly enjoy it. By the way, its about time this movie was released on DVD, especially when you consider some of the junk which has!!!

The title sounds like as if it comes from Ancient Rome, and in a very galvanized way, this witty-sarcastic tragicomedy from Canada has something to do with it: The easier is life, the looser are the dos. And that is why during a country house weekend stay all the participating intellectual bourgeois charmers, who usually teach history and write books, waffle about sex, sex and sex, while they kick at the fitness center (the women) or prepare a fish plate in the kitchen (the men).

With perfidious lust Denys Arcand contra-dots male and female sex fantasies. When you listen to the gent club between stove and sink, your ears seem to fall off. When you hear the rants of the lady squad between sauna and bodybuilding, the ears of the gents ought to fall off. However, after the gender cliques unite at the table for dinner, a more complicated inner life becomes visible beneath all these ludicrous orgasm rants from before. Friends came together here who are kind to, who lie to, who hurt each other. Bitterness and resignation, but also safety and tolerance remain in the autumn dawn. And after all, it's a film of a verbally disarming sexual humour, adorably acted and with gentle ironies of absurd experiences of life: The human being is multifaceted. Simple are only theories.

Another outstanding work from Denys Arcand! You definitely have to have a taste for dialogue-driven stuff for this, but if you have the patience you will be rewarded. In the first 20 minutes I thought it might be just another analysis of the male-female relationship dynamic. But it surprised me with a few twists and of course some outstanding acting. I can't believe this is the same Remy Girard from the Les Boys movies. BTW, this film IS available on DVD, as are many other Quebec films featured on IMDB, but not listed as available on DVD. You can usually find them at www.archambault.ca or better yet, travel to Montreal and go to the store on St. Catherine and Berri.

I never had a good reason to add a review to the existing ones on IMDb, but this time I was appalled by the lack of critical thinking displayed by the majority of the reviewers.

This movie is *not* about sex, *not* about the sexual lives of the characters, and *not* about the battle of the sexes. As the title explicitly states, It is about the moral decline of a society, which in this particular case is made manifest through the over- indulging of the main characters on their sexual life and on their own personal gratification, at the expenses of their families, friends, and social group at large. This line of thought is made clear at the beginning of the movie. First, we see the main character – Remy – explaining the role of numbers in history, and claiming there is no place for morality in history, and thus drawing a line between personal and public history.

We then see Diane – one of the main characters – interviewing Dominique – the chairperson of the History department – who has just written a book entitled "Changing Concepts of Happiness". She draws a parallel between the American society at large/Empire and the Roman Empire, arguing that the search for personal happiness is associated with the decline and fall of a society. When people are too concerned with seeking quick gratification of their appetites while ignoring their responsibilities within family and larger social group, society is doomed to collapse.

And what we learn from the dialogues and the interactions that follow proves just that. What we see is that the lives of these so-called intellectuals are only marginally interested in history and the intellect. Their lives are centred around their never ending sex-hunt, and around the lies they consciously tell in order to hide the things that even according to their moral standards are considered rather unacceptable. Their relationships are fundamentally shallow and deceptive, and towards the end of the movie the whole sand castle comes crumbling down, and all is left is a huge nothingness, their nihilism, their lack of moral values and ideals. And so the story comes full circle while the characters sit together and listen to Dominique's interview, which reiterates the theme of decay, and is also the catalyst that will make the castle crumble down.

The dialogues are absolutely brilliant, and it is perhaps easy to be absorbed and forget about the broader theme, and when the movie ends you are left with a sense of desolation, even desperation, the same feelings that permeate the character's lives.