O Reino da Beleza

Love the work of Arcand and this effort is among his best. Visually stunning cinematography and strong acting throughout, in particular a strong performance turned in by Melanie Merkosky. Totally an enjoyable flic, two thumbs up as they used to say when critics mattered.

I intend to see this film again, to follow its action and dialog (with subtitles) more closely than I could at the cinema house, if and when it comes out on DVD. That DVD incarnation of this film is quite likely, given the fame and popularity of Denis Arcand's films; this one is still in the theaters here in Québec, director Denis Arcand's home province. The movie is essentially a pastoral, by turns urban, by turns rural pastoral, in the life of a promising young male architect. There are lots of sports that feature in the life that he and his woman, the latter a gym teacher, anyway, lead. She has a lesbian dalliance, and he takes up with a woman from Toronto (who later in the film comes to take a position in Quebec City).

Do not let all that yuppie quality and comfort of lifestyle deter you. Éric Bruneau is a stunningly handsome, slender but very appealingly and tautly muscled young man (with a nice face, too). Women and gay men will "flip" at his numerous scenes shirtless and buck-nakedly nude. It is worth seeing the film if only to gawk at this extraordinarily beautiful young actor; there even are moments, fleeting ones, admittedly, of full frontal nudity. The women are attractive, too. I hope eventually to have a better idea of what the various goings-on really add up to. (I am very fluent in French, having lived and worked in Québec for many years, but my hearing is beginning to deteriorate as I age, so subtitles help more and more. The magnificent Québec scenery, too, is gorgeous and very skillfully filmed.

I saw this a couple of hours ago and am thinking about it now. First, it left me wanting to visit Quebec City, especially during the winter. The city and its surrounding countryside looked beautiful. Some of the homes in the film, which after all is about architects, are stunning. But mainly it's the story about one ambitious young architect who actually says that love is not the be all and end all in life. He lives this philosophy in that he loves more than one woman at once and chooses not to be faithful.

The ending of the film was sort of odd in that it just happened, without showing how, and we the viewers have to assume what happened. In that assumption is confirmation of the film's meaning, i.e., Luc had to pursue his lust/love of the moment, though that didn't mean that he no longer "loved" the previous ones. He just couldn't stay with them for he needs the new and novel. He is described as ambitious with regard to his architecture, and I'd say he is with his loves, too, in that he seems to keep trying for someone new and more beautiful.

Though Luc is portrayed as gentle in his personality, and subtle, the truth is he's a selfish macho person who constantly plays sports - six different ones in the film - not including hunting, in which he shoots geese, and can't help but fall in love and get involved with beautiful women. And, he appears happy, despite some intimation of guilt; he gets over it pretty well. He is the true powerful, white male, enjoying the best that life has to offer.

So much to like about this movie - if you can appreciate the content rather than what's missing. Excellent acting, beautiful scenery, interesting storyline. Could be 3 hours long and go into more detail. Leaves you to imagine what was really happening in the marriage and how the lives of the three main characters went forward. One of those movies where you want more - more details, more of what led to the events that transpired. I feel the writer, director, or both we're allowing you to feel the story rather than explain it. To allow you to experience the emotion that each of the main characters were feeling.

Most critics have scorned at this movie for not being the usual politically, critically engaged Denys Arcand movie. Arcand started by exposing the many ills of a corrupt and dominant liberal (in the economic sense) society, used a lot of sarcasm in later movies to depict the ills of large state bureaucracies. This movie makes no exception as he stages architecture juries and again Quebec's health system. I do not agree with some of his reductionist statements, but I do love all of his movies for being pure art. "Le règne de la beauté" is by far his most achieved artistic statement, whereas he brings out the beauty of all the characters,making them so endearing, and of course showing the best sceneries across the four seasons in the province he truly loves.