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''The Barbarian Invasions'' (french: Les Invasions barbares) is a 2003 Canadian-French
sex comedy Sex comedy, erotic comedy or more broadly sexual comedy is a genre in which comedy is motivated by sexual situations and love affairs. Although "sex comedy" is primarily a description of dramatic forms such as theatre and film, literary works such ...
-
drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...
written and directed by
Denys Arcand Georges-Henri Denys Arcand (; born June 25, 1941) is a French Canadian film director, screenwriter and producer. His film ''The Barbarian Invasions'' won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2004. His films have also been nominated three f ...
and starring
Rémy Girard Rémy Girard (born August 10, 1950) is a Canadian actor and former television host from Montreal, Quebec. Acting career Girard played the role of Rémy, the main character, who is dying of terminal cancer, in the Canadian film ''The Barbarian In ...
, Stéphane Rousseau and
Marie-Josée Croze Marie-Josée Croze (; born February 23, 1970) is a Canadian actress. She also holds French citizenship, which she obtained in December 2012. Early life Croze was born in Montreal, Quebec, was adopted, and grew up in Longueuil with four other ch ...
. The film is a sequel to Arcand's 1986 film ''
The Decline of the American Empire ''The Decline of the American Empire'' (french: Le Déclin de l'empire Américain) is a 1986 Canadian sex comedy- drama film directed by Denys Arcand and starring Rémy Girard, Pierre Curzi and Dorothée Berryman. The film follows a group of ...
'', continuing the story of the character Rémy, a womanizing history professor now terminally ill with cancer. The sequel was a result of Arcand's longtime desire to make a film about a character close to death, also incorporating a response to the
September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...
of 2001. It was produced by companies from both Canada and France, and shot mainly in
Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...
, also employing a former hospital and property near
Lake Memphremagog Lake Memphremagog (; french: Lac Memphrémagog) is a fresh water glacial lake located between Newport, Vermont, United States and Magog, Quebec, Canada. The lake spans both Quebec and Vermont, but is mostly in Quebec. Most of the watershed that ...
. The film received a positive response from critics and became one of Arcand's biggest financial successes. It was the first Canadian film to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, at the
76th Academy Awards The 76th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2003 and took place on February 29, 2004, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30  ...
in 2004. It won awards at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, six
Genie Awards The Genie Awards were given out annually by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to recognize the best of Canadian cinema from 1980–2012. They succeeded the Canadian Film Awards (1949–1978; also known as the "Etrog Awards," for scul ...
, including Best Motion Picture, and three César Awards, including Best Film. ''The Barbarian Invasions'' was followed by the thematically related '' Days of Darkness'' in 2007 and '' The Fall of the American Empire'' in 2018.


Plot

Seventeen years after the events of ''
The Decline of the American Empire ''The Decline of the American Empire'' (french: Le Déclin de l'empire Américain) is a 1986 Canadian sex comedy- drama film directed by Denys Arcand and starring Rémy Girard, Pierre Curzi and Dorothée Berryman. The film follows a group of ...
'', Sébastien is enjoying a successful career in quantitative finance in
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
when he receives a call from his mother, Louise, that his father and Louise's ex-husband Rémy is terminally ill with cancer. Sébastien is not enthused about seeing Rémy, whom he blames for breaking up the family with his many adulteries. Rémy and his friends of the older generation are still largely
social-democrats Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote s ...
and proponents of Quebec nationalism, positions seeming somewhat anachronistic long after the
Quiet Revolution The Quiet Revolution (french: Révolution tranquille) was a period of intense socio-political and socio-cultural change in French Canada which started in Quebec after the election of 1960, characterized by the effective secularization of govern ...
of the 1960s. Rémy does not like Sébastien's career, lack of reading or fondness for video games. The father and son travel to the
U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...
of
Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...
to briefly receive medical care before returning to the overcrowded and disorganized Quebec hospital. Sébastien attempts to bribe hospital administration for better care, and calls Rémy's old friends about a possible visit. Upon hearing heroin is "800%" more effective than morphine, he tracks some down for Rémy from a drug addict, Nathalie. Meanwhile, Rémy is reunited with his friends, including Pierre, Dominique, Claude and Diane, Nathalie's mother, and they share a conversation on their old sex drive and the gradual decline of their vitality. Diane is concerned for Nathalie, while Rémy, a history professor, lectures the hospital chaplain Constance on the relative peace of the 20th century compared to past centuries. At the same time, another scholar describes the
September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...
as historically small except as a possible beginning of modern barbarian invasions. After Rémy and his friends retreat to the countryside, they speak of their devotion to constantly evolving -isms. Rémy dies in the company of his friends and Sébastien, after a heroin injection from Nathalie, whom Rémy calls his guardian angel.


Cast


Production


Development

Denys Arcand Georges-Henri Denys Arcand (; born June 25, 1941) is a French Canadian film director, screenwriter and producer. His film ''The Barbarian Invasions'' won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2004. His films have also been nominated three f ...
, who wrote and directed the successful French Canadian film ''
The Decline of the American Empire ''The Decline of the American Empire'' (french: Le Déclin de l'empire Américain) is a 1986 Canadian sex comedy- drama film directed by Denys Arcand and starring Rémy Girard, Pierre Curzi and Dorothée Berryman. The film follows a group of ...
'' (1986), developed the idea of returning to the characters years later due to a fascination with death and an idea of having a character who is expecting to die. Part of his interest in the subject matter related to both of his parents dying of cancer. He had tried to write screenplays about non-''Decline'' characters going to die for 20 years prior to ''The Barbarian Invasions'', originally pitching the idea to the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...
but having difficulty with the subject matter being overly sentimental. He finally decided to try the story with characters from ''The Decline of the American Empire'' because of his fondness for its cast members. There are also characters from Arcand's 1989 film ''
Jesus of Montreal ''Jesus of Montreal'' (french: Jésus de Montréal) is a 1989 French Canadian comedy-drama film written and directed by Denys Arcand, and starring Lothaire Bluteau, Catherine Wilkening and Johanne-Marie Tremblay. The film tells the story of a g ...
'' in the film. The
September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...
of 2001 occurred when Arcand was nearly finished his screenplay, and gave new impetus to Arcand's ideas of "the decline of the American Empire." Arcand believed the attack represented the first of what would be many foreign attacks on the U.S. Arcand also referred to himself as "post -isms", and incorporated this discussion into the film. Another statement he tried to make with his film was that heroin could be legalized for terminally ill patients in Canada, claiming it already is in England. Author Susan C. Boyd wrote that, despite what the film portrays, heroin has been legal in Canadian palliative care since 1984. To research how his character would find heroin, Arcand contacted the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...
and met with them in an interrogation room, resembling the one in the final film. He claimed the RCMP gave him the cellphone number of a Montreal detective, and when he called it, he heard shouting from a police raid on the
Hells Angels The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) is a worldwide outlaw motorcycle club whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporati ...
, which resulted in the arrest of
Maurice Boucher Maurice Boucher (21 June 1953 – 10 July 2022) was a Canadian gangster, convicted murderer, reputed drug trafficker, and outlaw biker—once president of the Hells Angels' Quebec Nomads chapter. Boucher led Montreal's Hells Angels against the ...
. The film was produced by both Canadian and French companies, including Telefilm Canada, Société Radio-Canada and
Canal+ Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flo ...
. The budget was $6 million.


Casting

The cast members from the previous film, including Dorothee Berryman, Louise Portal,
Dominique Michel Dominique Michel, OC, CQ (born ''Aimée Sylvestre''; September 24, 1932 in Sorel-Tracy, Quebec) is a Quebec comedian, actress, singer and artist. Biography She began her career in cabarets performing songs written by Raymond Lévesque and sub ...
, Pierre Curzi and
Yves Jacques Yves Jacques OC (born 10 May 1956) is a Canadian film, television and stage actor.Yves Jacques ...
, were easy to secure for the sequel. New to the cast was
Marie-Josée Croze Marie-Josée Croze (; born February 23, 1970) is a Canadian actress. She also holds French citizenship, which she obtained in December 2012. Early life Croze was born in Montreal, Quebec, was adopted, and grew up in Longueuil with four other ch ...
, who was selected by Arcand after starring in the Canadian films ''
Maelstrom Maelstrom may refer to: * Maelstrom (whirlpool), a powerful whirlpool ** originally the Moskstraumen in English Amusement rides * Maelstrom (ride), a former log flume dark ride attraction in the Epcot theme park at Walt Disney World Resort ...
'' (2000) and '' Ararat'' (2002). She found Arcand allowed her freedom in how she interpreted her role. In ''
The Decline of the American Empire ''The Decline of the American Empire'' (french: Le Déclin de l'empire Américain) is a 1986 Canadian sex comedy- drama film directed by Denys Arcand and starring Rémy Girard, Pierre Curzi and Dorothée Berryman. The film follows a group of ...
'', Croze's character Nathalie is played by
child actress The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting on stage or in movies or television. An adult who began their acting career as a child may also be called a child actor, or a "former child actor". Closely associated ...
Ariane Frédérique. Stéphane Rousseau, better known in Quebec as a stand-up comedian than an actor, was cast as Sébastien, after Dominique Michel urged Arcand to allow Rousseau to audition. Arcand explained he felt Rousseau had the "authority" the other actors who auditioned did not, though Rousseau was surprised to get the part as he felt his character was colder and more of an intellectual than he was. Rousseau's mother had died of cancer when he was a child, and he had fought with his father, later incorporating that experience into his performance.


Filming

The film was shot over 50 days, beginning in September 2002 and finishing in November. The bulk of the film was shot in Montreal, with some scenes filmed in London. Footage from the
World Trade Center World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...
attack shot by a Quebec architect and acquired by
Radio-Canada The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...
was also used. For the hospital scenes, the cast and crew employed Lachine General Hospital, an unused former hospital in
Lachine, Quebec Lachine () is a borough (''arrondissement'') within the city of Montreal on the Island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It was an autonomous city until the municipal mergers in 2002. History Lachine, apparently from the French term ' ...
. Cinematographer
Guy Dufaux Guy Dufaux (; born July 18, 1943, in Lille, France) is a French-born Canadian cinematographer. The majority of his works have been in Canadian cinema; he immigrated to Canada in 1965 and became a Canadian citizen in 1971. He is also the father of ...
found these scenes difficult to make interesting and realistic at the same time, and decided on more lighting for later scenes when the film's mood brightens, while using fluorescent fixtures and reflecting the former hospital's green painting to shoot the early scenes. As with the first film, scenes were filmed near
Lake Memphremagog Lake Memphremagog (; french: Lac Memphrémagog) is a fresh water glacial lake located between Newport, Vermont, United States and Magog, Quebec, Canada. The lake spans both Quebec and Vermont, but is mostly in Quebec. Most of the watershed that ...
. Most of the film was shot using a
Steadicam Steadicam is a brand of camera stabilizer mounts for motion picture cameras invented by Garrett Brown and introduced in 1975 by Cinema Products Corporation. It was designed to isolate the camera from the camera operator's movement, keeping th ...
.


Release

News that Arcand was working on a sequel to his 1986 film was received with a skeptical and negative response from critics. The film was screened at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival in May, where it received a 22-minute standing ovation, with distribution to 30 countries assured by the time Arcand received his Best Screenplay award. It was afterwards selected to open the gala at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival in September, and also opened the
Vancouver International Film Festival The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, for two weeks in late September and early October. The festival is operated by the Greater Vancouver International Film Fest ...
that month. The film began playing in Quebec theatres in May and ran for months, with its Canadian distributor being Alliance Films. It opened across Canada on 21 November. After Cannes, rights were sold to Miramax for distribution of the film in the United States. It opened in New York and Los Angeles on 21 November. In France, the film was available on 450 screens at one time, the most for a Quebec film ever.


Reception


Box office

The film's box office performance at Quebec theatres between its opening in May 2003 and the fall was considered good. By December, its initial release across Canada made $5.9 million. In France, it grossed the equivalent of US$8 million. According to ''
Box Office Mojo Box Office Mojo is an American website that tracks box-office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way. The site was founded in 1998 by Brandon Gray, and was bought in 2008 by IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is ...
'', the film finished its run on 3 June 2004 after grossing $8,544,975 in North America and $18,379,681 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $26,924,656. It was one of Arcand's biggest box office successes.


Critical reception

''The Barbarian Invasions'' has received positive reviews from numerous critics. In Canada, ''
Maclean's ''Maclean's'', founded in 1905, is a Canadian news magazine reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian persp ...
'' critic
Brian D. Johnson Brian D. Johnson is a Canadian journalist and filmmaker, best known as an entertainment reporter and film critic for ''Maclean's''."Return of the '70s: not very far out". ''Montreal Gazette'', November 19, 1994. He first joined the magazine in 198 ...
called it not only satirical but "a moving elegy to a generation that defined modern Quebec and has seen its passions rendered obsolete". Liam Lacey wrote in ''
The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
'' that the film is "upbeat and wryly positive, or at least as much as you could expect from a film that condemns the Quebec hospital system and features a death by cancer as its central theme". The film drew general attention for its criticism of Quebec's health care system. Peter Howell wrote in ''
The Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...
'' that "It's the depth of emotions Arcand summons for his characters, and the way this superb ensemble cast bring them so vividly to life, that make ''The Barbarian Invasions'' a film not just to see, but to welcome home". Roger Ebert of the ''Chicago Sun Times'' gave the movie four stars and called it "a movie with brains, indignation, irony and idealism". A.O Scott of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' wrote "what makes ''The Barbarian Invasions'' much more than a facile exercise in generational conflict is that Denys Arcand, who wrote and directed it, has a sense of history that is as acute as it is playful", adding "The rapprochement between Remy and Sebastien is beautiful to watch" and
Marie-Josée Croze Marie-Josée Croze (; born February 23, 1970) is a Canadian actress. She also holds French citizenship, which she obtained in December 2012. Early life Croze was born in Montreal, Quebec, was adopted, and grew up in Longueuil with four other ch ...
's "spooky, melancholy intensity darkens the mood of buoyant sentimentality". ''
Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...
s Owen Glieberman gave the film a B−, noting Rémy's hedonism.
David Denby David Denby (born 1943) is an American journalist. He served as film critic for ''The New Yorker'' until December 2014. Early life and education Denby grew up in New York City. He received a B. A. from Columbia University in 1965, and a master' ...
of ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' gave credit to Stéphane Rousseau for "a fascinatingly minimal performance". Jonathan Romney of ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
'' wrote "The film has its pros and cons, but you can't fault it for ambition: it not only muses on life and death, but also undertakes fairly comprehensive philosophical soundings of the way the world is today". Romney added Croze "has simply the most nuanced presence here: thoughtful, introspective, with a reassuring warmth and lack of cartoonishness".
Peter Bradshaw Peter Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire''. Early life and education Bradshaw was educated at Haberdasher ...
, writing for ''The Guardian'', disdained the movie, calling it "grotesquely overpraised", "shot through with middlebrow sophistication, boorish cynicism, unfunny satire, a dash of fatuous anti-Americanism and unthinkingly reactionary sexual politics". English Professor Peter Brunette wrote "its analysis of this state of affairs is all too often annoyingly rhetorical and, finally, altogether too facile". In 2004, the
Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...
ranked the film tenth in the
Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time The Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time is a list compiled by the Toronto International Film Festival ranking what are the considered the best Canadian films. The list has been compiled once roughly every 10 years starting in 1984, typically assembl ...
. David Lawrence Pike criticized the use of the World Trade Center footage as exploitative, but said despite "the crudeness and vulgarity", the film had a "particular brilliance". Review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
reports an 82% approval rating based on 134 reviews, with an
average rating In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...
of 7.24/10.
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
reports that the film has an average score of 70 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


Accolades

''The Barbarian Invasions'' is considered historically significant as the first Canadian film to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Canadian historian
George Melnyk George Roman Melnyk (born 1946) is a Canadian cultural historian. Melnyk is Professor Emeritus of Communication, Media and Film at the University of Calgary. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the University of Manitoba, a Maste ...
interpreted it as a sign that " Canadian cinema has come of global age", also pointing to '' Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner'' (2001) winning the
Camera d'Or A camera is an optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), with a ...
at Cannes. Marie-Josée Croze's honour for
Best Actress Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress aw ...
at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival was considered unlikely. She was not present to accept the award. The film's victory at France's national
César Awards The César Award is the national film award of France. It is delivered in the ' ceremony and was first awarded in 1976. The nominations are selected by the members of twelve categories of filmmaking professionals and supported by the French Min ...
was also considered a surprise, since it is mainly a Quebec film. It received the most nominations at the 24th Genie Awards.


Legacy

In 2007, Arcand's film '' Days of Darkness'' was released. While considered part of a loose trilogy following ''
The Decline of the American Empire ''The Decline of the American Empire'' (french: Le Déclin de l'empire Américain) is a 1986 Canadian sex comedy- drama film directed by Denys Arcand and starring Rémy Girard, Pierre Curzi and Dorothée Berryman. The film follows a group of ...
'' and ''The Barbarian Invasions'', Arcand acknowledged in a 2007 interview ''Days of Darkness'' had more similarities to his less successful 2000 film '' Stardom''.
Johanne-Marie Tremblay Johanne-Marie Tremblay (born 1950) is a Canadian actress. She had her first film role in the 1988 '' Straight for the Heart'', after which she was discovered by director Denys Arcand and cast as the character Constance in ''Jesus of Montreal'' (1 ...
reprised her role as Constance from ''Jesus of Montreal'' and ''The Barbarian Invasions''. In 2018, Arcand's '' The Fall of the American Empire'' followed similar themes.


See also

* List of submissions to the 76th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film *
List of Canadian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film Canada has submitted films for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film since 1971. The award is handed out annually by the United States Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to a feature-length motion picture produced outside ...


Notes


References


Bibliography

* * * * * *


External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Barbarian Invasions 2003 films 2003 comedy-drama films French sex comedy films French comedy-drama films Films about cancer Canadian aviation films Canadian comedy-drama films Canadian sex comedy films 2000s French-language films 2000s English-language films English-language Canadian films Films directed by Denys Arcand Best Film César Award winners Films whose director won the Best Director César Award European Film Awards winners (films) Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award winners César Award winners Films set in Montreal Films shot in Montreal Best Picture Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners Best French-Language Film Lumières Award winners Films set in Vermont Films set in London Best Film Prix Iris winners 2000s Canadian films 2000s French films