LSC Event Descriptions

October 8, 2004

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Rated R
99 minutes

LSC Classics Presents:
Les Invasions Barbares (2003)
October 8, 2004 at 7:30 and 10:30pm in 10-250.

It has been years since Sebastien (Stephane Rousseau), a wealthy London investment banker, has been home to visit his parents in Canada. He has been avoiding a run-in with his father, Remy (Remy Girard), a spirited and lustful Professor of History who long ago divorced Sebastien's loving mother Louise (Dorothee Berryman.) Meanwhile, his sister has left land entirely, sailing across the high seas in a yacht. But when a crisis calls Sebastien home to Quebec, father and son must confront one another at last. Right off the bat, their reunion is a bust. Equally stubborn, the two men cannot see eye to eye. To Sebastien, Remy is unreasonable and cold. To Remy, Sebastien is a symbol of the coming barbarian invasions, of all the negative changes in the world.

But desperate to bring his father some kind of happiness, Sebastien pours his energy into an all-consuming mission: to reunite the merry band that marked Remy's complicated past - friends, colleagues and former mistresses included. In the process, Sebastien discovers more about his father than he ever imagined, more about what he wants and hope for in his own life, and more about the pleasures of wine, women, conversation and the love and compassion of good friends. The Barbarian Invasions was awarded both the Best Screenplay Award (for Denys Arcand) and the Best Actress Award (for Marie-Josee Croze, in the role of a young drug addict who offers unusual assistance to Remy) at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was an audience favorite. [rottentomatoes.com]

"Like an alchemist, Arcand has transformed a film of ideas into an emotional experience."
      -- Susan Tavernetti, Palo Alto Weekly. Read this review.


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