Film Review: The Barbarian Invasions

The Barbarian Invasions: I knew absolutley nothing about this film beforehand apart from i had to watch it as part of my course work. It is about a man travelling on his borrowed time and how he wants to tie-up everything in his life before he passes on from this world to the next. The language used is 90% french as therefore i associated the film as obviously being set in France, altho whenever they decide to get second opinions on his medical condition they would take him to America for consultation - they also talked english occasionally in strong american accents. I found all of this very confusing especially for a film i believed to be French. Anywyas at the end of the film i looked at our assignment brief and realised that this weeks lecture was on Québec cinema. It explained a fucking lot.
The film itself really simply breathtaking, the actors seem to have a genuine love for each other and it feels sometimes like the dialogue isnt scripted, but rather them just having genuine banter with each other. Apparently this is a sequel to Denys Arcand's The Decline of the American Empire with a majority of the same characters and actors portraying them returning and i am going to definately check that out too. Overall it is simply an amazing feeling to know nothing about a film but to completly become engulfed in it. If you have some spare time an want to watch a film with genuine emotion, full of good humour and with intelluctual thoughts a plenty then i highly recommend this. A fantastic gem of a film. 4.5 / 5