The Decline Of The American Empire DVD – Geneviève Rioux, Daniel Brière

You’ve never seen a sex comedy quite like The Decline of the American Empire. That’s because there’s no sex in this comedy–just a lot of entertaining talk about it (and a few discreet flashbacks). The speakers are eight Montreal academics. For most of the film, the men–Rémy (Rémy Girard), Claude (Yves Jacques), Pierre (Pierre Curzi), and Alain (Daniel Brière)–fix dinner while talking about sex. The women–Dominique (Dominique Michel), Louise (Dorothée Berryman), Diane (Louise Portal), and Danielle (Geneviève Rioux)–work out while talking about sex. That evening, they all gather for dinner… and talk about sex. The Decline of the American Empire made the reputation of writer-director Denys Arcand, but his greatest success would arrive 17 years later with The Barbarian Invasions. In that 2003 Oscar-winner, Arcand revisits the lovably loquacious characters from the first film, all of whom are older, wiser–and just as obsessed with sex. –Kathleen C. Fennessy