The Decline of the American Empire

Director Denys Arcand wrote the script influenced by a small budget and seeing an interest in personal pleasures as becoming predominant in society.

In the wake of the 1980 Quebec referendum, director Denys Arcand felt Quebec's interests had shifted from politics to "individual pleasures", and with a budget of $800,000 for his next project, envisioned a dialogue-heavy film like Louis Malle's 1981 film My Dinner with Andre. Arcand viewed sex as the most likely topic that could sustain audience interest for an entire film.[4] He worked on the screenplay throughout the summer of 1984, under the working title Conversations scabreuses.[4] He chose tenured university professors as his subject matter because he felt that such people had less of a Quebecois accent, which would make the film more accessible to French-speaking audiences around the world. He avoided naming local places for the same reason, even though this went against the wishes of the National Film Board of Canada, which co-sponsored the film.[5]

As Arcand worked on the script, producer Roger Frappier saw the story as promising and lobbied René Malo to co-produce, allowing for a bigger budget.[6] Frappier and Malo raised $1.8 million, allowing for more settings depicted in the film.[1] Most of the funding came from the governments of Canada and Quebec.[7]

Arcand had Rémy Girard and Yves Jacques in mind for principal roles after working with them on The Crime of Ovide Plouffe (Le Crime d'Ovide Plouffe) (1984), and named the main character Rémy after Girard. Nevertheless, their lack of celebrity meant Girard had to audition for the part named for him, to satisfy producers.[1]

Filming took place near Lake Memphremagog in Quebec from September to October 1985.

Filming began in Montreal in August 1985, and moved to Lake Memphremagog in September, finishing in October.[8] Filmmaker Jacques Leduc is given credit for photographing the nature scenes in the film.[9]

In filming sex scenes, Arcand felt visual depictions were overused, which is why he focused on the verbal aspect. He also felt the sex scenes were challenging because of actors' modesty, and sought to place the camera in novel positions.[10]

Critics gave positive reviews to the cast, including Pierre Curzi, who was nominated for the Genie Award for Best Actor.

Roger Ebert gave the film three stars, saying that despite the sexual dialogue, "the real subject is wit", and comparing it to My Dinner with Andre.[15] Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote "Not since Alain Tanner's Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000 has there been a comedy that so entertainingly and successfully expresses itself through intelligent characters defined entirely in their talk", and called the cast, including Rémy Girard and Pierre Curzi, "excellent".[16] Rita Kempley of The Washington Post found most characters unlikable but wrote "The Decline of the American Empire is certainly the year's most intellectual work, a frequently funny, unrepressed meditation on midnight in North America".[17] Peter Keough of the Chicago Reader wrote "The laughs come easy in Decline, but also a bit guiltily when you recognize that this hip sex comedy is actually a reactionary tract", given what he saw as the ending's victory for "traditional heterosexuality" while the homosexual character had an STD.[18] David Denby of New York magazine panned the film, calling it "pompous and tiresome".[19] In France, many critics highlighted the film's use of Quebec's natural landscape.[20]

The Toronto International Film Festival ranked it in the Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time twice, in 1993 and 2004.[21] Shortly after the release of the sequel The Barbarian Invasions in 2003, the British Film Institute called The Decline of the American Empire "a witty and provocative look at the battle of the sexes".[22] In 2011, marking the 25th anniversary of the film, Isabelle Houde of the Montreal-based La Presse remarked the film was daring for 1986 in portraying homosexuality as normal.[23]

In 2023, Barry Hertz of The Globe and Mail named the film as one of the 23 best Canadian comedy films ever made.[24]

The film won nine Genie Awards in 1987, including Best Motion Picture and Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for Arcand. It also received the FIPRESCI Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.[25]

The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 59th Academy Awards,[26] the first Canadian film so honoured.[12] Garth Drabinsky, who handled the distribution of the film in the United States, hired Renee Furst to promote the film's Oscar nomination. Telefilm Canada contributed $50,000, under the stipulation that it would only be repaid if the film won an Oscar.[27] The Assault won the award.[28] The Decline of the American Empire's sequel, The Barbarian Invasions (Les Invasions barbares), would go on to win Canada's first Oscar in the category in 2003.[29]

• Dancyger, Ken (2006). The Director's Idea: The Path to Great Directing. Amsterdam and Boston: Focal Press. ISBN 0240806816.
• Harcourt, Peter (2006). "Le Déclin de l'empire américain The Decline of the American Empire". In White, Jerry (ed.). The Cinema of Canada. Wallflower Press. ISBN 1904764606.
• Knelman, Martin (1987). Home Movies: Tales from the Canadian Film World. Key Porter Books. ISBN 1550130498.
• Loiselle, André (2008). Denys Arcand's Le Déclin de L'empire Américain and Les Invasions Barbares. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0802099334.
• Marshall, Bill (2001). Quebec National Cinema. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 077352116X.
• Melnyk, George (2004). One Hundred Years of Canadian Cinema. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0802084443.
• Pike, David Lawrence (2012). Canadian Cinema Since the 1980s: At the Heart of the World. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-1442698321.
• Spaas, Lieve (2000). Francophone Film: A Struggle for Identity. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press. ISBN 0719058619.
• Thompson, Wayne C. (2014). Canada 2014 (30 ed.). Rowman and Littlefield. ISBN 978-1475812404.