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 For DKmuto's B-Day~~The Barbarian Invasions~~ 
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Extraordinary
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Post For DKmuto's B-Day~~The Barbarian Invasions~~
Hey DK! Happy Birthday. :D I hope you are enjoying it? I Share in you enthusiasm for Barbarian Invasions so am starting a thread on it. Things to think about? I think last years Oscars really were the Canadian Invasions of the Academy. Remember that Tripleetes is also Canadian, and I think it really put Canada on the U.S. map as having its own rich film history. I think Arcand is going to become a huge director, and I know that Jesus of Montreal is already known in the states.

What he did with Invasions was really intense. I didn't think it was tragic per se, rather I thought it was a touching look at people coming together around a man's death. Very mature and insightful look at the characters in the professor's life. I also thought there was a sort of quiet theme of dissappointment that ran through out the entire film that left me unnerved, but not desperate. It was really well woven into context. He Arcand didn't need to hit you over the head with massive nervous breakdown scenes when people realize they haven't amounted to what they expected in life. The professor clearly did not make an impact on his students or produce some sort of revolutionary theory and literature. His kids did not project in the direction he had hoped, and they themselves were dissappointed in his lack of enthusiasm for where they did end up. His wife, lovers, friends, friend's kids, son's wife, everyone's characterization was very real, humane, and approachable.

The individuals in Barbarian Invasion are older, have troubled pasts with eachother, and don't become best buds out of some genuine 180 degree spins in personality. They come together out of a genuine ability to bury their self-inflated egos long enough to open up to eachother. The wife speaks with the two lovers not without suddenly accepting the role they paid in her past, but understanding their current roles. Its really, quite introspective and deals well with the complexity of personality conflicts and interactions. A very quiet, introspective, and strong film.

I'm happy it got the Oscar, and indeed think it was very worthy of it. I really hope this means Arcand is going to join Egoyan as a steadfast name in film, because Invasions definately proved he's more than capable of it.

-Dolce


Sun Oct 31, 2004 11:51 am
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Thank you, dolce. :)

I loved The Barbarian Invasions the first time I watched it, but I loved it even more the second. There are so many layers to this film, and although I don't think I fully grasped the 'celebration of life' theme the first time around, I definitely did the second. I'd even like to see it again. Maybe even (!) a purchase, which is not something I do very often.

How would you rank it in terms of your favorite films from last year, dolce?


Sun Oct 31, 2004 2:52 pm
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For 2003 (and very early 2004 I guess) I don't really have a rank of ten, because it would be like comparing apples and oranges putting Barbarian and Pirates in rank, but here are the Top ten of last year.

The Barbarian Invasions
The Triplettes of Belleville
Nowhere in Africa
Pirates of the Carribean
The Fog of War
Spellbound
Winged Migration
Old School
Mystic River
And LOTR or X2 sneak in for the tenth spot, but I didn't like them nearly so much as I had hoped.


Sun Oct 31, 2004 5:10 pm
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dolcevita wrote:
For 2003 (and very early 2004 I guess) I don't really have a rank of ten, because it would be like comparing apples and oranges putting Barbarian and Pirates in rank, but here are the Top ten of last year.

The Barbarian Invasions
The Triplettes of Belleville
Nowhere in Africa
Pirates of the Carribean
The Fog of War
Spellbound
Winged Migration
Old School
Mystic River
And LOTR or X2 sneak in for the tenth spot, but I didn't like them nearly so much as I had hoped.


:shock: :shock: :shock:

Give me The (One) Ring back!! The engagement is off!! :lol: :lol: :wink:

_________________

'The stars in the sky...
Bring tears to my eyes...
They're lighting my way... tonight.

And I haven't felt so alive..
In years.'




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Sun Oct 31, 2004 11:49 pm
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D'oh. I had a Blockbuster movie pass and a month of Netflix and forgot about this. I'll probaly see it eventually.


Mon Nov 01, 2004 1:30 am
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Mirûvor wrote:
dolcevita wrote:
For 2003 (and very early 2004 I guess) I don't really have a rank of ten, because it would be like comparing apples and oranges putting Barbarian and Pirates in rank, but here are the Top ten of last year.

The Barbarian Invasions
The Triplettes of Belleville
Nowhere in Africa
Pirates of the Carribean
The Fog of War
Spellbound
Winged Migration
Old School
Mystic River
And LOTR or X2 sneak in for the tenth spot, but I didn't like them nearly so much as I had hoped.


:shock: :shock: :shock:

Give me The (One) Ring back!! The engagement is off!! :lol: :lol: :wink:


:) I LOVED FOTR! I saw it three times big screen alone, I just thought the following two installments were did not match it in intensity. There was a big push towards just huge cliche battle scenes that didn't hold my attention nearly as well. Lacked suspense, and bordered on cliche. Tyler's role took a nose dive, and the general theme of saving the women and children while little 10 year old boys were given armor was just archaic. I understand not splitting with the book, but at least don't play up those aspects. I think ROTK was much better than TTT though, because it returns to alot of the individual stories.

Anyways, back to Barbarian Invasions. I think my favortie scenes were when Sébastian's girlfriend goes to do the artifact collection evaluation in the basement of the cathedral in Montreal. I think it was one scene that just embodied the whole film because of her ultimate claim that they had no financial worth, but decades of emotional value. But the clergyman is so severly dissappointed. Its really all about coming to grips, as is the movie, of what one has accumulated in one's lifetime, and what value he/she has assigned to it upon closure.

-Dolce


Last edited by dolcevita on Mon Nov 01, 2004 11:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.



Mon Nov 01, 2004 1:50 pm
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Dolce, I'm not going take this thread off on a tanget intentionally, but if you have not already, watch the Extended Editions of the films! It will piece together some of the gaps that you speak of!

I have yet to watch The Barbarian Invasions, but I will eventually! In the past year since ROTK, I have not really given any time to the cinema or watching films at home! I've a lot of catching up to do and little time or enthusiasm.

Btw, I still want my ring back! :wink:

_________________

'The stars in the sky...
Bring tears to my eyes...
They're lighting my way... tonight.

And I haven't felt so alive..
In years.'




MOS
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Mon Nov 01, 2004 10:32 pm
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Coincidentally, l just bought this yesterday...l'd heard good of it and l needed another dvd for the 2 for 20 blockbuster thing... :oops:

Anyways, l really liked it...definitely deserving of Best Foreign Film...

one question though...
does the title have any significance at all? :?
l mean, l remember that one little part, bout attacks in the US or whatever, but that hardly seemed like enough to name the film for...unless there is some major theme or something l totally missed...:? :oops:

good movie though... :)


Mon Nov 01, 2004 10:50 pm
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Kypade wrote:
one question though...
does the title have any significance at all? :?

In my opinion it is threefold.

1. It relates to the September 11th montage (which this filmm was probably in production during) and the general timing of the film. (this is the least important connection).

2. It relates to the general onslaught of youth culture and how everything that these old chaps felt was important in the world seemed to be dying with them... with no way to pass it on.

3. Cancer is itself rather like a barbarian. It's an unnatural enemy which "invades" the body and makes life long changes.

Barbarians signifies any controlling force which would attempt to was away anything within the natural order of things and replace it with some kind of anarchy. Barbarians are by nature unpredictable.

That's at least what I got out of it.


Mon Nov 01, 2004 10:58 pm
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@Kypade and Andaroo

They did have that screne behind the nurse's desk that had a newscaste of 9/11 along with some commentary about feeling threatened with the entrance of unexpected motives and tactics. I was thrown off by this at first as well, since I assumed they would continue the joke and delve more into Remy and Sebastian when they cross the border. They didn't. I don't think it has to do with 9/11 in anyway more than some coniscence (sp?) of when this was being filmed.

I think the "Barbarian" had the dual refernce of being about Cancer invading the body unexpectedly, using your own cells against you (much like the more academic/political discourse running through the film) and the return of all these people that had alientated eachother in the past. Remeber, when they came together they were not really close but had a shared past, and so many of them had no idea about eachother's lives.

That mother and her drug addict daughter, Remy and Sebstion, his wife and his lovers meeting, his old academic gay couple friends. Everyone felt like their presence was forced (in the beginning). So, in fact, I think the barbarians were the individuals involved, and the invasion was their insights and psyche being introduced to everyone else in the circle. That's what I got out of it at least.

-Dolce


Mon Nov 01, 2004 11:30 pm
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