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By
DEBORAH NICOL
Yes, even middle-aged
academic intellectuals can have the sex drives of
young teenagers. In director Denys Arcand's 1986
prequel to last year's Oscar winning "The
Barbarian Invasions," fellow professors spend time
in the Quebec countryside discussing sexual
conquests as if they were merely swapping recipes
rather than wives.
For the first half of the film, the men and women
are separated from the other gender, free to
divulge every flippant one-night stand or casual
orgy amongst their friends. Sex seems to come to
each of them as easily and cheaply as a fast food
drive-thru, and there is no discussion of the
consequences. Wives accept that their husbands
have flings and vice-versa, it is simply never
discussed between them. Snippets of the truth are
seen through flashbacks, and though the basic
facts remain true, the edges of emotion reveal
themselves.
As the sexes come together, the tension rises.
Though the winks are barely visible between each
sex, there is a level of fear that comes from the
risk of honesty. Though their sexual history is
tangled across table lines, no one dares discuss
it. Any dialogue concerning family, professional
equality, and aging provides the stress that was
missing from all prior conquest conversation.
Arcand raises the question as to whether the
decline of civilization is linked to a desire for
happiness, and whether that bliss is translated
variously as a need for sex or a fulfilling
professional life, the answers are as convoluted
as the conversations. There are no DVD extras. |
