The Decline of the American Empire (Le Déclin de l'Empire Américain) (1986)
Average Rating: 7.1/10
Reviews Counted: 13
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 2
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 1
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 0
liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 6,114
My Rating
Movie Info
A rousing "he said/she said" endeavor, The Decline of the American Empire begins by separating the boys from the girls. Preparing a gourmet dinner, four male intellectuals begin trading stories of their sexual experiences. At the same time, four well-read women, all working out in a gym, exchange their own tales from the love front. The film is set in the lofty circles of academia, a world well known to Canadian director Denys Arcand. The anecdotes related herein are based on actual events in
Jun 19, 1986 Wide
Oct 5, 2004
Koch Lorber Films
Cast
-
Pierre Curzi
Pierre -
Rémy Girard
Remy -
Yves Jacques
Claude -
Daniel Brière
Alain -
Dominique Michel
Dominique -
Louise Portal
Diane -
Dorothée Berryman
Louise -
Gabriel Arcand
Mario -
Geneviève Rioux
Danielle -
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All Critics (20) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (11) | Rotten (2) | DVD (4)
What Arcand has devised is a kind of Nia Vardalos movie in tenured-faculty clothing: Our Big Fat Bourgeois Salon ... It trades only the crudest ironies and screenwriting mechanics.
As a movie with a lot of clever talk about sex and love, this is pretty good. As a movie about the decline of the American empire it pales in comparison to the real thing.
instead of being wickedly funny, it's repellent before becoming a total snore
Subtle and wittty in discussing sexual politics in the academic world, Denis Arcand's film deservedly won the Oscar for Foreign Film in 1986.
Give Empire credit for giving Woody Allen a run for his money in '86, but its force has all but vanished today.
Asks all the right questions about the sexual revolution and makes some interesting connections between eros and middle age.
There's very little plot in Decline of the American Empire...but when the dialogue is this good and the characters this compelling, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Através de suas conversas casuais (embora com efeitos estudados), os personagens deste filme estabelecem um vivo retrato das relações humanas - especialmente do sexo, claro.
Arcand's message might not be the happy, happy, joy, joy we have come to expect from our movies but he does shed some truth, no matter how hard it might be to digest.
Audience Reviews for The Decline of the American Empire (Le Déclin de l'Empire Américain)
Super Reviewer
[font=Century Gothic][color=red][/color][/font]
[font=Century Gothic][color=red]So, while this is an extremely talky movie("Intellectuals like to talk."), [/color][/font][font=Century Gothic][color=#ff0000]"The Decline of the American Empire" is a warm and witty meditation on the pleasures of life - namely, sex, food and friends. [/color][/font]
[font=Century Gothic][color=#ff0000][/color][/font]
[font=Century Gothic][color=#ff0000]Two notes:[/color][/font]
[font=Century Gothic][color=#ff0000][/color][/font]
[font=Century Gothic][color=#ff0000]1. This movie was made in 1986, so it surprised me that there were references to AIDS. I know "An Early Frost" was on television the year before, but I don't think movies had really begun to consider AIDS until at least 1990.[/color][/font]
[font=Century Gothic][color=#ff0000][/color][/font]
[font=Century Gothic][color=#ff0000]2. "The Barbarian Invasions" is a sequel to "Decline of the American Empire" but I don't think it's necessary to see the earlier movie first even though there might be more emotional involvement in the characters when watching "Barbarian Invasions." I saw "Barbarian Invasions" when it was first released a year and a half ago, so I don't think it mattered that much to me but I spent a good deal of "Decline of the American Empire" thinking about how young the characters looked... [/color][/font]
Super Reviewer
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Foreign Titles
- The Decline of the American Empire (Le declin de l'empire americain) (DE)
- The Decline of the American Empire (Le declin de l'empire americain) (UK)
