Denys Arcand

Directing

Denys Arcand

Born

1941-06-25 (85)

Place of birth

Deschambault, Quebec, Canada

Known for

Directing

Credits

83 titles

Georges-Henri Denys Arcand CC GOQ (born June 25, 1941) is a French-Canadian film director, screenwriter and producer based in Montreal, who crafts deeply personal and thought-provoking films, earning international acclaim. His career began with features like "Une Maudite Galette" (1972) and "Gina" (1975), exploring diverse narratives. "The Decline of the American Empire" (1986) depicted Quebecois intellectuals tackling issues of sexuality, success, and intimacy, winning critical acclaim, nine Genies, and a Cannes Fipresci prize. "Jesus of Montreal" delved into the lives of Montreal artists portraying biblical figures, blending day-to-day struggles with religious performances. Arcand's film …

Known for

Film credits

2020s · 4 titles

2010s · 7 titles

Barney's Version poster
7.0

The picaresque and touching story of the politically incorrect, fully lived life of the impulsive, irascible and fearlessly blunt Barney Panofsky.

Barney's Version

2010

Forgotten Flowers poster
6.5

Brother Marie-Victorin, founder of Montreal’s Botanical Garden, is bored with heaven and decides to return earth to help former agronomist turned beekeeper Albert save Quebec’s flora from a multinational that is poisoning the Earth with chemicals.

Forgotten Flowers

2019

Le cri du rhinocéros poster
5.0

Marc Labrèche, the Director of this documentary, himself an author, actor and host, meets other creators to ask them these questions that inhabit him. Do artists have an expiry date? Do we create our best works in our youth or, on the contrary, does experience allow us to develop a greater mastery of our medium? In this respect, are there important differences between the different forms of art such as music, cinema and literature?

Le cri du rhinocéros

2018

The Private Life of Cinema poster
NR

A two-part in-depth exploration of the evolution of the private film industry, seen through the eyes of more than 50 industry professionals. Part One (1939-1979) : Artists and professionals from the social and commercial film sectors recount the struggle to build a film industry that is privately operated yet publicly funded. Part Two (1980-2010) : Executives, policymakers, and industry professionals trace the origins of the major funding institutions and discuss the unintended consequences of building a cultural industry around performance metrics, revenue generation, and private profit.

The Private Life of Cinema

2011

Kiss Me With All Your Love poster
4.0

Montreal, 1940. The Second World War is raging in Europe. Pierre Sauvageau, 22, would like to enlist, but he has to take care of his twin sister, crippled from birth. This proximity awakens the sensuality of Berthe who tries to seduce her brother. Pierre rejects her advances, but when he falls in love with Marguerite, his best friend's girlfriend, he is haunted by the fantasy of his sister.

Kiss Me With All Your Love

2016

No artwork available
NR

Artist and writer Marc Séguin offers his first film which is about a woman named Alice who steals paintings in order to reattribute them to people who can truly appreciate their beauty.

Stealing Alice

2016

Le prix du paradis poster
8.0

No synopsis available yet.

Le prix du paradis

2017

2000s · 7 titles

The Barbarian Invasions poster
7.0

In this belated sequel to 'The Decline of the American Empire', middle-aged Montreal college professor, Remy, learns that he is dying of liver cancer. His ex-wife, Louise, asks their estranged son, Sebastian, a successful businessman living in London, to come home. Sebastian makes the impossible happen, using his contacts and disrupting the Canadian healthcare system in every way possible to help his father fight his terminal illness to the bitter end, while reuniting some of Remy's old friends, including Pierre, Alain, Dominique, Diane, and Claude, who return to see their friend before he passes on.

The Barbarian Invasions

2003

From Office to Box-Office poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

From Office to Box-Office

2009

Weird Sex and Snowshoes: A Trek Through the Canadian Cinematic Psyche poster
6.0

This compelling documentary explores Canadian film culture and tries to discover what defines Canadian film through interviews with notable filmmakers.

Weird Sex and Snowshoes: A Trek Through the Canadian Cinematic Psyche

2004

Shooting Star poster
6.6

Four young women are participating on Idole Instantanée, a reality show produced by Omni Global, in which a complete stranger turns into a music star in just 24 hours.

Shooting Star

2005

Rebels with a Camera poster
NR

Thanks to the development of techniques and the adventurous spirit of pioneering filmmakers, among whom Michel Brault occupies a central place, a new way of making cinema was born at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s. This film relevantly retraces the history of a collective movement which revolutionized production and filming methods in Quebec and the world.

Rebels with a Camera

2006

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Les héritiers du mouton noir

2003

Achieving the Unachievable poster
5.0

M.C. Escher is among the most intriguing of artists. In 1956 he challenged the laws of perspective with his graphic Print Gallery and his uncompleted master-piece quickly became the most puzzling enigma of modern art. Fifty years later, can mathematician Hendrik Lenstra complete it? Should he?

Achieving the Unachievable

2007

1990s · 3 titles

1980s · 4 titles

1970s · 6 titles

Series credits

Spécial cinéma poster
9.5

Marcello Mastroianni, Isabelle Adjani, Alain Delon, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen... the biggest stars in cinema were welcomed by Christian Defaye on his show Spécial cinéma. Between intimate confessions from actors and immersion in the world of the greatest filmmakers, Christian Defaye took viewers on a journey into the fascinating world of cinema for nearly thirty years.

Spécial cinéma

1974

Tout le monde en parle poster
4.7

Host Guy A. Lepage brings together six to eight personalities from different milieus—sports, politics, stage productions and more—that are the subject of everyone’s conversations and/or are important figures in recent events. Participants are invited to speak freely, voicing their opinions on headline news or on a subject that is near and dear to them. 

Tout le monde en parle

2004

Nulle part ailleurs poster
6.1

No synopsis available yet.

Nulle part ailleurs

1987

Les pêcheurs poster
7.2

No synopsis available yet.

Les pêcheurs

2013

Viens voir les comédiens poster
NR

Viens voir les comédiens is a television show on the Canadian French-language arts and culture television network ARTV.

Viens voir les comédiens

2002

En audition avec Simon poster
6.0

No synopsis available yet.

En audition avec Simon

2010

Ti-Mé Show poster
NR

Each week, in front of a fired-up audience, personalities from all areas come on Ti-Mé’s show for an hour of comedy and quirks. A variety show where interviews, sketches, musical performances and surprising presentations are intertwined. Ti-Mé is interested in everyone but is not impressed by anyone.

Ti-Mé Show

2015

Les bobos poster
9.0

Two bourgeois-bohemians struggle to stay on the cutting edge of trends and fashion while never sacrificing a single ounce of comfort, style or social conscience.

Les bobos

2012

La plus belle province poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

La plus belle province

2022

Behind the camera

The Fall of the American Empire poster
6.6

A shy and insecure delivery driver arrives on the scene of a robbery-gone-wrong and picks up two bags of cash and hides them in his truck. He is interrogated by two tough police detectives and manages to evade suspicion but he is warned that whoever owns the money will be looking for it. Only the help of a prostitute and a former biker recently released from jail might get him out of trouble.

The Fall of the American Empire

2018

The Fall of the American Empire poster
6.6

A shy and insecure delivery driver arrives on the scene of a robbery-gone-wrong and picks up two bags of cash and hides them in his truck. He is interrogated by two tough police detectives and manages to evade suspicion but he is warned that whoever owns the money will be looking for it. Only the help of a prostitute and a former biker recently released from jail might get him out of trouble.

The Fall of the American Empire

2018

Love & Human Remains poster
5.8

In a Canadian metropolis, failed actor David shares a place with the bookish Candy, whom he dated before coming out as gay. While David, who now waits tables, pursues an aimless romance with a younger coworker, Candy dabbles in both same-sex and heterosexual affairs. As David and Candy's odd assortment of friends — including a telepathic sex worker and an ill-tempered yuppie — pass in and out of their beds, a serial murder stalks the city's women.

Love & Human Remains

1994

The Barbarian Invasions poster
7.0

In this belated sequel to 'The Decline of the American Empire', middle-aged Montreal college professor, Remy, learns that he is dying of liver cancer. His ex-wife, Louise, asks their estranged son, Sebastian, a successful businessman living in London, to come home. Sebastian makes the impossible happen, using his contacts and disrupting the Canadian healthcare system in every way possible to help his father fight his terminal illness to the bitter end, while reuniting some of Remy's old friends, including Pierre, Alain, Dominique, Diane, and Claude, who return to see their friend before he passes on.

The Barbarian Invasions

2003

The Barbarian Invasions poster
7.0

In this belated sequel to 'The Decline of the American Empire', middle-aged Montreal college professor, Remy, learns that he is dying of liver cancer. His ex-wife, Louise, asks their estranged son, Sebastian, a successful businessman living in London, to come home. Sebastian makes the impossible happen, using his contacts and disrupting the Canadian healthcare system in every way possible to help his father fight his terminal illness to the bitter end, while reuniting some of Remy's old friends, including Pierre, Alain, Dominique, Diane, and Claude, who return to see their friend before he passes on.

The Barbarian Invasions

2003

Days of Darkness poster
6.4

Jean-Marc is a man without qualities living in times that are out of joint. His wife and children ignore him; he's a mid-level government functionary in Montreal doing his job without care. He has an active imagination of sexual conquest, but his only real feelings come when he visits his aged mother, whose health is failing. When his wife leaves abruptly to work in Toronto, Jean-Marc sets out to reorder things with his daughters, his social life, and at work. In a world that at best is a farce, does he stand a chance?

Days of Darkness

2007

Days of Darkness poster
6.4

Jean-Marc is a man without qualities living in times that are out of joint. His wife and children ignore him; he's a mid-level government functionary in Montreal doing his job without care. He has an active imagination of sexual conquest, but his only real feelings come when he visits his aged mother, whose health is failing. When his wife leaves abruptly to work in Toronto, Jean-Marc sets out to reorder things with his daughters, his social life, and at work. In a world that at best is a farce, does he stand a chance?

Days of Darkness

2007

An Eye for Beauty poster
3.4

An architect and his wife see their relationship challenged.

An Eye for Beauty

2014

An Eye for Beauty poster
3.4

An architect and his wife see their relationship challenged.

An Eye for Beauty

2014

Stardom poster
5.4

A young girl is plucked from small-town obscurity and thrust into the spotlight of the glamorous world of super-models.

Stardom

2000

Stardom poster
5.4

A young girl is plucked from small-town obscurity and thrust into the spotlight of the glamorous world of super-models.

Stardom

2000

Testament poster
6.8

A retired archivist is annoyed and confused by a group of protestors who are angered by a mural inside the retirement home where he resides that glorifies colonialism.

Testament

2023

Testament poster
6.8

A retired archivist is annoyed and confused by a group of protestors who are angered by a mural inside the retirement home where he resides that glorifies colonialism.

Testament

2023

The Decline of the American Empire poster
6.7

Four very different Montreal university teachers gather at a rambling country house to prepare a dinner. Remy (married), Claude (a homosexual), Pierre (involved with a girlfriend) and Alain (a bachelor) discuss sex, the female body and their affairs with them. Meanwhile, their four female guests, Louise (Remy's wife of 15 years), Dominique (a spinster), Diane (a divorcée) and Danielle (Pierre's girlfriend) are spending the time at a downtown health gym. They also discuss sex, the female body and, naturally, men. Later in the evening, they finally meet at the country house and have dinner. A ninth guest, named Mario, who used to know Diane, drops in on the group for some talk and has a surprise of his own.

The Decline of the American Empire

1986

The Decline of the American Empire poster
6.7

Four very different Montreal university teachers gather at a rambling country house to prepare a dinner. Remy (married), Claude (a homosexual), Pierre (involved with a girlfriend) and Alain (a bachelor) discuss sex, the female body and their affairs with them. Meanwhile, their four female guests, Louise (Remy's wife of 15 years), Dominique (a spinster), Diane (a divorcée) and Danielle (Pierre's girlfriend) are spending the time at a downtown health gym. They also discuss sex, the female body and, naturally, men. Later in the evening, they finally meet at the country house and have dinner. A ninth guest, named Mario, who used to know Diane, drops in on the group for some talk and has a surprise of his own.

The Decline of the American Empire

1986

Jesus of Montreal poster
6.9

A group of actors putting on an interpretive Passion Play in Montreal begin to experience a meshing of their characters and their private lives as the production takes form against the growing opposition of the Catholic church.

Jesus of Montreal

1989

Jesus of Montreal poster
6.9

A group of actors putting on an interpretive Passion Play in Montreal begin to experience a meshing of their characters and their private lives as the production takes form against the growing opposition of the Catholic church.

Jesus of Montreal

1989

The Crime of Ovide Plouffe poster
6.0

Ovide Plouffe has married Rita. She still tries to attract other men even after their marriage. Unhappy Ovide feels for Marie - a young French woman he had met. But his catholic background and surrounding can't let him love another woman or divorce from his wife. So Ovide finishes with Marie and plans a trip with Rita hoping for reconciliation. At the last instant he announces to Rita that he can't make the trip. She goes alone. The plane explodes, and Ovide is suspected and arrested for this horrible crime.

The Crime of Ovide Plouffe

1984

Jusqu'au cou poster
7.5

The story of a young university student who deals with love in the midst of the Quebec separatist movement in the 1960s.

Jusqu'au cou

1964

Atlantic Parks poster
6.7

1966 PARCS ATLANTIQUES Best Short Film Award, UNESCO, Brussels, 1967 An exploration of three of Canada's national parks: Fundy, Prince Edward Island, and Cape Breton Highlands, all on the Atlantic coast, where, by filmmaker's licence, boy meets girl, marries and has a family, all while enjoying the parks' many facilities for campers. Even the girl's little white car, which leads us to the parks at the outset, seems to run on the pure air and the anticipation of fresh adventures around every turn. - NFB

Atlantic Parks

1967

Gina poster
6.2

A beautiful stripper hires renowned criminals to exact revenge on those who raped her in her motel room.

Gina

1975

Comfort and Indifference poster
7.1

Made shortly after the referendum on Quebec's independence was held, this documentary illustrates what the politicians' promises were and how the population did not really care nor truly understand what was really at stake, even though just about everyone had an opinion on the subject.

Comfort and Indifference

1982

Comfort and Indifference poster
7.1

Made shortly after the referendum on Quebec's independence was held, this documentary illustrates what the politicians' promises were and how the population did not really care nor truly understand what was really at stake, even though just about everyone had an opinion on the subject.

Comfort and Indifference

1982

No artwork available
NR

In the seventeenth century, a grieving Portuguese nun writes to her lover, an officer in the French army, who abandoned her.

Letters of a Portuguese Nun

1991

No artwork available
NR

In the seventeenth century, a grieving Portuguese nun writes to her lover, an officer in the French army, who abandoned her.

Letters of a Portuguese Nun

1991

Ma soeur, mon amour poster
9.0

In 1929, Mr. Messier, owner of a small print shop in a village in Quebec became a widower, he lives with his two children, Rachel, 9 years old, and Gaëtan, 7 years old. In this closed universe and in the absence of their mother, a great complicity is established between the children.

Ma soeur, mon amour

1992

Montréal un jour d'été poster
5.5

From dawn to night, Montreal is a living reality, with many faces, many occupations, and the uncertain and blurred colors of industrial cities. The film illustrates different aspects of this reality: the cosmopolitan Montreal, the anthropological Montreal and the plastic Montreal. Images: Electric wires; poles; view of houses and cars; airplane; bridge; men working on construction; mechanical crane pulley; mechanical crane in the street; men walking on constructions (scaffolding); skyscraper; park; lovers lying in the grass; canoe; children in a park; children on a boat; sailboats; bathers; factory chimney; quarry; CN locomotive; public market; traffic of cars and pedestrians; lights shining in the evening; fireworks

Montréal un jour d'été

1965

Montréal un jour d'été poster
5.5

From dawn to night, Montreal is a living reality, with many faces, many occupations, and the uncertain and blurred colors of industrial cities. The film illustrates different aspects of this reality: the cosmopolitan Montreal, the anthropological Montreal and the plastic Montreal. Images: Electric wires; poles; view of houses and cars; airplane; bridge; men working on construction; mechanical crane pulley; mechanical crane in the street; men walking on constructions (scaffolding); skyscraper; park; lovers lying in the grass; canoe; children in a park; children on a boat; sailboats; bathers; factory chimney; quarry; CN locomotive; public market; traffic of cars and pedestrians; lights shining in the evening; fireworks

Montréal un jour d'été

1965

Ville-Marie poster
8.0

Today it is the city of Montreal, but 3 centuries ago the tiny band of missionary founders called it Ville-Marie, the holy city of Mary. This film goes back to its beginning and those who felt called to plant an oasis of Christianity in the North American wilderness. In an imaginative, at times almost surrealistic, way the film recalls the highborn company from France, and shows what survives of Ville-Marie in the Montreal of today.

Ville-Marie

1965

Quebec: Duplessis and After... poster
8.5

This film establishes a parallel between the 1970 electoral campaign in Québec and the 1936 campaign dominated by Maurice Duplessis. It shows the hope but also the uncertainty that existed in 1970. Had the Quiet Revolution really changed things in Québec? Was it possible that a new leader would emerge on the political scene? (NFB.ca)

Quebec: Duplessis and After...

1972

Quebec: Duplessis and After... poster
8.5

This film establishes a parallel between the 1970 electoral campaign in Québec and the 1936 campaign dominated by Maurice Duplessis. It shows the hope but also the uncertainty that existed in 1970. Had the Quiet Revolution really changed things in Québec? Was it possible that a new leader would emerge on the political scene? (NFB.ca)

Quebec: Duplessis and After...

1972

Between Sweet and Salt Water poster
6.0

A young singer-songwriter abandons his life in his hometown and moves to the city to make it big. He achieves fame, but it comes at a price.

Between Sweet and Salt Water

1967

No artwork available
10.0

If you saw someone drop a thick pack of cash on the ground what would run through your mind? A variety of people, from all walks of life explore those thoughts before making that crucial decision to act. Will someone step forward to do the right thing?

Lost & Profound

2005

Cotton Mill, Treadmill poster
6.5

Director Denys Arcand made an inquiry on textile industry in Quebec, meeting employers and workers of that industry.

Cotton Mill, Treadmill

1970

No artwork available
NR

Amateur film, today not found.

East of Eaton

1959

Montreal Stories poster
5.0

Six stories about Montreal. 1: A young housewife from Toronto samples the nightlife using basic French. 2: The tale of a painting of Montreal's first mayor, Jacques Viger. 3: During a hockey game, Madeleine tries to tell Roger she wants a divorce after forty years of marriage. 4: A visitor to a conference on pictographs arrives at the airport, where the female customs officer steals a momento from each person. 5: As she is being driven to the hospital in an ambulance after an auto accident, Sarah recalls her life. 6: At a diplomatic reception, an older woman reminisces about her grand love in Montreal.

Montreal Stories

1991

Montreal Stories poster
5.0

Six stories about Montreal. 1: A young housewife from Toronto samples the nightlife using basic French. 2: The tale of a painting of Montreal's first mayor, Jacques Viger. 3: During a hockey game, Madeleine tries to tell Roger she wants a divorce after forty years of marriage. 4: A visitor to a conference on pictographs arrives at the airport, where the female customs officer steals a momento from each person. 5: As she is being driven to the hospital in an ambulance after an auto accident, Sarah recalls her life. 6: At a diplomatic reception, an older woman reminisces about her grand love in Montreal.

Montreal Stories

1991

No artwork available
9.0

No synopsis available yet.

Parallels and the Great Sun

1964

Alone or with Others poster
6.7

At the end of the year 1961, three young students, Denys Arcand, Denis Héroux and Stéphane Venne, decide to direct a feature-length film centered on the perks of student life. The film mixes fiction and reality in the style of cinéma vérité. "Alone or with others" is often considered the first indepent film of Québec.

Alone or with Others

1962

Alone or with Others poster
6.7

At the end of the year 1961, three young students, Denys Arcand, Denis Héroux and Stéphane Venne, decide to direct a feature-length film centered on the perks of student life. The film mixes fiction and reality in the style of cinéma vérité. "Alone or with others" is often considered the first indepent film of Québec.

Alone or with Others

1962