
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
9.5Marcello 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
4.7Host 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
6.1No synopsis available yet.
Nulle part ailleurs
1987
7.2No synopsis available yet.
Les pêcheurs
2013
NRViens voir les comédiens is a television show on the Canadian French-language arts and culture television network ARTV.
Viens voir les comédiens
2002
6.0No synopsis available yet.
En audition avec Simon
2010
Film credits
2020s · 4 titles
NRA distinguished lawyer who finds himself having to perform community service after committing a blunder: getting into a shouting match with a mascot during a Christmas parade.
Santa Claude
2026
1.0After the birth of his grandson, Bobby Roth undertakes a cinematic investigation as to what constitutes being a "good man" in today's world. This voyage of discovery leads him to interview more than fifty of his friends, both men and women who he considers to be "good people," about their views on everything from how they were parented to their thoughts on feminism, change, and regrets they might have. Their answers both surprises and enlighten both the viewers and Bobby, himself.
Good Men
2024
NREvery morning, Marcel confides in his tape recorder. It is from his reflections on life that this film takes us into the wake of his story.
At the End of Nothing at All
2024
NRAt 97, filmmaker Fernand Dansereau delivers a vibrant and inspiring final documentary! He draws us into rich and sensitive exchanges: on the joy of creating with two painter friends, on aging as an artist with Marcel Sabourin and Denys Arcand, on old age with Janette Bertrand and Guy Rocher, on everyday wisdom with philosophers, and on spirituality and mourning with a few friends. He also talks about the future of the planet with his grandchildren.
À la lumière du soir
2025
2010s · 7 titles
7.0The picaresque and touching story of the politically incorrect, fully lived life of the impulsive, irascible and fearlessly blunt Barney Panofsky.
Barney's Version
2010
6.5Brother 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
5.0Marc 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
NRA 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
4.0Montreal, 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
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
8.0No synopsis available yet.
Le prix du paradis
2017
2000s · 7 titles
7.0In 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
NRNo synopsis available yet.
From Office to Box-Office
2009
6.0This 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
6.6Four 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
NRThanks 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 synopsis available yet.
Les héritiers du mouton noir
2003
5.0M.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
7.2The story of an imaginative boy who pretends he is the child of a sperm-laden Sicilian tomato upon which his mother accidentally fell.
Léolo
1992
5.0Six 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
7.5From coast to coast, from St. John's, Newfoundland to Vancouver, British Columbia, Jacques Godbout films a documentary chronicle of the political turnaround that was to follow the Meech Lake Accord. Following the Meech referendum, Quebec and Canada found themselves at an impasse after a long and ultimately fruitless negotiation, various social and political actors spoke out. Their comments, linked to film clips on the lives of important Canadian politicians (Sir Georges-Étienne Cartier, John A. Macdonald, Louis-Joseph Papineau...), draw parallels between the speeches of yesterday and those of the post-Meech era.
The Black Sheep
1992
1980s · 4 titles
6.9Marcel, recently released from prison, attempt to rebuild his relationship with his girlfriend Julie (now a prostitute) and especially his father Albert (who thinks he's been away on a long trip abroad), while being pursued by two corrupt cops (one of whom bears a longstanding grudge against him) for drug money he's alleged to possess.
Night Zoo
1987
6.9A 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
8.0Features clips from 21 documentary and animation film classics, interviews with NFB filmmakers past and present, and incisive commentary from film critics and historians on the role and influence of the NFB during its first half century of existence.
The Magical Eye
1989
7.0An anthology of sequences from the best films that the National Film Board of Canada produced since its beginnings. Divided by themes and presented by a trio of actors-signers (including Carle's wife Chloé Sainte-Marie) who sings the same song in between the movie excerpts. This movie celebrated the anniversary of the National Film Board in 1985.
Cinéma, cinéma
1985
1970s · 6 titles
9.0The true identity of an undercover RCMP narcotics agent is discovered by the criminals he is investigating and his family pays the price.
Pigs Are Seldom Clean
1973
8.0One evening a man watches eight movies simultaneously on television.
Mon oeil
1971
6.0Working as a pharmacy clerk while dreaming of escape through dance, Normande St-Onge supports a household of dependent and unstable relatives. As her efforts to protect and hold together her improvised family intensify, the pressures of exploitation, eviction, and emotional isolation push her toward psychological collapse. Directed by Gilles Carle, the film blurs the boundary between fantasy and breakdown.
La Tête de Normande St-Onge
1975
8.5This 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
6.7The unexpected return of his ex-wife and the assembly of a group of protesters both threaten to wreck a corrupt contractor's inauguration party for his new superhighway.
Réjeanne Padovani
1973
7.1A robbery at the secluded country home of a wealthy old man goes horribly awry.
Dirty Money
1972
1960s · 2 titles
10.0A Docufiction about the twin realities of the Nominingue village in rural quebec, a poverty town turned vacation spot. where the older generation remembers the harsh conditions and poverty that afflicted them, while younger generations and tourist deal with ennui.
Nominingue... depuis qu'il existe
1967
10.0Three American tourists explore Quebec guided by an imaginative leader, in an atmosphere of health and good humor. Baroque incidents, romance, and satire on society unfold, aiming to evoke monumental laughter from Quebecers.
C'est pas la faute à Jacques Cartier
1968
Series credits
9.5Marcello 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
4.7Host 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
6.1No synopsis available yet.
Nulle part ailleurs
1987
7.2No synopsis available yet.
Les pêcheurs
2013
NRViens voir les comédiens is a television show on the Canadian French-language arts and culture television network ARTV.
Viens voir les comédiens
2002
6.0No synopsis available yet.
En audition avec Simon
2010
NREach 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
9.0Two 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
7.0No synopsis available yet.
La plus belle province
2022
Behind the camera
6.6A 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
6.6A 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
5.8In 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
7.0In 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
7.0In 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
6.4Jean-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
6.4Jean-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
3.4An architect and his wife see their relationship challenged.
An Eye for Beauty
2014
3.4An architect and his wife see their relationship challenged.
An Eye for Beauty
2014
5.4A young girl is plucked from small-town obscurity and thrust into the spotlight of the glamorous world of super-models.
Stardom
2000
5.4A young girl is plucked from small-town obscurity and thrust into the spotlight of the glamorous world of super-models.
Stardom
2000
6.8A 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
6.8A 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
6.7Four 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
6.7Four 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
6.9A 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
6.9A 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
6.0Ovide 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
7.5The 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
6.71966 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
6.2A beautiful stripper hires renowned criminals to exact revenge on those who raped her in her motel room.
Gina
1975
7.1Made 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
7.1Made 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
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
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
9.0In 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
5.5From 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
5.5From 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
8.0Today 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
8.5This 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
8.5This 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
6.0A 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
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
6.5Director Denys Arcand made an inquiry on textile industry in Quebec, meeting employers and workers of that industry.
Cotton Mill, Treadmill
1970
Amateur film, today not found.
East of Eaton
1959
5.0Six 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
5.0Six 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 synopsis available yet.
Parallels and the Great Sun
1964
6.7At 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
6.7At 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
