Denys Arcand

Directing

Denys Arcand

Born 1941-06-25 · Deschambault, Quebec, Canada

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 "Stardom" satirized fame, closing Cannes 2000 and opening TIFF, a rare honour for Canadian cinema. "The Barbarian Invasions," a sequel to his earlier work, earned Arcand an Oscar, Cannes prizes, French Cesars, and Quebec Jutra awards, solidifying his cinematic legacy.

Acting credits

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

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

Léolo poster
7.2

The 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

From Office to Box-Office poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

From Office to Box-Office

2009

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

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

Good Men poster
1.0

After 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

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

Jesus of Montreal poster
6.8

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

Pigs Are Seldom Clean poster
9.0

The 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

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

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

No artwork available
NR

Interview with director Denys Arcand about his documentary work. Conducted on the premises of the canadian National Film Board (NFB).

Le documentaire selon Denys Arcand

Night Zoo poster
6.9

Marcel, 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

The Black Sheep poster
7.5

From 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

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

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

Dirty Money poster
7.1

A robbery at the secluded country home of a wealthy old man goes horribly awry.

Dirty Money

1972

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

Réjeanne Padovani poster
6.7

The 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

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

La Tête de Normande St-Onge poster
6.0

Working 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

Le prix du paradis poster
8.0

No synopsis available yet.

Le prix du paradis

2017

The Magical Eye poster
8.0

Features 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

Behind the camera

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

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

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

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

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

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 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

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

Jesus of Montreal poster
6.8

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
6.8

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

Gina poster
6.1

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

Gina

1975

Poverty and Other Delights poster
7.0

Marcel and Joseph are tireless walkers. Their itinerary is an invitation to discover improbable places and fascinating people. Everlastingly looking for Stanley, Marcel’s only friend, they meet an unlikely crowd of extravagant characters. Each has a story to tell, his hope to share.

Poverty and Other Delights

1996

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

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

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

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