The Decline of the American Empire (1986)

Sex is a most noteworthy aspect of existence. It is perhaps the most interesting activity there is between birth and death. LE DECLIN DE L'EMPIRE AMERICAIN studies human sexuality in a dry and boring manner. Actually, worse than being simply boring, seeing nude 40-year-olds is, well, unpleasant.I guess there is some shock value in having adults as old as our parents talk about sex, but after twenty minutes, this stops being interesting. Perhaps if the characters were all 20 years younger, the film would be more visually captivating.LE DECLIN DE L'EMPIRE AMERICAIN is not worth the time.

A lot of people in the cinema enjoyed this film, but it only made me feel misanthropic. If smug "intellectuals" bantering about their irritating sex lives, sounds ok to you, watch it. I felt bored, but glad I did know people like that. The premise of the film was that, as with all societies or great civilizations, they are eventually doomed to fail. According to the female historian character, who bores us with this fact, America is showing signs of it's decline (Admittedly she goes into greater detail than me). The next part of the film is concerned with the vacuous, fatuous and asinine behaviour of her friends and colleagues, and the various miseries caused by their libidinous behaviour, with a vague attempt at humor. A lot of people liked this movie where I watched it. I could not relate to it.

This movie seems to be dividing commenters which can only be a positive sign. In the first negative comment I read the writer chose to remind us that film is a Visual medium and whilst that is true if we take it to its logical conclusion we will, by definition, look forward to a return of the Silent film. I find it difficult to believe that anyone who is sufficiently interested in movies to post comments is not going to wander into a movie theatre with no idea of what is playing. Okay, if you pay the going rate at the box office hoping to see a mindless popcorn movie/slasher/techno and after a couple of minutes you realise you're gonna hafta THINK about this one, then, sure, you got a beef, but by the same token aren't you kinda foolish in not checking SOMETHING about the movie currently playing and ideally reading at least one review that will mention the topic. I, for example, have never seen 'My Dinner With Andre', simply because it has never played in a theatre near me when I have been able to get there. BUT, I DO know that it is about two guys having dinner and talking so if I do eventually go and see it I can't really complain that it's not Eddie Murphy fodder. I MAY take exception to the KIND of conversation on offer but that's about it. No one goes to a Chekhov play in a live theatre hoping to see an Elton John concert. Chekhov plays are about groups of people kvetching about how sad they are period. The fact that it is GREAT theatre and Chekhov sets and sustains a great MOOD is neither here nor there. That may be why 'Vanya On 42nd Street' is such a great movie. Anyhow, back to this one. The night before I saw this I caught The Barbarian Invasions and was blown away so I made a point of seeing this. Apart from the strangeness of seeing mostly the same characters 18 years earlier - which was not unlike seeing Priestley's 'Time And The Conways' but leaving out Act #1 - the same sure directorial hand was easily discernible. If we do need talk movies, and, yes, there IS a place for them, then this one is as good as any and better than most. 8/10

This is an extraordinary, in the very French (this is French Canadian,) slice of life film. Fidelity, infidelity, values, intellectuality, deceit, love, mortality, frienship beautifully explored by a great ensemble playing a great script with heart, no pretension, and to great result. This is one of those "trust me" films, almost inexplicable in its gathering power. Fine art, this.