"The Fall of the American Empire" (2018 release from Quebec) brings the story of Pierre-Paul, a 30-something delivery guy. As the movie opens, Pierre-Paul and his girlfriend are in a discussion over a cup of coffee, eventually leading to their breakup. During Pierre-Paul's round of delivering packages (think UPS), he comes at the wrong spot at the wrong time: a heist is happening, and in the process there is a shoot-out and 2 dead bodies and... 2 large bags of cash, just sitting there. At a whim, Pierre-Paul grabs the bags and takes off... Will Pierre-Paul decide to keep the money? or spend it? can anyone track him down? At this point we are 10 min. into the movie but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.
Couple of comments: this is the latest film of Canadian writer-director Debys Arcand. The title of this movie immediately reminds us of Arcand's mid-80s film "The Decline of the American Empire", and in fact thematically there certainly are similar themes, but to be clear, "The Fall" is not a direct sequel to "The Decline". As to "the Fall", it starts out as a "what will Pierre-Paul do" movie, but about midway through the film, Arcand branches out and makes it also into a fiercely social commentary on today's society of immense inequality (economic and otherwise). There are wonderful acting performances throughout, including Alexandre Landry as well as the stunningly beautiful Maripier Morin (in her first acting performance). Please note that all of the performances are in full-fledged French-Quebecois accent (distinctly different from the 'regular' French that I grew up with in Europe--Belgium in particular).
"The Fall of the American Empire" was released in Canada over a year ago and finally made it to my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati this weekend, yes more than a year later. Better late than never. The Saturday early evening screening where I saw this at was attended okay (about 15 people), but sill I can't see this playing very long in theaters. For that the movie is frankly too quirky. That said, I quite enjoyed it and if you are in the mood for a foreign crime-with-social message caper, I'd readily suggest you check this out, be it in the theater (if you still can), on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.
Couple of comments: this is the latest film of Canadian writer-director Debys Arcand. The title of this movie immediately reminds us of Arcand's mid-80s film "The Decline of the American Empire", and in fact thematically there certainly are similar themes, but to be clear, "The Fall" is not a direct sequel to "The Decline". As to "the Fall", it starts out as a "what will Pierre-Paul do" movie, but about midway through the film, Arcand branches out and makes it also into a fiercely social commentary on today's society of immense inequality (economic and otherwise). There are wonderful acting performances throughout, including Alexandre Landry as well as the stunningly beautiful Maripier Morin (in her first acting performance). Please note that all of the performances are in full-fledged French-Quebecois accent (distinctly different from the 'regular' French that I grew up with in Europe--Belgium in particular).
"The Fall of the American Empire" was released in Canada over a year ago and finally made it to my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati this weekend, yes more than a year later. Better late than never. The Saturday early evening screening where I saw this at was attended okay (about 15 people), but sill I can't see this playing very long in theaters. For that the movie is frankly too quirky. That said, I quite enjoyed it and if you are in the mood for a foreign crime-with-social message caper, I'd readily suggest you check this out, be it in the theater (if you still can), on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.