Sébastien hands the hospital administrator a file he claims to have prepared outlining a plan for his father’s care. When opened, the administrator finds two stacks of bills, money to ensure that his real plans for his father are not disturbed. “This isn’t the third world,” she protests. He leaves her the money and she doesn’t return it. The place is Montreal, Canada. Not the third world indeed.

“The Barbarian Invasions” is the intimate story of Rémy (Rémy Girard) and his son Sébastien (Stéphane Rousseau). The film follows the last few weeks of Rémy’s life and his son’s attempts to help his father die as comfortably as possible.

His whole life Rémy was a cad and gleefully he admits it. Sébastien, his son, is embarrassed by his father’s infidelity and embarrassed by the life his father has lead. “The Barbarian Invasions” takes the position that both men have something to teach the other and in the waning moments of Rémy’s life, maybe he will be able to pass his zest for living onto his staid son and at the same time make peace with his boy. Rémy is dying and only has a short time to live. He does not want to leave Montreal and attempt experimental treatments; he wants to die. Sébastien stoically gives in with his mother’s encouragement. “Find his friends,” she suggests. And that is what Sébastien can do for his father surround this dying man with the people that were important to him.

“The Barbarian Invasions” is one of the first films I’ve seen to introduce us very accurately to the 21st Century family, one divided and broken but productive and ultimately strong, even healthy. Sébastien’s mother, Louise (Dorothée Berryman), knew of the affairs, the mistresses that Rémy kept, and for the most part she accepted these indiscretions. At one point, Rémy admits that he and Sébastien’s mother married so that they could have sex and live together without the interference of their families. Is this so unusual?

Even though Louise has divorced Rémy, it appears that she never stopped loving him. Rémy’s family is not limited to his blood relations; rather, he has formed a bond with his friends that is as thick as the familiar. Anyone who has been sucked into such edgy (and some would say surface) television shows as “Sex And The City” can recognize the simple fact that in today’s technologically advanced wireless world family and friends can rest on similar plateaus. Maybe it is easier to bond with close friends telling and sharing with them things one would never reveal to an immediate family member.

“The Barbarian Invasions” is almost futuristic in the way it relates this very small and personal story. While the hospital infrastructure is decaying and under-funded, we see bits and pieces of this modern age—a cell phone, a lap-top, satellite video communications from a yacht far out at sea. It is the blending of the old world with the new that fascinated me at times during this film. Fine science fiction of writers such as Asimov, Bradbury, and even Heinlien always took time to focus on how life would be in the future not just relying on technological gadgetry to make plot points. “Invasions” smartly integrates pieces of technology with emotional struggles.

Sébastien lives in London where he is a broker of some sort, he is rich and successful, everything his father has rejected. Through the use of a cell phone and laptop, Sébastien can virtually continue his work. There is a great scene in which Sébastien’s laptop is stolen from his father’s hospital room. Sébastien is immediately angry telling his dying father that he has a huge deal on the machine and emphasizes how important the device is to him. The smallness of the device and the deal are revealed here. Death is worse, having your death minimized while you are still alive is far worse. Although Sébastien smartly retrieves his computer, I think he begins in this telling scene to realize what is really important. His decision to stay with his father to the end is not without a financial price. The odd thing is that with technology, Sébastien may be able to multitask his father’s death. The 21st Century Family is revealed.

There are things I didn’t really like about “Invasions” such as a weird subplot involving heroin that I could have done without. You see, one of Sébastien’s friends tells him after looking at his father’s x-rays or other interior images by satellite transmission that there is little that they can do for him except provide better pain management. The friend reveals to Sébastien that heroin is much more powerful than codeine and may provide the father more relief. The manner in which the heroin is acquired troubled me for two reasons: (1) Sébastien finds a supplier easily and his first attempt would likely have resulted in arrest; and (2) the film spares us much of Rémy’s pain making me wonder if heroin is really necessary. Still, writer and director Denys Arcand smartly focuses on the emotions being experienced by the two men (father and son) and does not put the audience through too much physical pain and suffering. It is enough, I think, that Rémy is dying and will die.

At the beginning of “Les Invasions barbares” or “The Barbarian Invasions” there is one long continuously flowing shot in which a purposely-shaky camera follows a nun on her rounds down a crowded hallway in a hospital. She meanders skillfully to and fro by the sick and cramped, people are literally lying on beds in the corridor with IVs attached and dangling, some stand strained in gowns that reveal their rears, a few accept communion. It’s very humbling when you’re sick, worse still when you are dying and have no one to help you, no one to care for you not only physically but emotionally as well—such is a poor death. Few of us will be fortunate enough to die as richly as Rémy.

Jonathan W. Hickman, 2003