1986, Canada
Comedy, Drama
Yes, even middle-aged academic intellectuals can have the sex drives of young teenagers. In director Denys Arcand's 1986 prequel to 2003's Oscar winning The Barbarian Invasions, fellow professors spend time in the Quebec countryside discussing sexual conquests as if they were merely swapping recipes rather than wives.
For the first half of the film, the men and women are separated from the other gender, free to divulge every flippant one-night stand or casual orgy amongst their friends. Sex seems to come to each of them as easily and cheaply as a fast food drive-thru, and there is no discussion of the consequences. Wives accept that their husbands have flings and vice-versa; it is simply never discussed between them. Snippets of the truth are seen through flashbacks, and though the basic facts remain true, the edges of emotion reveal themselves.
As the sexes come together, the tension rises. Though the winks are barely visible between each sex, there is a level of fear that comes from the risk of honesty. Though their sexual history is tangled across table lines, no one dares discuss it. Any dialogue concerning family, professional equality, and aging provides the stress that was missing from all prior conquest conversation. Arcand raises the question as to whether the decline of civilization is linked to a desire for happiness, and whether that bliss is translated variously as a need for sex or a fulfilling professional life; the answers are as convoluted as the conversations.
There are no DVD extras.