A poor intellectual who works as a delivery truck driver finds a bags full of stolen money. A criminal comedy of manners from the classic of Canadian cinema Denys Arcand.
Pierre-Paul can only dream of an academic career: the only thing that present-day reality offers him is the job of a courier. But one day he finds two bags packed with money lost and left during a robbery. Should he bring them to the police, that is, return to the state? Or, would it be more logical to appropriate them? While Pierre-Paul is busy trying to solve the dilemma by asking like-minded people for help, other parties start a hunt for the money.
The Fall of the American Empire by Denys Arcand, a classic and patriarch of Canadian cinema, continues and develops the themes raised by his previous masterpieces: The Decline of the American Empire, The Barbarian Invasion, and Days of Darkness. Just as in the earlier pictures, an eloquent intellectual dialogue shapes the plot, which is a combination of film noir and political satire. As usual, Arcand’s characters are smart and witty, citing Racine and alluding to Wittgenstein or Marcus Aurelius. This is how they assert their immunity and bypass the dead ends and pitfalls of late capitalism, marked by the ongoing opposition between money, people, and ideas.
The Fall of the American Empire
Director Denys Arcand
Canada, 2018, 127 min. 16+
