Georges-Henri Denys Arcand (; born June 25, 1941) is a Canadian filmmaker. During his four decades career, he became one of the most internationally-recognized directors from Quebec, earning widespread acclaim and numerous accolades for his "intensely personal, challenging, and intellectual films."
His film The Barbarian Invasions won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2004. His films have also been nominated three further times, including two nominations in the same category for The Decline of the American Empire in 1986 and Jesus of Montreal in 1989, becoming the only French-Canadian director in history whose films have received this number of nominations and, subsequently, to have a film win the award. For The Barbarian Invasions, he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay, losing to Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation.
Arcand has also won several awards from the Cannes Film Festival, including the Best Screenplay Award, the Jury Prize, and many other prestigious awards worldwide. He won three César Awards in 2004 for The Barbarian Invasions: Best Director, Best Original Screenplay or Adaptation and Best Film, the only Canadian director to have done so. He is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, In 1986 he wrote and directed what was until then the highest-grossing film in Quebec (and Canadian) history, The Decline of the American Empire (Le Déclin de l'empire américain).
At the Canadian Genie Awards, it captured best film, best director, and best writer of an original screenplay. It also won the "International Critics Prize" at the Cannes Film Festival and became the first Canadian feature film nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Three years later Arcand repeated this award-garnering performance with his widely acclaimed 1989 film Jesus of Montreal (Jésus de Montréal) winning the same three Genie awards, plus the Jury Prize at Cannes. The movie earned him a second Academy Award nomination, becoming the first Canadian director to accomplish this achievement.
Arcand produced and directed his first English language film in 1993, titled Love and Human Remains, and did so again in 2000, with the film Stardom, which opened the Toronto International Film Festival. He then spent two years writing the script for what many claim is his finest piece of cinematic writing to date, The Barbarian Invasions (Les invasions barbares). Released in 2003, the film won Arcand the Best Screenplay Award at the Cannes Film Festival, was nominated for a Golden Globe Award as Best Foreign Language Film and won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In addition, Denys Arcand was nominated for an Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay. The Barbarian Invasions won France's 2004 César Award for Best Film, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay or Adaptation.
Arcand's film Days of Darkness (L'Âge des ténèbres) was chosen to close the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. The press opening was subdued and the subsequent reviews were mixed. Following this, he took a seven-year hiatus from feature film directing; he returned in 2014 with the film Le règne de la beauté.
Awards and honours
thumb|Arcand's star on [[Canada's Walk of Fame.]]
In 1988, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and was promoted to Companion in 2005. In 1990 the Government of France awarded him the Legion of Honour. He finally earned from his home province one of its highest distinctions, the title of Knight of the National Order of Quebec, in 1990.
In 1995, Arcand received a Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement. In February 2004, the government of France named Denys Arcand a Commander of L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, that nation's highest cultural honour. In 2004, Arcand was also inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame.
He is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.
In 2023, he was named the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Directors Guild of Canada.
{| class="wikitable"
!Award
!Date of ceremony
!Category
!Nominated work
!Result
|-
| rowspan="2" |Academy Awards
| rowspan="2" |February 29, 2004
|Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
| rowspan="2" |The Barbarian Invasions
|
|-
|Best Original Screenplay
|
|-
| rowspan="3" |BAFTA Awards
|March 17, 1991
| rowspan="2" |Best Film Not in the English Language
|Jesus of Montreal
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |February 15, 2004
| rowspan="2" |The Barbarian Invasions
|
|-
|Best Original Screenplay
|
|-
| rowspan="6" |Cannes Film Festival
|May 8–19, 1986
|FIPRESCI Prize
|The Decline of the American Empire
|
|-
| rowspan="3" |May 11–23, 1989
|Jury Prize
| rowspan="3" |Jesus of Montreal
|
|-
|Prize of the Ecumenical Jury
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |Palme d'Or
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |May 14–25, 2003
| rowspan="6" |The Barbarian Invasions
|
|-
|Best Screenplay
|
|-
| rowspan="3" |César Awards
| rowspan="3" |February 21, 2004
|Best Film
|
|-
|Best Director
|
|-
|Best Original Screenplay or Adaptation
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |Directors Guild of Canada Awards
|2004
|Best Direction in a Feature Film
|
|-
|2023
|Lifetime Achievement Award
|Himself
|
|-
| rowspan="11" |Genie Awards
|May 15, 1965
|Best Films for Children
|Québec 1603 - Samuel de Champlain|Samuel de Champlain: Québec 1603
|
|-
|October 12, 1973
|Best Screenplay
|Réjeanne Padovani
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |March 18, 1987
|Best Direction
| rowspan="2" |The Decline of the American Empire
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |Best Original Screenplay
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |March 20, 1990
| rowspan="2" |Jesus of Montreal
|
|-
|Best Direction
|
|-
|2001
|Best Screenplay
|Stardom
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |May 1, 2004
|Best Direction
| rowspan="2" |The Barbarian Invasions
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |Best Original Screenplay
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |March 3, 2008
| rowspan="2" |Days of Darkness
|
|-
|Best Direction
|
|-
|Lumière Awards
|February 17, 2004
|Best French-Language Film
|The Barbarian Invasions
|
|-
| rowspan="8" |Quebec Cinema Awards
| rowspan="3" |February 22, 2004
|Best Director
| rowspan="3" |The Barbarian Invasions
|
|-
|Best Screenplay
|
|-
|Most Successful Film Outside Quebec
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |March 9, 2008
|Best Director
| rowspan="2" |Days of Darkness
|
|-
|Best Screenplay
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |June 2, 2019
|Most Successful Film Outside Quebec
| rowspan="2" |The Fall of the American Empire
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |Michel-Côté Public Prize
|
|-
|December 8, 2024
|Testament
|
|-
| rowspan="5" |Toronto International Film Festival
| rowspan="2" |September 4–13, 1986
|People's Choice Award
| rowspan="2" |The Decline of the American Empire
|
|-
|Best Canadian Film
|
|-
|September 7–16, 1989
|International Critics' Award
|Jesus of Montreal
|
|-
|September 4– 13, 2003
| rowspan="2" |Best Canadian Film
|The Barbarian Invasions
|
|-
|September 6–16, 2018
|The Fall of the American Empire
|
|-
|Writers Guild of Canada Awards
|2001
|WGC Screenwriting Award
|Stardom
|
|}
Personal life
Arcand is a lapsed Catholic. Married a second time, neither Arcand nor Denise Robert, his producer/wife, has had children. He was 55 years old when they adopted an orphaned baby boy from China named Carter. His brother Bernard Arcand (1945–2009) was a professor of anthropology, and his youngest brother Gabriel Arcand (b. 1949) is a noted Canadian actor. His great-uncle, Adrien Arcand (1899-1967), was a notorious far-right politician.
Filmography
Director
- À l'est d'Eaton - 1959, short film co-directed with Stéphane Venne
- Alone or With Others (Seul ou avec d'autres) - 1962, co-directed with Denis Héroux and Stéphane Venne
- Dirty Money (La maudite galette) - 1972
- Réjeanne Padovani - 1973
- Gina - 1975
- Empire, Inc. - 1983, TV miniseries codirected with Douglas Jackson
- The Crime of Ovide Plouffe (Le Crime d'Ovide Plouffe) - 1984
- The Decline of the American Empire (Le Déclin de l'empire américain) - 1986
- Jesus of Montreal (Jésus de Montréal) - 1989
- Les lettres de la religieuse portugaise - 1991, TV movie
- Montreal Stories - 1992, segment "Vue d'ailleurs"
- Love and Human Remains - 1993
- Poverty and Other Delights (Joyeux Calvaire) - 1996
- Stardom - 2000
- The Barbarian Invasions (Les invasions barbares) - 2003
- Days of Darkness (L'Âge des ténèbres) - 2007
- An Eye for Beauty (Le règne de la beauté) - 2014
- The Fall of the American Empire (La chute de l'empire américain) - 2018
- Testament - 2023
Documentaries
- Champlain - 1964, short film
- Québec 1603 - Samuel de Champlain - 1964, short film
- Les Montréalistes - 1965, short film
- Montréal, un jour d'été - 1965, short film
- La route de l'Ouest - 1965, short film
- Volleyball - 1966, short film
- Parcs atlantiques - 1967, short film
- Quebec: Duplessis and After (Québec : Duplessis et après...) - 1972
- La lutte des travailleurs d'hôpitaux - 1976, short film
- Cotton Mill, Treadmill (On est au coton) - 1976 (made 1970 but withheld from release)
- Comfort and Indifference (Le confort et l'indifférence) - 1982
Acting
- It Isn't Jacques Cartier's Fault (C'est pas la faute à Jacques Cartier) - 1968
- Nominingue... depuis qu'il existe - 1968
- My Eye (Mon oeil) - 1971
- Dirty Money (La maudite galette) - 1972
- Réjeanne Padovani - 1973
- Pigs Are Seldom Clean (On n'engraisse pas les cochons à l'eau claire) - 1973
- Normande (La Tête de Normande St-Onge) - 1975
- Night Zoo (Un zoo la nuit) - 1987
- Jesus of Montreal (Jésus de Montréal) - 1989
- Montreal Stories (Montréal vu par...) - 1991
- Léolo - 1992
- Un gars, une fille - 2000
- The Barbarian Invasions (Les Invasions barbares) - 2003
- Tideline - 2004
- Idole instantanée - 2005
- Les Bougon - 2004-06
- Days of Darkness (L'Âge des ténèbres) - 2007
- Barney's Version - 2010
- Adam & Ève - 2012
- Kiss Me Like a Lover (Embrasse-moi comme tu m'aimes) - 2016
- Les pêcheurs - 2016, TV series
References
Further reading
- Michel Coulombe, Denys Arcand. La vraie nature du cinéaste, (entretiens), Montréal: Boréal 1993
- André Loiselle, Brian McIllroy (éd.), Auteur/Provocateur. The Films of Denys Arcand, Westport: Praeger 1995
External links
- Denys Arcand at the Canadian Film Encyclopedia
- Denys Arcand on NFB