Und So Weite: Days of Darkness and the Montreal traffic jam
December 1st 2008 23:21
Warning! Posts on Und So Weite contain massive spoilers!
The opening film of the Canadian Film Festival in Sydney was the latest from Denys Arcand, "Days of Darkness (L'age des tenebres)", the final part in a trilogy of films starting with "The Decline of the American Empire".
As the film opened, I tried to guess where it was shot - certainly, this was Quebec, but where? I lived in Montreal for several years, but I thought it was, perhaps, Quebec City instead.
One scene opened with a massive traffic jam on a grey concrete freeway, the haze of exhaust simmering in the air like angry, writhing snakes. Yes, this was Montreal - only the island city on the St.Laurence river could possibly create something so vile and despicable. I've been stuck on Autoroute 40 in a traffic jam and it's a dehumanizing, terrifying experience.
This is what Arcand has for us with "Days of Darkness" - the dehumanization of humanity. Jean-Marc Leblanc, the center of the film, lives out his life in dreary mediocrity. A big home, out in the suburbs, a power-and-career crazed wife that hardly has the time to look at him, two daughters that never seem to acknowledge his existence.
On the surface, though, it would seem that Leblanc has everything... a government job, a car, a home with a swimming pool, a family. Certainly, there are many people that are worse off, suffering badly enough to want even the tiniest slice of Leblanc's life.
Arcand's vision is clear: imagine that a person with all these things could still be perfectly miserable. It's a terrifying image because it brings a sense of disorientation, especially for young audiences, who are yet to cast their lot but still dream those grand dreams.
Leblanc dreams, too, but it's through masturbatory fantasies... he's a writer, a celebrity, a king - having his every need attended to by a harem of beautiful women. Diane Kruger is his main affection, a sultry blonde that materializes with him in the shower, water running down her back and around the curve of her rear, inflaming the audience with the red pulse of sexual conquest.
I admit to having similar fantasies, as I'd expect many men do, and the women of Arcand's film are lovely. Shapely and comely, they perform Leblanc's most sinister desires - as his life falls apart, though, even these fantasy women jeer at him, laughing and mocking his lack of will.
The day your fantasies turn on you, that's truly a day of darkness.
Perhaps even more terrifying is one fragment of dialogue near the end of the film. Leblanc works in a government office, listening to the pleas of citizens that feel that the government has mistreated them. A man loses his legs when a lamppost falls down, and the city expects him to pay for half the lamppost. An immigrant's woman's husband is arrested without a warrant because he's an Arab.
Leblanc listens to them with a weary face and, as is expected of him, returns no answers or conciliatory statements.
One man, pouring his heart out, notes the indifference on Leblanc's face and states: "You don't even care".
Leblanc gets up and says the most he's said for the entire movie. Yes, he does care. He cares about it all, but his life exists in its own misery and he sees no way out. He was a writer in university, a student leader. Active, popular, intelligent - it must have seemed that there was no end to the things he could do, a likely probability that he would make a contribution to the world.
Instead he finds himself in the Quebec government, hands tied, unable to help people that have been pushed around by a society that chews and spits.
Terrifying, despite the comedy and the slapstick; "Days of Darkness" is easily criticized for its many flaws, but, at the heart, is this singular feeling of despair and loss of value. Why should we live like this?
Denys Arcand on pulling his film out of competition at Cannes:
""Somehow, juries or people who vote, take themselves extremely seriously. Comedy ... says something about the world: 'We are all ridiculous.' And people who take themselves seriously don't want to hear that.""
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Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Great quote by Arcand about comedy too. He's right, when you get right down to it, we are all pretty ridiculous and the best form of comedy exposes that without needing to go overboard.
Comment by Cibbuano
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Arcand's quote is good, but so is Calvin from Calvin & Hobbes, on why we laugh at absurdities: