Days of Darkness (2007 Canadian film)

Days of Darkness (French: L'Âge des ténèbres), also known as The Age of Ignorance, is a 2007 French Canadian sex comedy-drama film written and directed by Denys Arcand and starring Marc Labrèche, Diane Kruger and Sylvie Léonard. Presented as the third part of Arcand's loose trilogy also consisting of The Decline of the American Empire (1986) and The Barbarian Invasions (2003), it was followed by a fourth film with similar themes, The Fall of the American Empire (2018). The film follows a depressed Quebec bureaucrat, who feeling insignificant, retreats into a fantasy world.

Days of Darkness
Theatrical poster
FrenchL'Âge des ténèbres
Directed byDenys Arcand
Produced byDenise Robert
Daniel Louis
Dominique Besnehard
Written byDenys Arcand
StarringMarc Labrèche
Diane Kruger
Sylvie Léonard
Emma de Caunes
Didier Lucien
Music byPhilippe Miller
CinematographyGuy Dufaux
Edited byIsabelle Dedieu
Distributed byAlliance Films
Release date
  • May 2007 (2007-05) (Cannes)
  • December 7, 2007 (2007-12-07)
Running time
104 minutes
CountryCanada
France
LanguageFrench
Budget$6.4 million

The film was screened out of competition at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. It was nominated for four Genie Awards, including Best Motion Picture, and was shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Plot

Jean-Marc Leblanc is a bureaucrat and a once passionate supporter of the Quebec sovereignty movement. His wife, Sylvie, and daughters are no longer interested in him. At work, he is repeatedly bothered by his superior Carole who berates him for issues such as taking longer breaks than allowed, and for calling black Canadian co-worker William a "Negro", though Jean-Marc insists he simply said William "slaves like a Negro" and William was not personally disturbed by it. Faced with a complete lack of a sex life, he tells his co-workers he is left with masturbation.

Jean-Marc begins to entertain fantasies about women, and about revenge on his co-workers, while sharing how he feels his life turned out to be less than he anticipated. One of his fantasies revolves around a character named Veronica Star, a beautiful woman he showers with. Through speed dating, he also meets a female Lord of the Rings enthusiast who takes him to a Middle Ages-themed fair.

Cast
Diane Kruger and Emma de Caunes have starring roles, while Pierre Curzi reprises his role as Pierre from The Barbarian Invasions[1]

Production
Part of the film was shot on the Saint Lawrence River in Bas-Saint-Laurent.

Director Denys Arcand claimed he wrote parts of the screenplay imagining actor Marc Labrèche as the lead. After six months of work on the screenplay, Arcand met Labrèche and asked him to set aside some months for filming Days of Darkness.[2] The Middle Ages fair scene was inspired by a photograph Arcand saw of hundreds of people wearing historic costumes and holding swords and spears. Arcand wondered why all of these people would want to stage a fictional war, and visited a similar event in Saint-Mathieu-du-Parc, Quebec.[3]

Arcand chose to film in the Montreal Olympic Stadium, citing its high cost to build and maintain. To him, this represented "a society that’s falling down".[2] Another filming location is the Saint Lawrence River in Bas-Saint-Laurent, seen in the sequence with actress Johanne-Marie Tremblay, reprising her role as Constance from Jesus of Montreal (1989) and The Barbarian Invasions.[4]

Special effects were added to the film by Hybride, based in Montreal, while sound mixing was carried out in Paris, and both processes met with delays. Arcand told his wife, producer Denise Robert, not to rush post-production, saying "This is a movie, not a race".[5]

Release

The film was screened out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2007.[6] The film also screened in the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2007.[5] While considered part of a loose trilogy following The Decline of the American Empire and The Barbarian Invasions,[1][2][3] Arcand acknowledged in a 2007 interview Days of Darkness had more similarities to his less successful 2000 film Stardom.[3] In 2018, Arcand's The Fall of the American Empire followed similar themes as Decline and The Barbarian Invasions.[7]

Plans to release the film in Quebec in May were delayed due to incomplete special effects and sound mixing, causing the release date to be re-set for 7 December. By 27 December, it grossed $852,547 in Quebec.[5] L'Âge des ténèbres was released in English under the titles Days of Darkness and The Age of Ignorance.[8] The film was released on DVD in Quebec on 30 June 2008, showing the provincial and international versions of the film differed by five minutes.[9]

Reception

Critical reception

In Canada, Peter Howell praised the film in The Toronto Star as "exceptional", simultaneously "depressing" and "uplifting", and better than some of the films that did contend for the Palme d'Or in 2007.[1] On Canoe.ca, Antoine Godin wrote the film structure felt less complete than The Barbarian Invasions and lacked its power.[10] Marc-André Lussier, writing for La Presse, said parts of the film were embarrassing and the Medieval fair scenes dragged, but the realistic scenes were great.[11] Manon Dumais of Voir judged it one of Arcand's lesser films, saying the Middle Ages fair sequence is tedious.[12] Yann Buxeda wrote in Toronto's L'Express that the film was not a masterpiece, but Marc Labrèche helped it.[13] Sun Media's Bruce Kirkland dismissed the film as occasionally charming, but unsubtle, uneven and unable to meet expectations.[14]

Kirk Honeycutt, writing for The Hollywood Reporter in response to the Cannes screening, called the film the most amusing of Arcand's "impressive trilogy", and a satire of "flaws and foibles of this dark age".[15] Variety's Derek Elley described the film as "ho-hum", finding fault in a repetitive screenplay.[16] The film received negative reviews in France, with Les Inrockuptibles describing it as "a film from an old fool", and Le Nouvel Observateur declaring it "Le Déclin de l’empire Arcand".[17]

Accolades

Canada submitted the film for consideration for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In January 2008, Academy members shortlisted the film among nine for the 80th Academy Awards,[18] but it was not nominated.

Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result Ref(s)
Genie Awards 3 March 2008 Best Motion Picture Denise Robert and Daniel Louis Nominated [19]
Best Direction Denys Arcand Nominated
Best Original Screenplay Nominated
Best Actor Marc Labrèche Nominated
Jutra Awards 6 February 2008 Best Film Denise Robert and Daniel Louis Nominated [20]
Best Direction Denys Arcand Nominated
Best Screenplay Nominated
Best Actor Marc Labrèche Nominated
Best Actress Sylvie Léonard Nominated
Best Make-up Diane Simard Won [21]
Lumières Awards 13 January 2008 Best French-Language Film Denys Arcand Nominated [22]

See also

References
  1. Howell, Peter (21 March 2008). "'Days of Darkness': Arcand triumph". The Toronto Star. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  2. Hays, Matthew (14 September 2007). "Dark shadows". CBC News. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  3. Coulombe, Michel (8 November 2007). "Qu'est-ce qui cloche avec Denys Arcand ?". L'actualité. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  4. David Lawrence Pike, Canadian Cinema Since the 1980s: At the Heart of the World, University of Toronto Press, 2012 , p. 105, ISBN 1442612401.
  5. Hays, Matt (7 January 2008). "Post delays meant drama for Arcand's Days of Darkness". Playback. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  6. "Festival de Cannes: L'Âge des ténèbres". festival-cannes.com. Archived from the original on 18 January 2012. Retrieved 20 December 2009.
  7. Lods, Jeanne (25 July 2017). "Denys Arcand Dévoile Une Première Bande-Annonce De La Chute De L'empire Américain". Voir. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  8. Kenneth R. Morefield, ed., Faith and Spirituality in Masters of World Cinema Vol. II, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, July 13, 2011, p. 138, ISBN 1443832790.
  9. Sarfati, Sonia (29 June 2008). "L'âge de des ténèbres : sympa". La Presse. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  10. Godin, Antoine (12 June 2007). "L'âge des ténèbres". Canoe.ca. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  11. Lussier, Marc-André (7 December 2007). "L'âge des ténèbres : à prendre ou à laisser". La Presse. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  12. Dumais, Manon (6 December 2007). "L'âge Des Ténèbres : Homme De Rêves". Voir. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  13. Buxeda, Yann (19 March 2008). "L'Âge des ténèbres, de Denys Arcand: délicieusement troublant". Canoe.ca. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  14. Kirkland, Bruce (21 March 2008). "'Days Of Darkness' confused". Canoe.ca. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  15. Honeycutt, Kirk (31 May 2007). "Days of Darkness". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  16. Elley, Derek (29 May 2007). "Review: 'Days of Darkness (The Age of Ignorance)'". Variety. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  17. Bailey, Patricia (10 December 2007). "Days dogged by hostile press". Playback. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  18. "Nine foreign-language films compete for Oscar slots". USA Today. 15 January 2008. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  19. "2008 Genie Nominees". The Toronto Star. 28 January 2008. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  20. "Huard's p'tits cochons film dominates nominations for Quebec's Jutras". CBC News. 7 February 2008. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  21. "Continental, Silk score at Quebec's Jutra film awards". CBC News. 10 March 2008. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  22. "Prix et nominations : Lumières de la presse étrangère 2008". AlloCiné. Retrieved 14 April 2017.
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