The Age of Ignorance closes Cannes

Canadian director Denys Arcand talks about making the final installment of his trilogy.

by Karl Rozemeyer

Diane Kruger in The Age of Ignorance Courtesty of Studio Canal

After a blazing hot week, the sky clouded over and rain fell in Cannes. People took shelter indoors but the jam-packed streets had already begun depleting as the Festival drew to a close. The final press conference was held with a smattering of press in the Palais for the closing film of the Festival, The Age of Ignorance from director Denys Arcand, whose The Barbarian Invasions won the 2003 Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award.

The third in Arcand's trilogy, The Age of Ignorance delves into the dreamscapes of Jean-Marc (Marc Lebreche), who imagines himself as a knight in shining armor, a fabulous lover, and a star of the stage and silver screen. In reality, his day-to-day existence is mundane drudgery as a civil servant whose life is an emotional and sexual black hole.

The Age of Ignorance "is a sort of a commentary on the kind of life we all need, the life I see people leading around me, the lives of my friends, my life," Arcand says. "As I studied history many moons ago, I find titles very pompous and funny so instead of calling my film Conversations, I called it The Decline of the American Empire, then The Barbarian Invasions, and now we have the Middle Ages, The Age of Ignorance, and we shouldn't read more into this than there is."

The genesis of the visual imagery of the film took root while Arcand — who says his films are based on images and not theories — was out driving his car in Montreal one Sunday afternoon: "I saw people dressed up in medieval costumes with plastic swords. They were hitting each other with these swords and I stopped to look at what they were doing. I realized there was a shop that sold medieval costumes and armory and realized there was a magazine that dealt exclusively with people who lived in the Middle Ages. I went to attend a battle that takes place every year and there were 2,500 people with weapons. So this I decided will be part of my film. So, I don't know really what it means. I am sure it does mean something. I thought this must be symptomatic of something that these people are trying to go back to the Middle Ages. Of course it was just a fiction. It wasn't a real Middle Ages. It was sort of a fantasy world. It was half medieval and half Lord of the Rings. Look at the success of Lord of the Rings. Millions of people in the world wanted to see Viggo Mortensen on a horse. Why? It is because there is something missing somewhere. I don't know exactly what but there really is something missing."

Although set in Quebec, Arcand hopes that the film will speak to audiences beyond French Canada. "That is where I live. So I talk about things I see around me. The city where I live. That is where my film takes place. But I hope it will have broader implications. When things are successful on the whole, they speak to people in other countries as well."

For Arcand, finding the right person to play a character is less about their body of work or reputation and more about a connection. He and Diane Kruger (Troy, National Treasure) had never met when he considered her for the role of Veronica. She stopped over on her way from Los Angeles, and they had a quick bite to eat together before he offered her the part.

Diane Kruger and Denys Arcand Photo by Karl Rozemeyer

"It's a kind of confidence," Arcand says of her casting "It's a trust. It is very difficult to describe. Sometimes you meet people in life and you just feel good with them. And that it is what I look for. I want to have a team, a crew so that when you go for lunch [on set] and you pick up your tray and there are tables and you have everyone involved in the film — I don't want there to be a single place where I don't feel like sitting down."

Kruger had no hesitation in agreeing to be in the final film of Arcand's trilogy. "In any case," says Kruger, " I would have accepted to play the part, even if he had been really nasty because I love the films he makes."

It seems apt that Kruger, as the Mistress of Ceremonies for the closing ceremonies of this year's festival, should be in the closing film which is screened out of competition.

"I regret it is not competing," Arcand says, "because I think that Marc [Labreche] could have won the Golden Palme, the award as the best actor. That is unfortunate. But I was at the closing ceremony once before in the past and it worked out very well."

Arcand took home the International Critics Prize in 1986 for Decline of the American Empire and, in addition to its Oscar win, The Barbarian Invasions won Arcand the Best Screenplay Award at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.