Invasions Barbares a hit in Cannes   

from www.quebecnews.com
by Odile Tremblay, Le Devoir – May 22, 2003

Critics took out their hankies to wipe their tears as the images rolled across the screen. The public had obviously been won over. The spectators were moved. They were laughing in all the right places. The film was warmly applauded, not once, but twice (despite some discreet booing). Denys Arcand’s Les invasions barbares was acclaimed with enthusiasm yesterday in Cannes. During the official evening screening, the public’s enthusiasm turned into a veritable triumph with a 10-minute-long standing ovation, a phenomenon not seen in Cannes since Roberto Benigni’s La vie est belle. 

One reporter at a press conference predicted that Arcand would receive the Palme d'Or.  Arcand himself said he refused to get his hopes up. "When you think something is bound to work, you always hit a wall," he said, "like I did with Stardom, which encountered general incomprehension.  But Cannes has always been good to me.  I have only had happy endings here."

There was no denying, though, that the telephone rang throughout the day for foreign bookings. Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan and the United Kingdom have already got their orders in. Germany, the United States and Australia have make their offers. The market is in a frenzy and Les invasions barbares, which will open in France in September, is set to conquer the world.

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