Denys Arcand

Arcand was born in Deschambault, Quebec, Canada. He grew up in a devoutly Roman Catholic home in a village about 40 km southwest of Quebec City. He attended Jesuit school for nine years. Entering his teen years, the family moved to Montreal and although he dreamed about being a professional tennis player, while studying for a master's degree in history at the Université de Montréal he became involved in film making, which gave him a new sense of direction.

In 1963, he joined the National Film Board of Canada where he produced several award-winning documentaries in his native French language. A social activist, he made a feature-length documentary in 1970 titled Cotton Mill, Treadmill (On est au coton) that showed the exploitation of textile workers. The film caused an uproar that resulted in it not being distributed publicly for several years. Arcand received such publicity that it gave his fledgling career a great boost. He also worked on some television series, notably Duplessis, a historical work he wrote (but did not direct) about Premier Maurice Duplessis.

During the early part of the 1970s, Arcand produced a number of feature films that received critical acclaim. Arcand returned to directing documentaries and did no work for television. In 1982, his documentary, Comfort and Indifference (Le confort et l'indifférence) won the Prix Luc-Perreault from the Quebec Film Critics' Association.^[8] 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 Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay.^[9]

Arcand's film Days of Darkness (L'Âge des ténèbres) was chosen to close the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.^[10] The press opening was subdued and the subsequent reviews were mixed.^[11] Following this, he took a seven-year hiatus from feature film directing; he returned in 2014 with the film Le règne de la beauté.

In 1988, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and was promoted to Companion in 2005.^[12] 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.^[13]

In 1995, Arcand received a Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement.^[14] 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.^[15]

He is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.^[7]

In 2023, he was named the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Directors Guild of Canada.^[16]

Arcand is a lapsed Catholic.^[17] 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.^[18] 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.

• 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^[19]
• Testament - 2023^[20]

• 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

• 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

• 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

• Denys Arcand at IMDb
• Denys Arcand at the Canadian Film Encyclopedia
• Denys Arcand on NFB