The Fall of the American Empire

Pierre-Paul has a doctorate in philosophy and drives a delivery van. On a job he lands in the middle of an armed robbery; the robbers kill each other and two bags of money are left in the street. He takes them. Then the real problem starts: where do you put that much cash. The subject is not the robbery but laundering requiring a system. Pierre-Paul goes for help to an ex-convict and a financial adviser, and from that point the film explains tax havens, shell companies and how banking works almost as a lecture. The form sits between crime story and social satire. A police investigation runs, but the film's interest is not in who is right; it is in who has been left outside the system. The character handing money to homeless people is deliberately too optimistic. It is counted the third of Denys Arcand's films connected by this title; the first was made in 1986 and the link is thematic rather than through shared characters. It was awarded at the Canadian prizes descended from the Genie and Jutra traditions. Alexandre Landry plays Pierre-Paul, Rémy Girard the ex-convict and Maripier Morin his friend. Who it is for: viewers who like Canadian cinema and satire built on the financial system. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a brisk crime film; it keeps stopping to explain.