Days of Darkness

Days of Darkness (L'âge des ténèbres, 2007) is a Canadian satirical comedy you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Denys Arcand — whose previous film The Barbarian Invasions took home the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. This one closes his informal Quebec trilogy about the slow fade of a certain kind of educated, liberal middle-class life.

Jean-Marc (Marc Labrèche) is a mid-level civil servant in Montreal. In his fantasy life he's a warrior, a seducer, a published author. In reality, his wife ignores him, his daughters don't listen, and his government desk job is pure futility. When his wife leaves for Toronto, Jean-Marc makes an awkward attempt to reorder things. Diane Kruger, Donald Sutherland, and musician Rufus Wainwright round out the cast.

Arcand watches his protagonist with the detachment of a naturalist — not quite contempt, not quite compassion. Where The Barbarian Invasions was an elegy, this is a cold-eyed farce about a man who never quite found the nerve to choose a different life. Stream Days of Darkness (2007) online on iFILM.