The Decline and Fall of the American...

The Decline and Fall of the American Empire (Cinemax early Tuesday at 5:10 a.m.) Denys Arcand’s 1986 portrayal of eight French-Canadian academics and one raunchy outsider at a lakeside summer cottage retreat, jousting with each other verbally, playing, flirting, raking up the past--while the men prepare dinner and the women exercise--gradually slides from buoyancy to darkness, from glib gameplaying to stark despair. Their follies, amours and lies begin to mirror, delicately, the collapsing values and shrivelling era around them. It’s a deft balancing act; Arcand and his fine cast bring it off with ease.