Barbarian Diversions.

Sitting in a beach pavilion, against a skyline of white yachts anchored off the C& ocirc.te d' Azur, Denys Arcand remembers first trying to pitch 'The Barbarian Invasions.' Seventeen years after igniting his career in Cannes with 'The Decline of the American Empire,' Arcand is celebrating a triumphant return to form. The 62-year-old director smiles. The previous night, as 'The Barbarian Invasions' premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, the tears flowed, and so did the applause. At the closing credits, the black-tie audience treated Arcand and his cast to an eight-minute standing ovation. After two frustrating detours into English-language cinema ('Love and Human Remains' and 'Stardom'), Arcand, the sardonic dean of Quebec cinema, has gone back to his roots. In his home province, where 'Barbarian Invasions' has grossed $2 million in just two weeks, he's being hailed as a homecoming hero. And in Cannes last week, his movie emerged as one of the strongest hits among 20 features in the main competition.