Indochine (1992)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Régis Wargnier

Writers:

Erik Orsenna (original scenario & adaptation and dialogue) &
Louis Gardel (original scenario & adaptation and dialogue) ...

Release Date:

23 December 1992 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Southeast Asia | Drama Troupe | Slave Trade | War Prisoner

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 9 wins & 10 nominations

Cast

Catherine Deneuve	...	Eliane
Vincent Perez	...	Jean-Baptiste
Linh Dan Pham	...	Camille
Jean Yanne	...	Guy
Dominique Blanc	...	Yvette
Henri Marteau	...	Emile
Carlo Brandt	...	Castellani
Gérard Lartigau	...	L'Admiral
Hubert Saint-Macary	...	Raymond (as Hubert Saint Macary)
Andrzej Seweryn	...	Hebrard
Mai Chau	...	Shen
Alain Fromager	...	Dominique
Chu Hung	...	Mari de Sao
Jean-Baptiste Huynh	...	Étienne, adulte
Thibault de Montalembert	...	Charles-Henri (as Thibault De Montalembert)

Also Known As:

Indochina (USA)

Runtime:

Argentina:148 min (cut version) | France:159 min | Spain:159 min | USA:153 min (cut version)

Country:

France

Language:

French | Vietnamese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Canada:14A (Ontario) | Singapore:NC-16 | Iceland:14 | Australia:M | South Korea:15 | Argentina:16 | Chile:18 | Finland:K-14 | France:U | Germany:12 | Peru:14 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:12 | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

France

Company:

Paradis Films

Goofs:

Continuity: 42m 19s: One raw block of rubber reappears on the table after it has already been fed through the flattening machine.

Quotes:

Yvette: The truth is nobody here likes you. Even the trees wouldn't grow if they had a choice!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Holiday (2006)

Beautifully done epic

This is a wonderful very tragic movie about love triangle set against French fall down in Vietnam. I was actually quite surprised at one of the comments, which roughly said that the Vietnamese girl falls in love with French officer for no reason at all. Does not everybody know that love always happens for no reason at all? That is why many famous love stories are tragic, people tend to fall in love with completely wrong people, from different perspectives.

I did not seem wrong to me that Elaine was "mothering" her Vietnamese workers. Remember "Gone with the wind"? How Scarlett's mother was treating her slaves, tending to them when they were sick? I believe that many people felt that way towards their slaves/servants/workers. Elaine grew up in Vietnam, she thought about it as her home and Vietnamese as her people, though in a bit simplistic way. What I am trying to say, is that her relationship with Vietnamese in the movie does not look untrue. Perhaps to some people it just looks politically incorrect these days, when most people think that colonization was all that bad. It is too complicated an issue and the movie was not about it. On the contrary, the movie wins while portraying both caring and cruel French people in Indochina, not painting only with black and white colors, rather raising questions, than giving simplistic answers. It is rare in movies these days. This movie is done with impeccable European charm and gets 10/10 from me.

I am ready to defend my viewpoint at the Message Boards any time.