# Indochine (1992)

### reviewed by
Mark R. Leeper

                                     INDOCHINE
                          A film review by Mark R. Leeper
                            Copyright 1993 Mark R. Leeper

Capsule review: There is human drama, political spectacle, and beautiful scenery in this DR. ZHIVAGO of Vietnam. A story of a love triangle is told against the backdrop of the Vietnamese revolt against French imperialism. Recommended. Rating: +3 (-4 to +4).

INDOCHINE is a DR. ZHIVAGO for Indochina/Vietnam. Like DR. ZHIVAGO, it is an almost melodramatic love triangle story set against the backdrop of a country in revolution. It is a story of people living through the death of one world they knew and the birth of another world where they must survive.

Eliane (played by Catherine Deneuve) is a very independent French woman who runs a rubber plantation in French Indochina in the 1930s. As the film opens she is attending the funeral of two close Indochinese friends. She adopts their young daughter and tries to bring up young Camille (played by Linh Dan Pham) in the ways of the French aristocracy. Camille tries to be French, but we see her as much more the same flesh as the workers that Eliane occasionally beats. Into this relationship comes Jean-Baptiste (played by Vincent Perez), a handsome French naval officer. Eliane falls for Jean-Baptiste, having a short passionate affair with him. Then Jean- Baptiste saves Camille from a terrorist and mother and daughter discover that they love the same man. The tension tears the small family apart and Camille runs away from home. Traveling on foot on her own gives Camille a chance to see what the French colonial power is really doing to her country. Eventually she becomes a pawn in the Vietnamese revolt against the French.

Director Regis Wargnier has an eye for the stunning scenery of Vietnam, both natural and in the native Vietnamese cultural costumes. The film takes its time, 158 minutes, to tell a story that covers a long span in the characters' lives. While the film's sympathies are obviously against the French occupation, the political viewpoint is somewhat understated. Wargnier's hand is considerably more subtle than Bernardo Bertolucci's was in films such as 1900 and THE LAST EMPEROR.

INDOCHINE is intelligent and entertaining, certainly one of the best films of 1992. I give it a +3 on the -4 to +4 scale.

[Seen at the Loew's Theater in Red Bank, NJ.]

                                            Mark R. Leeper
                                            att!mtgzfs3!leeper
                                            leeper@mtgzfs3.att.com
                                            Copyright 1993 Mark R. Leeper
    .

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