Indochine (1992)
Colonial Indochina, the last 25 years. The 1930s. The struggle against European colonialism. French woman adopts Vietnamese girl. Rubber plantation owner with her father. powerful in a time when women usually were the opposite. Magnificent mountains. Spectacular cinematography. Opium. Painted faces in Vietnamese Opera. Cross-cultural love triangle. Between mother, adopted daughter, and forbidden French officer. Éliane, Camille, and Jean-Baptiste. Sides are chosen. Camille shoots a French officer for shooting a Vietnamese family. Jean-Baptiste protects her. Both are hidden with the locals, Communists. Secret River. Gorgeous long shots. They give birth to a son, Étienne. He is sent to live with his grandmother, Éliane. Jean-Baptiste murdered. Powerful scene when Camille is finally released from prison, five years later; Mother and daughter finally reunited, though both have changed dramatically. Especially daughter, who chooses to escape with the Communists to defend her country rather than meet her son. Éliane abandons everything, selling her plantation to Thanh's (young Communist originally engaged to Camille, in the end married her only to aid her escape to go find Jean-Baptiste) mother, moving to France. Fast forward to the present. We see that we have been watching what Éliane has been telling her adopted son, Étienne about his mother. They are on their way to Switzerland, where she is a Vietnamese Communist delegate at the 1954 Geneva Peace Conference. This is his opportunity to finally meet his mother. He instead waits in the lobby for her to recognize him. Of course, she does not. Having left and missed his chance, Étienne unsentimentally says that she, Éliane, is his real mother. Maybe a little long, but only slightly. More likely, pacing could be improved. Notable suspension of disbelief is necessary. Filmed on location in France, Malaysia, and Vietnam, the lush and gorgeous landscapes and overall cinematography. Engaging story. Wonderful music. Powerful performances, especially by matriarch Catherine Deneuve. Quite educational, not many films on Indochina out there, especially not before the Vietnam War. Minh Tam expresses, "I will never understand French love stories. They're all about madness, fury, suffering; similar to our war stories." Add "beauty" to that and you have a perfect film description.
Gorgeous epic film, Choosing sides in love and war, French, Vietnamese.
Haibun is a prosimetric (written partly in prose and partly in verse) poem in which most commonly one haiku is included after the prose, serving as a climax or epiphany to what came before.
#Haibun #PoemReview
Colonial Indochina, the last 25 years. The 1930s. The struggle against European colonialism. French woman adopts Vietnamese girl. Rubber plantation owner with her father. powerful in a time when women usually were the opposite. Magnificent mountains. Spectacular cinematography. Opium. Painted faces in Vietnamese Opera. Cross-cultural love triangle. Between mother, adopted daughter, and forbidden French officer. Éliane, Camille, and Jean-Baptiste. Sides are chosen. Camille shoots a French officer for shooting a Vietnamese family. Jean-Baptiste protects her. Both are hidden with the locals, Communists. Secret River. Gorgeous long shots. They give birth to a son, Étienne. He is sent to live with his grandmother, Éliane. Jean-Baptiste murdered. Powerful scene when Camille is finally released from prison, five years later; Mother and daughter finally reunited, though both have changed dramatically. Especially daughter, who chooses to escape with the Communists to defend her country rather than meet her son. Éliane abandons everything, selling her plantation to Thanh's (young Communist originally engaged to Camille, in the end married her only to aid her escape to go find Jean-Baptiste) mother, moving to France. Fast forward to the present. We see that we have been watching what Éliane has been telling her adopted son, Étienne about his mother. They are on their way to Switzerland, where she is a Vietnamese Communist delegate at the 1954 Geneva Peace Conference. This is his opportunity to finally meet his mother. He instead waits in the lobby for her to recognize him. Of course, she does not. Having left and missed his chance, Étienne unsentimentally says that she, Éliane, is his real mother. Maybe a little long, but only slightly. More likely, pacing could be improved. Notable suspension of disbelief is necessary. Filmed on location in France, Malaysia, and Vietnam, the lush and gorgeous landscapes and overall cinematography. Engaging story. Wonderful music. Powerful performances, especially by matriarch Catherine Deneuve. Quite educational, not many films on Indochina out there, especially not before the Vietnam War. Minh Tam expresses, "I will never understand French love stories. They're all about madness, fury, suffering; similar to our war stories." Add "beauty" to that and you have a perfect film description.
Gorgeous epic film, Choosing sides in love and war, French, Vietnamese.
Haibun is a prosimetric (written partly in prose and partly in verse) poem in which most commonly one haiku is included after the prose, serving as a climax or epiphany to what came before.
#Haibun #PoemReview