I kinda want to give this a lower rating yet, but each scene is so well done. I can't go higher, because the film as a whole is so strange.
Camille turns... into a communist? And then a communist leader? How? Why? Why would you make one of the core characters of the film undergo several changes and grow into adulthood, have a child then make a further massive change off screen? Weird.
The film also takes place in a clearly historical setting, around actual historical events, and is deeply intersecting with the bureaucracy of both the French colonial government and the Vietnamese, but then just sort of skips over the Japanese occupation, the change to the Vichy government, and so on. Why? When communists shoot up and set fire to part of the plantation, and there is otherwise so much political interest - a rich and apparently powerful family unaffected by these changes? The shift to communism has no impact on their personal fortunes so the plantation can be sold for lots of money?
If you want to make a movie that is politically agnostic (and history is in the background) then okay, and if you want to make a movie about the history happening then okay but it feels deeply weird and leaves me with confusion and questions that distract from me watching the movie.
Camille turns... into a communist? And then a communist leader? How? Why? Why would you make one of the core characters of the film undergo several changes and grow into adulthood, have a child then make a further massive change off screen? Weird.
The film also takes place in a clearly historical setting, around actual historical events, and is deeply intersecting with the bureaucracy of both the French colonial government and the Vietnamese, but then just sort of skips over the Japanese occupation, the change to the Vichy government, and so on. Why? When communists shoot up and set fire to part of the plantation, and there is otherwise so much political interest - a rich and apparently powerful family unaffected by these changes? The shift to communism has no impact on their personal fortunes so the plantation can be sold for lots of money?
If you want to make a movie that is politically agnostic (and history is in the background) then okay, and if you want to make a movie about the history happening then okay but it feels deeply weird and leaves me with confusion and questions that distract from me watching the movie.