Friday Post or BSG and Indochine
Jan. 6th, 2006 12:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieFirst off, Galactica tonight! How excited am I? Thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis much. It’s funny, but I am a lot more relaxed with BSG than VM because while VM can grab me and give me heights of glee, my emotional attachment and wishes sometimes make me anxious (e.g. I sometimes get “get L/V together now” or frustrated with why Duncan is portrayed as good or what not etc etc). With BSG, it’s an intellectual love so no matter what they do, as long as it’s not dumbed down, I am happy. Makes for a much more relaxing viewing experience.
Today’s recommended movie is Indochine, the winner of Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 1992 (yes, I am on a French movie kick lately). If you like epics, period movies, angsty love stories, or a nuanced look at a complicated political situation, this is a movie for you.
The story centers around a rich French plantation owner in Indochina, during the French control of what is now Vietnam. Eliane (Catherine Deneuve, who received an Oscar nomination in the role) is a confident, intelligent, powerful woman. She has also adopted a Vietnamese girl who she named Camille (Linh Dan Pham). In fact, the movie’s story parallels the relationship between “parent” France and child “Vietnam” and the relationship between Eliane and Camille. Eliane enjoys the orientalism aspects of the East: she visits opium dens, she has discreet affairs with younger men. One such affair is with a young naval officer Jean-Baptiste (Vincent Perez, who IMO never looked more yummy). They are discreet. Very discreet. In fact, they are so discreet that it leads to a problem as Camille falls in love with Jean-Baptiste. On learning of it, Eliane uses her influence to have Jean-Baptiste posted far, far, FAR away in the middle of Vietnamese jungle. But Camille, who is both strong-willed and sheltered, runs away in order to find him. And so begins her trek across Vietnam and her exposure to the French rule of the region. Will she find him? What will happen when she does? And what will her new knowledge of the harsh regime do to her view of the French? This is only the first hour of a 3 hour movie by the way.
This is a movie with very strong women characters and I love that. Both Camille and Eliane are exceptional women and both are flawed. In fact, there is a bit of gender reversal in this movie as Jean-Baptiste (who is wound up extremely tightly in the beginning of the movie precisely because he is afraid of his strong emotions overwhelming him) is the most emotional and “domestic” of the three.
Camille and Jean-Baptiste:
This movie has one of my Top 10 romantic scenes ever, even though it’s really simple and short. Jean-Baptiste and Camille are on the run (long story) and end up in a hidden valley sheltered by the inhabitants. Camille tells him that if he turns himself in the government will pardon him, so if he is gone when she wakes up, she’ll understand. And we see him standing outside, falling apart in trying to decide, because if he stays, he is throwing his whole life away. And then we see her wake up in the morning in an empty room and she runs outside and looks around and she doesn’t see him and then the camera pans to show him asleep in the street corner. So she runs to him and touches his face really gently and he opens his eyes and just looks at her and I swoon.
I also love the somewhat bitter yet hopeful ending.
Eliane and Etienne, the son of Camille and Jean-Baptiste (Camille left him as a baby with Eliane after Jean-Baptiste’s death) are near the hotel where France will finally cede control. Eliane tells the whole story and tells Etienne his mother’s room number (as she is a bigwig in the revolutionary movement). So he goes to the lobby of the hotel but comes out without seeing her. He tells Eliane “how absurd it would be to shout ‘Mother’” to an unknown woman. He tells her he thought a miracle would happen and a woman would go “Etienne, my son” but nobody did and so he came away. And I find this complete break between mothers and children symbolic and bitter . Eliane says she has no interest in seeing Camille and how sad is that, that after years of bringing her up, she doesn’t have enough in common with her, enough residual feeling there, to want to interact. And Camille doesn’t even see her son. She might have achieved her revolutionary goals, and became a strong and powerful woman, but it’s at a heavy price. She lost Jean-Baptiste, she never knew her son. I love that the movie doesn’t end with a tearful reunion between Camille and Etienne. That really would have simplified everything. And I am not sure how happy Camille would have been, either. I think after Jean-Baptiste was killed, she locked away the emotional, personal side of herself and became merely “the revolutionary” because she realized that emotions make you vulnerable and that being with her exposes her loved ones to danger so better not to have any.
Poster:
Eliane:
Scenery:
Eliane and Jean-Baptiste:
Today’s recommended movie is Indochine, the winner of Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 1992 (yes, I am on a French movie kick lately). If you like epics, period movies, angsty love stories, or a nuanced look at a complicated political situation, this is a movie for you.
The story centers around a rich French plantation owner in Indochina, during the French control of what is now Vietnam. Eliane (Catherine Deneuve, who received an Oscar nomination in the role) is a confident, intelligent, powerful woman. She has also adopted a Vietnamese girl who she named Camille (Linh Dan Pham). In fact, the movie’s story parallels the relationship between “parent” France and child “Vietnam” and the relationship between Eliane and Camille. Eliane enjoys the orientalism aspects of the East: she visits opium dens, she has discreet affairs with younger men. One such affair is with a young naval officer Jean-Baptiste (Vincent Perez, who IMO never looked more yummy). They are discreet. Very discreet. In fact, they are so discreet that it leads to a problem as Camille falls in love with Jean-Baptiste. On learning of it, Eliane uses her influence to have Jean-Baptiste posted far, far, FAR away in the middle of Vietnamese jungle. But Camille, who is both strong-willed and sheltered, runs away in order to find him. And so begins her trek across Vietnam and her exposure to the French rule of the region. Will she find him? What will happen when she does? And what will her new knowledge of the harsh regime do to her view of the French? This is only the first hour of a 3 hour movie by the way.
This is a movie with very strong women characters and I love that. Both Camille and Eliane are exceptional women and both are flawed. In fact, there is a bit of gender reversal in this movie as Jean-Baptiste (who is wound up extremely tightly in the beginning of the movie precisely because he is afraid of his strong emotions overwhelming him) is the most emotional and “domestic” of the three.
Camille and Jean-Baptiste:
This movie has one of my Top 10 romantic scenes ever, even though it’s really simple and short. Jean-Baptiste and Camille are on the run (long story) and end up in a hidden valley sheltered by the inhabitants. Camille tells him that if he turns himself in the government will pardon him, so if he is gone when she wakes up, she’ll understand. And we see him standing outside, falling apart in trying to decide, because if he stays, he is throwing his whole life away. And then we see her wake up in the morning in an empty room and she runs outside and looks around and she doesn’t see him and then the camera pans to show him asleep in the street corner. So she runs to him and touches his face really gently and he opens his eyes and just looks at her and I swoon.
I also love the somewhat bitter yet hopeful ending.
Eliane and Etienne, the son of Camille and Jean-Baptiste (Camille left him as a baby with Eliane after Jean-Baptiste’s death) are near the hotel where France will finally cede control. Eliane tells the whole story and tells Etienne his mother’s room number (as she is a bigwig in the revolutionary movement). So he goes to the lobby of the hotel but comes out without seeing her. He tells Eliane “how absurd it would be to shout ‘Mother’” to an unknown woman. He tells her he thought a miracle would happen and a woman would go “Etienne, my son” but nobody did and so he came away. And I find this complete break between mothers and children symbolic and bitter . Eliane says she has no interest in seeing Camille and how sad is that, that after years of bringing her up, she doesn’t have enough in common with her, enough residual feeling there, to want to interact. And Camille doesn’t even see her son. She might have achieved her revolutionary goals, and became a strong and powerful woman, but it’s at a heavy price. She lost Jean-Baptiste, she never knew her son. I love that the movie doesn’t end with a tearful reunion between Camille and Etienne. That really would have simplified everything. And I am not sure how happy Camille would have been, either. I think after Jean-Baptiste was killed, she locked away the emotional, personal side of herself and became merely “the revolutionary” because she realized that emotions make you vulnerable and that being with her exposes her loved ones to danger so better not to have any.
Poster:
Eliane:
Scenery:
Eliane and Jean-Baptiste:
