Indochine

Starring:Catherine Deneuve, Vincent Perez, Linh Dan Pham, Jean Yanne, Dominique Blanc, Henri Marteau, Carlo Brandt, GÃ©rard Lartigau, Hubert Saint-Macary, Andrzej Seweryn, Mai Chau, Alain Fromager, Chu Hung, Jean-Baptiste Huynh, Thibault de Montalembert, Eric Nguyen, Trinh Thinh, Tien Tho, Thi Hoe Tranh Huu Trieu, Nguyen Lan Trung
Director: RÃ©gis Wargnier
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Régis Wargnier's 1992 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film is a bit like watching paint dry, despite its exotic locale and lead performance by the legendary Catherine Deneuve (Belle de Jour, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg). Deneuve plays a wealthy French landowner, born and raised in Indochina, from 1930 until 1955, the year of a Communist takeover. The brewing political changes bound to upset her fortune and destiny find an even more personal parallel in her relationship with an adopted daughter (Linh Dan Pham), who grows up and becomes independent. The outline of this scenario sounds pretty good, but the film is flat and unworthy of its star. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews:

"The Indo-Chinese are not built for it!"....or were they? 4+1/2 *****'s.......2007-05-04

Into the early 1960's, our geography classes taught us about a land called Indo-China;a land of indiginous Asian people,not exactly Chinese,but a mixture and an inbred type from thousands of years of native Asian dynasty changes and hundreds of years of French colonial rule.We learned about ALOT of these kind of exotic lands (so we thought!) such as French New Guinea,British New Guinea,Belgian Congo,Rhodesia etc. to name but a few.Within years,these lands,their names and their cultural compositions and power structures were to be changed forever.Such was INDOCHINE.

INDOCHINE is a daunting tale of epic "Gandhian" proportions covering a span of thirty years in which the collapse of French colonial rule,the end of the Asian Aristocratic Mandarin Culture and the eventual communist/peoples' Revolution that was to result in the land of Indochine becoming the modern day countries of Vietnam,Laos,Cambodia and Thailand.

This herculean struggle is the backdrop for a story of one woman,Eliane Devries (Catherine Deneuve),a very wealthy native French rubber plantation owner,her adopted daughter Camille (Linh Dam Pham) an orphaned Royal Mandarin Princess,and what ends up being a secretly shared lover,the French Officer Jean-Baptiste Le Guen (Vincent Perez).It is this triangle of characters that plays out in an interesting,complex,sensual and often muddled tale of passion,love,lust and greed.I say muddled because if there is one problem with this film,and only one,it is in a narrative that is so overwhelming large and multi-layered with plots and numerous sublots, that even the near three hours of this gargantuan movie still leaves alot of loose ends and short flitting scenes to keep this film from falling into a deep abyss.It is alot to take in and director Regis Wargnier and screenplaywrights Catherine Cohen,Louis Gardel,Erik Orsenna and Wargnier also, ask alot of viewers to preknow alot of historical information in order to follow the superimposed love stories.But,with the necessary knowledge in place,this is a film of such brilliance,scope and magnitude that few if ever now are brought to the large screen.

Cinematography-wise,INDOCHINE absolutely ranks in the top five movies ever to be filmed.Typical words like "breathtaking"and "stunning" (you know...the words critics use?) cannot begin to describe how the senses are totally aroused and satiated with photographer Francois Catonne's shots of the locations used.Colours of such richness are rarely seen in movies today.Put now-veteran Award-winning soundtrack composer Patrick Doyle's thrilling music in the mix to frame all of this nicely and, VOILA!!!,you have a masterpiece.

Having first seen INDOCHINE in 1992 at the theatre and subsequently one other time over the years,I can now finally appreciate this film in it's entirety.There is alot to know in order to fully and completely know,understand and appreciate INDOCHINE( as the French would as it is a part of their history ,not so for Americans), yet you will be rewarded richly for having seen it.It is an almost unparalleled piece of historically-based Period filmmaking.

Indo-china received it's release from France on July 21,1954.If viewers want to know what happens in the next few years to the fledgling,newly formed "independent" nations, watch the 2004 remake of THE QUIET AMERICAN with Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser.It is the perfect sequel to INDOCHINE.Follow that up with any movie concerning the Vietnam War years and you will laugh at an opening remark in INDOCHINE coming from a French lady rooting for the French Naval Rowing Team to beat an indigenous Indo-Chinese team as she smuggly remarks,"The Indo-Chinese are not built for it!"(beating the French that is).The Indo-Chinese cross the finish line first much to her dismay,and much to the dismay of the rest of the French Imperialists! Yes....the Indo-Chinese were up to it,Madame!

1992 Academy Award Winner for foreign film in French,Mandarin and Chinese languages with excellent,readable subtitles.

Blindness in a beautiful land.......2007-01-14

This is an absolutly stunning film with a equal cast. Nearly every veteran or visitor to Vietnam tell me the same thing about the remarkable beauty of the land. This film tells as others have in other ways in other locations how good meaning wealthy landlords thinking the are themselves now as "native" as the natives only hasten the end. The blindness in the eyes of s Deneuve's character isn't much different tothe blindness of what one sees in the plantation owners of El Salvador thinking giving their peasents homes and cristmas gifts.

A sweeping epic - the story of France's withdrawal from Indochina.......2006-12-08

You can see why "Indochine" won an Academy Award (Best Foreign Picture). It's one of those sweeping epics (no other word can describe it) that Hollywood loves. Catherine Deneuve is fantastic here. Fourteen years after its theatrical release, "Indochine" is still well worth putting on your "gotta see" list.

Here's a connection I loved discovering: Linh Dan Pham - who plays Deneuve's adopted daughter Camille here - is (12 years later on) the same actress who portrays piano virtuoso 'Miao Lin' in Jacques Audiard's brilliant "The Beat that My Heart Skipped."

Excellent film of artistic and historic importance.......2006-10-08

I would say that this film is a grand mixture of exotic and natural beauty and complexity. The complexity is multifaceted; the complexity of character development, the complexity of an unfolding plot, and the complexity of changing world politics.

Lets start with beauty. The cinematography and art direction in the film is superb, Vietnam is shown to be an amazingly magical land of changing landscapes and architecture. The cast of the film was superb. Catherine Deneuve, plays wealthy rubber plantation owner Eliane Deveries. Ms. Deneuve is a legendary beauty but in this film we see her playing the role of a woman approaching 40 and we see a mature, sophisticated, strong beauty. The front cover of the DVD should give you a clue as you see Ms. Deneuve marching through a courtyard of crouching Vietnamese slave laborers in a low cut bright red dress and pearls! Vincent Perez, as Lieutenant Jean-Baptiste Le Guen, is very handsome but it is his character development that it most importance in this film. LInh Dan Phan, as the young Camille, goes from high school girl to Communist icon. She is youthful perfection and thus the contrast between Camille's soft budding beauty and womanhood is contasted with her adopted mother's cool sophisticated mature grand beauty.

Now for the complexity. Our three main characters are in for some major changes in their lives and world views. We start with Eliane, a woman totally in control of her emotions and source of income, rearing an adopted heiress native girl on the brink of womanhood. Jean-Baptiste, a dashing young Lieutenant, begins the film as an adventuerer, attracted to older rich Eliane, not only for her beauty but because she would be a conquest. He has callous disregard for the Vietnamese people. In an early scene he orders a boat burned with a Vietnamese family aboard because they are in the canal after curfew. Love for Camille jerks him from his existence as a French naval officer to a military deserter traveling with a band of Communist insurgents. Camilla starts the film as a Catholic School girl, an heiress to the vast lands of her natural parents and to her adopted mother, Eliane. She is destined to be the wife of a young Chinese mandarin but her love of Jean-Baptiste moves her to incredible acts of challenge and survival that transforms her from a spoiled young princess to a legendary icon of the liberation movement. There are other characters of importance, but the Police Captain, played by Jean Yanne, is a wonderful character. Whereas the other characters go through vast changes, he remains the same; a cynical, world-weary, wise, older man. He knows the French suppresse the Vietnamese for financial gain, but he is resigned to play his role of trying to identify the insurgents and suppress them. He knows the French have become decadant, but he is no saint and becomes lovers with a night-club singer. It is his commentaries, primarily to Eliane, that tell the story of the rise of the Vietnamese nationalistic and communistic movements and the fall of the French empire in Indochina.

As in many works of great literature, the character development of the main actors is interwoven with historical movement to which they must repond and in responding are transformed. This is certainly the case here as we see a French colonial empire full of the explotation and racism, social economic suppression, slave labor, classism, and decadence that occurs whenever one group of people exploits and suppresses another group.

Vietnam was suppressed first by the Chinese and thus Chinese mandarin families had remained the upper class in much of Vietnam. The lived there for generations, intermarried some with the Vietnamese, but retained the upper rungs of the economic and social structure. The French allowed these Chinese to remain when they established military and economic control. The nationalistic and communistic movements were against both the Chinese upper class and the French military/economic class.

As American audiences attempt to make sense of the Vietnamese war, it is films like this that reveal to us the historic suppression of these people and their innate desire for self-direction. We entered Vietnam to prop up a corrupt French empire, thus setting the stage for Vietnamese nationalists to seek help from Moscow and to move toward Communism. How foolish we were. It all boils down to those that do not know history are unfortunately fated to repeat it.

The Last Days of the French Empire.......2006-09-16

French Vietnam or Indochine in its last days through the eyes of an French plantation owner. Elaine is the adult daughter of the original owner who maintains its lush riches amidst the eventual collapse of the French colony. Living a society life in Saigon with her adopted Vietnamese daughter Camille, Elaine's wealthy and luxurious life is one of inert emotional satisfaction. It changes when she falls hard for a young Naval officer and vies for his affections with Camille. A love triangle emerges and gives rise to a folk legend when Camille refuses to let her love die. A slow moving but deep film about the end of France's glory on Vietnam.

Average customer rating:

L' Intergrale des Clips
Starring: Indochine
Manufacturer: Musicor Records
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Music Video & Concerts | Genres | DVD | Video

( L ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Sony Pictures Classics 10th Anniversary (All About My Mother / Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon / Indochine / Run Lola Run)

Average customer rating:

Sony Pictures Classics 10th Anniversary (All About My Mother / Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon / Indochine / Run Lola Run)
Starring: Columbia 4 Pak
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Drama | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

( S ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Nowhere in Africa (German with English Subtitles)
Three Colors Trilogy (Blue / White / Red)
Cinema Paradiso (Two-Disc Deluxe Edition)
The Barbarian Invasions (Les Invasions Barbares)
Volver

ASIN: B00005Y6XT
Release Date: 2002-03-05

Amazon.com

All About My Mother
After her son is killed in an accident, Manuela (Cecilia Roth) leaves Madrid for her old haunts in Barcelona. She reconnects with an old friend, a pre-op transsexual prostitute named La Agrado (Antonia San Juan), who introduces her to Rosa (Penélope Cruz), a young nun who turns out to be pregnant. Meanwhile, Manuela becomes a personal assistant for Huma Rojo (Marisa Paredes), an actress currently playing Blanche DuBois in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire. All About My Mother traces the delicate web of friendship and loss that binds these women together. The movie is dedicated to the actresses of the world, so it's not surprising that all the performances are superb. Roth in particular anchors All About My Mother with compassion and generosity. But fans of writer-director Pedro Almodóvar needn't fret--as always, Almodóvar's work undermines conventional notions of sexual identity and embraces all human possibilities with bright colors and melodramatic plotting. However, All About My Mother approaches its twists and turns with a broader emotional scope than most of Almodóvar's work; even the more extravagant aspects of the story are presented quietly, to allow the sadness of life to be as present as the irrepressible vitality of the characters. Almodóvar embraces pettiness, jealousy, and grief as much as kindness, courage, and outrageousness, and the movie is the richer for it. --Bret Fetzer

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Hong Kong wuxia films, or martial arts fantasies, traditionally squeeze poor acting, slapstick humor, and silly story lines between elaborate fight scenes in which characters can literally fly. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon has no shortage of breathtaking battles, but it also has the dramatic soul of a Greek tragedy and the sweep of an epic romance. This is the work of director Ang Lee, who fell in love with movies while watching wuxia films as a youngster and made Crouching Tiger as a tribute to the form. To elevate the genre above its B-movie roots and broaden its appeal, Lee did two important things. First, he assembled an all-star lineup of talent, joining the famous Asian actors Chow Yun-fat and Michelle Yeoh with the striking, charismatic newcomer Zhang Ziyi. Behind the scenes, Lee called upon cinematographer Peter Pau (The Killer, The Bride with White Hair) and legendary fight choreographer Yuen Wo-ping, best known outside Asia for his work on The Matrix. Second, in adapting the story from a Chinese pulp-fiction novel written by Wang Du Lu, Lee focused not on the pursuit of a legendary sword known as "The Green Destiny," but instead on the struggles of his female leads against social obligation. In his hands, the requisite fight scenes become another means of expressing the individual spirits of his characters and their conflicts with society and each other. The filming required an immense effort from all involved. Chow and Yeoh had to learn to speak Mandarin, which Lee insisted on using instead of Cantonese to achieve a more classic, lyrical feel. The astonishing battles between Jen (Zhang) and Yu Shu Lien (Yeoh) on the rooftops and Jen and Li Mu Bai (Chow) atop the branches of bamboo trees required weeks of excruciating wire and harness work (which in turn required meticulous "digital wire removal"). But the result is a seamless blend of action, romance, and social commentary in a populist film that, like its young star Zhang, soars with balletic grace and dignity. --Eugene Wei

Indochine
Régis Wargnier's 1992 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film is a bit like watching paint dry, despite its exotic locale and lead performance by the legendary Catherine Deneuve (Belle de Jour, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg). Deneuve plays a wealthy French landowner, born and raised in Indochina, from 1930 until 1955, the year of a Communist takeover. The brewing political changes bound to upset her fortune and destiny find an even more personal parallel in her relationship with an adopted daughter (Linh Dan Pham), who grows up and becomes independent. The outline of this scenario sounds pretty good, but the film is flat and unworthy of its star. --Tom Keogh

Run Lola Run
It's difficult to create a film that's fast paced, exciting, and aesthetically appealing without diluting its dialogue. Run Lola Run, directed and written by Tom Tykwer, is an enchanting balance of pace and narrative, creating a universal parable that leaps over cultural barriers. This is the story of young Lola (Franka Potente) and her boyfriend Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu). In the space of 20 minutes, they must come up with 100,000 deutsche marks to pay back a seedy gangster, who will be less than forgiving when he finds out that Manni incompetently lost his cash to an opportunistic vagrant. Lola, confronted with one obstacle after another, rides an emotional roller coaster in her high-speed efforts to help the hapless Manni--attempting to extract the cash first from her double-dealing father (appropriately a bank manager), and then by any means necessary. From this point nothing goes right for either protagonist, but just when you think you've figured out the movie, the director introduces a series of brilliant existential twists that boggle the mind. Tykwer uses rapid camera movements and innovative pauses to explore the theme of cause and effect. Accompanied by a pulse-pounding soundtrack, we follow Lola through every turn and every heartbreak as she and Manni rush forward on a collision course with fate. There were a variety of original and intelligent films released in 1999, but perhaps none were as witty and clever as this little gem--one of the best foreign films of 1999. --Jeremy Storey

Indochine [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Great Britain ]
Average customer rating:
Indochine [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Great Britain ]
Director: Régis Wargnier
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video
Used DVDs | Stores | DVD | Video | Action & Adventure | African American Cinema | Animation | Anime & Manga | Art House & International | Classics | Comedy | Cult Movies | Documentary | Drama | Educational | Fitness & Yoga | Gay & Lesbian | Horror | Kids & Family | Military & War | Music Video & Concerts | Musicals & Performing Arts | Mystery & Suspense | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Special Interests | Sports | Television | Westerns
General | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
ASIN: B000FT7V4E

Product Description

Great Britain released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: French (Dolby Digital 2.0), English (Subtitles), WIDESCREEN, SYNOPSIS: Regis Wargnier's epic about French Indochina -- from the years of French colonial imperialism to the days when American presence made itself felt and the country became known as Vietnam -- is a story of romance and separation told through the backdrop of a country in turmoil. The film centers on the relationship of the beautiful and imperious Eliane (Catherine Deneuve), a French rubber-plantation owner, and Camille (Linh Dan Pham), her adopted Indochinese daughter. The mother and daughter are very close until a diffident naval officer, Jean-Baptiste (Vincent Perez) enters their lives. Eliane is in love with him, but Jean-Baptiste and Camille become attracted to each other and fall in love. Thinking that she is doing Camille a favor, Eliane arranges to have Jean-Baptiste transferred to the far-away Tonkin Islands. But Camille flees the plantation to go to the man she loves. As she travels the country, she gains a greater knowledge and respect for the people of her homeland. When the government tears her from Jean-Baptiste and their infant child and arrests her for crimes against the state, she becomes politicized and becomes a supporter of the communists in the country's civil war. As the country rocks in turmoil, Eliane becomes a personification of France, coolly walking amid her peasant workers, neither bowed nor afraid, grimly looking westward.
SPECIAL FEATURES: Scene Access, Interactive Menu, Filmographies,

Average customer rating:

"The Indo-Chinese are not built for it!"....or were they? 4+1/2 *****'s
Blindness in a beautiful land
A sweeping epic - the story of France's withdrawal from Indochina
Excellent film of artistic and historic importance
The Last Days of the French Empire

Indochine [Region 2]
Starring: Catherine Deneuve , Vincent Perez , Linh Dan Pham , Jean Yanne , and Dominique Blanc
Director: Régis Wargnier
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

( I ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

The Quiet American
Au Revoir Les Enfants - Criterion Collection
Cyclo
The Lover
Queen Margot (La Reine Margot)

ASIN: B00005LDF0

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

"The Indo-Chinese are not built for it!"....or were they? 4+1/2 *****'s.......2007-05-04

Blindness in a beautiful land.......2007-01-14

A sweeping epic - the story of France's withdrawal from Indochina.......2006-12-08

Excellent film of artistic and historic importance.......2006-10-08

The Last Days of the French Empire.......2006-09-16

Average customer rating:

Indochine [Region 2]
Starring: Catherine Deneuve , Vincent Perez , Linh Dan Pham , Jean Yanne , and Dominique Blanc
Director: Régis Wargnier
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( I ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Indochine (Original French Version - No English Options)

Average customer rating:

Indochine (Original French Version - No English Options)
Director: Régis Wargnier
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Product Description

Indochina during the 30's. One of the largest rubber-tree plantations is owned by the French colonist Eliane, a proud but imprudent woman. She lives with her father and her native adoptive daughter Camille. At an auction Eliane gets to know the young officer Jean-Baptiste; after a short affair she refuses to see him again. But in the meantime Camille falls deeply in love with the young man, so Eliane takes the necessary steps to cause a transposition of Jean-Baptiste onto a far island. Though Camille gets married to another guy she goes on a long journey throughout the country in order to find the man she loves.

Average customer rating:

Indo Live
Starring: Indochine
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Musicals & Performing Arts | Genres | DVD | Video

( I ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Average customer rating:

Hanoi
Starring: Indochine
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video

( H ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

DVD:

DVD

DVD

DVD

Jason and the Argonauts

Darkman/Darkman 2: The Return of Durant

Parent Trap [2 Discs] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

DVD: Gothika (Widescreen Edition)

Face