Blog 4 AZ

The film "Indochine" is a story of the French occupation and rule in Indochina, reflected by the events in Elaine's (main characer and French rubber and plantation owner) life. The film depicts the control and colonization of the French and how they significantly influenced the Vietnamese culture.

There are three sides to this movie: the French, the Vietnamese Communist, and the Vietnamese nationalists. Elaine represents the French and how she held herself above the Vietnamese. Her parents moved to Vietnam with the motives to make as much money as they could. Camille, although Vietnamese, was raised with French values. As she defies her mother and flees the plantation she gains a greater knowledge and understanding for the people in her land. She represents the Vietnamese nationalists and defies her mother just like how the Vietnamese rebeled against the French. The union between Camille and Jean Baptiste represents the mixing of the French and Vietnmanese cultures. Tanh, the man that Camille was arranged to be married to, represents the communist party. In some ways he slightly resembles Ho Chih Minh in the fact that he went to France, was highly educated, an independent thinker, and was an early supporter of the communist movement.

I believe that the film seems to take the side of the Vietnamese nationalists. It shows how the Vietnamese struggled under the French occupation. It depicts the French negatively and expresses how Vietnam was ruined by the French abuse of their country. The Vietnamese natives had no power in their own land. Their lives were at the beholder of the strong colonial French power. They were completly dependent on the French for food, clothes, and a place to live, they were basically prisoners in their own country. The French treated the Vietnamese like they were children and granted them no rights or respect.

In the begining of the movie after the Vietnamese rowing team beat the French team, one of the French rowing captains said "We shouldn't give these men an idea of victory". This shows how the French wanted to keep control over the Vietnamese and use their power to take over the country for their own benefit. This theme of the French wanting to hold onto control of Vietnam was also evident towards the end of the movie on Dragon Island when the French were trading the Vietnamese like they were animals. One of the French generals said "Here is where we serve France". Referring to how their duty to France was to take over the lives of the innocent Vietnamese. One French general commented on the Vietnamese being brought off the boats and chained to the docks "You see them sitting there all docile....One day they will rise up and we will have to leave". This foreshadows how Camille stood up against the French soldier and shot him. It also signifies how the Vietnamese began to stand up and revolt against the French.