BLOG 4

In the film Indochine, it is taken place in the 1930's where the French has a major influence and colonial presense in Vietnam. The three major parties associated in this movie are the French, the communist Vietnam and the nationalist Vietnam. The movie shows the struggles that each group goes through and how one women trys to bethe unifying figure to these people.

Elaine is almost the face of how much power the french have over the vietnamese but the way she carry's herself in her position of power is like a mother figure to them. While she is in the woods she tells one of the vietnam men that she doesnt like to beat her "kids" considering him as one of her very own. She is the plantation owner of where they work so they have to look at her with respect and considering the way she treats them it is the same way a mother would have to act when diciplining her children. Elaine is also has a strong connection with the Vietnamese especially since her adopted daughter Camile is one. Her daughter is where she feels closes to the Vietnamese but even her daughter is pretty much French. She goes to school with all french girls, her mother teaches her how to dance and is the only vietnamese women dancing at the christmas party. The clothes she wears are what the French wear while she is covered with beautiful thin garments and jewelry. Camile represents how the French try to change the culture of the Vietnamese people trying to show how and why the french are in control and it is because they feel they are the better race.

When Jean- Baptist comes into the picture and becomes Elaines lover, it shows a typical love connection between two french but when he falls in love with the Vietnamese daughter of his past lover, things get really complicated and it starts controversy to see a white French man with a Vietnamese women. During this time the war between the French and the communist Vietnamese gets bigger creating deaths and destruction in Vietnam. The communist starts to attack homes, people and even Elaines Plantation causing the war to be serious than expected. The relationship between Camile and Jean-Baptist also showed the connection between the French and Vietnamese nationalist and how there is some type of compassion between one another.

The French treated the Nationalist Vietnam better than the communist Vietnam. The French would in-prison the communist Vietnamese, beat and torture them for all the damage they would do, and this created the war and seperated Vietnam to North Vietnam and South Vietnam.