Indochine Movie Analysis

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Indochine is set in Indochina between the 30s and 50s, and was directed by Régis Wargnier. It’s about a plantation owner named Éliane Devries and her adopted daughter, Camille. Their normal lives are flipped upside down when Jean-Baptiste, a French Navy lieutenant, comes into the picture. He and Éliane have an affair, and then shortly after Éliane’s daughter falls in love with him. Jean-Baptiste is sent away and Camille goes after him. Things happen and they are launched on a long and arduous journey that takes them all across are tense, pre-revolution Indochina. Somewhere in this story they have a child, and that makes everything harder for this young couple. At the end of the movie Camille is transformed into a leader of the revolution.

I’d say that the main theme of this movie is the struggle to find where you fit in. Throughout the movie characters are trying to find a place where they are comfortable and that they can identify with. For example, there is a scene in the movie where Camille is talking to Éliane about living on the plantation and looking like the workers. Éliane also struggles with this issue. She considers herself to be Vietnamese because she has lived there for a long time, but she is white not Vietnamese. Another important theme is if things are meant to be
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Éliane seems to have a lot of internal battles throughout the movie. Whether it was deciding what to do about her and Jean-Baptiste’s relationship or Camille and Jean-Baptiste or trying to find Camille when she chases after Jean. Camille is arguably the most interesting character. She evolves so much over the course of the movie. She goes from an innocent teenager where her only worry was if her fiance will fall for French girls while he’s in France to being the face of a revolution. She becomes a mother and goes to prison in the same movie. The movie shows her progression from a teen to mature