Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

I saw the picture (now, when I am retired) and did read the review of westpenn49. On one side he admit that it is a sad story, on the other side he acclaims that it is a splendid movie. Is this not a "classic" example of perversion? The most cruel is the most orgiastic?I am sorry but this is real weird.Regards,J.P. (Jan) Clifford

'Indochine' was released to the big screens in France by the time of my first visit in Paris in 1992, the city was then full of posters about it, I remember them even on the Champs Elysees. Going to the movies was not my priority at my first time in that splendid city, and thus more than 20 years passed until I got to see this film, probably one of the most ambitious projects in the history of the French cinema, a tentative in the historic epic and romantic saga genre set in the final decades of the French colonial rule in Indochina. As other similar projects like 'Gone with the Wind', 'Australia', 'Cold Mountain', or 'A Passage to India', it mixes a long and tortuous romantic story with a rendition of the history from the perspective of the 'white man'. It works to a large extent. Falling empires and republics in turmoil have many similar things and a charm of their own on screen.Romance and history meet in an intrigue which is a little bit too long, and too much decorated with coincidences, but then credibility to the detail is not necessarily the principal quality we look for when reading sagas or watching saga films. The main character played by Catherine Deneuve is a rich, beautiful and independent plantation owner who raises a Vietnamese adopted daughter and tries to keep the luxurious way of colonialist life while the world around her is cracking and falling apart. Her passion for an officer younger in age turns into a family drama when this one falls in love with the adoptive daughter and in political intrigue when the two take ways apart and join the anti-French forces. Cultures and ideologies mix and conflict in the film – colonialism fights nationalism and communism, cosmopolitan French style of life clashes with the traditions and religions of this area of Asia. There are many details in the film, but I also had a feeling of lack of focus, like in a very large picture full of characters and objects, but also a little blurred. Or maybe these were only background elements for director Regis Wargnier, I cannot know. The director BTW all but disappeared after a few ambitious but not very successful movies in the 90s.There are two fabulous qualities in this film which balance all the minuses. One is Catherine Deneuve. I am in love with her until she will be 150. There are only two other actresses at the same level, radiating light, intelligence, beauty in any role they play – Ingrid Bergman and Cate Blanchet. Deneuve crosses in this film many years in the story but she stays beautiful and dignified, socially strong but emotionally vulnerable. A great role. The second exceptional quality is the cinematography, and I must mention the name of the artist in charge – Francois Catonne. The landscapes filmed in location are exquisite, so are the scenes that bring back to life the cities of Indochina of the 30s. I am not sure if after watching 'Indochine' I have really a more accurate image about how that part of the world was in the 30s of the previous century, but I surely do have a beautiful one.

"Indochine" is epic film-making of a kind rarely practiced any longer. To me, it brought to mind "Gone With The Wind" and the films of David Lean, but I enjoyed it far more. The film's cinematography, production design, and costumes are stunning - never forced or pretty for their own sake, but appropriate and executed with consummate craftsmanship. "Indochine" tells of the demise of French colonialism in what became Vietnam in an even-handed manner, never placing all virtue on any one side, but narrating its story through characters who are dimensional, flawed, and recognizably human; in only one case is there a character who is completely unsympathetic, and that is a bit part. It is never easy to create characters who exhibit reprehensible qualities but still keep the audience interested in and sympathetic to them; "Indochine" accomplishes this adroitly. The issues of France's colonial interest in Indochina come across in a natural, nuanced way through the actions of the large and varied cast, without it ever seeming like we're getting a history lesson. Catherine Deneuve's reputation as a somewhat chilly actress is used to good effect here, which is not to suggest that her performance is at all one-note. Of interest is the depiction of the relationship between the French, and the natives who are essentially subjugated and exploited; however, there is real affection, at times, between members of the two groups, until the forces of history take over. The story of "Indochine" has many parallels throughout history - the story of a European (or American) interest moving in on the resources of an undeveloped country and appropriating them for its own profit and to the detriment of the inhabitants of the region. Somehow it took me fifteen years to get around to seeing this film, and I was more than pleasantly surprised. The film exceeded my expectations, and I recommend it to anyone interested in intelligent, yet still entertaining, film-making.

This film was made with such breathtaking care that I don't expect to see another film that will move me with such intensity. The story line is told with painstaking detail in Vietnam against the back drop of war, and that's what makes this movie so poignant, you understand the characters, through the little details, so well, that you cannot help but feel that what you perceive is what these characters are feeling. I literally cried throughout 15 of the films' 90 minute runtime, not just a tear in the eye "oh that's too bad," but sobbing "OH MY GOD WHY, WHY DOES THIS HAVE TO HAPPEN?!" Catherine's character and the Vietnam girl play it to perfection.I remember a comment kept running through my head, "this is not fair, it's not fair it had to happen to them, it's not their fault, dammit it's not their fault." This film is a representation of how good dramatic anime can be, if used correctly. There are no kung fu fights, or mysterious dragons, only reality. Such horrible wonderful reality that one will find that they cannot think about war in the same way as they did before. I know that this was the greatest war movie I have ever seen. It also might just be the greatest film ever. See it, don't walk, run, you must see this