7.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
This story is set in 1930, at the time when French colonial rule in Indochina is ending. An unmarried French woman who works in the rubber fields, raises a Vietnamese princess as if she was her own daughter. She, and her daughter both fall in love with a young French army officer, which will change both their lives significantly.
Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Vincent Perez, Linh-Dan Pham, Jean Yanne, Dominique BlancForeign | 100% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Romance | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
French: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
5.1: 3511 kbps; 2.0: 2050 kbps
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Régis Wargnier was one in a relatively large group of filmmakers (both old and new) who contributed to the expansion of the French film industry in the
1980s. This included the likes of Claude Berri, Marc Caro, Patrice Chéreau, Alain Corneau, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Patrice Leconte, and Jean-Paul Rappeneau.
An assistant director to Claude Chabrol and Volker Schlöndorff, Wargnier got his first directing assignment in 1986 for La femme de ma vie
(The Woman in My Life), which earned him the César prize for Best First Film. His second feature Je suis le seigneur du château
(I’m the King of the Castle) caught the attention of producer Eric Heumann, who suggested to Wargnier a movie about Indochina. According to
Judy Stone in her book, Eye on the World: Conversations with International Filmmakers, Heumann wanted something akin to Madame
Butterfly but Wargnier didn't latch on to the idea until the word “Indochine” was brought up. Wargnier's father served as an army officer during the
French-IndoChina conflict. Wargnier delved deep into history of the colonial territories. He also was motivated to produce a picture about this period
since really none had been made.
The Saigon-born Éliane Devries (Catherine Deneuve) is a widow and owner of a rubber plantation in 1930 French IndoChina. She lives with her father,
Émile (Henri Marteau), and Camille (Linh Dan Pham), her 16-year-old adopted Vietnamese daughter. Camille is a princess of Annam. Her parents
perished in a plane crash. They were among Éliane's closest friends. Éliane is probably as close to Camille as anyone. Camille has a boyfriend, Tanh (Eric
Nguyen), who's the son of Eliane's friend, Madame Minh Tam (Thi Hoe Tranh Huu Trieu), a successful Vietnamese businesswoman. Complications arise
on several fronts with the arrival of Jean-Baptiste Le Guen (Vincent Pérez), a dashing French naval officer. Éliane and Jean-Baptiste are initially smitten
with each other but she later prefers not to get too involved with him. Guy Asselin (Jean Yanne), head of the Sûreté (the French Criminal Investigation
Department) also has romantic affections for Éliane but she just wants to stay single and remain independent from men. During a street uprising, Jean-
Baptiste rescues Camille, who falls in love with the handsome (and much older) officer. All of these romantic entanglements are told against a sweeping
historical backdrop. Indochine shows the formation of the Vietnamese Communist Party and the revolutionaries who mount an attack on the
Mandarians, the Imperial bureaucrats who are aiding the French colonists. When Éliane arranges to send Jean-Baptiste to an outpost to get him away
from her daughter, Camille attempts to make the great trek across IndoChina to Ha Long Bay to reunite with her lover.
Sony Pictures Classics' new Blu-ray release of Indochine appears in its originally composed ratio of 1.85:1 on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50 (disc
size: 25.63 GB). In 2016, Studiocanal supervised the restoration of Indochine's original camera negative, which was restored frame by frame in 4K
by L'Immagine Ritrovata. Screenshot # 26 confirms this. Six years ago, my colleague Svet Atanasov reviewed Studiocanal's 2017 BD-50 from the UK. I can confirm Svet's statement that Régis Wargnier also
supervised this restoration, a fact cross-referenced in Carlotta Films' press kit for the film's re-release at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. Cinematographer
François Catonné's colorful lensing is reproduced nicely here, although Sony's authoring and compression are subpar. Indochine runs 160 minutes
and Sony has encoded it at an average video bitrate of only 14487 kbps. I noticed a little banding, but only during the mother-daughter scene shown in
frame grab #14. There's been a concern by our community of readers that L'Immagine Ritrovata can push for teal in their restorations. Fortunately, the teal
isn't a major problem on this transfer of Indochine. Screenshot #s 15-24 display some teal in the signage, greenery, and vegetation. Keep in mind
that the water in the river is described by a character as "jade green." Film grain is managed and balanced well. I concur with Svet's observations about the
image and would add that the blacks could be deeper (without being crushed).
There is no menu. The disc's seventeen chapters for the feature must be accessed via remote control.
Sony has supplied a French/Vietnamese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround remix (3511 kbps, 24-bit) and a French/Vietnamese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Stereo (2050 kbps, 24-bit), the latter of which is the original theatrical sound track. (Indochine was mixed in Dolby Stereo.) This marks the second
BD edition to feature the movie's original stereo mix. South Korean label INFO encoded its Blu-ray with an LPCM 2.0 track on its 2018 release. (The Region B French/UK discs do not.) I listened to the uncompressed 5.1 track,
which is both clear and crisp.
Patrick Doyle's music opens up the surrounds on the remix. In the liner notes to the Varèse Sarabande soundtrack album of Indochine, Doyle writes
that Wargnier "has a great love of symphonic music, always knew his film should be served by a large symphonic score." Doyle wrote a fully symphonic
score for the Disney adventure Shipwrecked a year earlier and was more than up for the task here. He composed propulsive brass for the action
scenes, which deliver some great spatial dynamics across my home theater. Lawrence Ashmore's orchestrations need to be lauded. In addition, Doyle
incorporated some acapella voices which he tried to give "a secular sound seemingly coming from another world or time." Their haunting, spiritual voices
seem to come from the ancestors of both the Vietnamese and the French.
Sony's optional English subtitles appear in a clear white font (see Screenshot #25).
The Region B disc included an hour-long 2016 retrospective doc about the making of the film: Indochine: Une Epopee a la Francaise (Indochine: A Very French Epic). This has not been ported over here. Extras are nil.
It's surprising that for one of its country's most prestigious films from the 1990s, Studiocanal chose not to put Indochine on UHD in 2017 or since. After two decades since its R1 DVD, Sony has finally released a Blu-ray of the longer "International Version." Sony's a/v presentation of the 4K restoration is sufficient. I would have preferred a much higher bitrate for the video but the disc does include two lossless audio tracks, each with a bit depth of 24. It's too bad that Sony could not have licensed the making-of doc. Régis Wargnier's debut feature La Femme de ma vie received a 4K remaster last year and I'm hoping for an English-friendly edition (plus more of Wargnier) I also have my fingers crossed for more early Vincent Perez: La maison de jade (1988) and Fanfan (1993). A SOLID RECOMMENDATION for this bare bones release.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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