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Indochine centres around French plantation owner Eliane (Catherine Deneuve) in 1930 when French colonial rule is coming to an end against heated political changes.
She dismisses the advances of French security services boss Guy (Jean Yanne) as she has a predeliction for toyboys, namely officer Jean-Baptiste (Vincent Perez), but unfortunately he’s a man for all seasons and takes a liking to her adopted Vietnamese daughter, Camille (the stunning Linh Dan Pham), but she’s also a bit upset that her boyfriend Tanh (Eric Nguyen) has gone off to live in France for a time.
Outside of the Eastenders-style romantic involvements, there’s an in-depth and important tale to be told about France’s unbearable oppression against the Chinese, leading to the rise of communism, and at 159 minutes in length it certainly does take its time. Unfortunately, it feels like it takes too long to get anywhere, half the time, as all too often characters descend into Scarlett O’Hara-style over-dramaticised behaviour, particularly from Ms Deneuve, while Guy *really* needs to go for a back, sack and crack wax!
Overall, when it’s good, it’s great – and this comes often with the scenes involving Perez and/or Linh Dan Pham, but when it’s not so good, it feels like twice as much time has passed.
I know I’m out of step with those who dish out awards as it garnered the Best Foreign Language Oscar in 1993, no doubt because it’s a lavish production, stars a big name and is a period movie, but I wouldn’t given it that for the problems I mentioned (well, not Guy’s hirsute issues). However, at times, it told a decent story that was worth sticking with, while the highlights were the stunning Linh Dan Pham and the incredible locations in Malaysia and Vietnam which makes me want to jump into the screen and not come back.
The film is presented in the theatrical 1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio, although IMDB states an original ratio of 1.66:1 so based on that, there will be some slight cropping going on. I can only presume this new version is director-approved. Either way, the new print is taken from a 4K restoration. There’s no 4K release, but with the Blu-ray in 1080p, you can’t perfect the imperfections on the 35mm negative and there is a fair number of times when it should look better than it does. The 1080p definition is there, but by emblazoning “4K Restoration”, Studiocanal are raising hopes that will be dashed a bit.
The sound has options for both 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and 2.0 LPCM, but while I chose the former, there was precious little going on in the surround speakers. I remember them being visited once in the film, but it was nothing to write home about… although I was already at home.
There’s just one extra on the disc, Indochine: Une Epopee A La Francaise (61:19), aka “Indochine: A French Epic”, and as indicated by the figures in brackets, it’s just over an hour long. It’s a great, in-depth ‘making of’ mixing clips from the film with chat from the crew, including director Régis Wargnier telling us how his father was a soldier in the Indochina war, and also how he was given an instruction to make an epic movie, it would cost 120m francs and it should win an Oscar… and it did.
If you’re wondering whether to buy this, and if you liked the film more than I did, then yes. Sure, I would like print to be better but it’s as good as it’s ever going to get (35mm prints from 25 years ago can degrade, unlike digital prints from today) and there’s an engaging extra on this disc.
There are two different main menus, depending on whether you’ve selected UK or France beforehand. Both show clips from the film set against a portion of the soundtrack. However, only the French one offers you a choice of French or English subtitles. The UK one defaults to English, but you can still go into the player’s own menu to select them. I generally play Blu-rays on a PS4 so its own pop-up menu allowed the option. Either way, there’s a bog-standard 12 chapters. I prefer one every 5 minutes, which would come to 32.
Indochine is out now on Blu-ray and DVD, and click on the packshot for the full-size image.
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FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
5 7.5 7 4 |
| OVERALL | 6 |
Cert: 
Running time: 159 minutes
Year: 1992
Distributor: Studiocanal
Cat.no: OPTBD3035RO
Released: January 2nd 2017
Chapters: 12
Picture: 1080p High Definition
Sound: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1, 2.0 LPCM
Languages: French
Subtitles: English
Widescreen: 1.85:1 (35mm)
Disc Format: BD50
Director: Régis Wargnier
Producers: Eric Heumann and Jean Labadie
Screenplay: Erik Orsenna, Louis Gardel, Catherine Cohen and Régis Wargnier
Music: Patrick Doyle
Cast:
Eliane: Catherine Deneuve
Jean-Baptiste: Vincent Perez
Camille: Linh Dan Pham
Guy: Jean Yanne
Yvette: Dominique Blanc
Emile: Henri Marteau
Castellani: Carlo Brandt
L’Admiral: Gérard Lartigau
Raymond: Hubert Saint Macary
Hebrard: Andrzej Seweryn
Shen: Mai Chau
Dominique: Alain Fromager
Mari de Sao: Chu Hung
Étienne, adulte: Jean-Baptiste Huynh
Charles-Henri: Thibault De Montalembert
Tanh: Eric Nguyen
Minh: Trinh Van Thinh
Xuy: Tien Tho
Mme. Minh Tam: Thi Hoe Tranh Huu Trieu
Kim: Nguyen Lan Trung
Sao: Nhu Quynh
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.