Indochine

I agree with Panivong Norindr’s view of Indochine as a “dangerous fascination precisely because it brings visual pleasure without questioning or subverting any preconceived ideas about French colonial rule in southeast Asia.” Not only are the images presented without question but so too is the characterization of its main player, Eliane. At times she seems to move effortlessly between the two worlds of Southeast Asia and France. But her relationship with both worlds is presented in only the most superficial manner. There is no close look at what it takes to make a plantation run, no explanation as to why men afraid for their lives would be more afraid of the plantation owner, so that they enter the factory after the fire. I agree with Roger Ebert that there is something very Gone With the Wind like in the film. There is an overall fascination with the romantic ideal of Indochina, of life on a rubber plantation without a corresponding understanding of the realities required to make such a plantation run.
I also found Eliane’s opium smoking interesting. It is never really explored or discussed but clearly there is a problem if she moves from the occasional smoke at her summerhouse with a lover, to days spent laid out in an opium den The only person Eliane seems to defer to is Madame Tanh and perhaps that is because she knows of her opium addiction. Eliane is taken to Madame Tanh’s house after her latest opium binge and it is there that she finds out that Camille is to marry Madame Tanh’s son. She seems willing to give up Camille to the Tanhs with little fight.

Raise the Red Lantern

It would be unfair to the director Zhang Yimou to not mention the breathtaking beauty of Raise the Red Lantern. There were scenes which quite literally took my breathe away.The entire film is shot in the home of the master, often photographed from the air. The home is made of stone and no matter the season (the movie takes place over a year), the walls are dark gray. There is no greenery, no foliage, no color. Many of the scenes consist of hallways; doorways. People are looking through doorways, never quite entering the rooms. There is an overwhelming maze like quality that is, at times, stifling. Once we enter the master’s home, we never leave. The audience never sees the outside world. The audience also never sees the master. He is always in shadows, we see pieces of his body but never his face.
Against the dark colors of the film the presence of the red lanterns is magnified. The lanterns themselves are huge, almost majestic. Throughout the film they are the brightest piece of color.
One of the film's most striking visual images is of red against white. When Songlian's maid finds out that she has been faking a pregnancy it is because of the bright red blood she finds on Songlian's white pants. That same image is repeated as Songlian throws the red lanterns from Yan'er's room into the courtyard. Each lantern falls like a drop of blood against the pristine white snow. Songlian's blood will lead to the sniffing out of the lanterns outside and inside of her house. The discovery of Yan'er's lanterns will lead to the sniffing out of her life.
I am probably not doing all of the images justice, it really is a must see film - beautiful images and a heart wrenching story.

Earth: Lenny baby and the new India

I liked aspects of the film Earth but agree with the reviewer that the characterizations were not well established. I did not completely buy into the idea that the events were being seen through the eyes of a child. Lenny baby was for me a completely unsympathetic character. Her breaking of the plate at the film's beginning established her, at least for me, as a spoiled brat.

Symbolically, I saw Lenny baby as the new generation of India - crippled, and seemingly torn between two worlds unsure where to settle in. Her family is also torn between two worlds. I didn't see them as being neutral as much as I saw them as embracing British traditions and cultural norms. They spoke English, wore western dress (note both Lenny and her mother's short, western hairstyles), drive a car, ballroom dance, eat english custards etc. They are reaping the rewards of British occupation, often out of touch with the horrors around them.

Lenny baby is always in the background, always watching, observing. Shanta brings her to the park, to the spring celebration, to her various meetings with the ice candy man and the masseur. Lenny baby is treated almost as a talisman, she is constantly being picked up and carried and moved from place to place. Like the Mulsim man in the riots being torn limb from limb, Lenny baby is pulled by the radical Hindu (ice candy man) and the more moderate (masseur). In every scene either one man or the other picks her up and carries her. She doesn't listen to those around her, when told not to mention his sisters' deaths to ice candy man those are the very first words out of her mouth. Her betrayal of Shanta in the end, does not surprise me. As the new India, she feels that she owes no allegiance to relationships in her past. The last scene of the rioting has the mob pushing her to the ground, rushing past her and leaving her in the dust. Is this how Deepa Mehta sees the new generation?It is a generation without a chance at success. It is starting out crippled and being run over by the tensions of the time before it can even begin to establish a true foothold. Lennny baby:"That day when I lost Ayah, I lost a large part of myself." With independence came a loss of what it had meant to be an Indian. Even 50 years later, Lenny baby still is limping along perseverating over what had happened a half century ago, unable to let go of the horrors of separation from her Ayah and the separation of India as well.

This is my practice run.