
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 17, 1993                   TAG: 9309180303
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: C10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MALCOLM JOHNSON THE HARTFORD COURANT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

A TRIP INTO INDOCHINA'S HEARTS OF DARKNESS

In ``Indochine'' Regis Wargnier paints France's colonial era in Vietnam on a huge canvas, reminiscent at times of ``Gone With the Wind.'' But while that overrated American classic begins fascinatingly and then fades away, this film about the roots of anti-imperialist rebellion moves from the polite tedium of French society to a gripping, revolutionary force. ``Indochine'' won the 1992 Oscar for best foreign language film.

At the center of ``Indochine'' stands the regal, agelessly beautiful Catherine Deneuve, nominated for a best-actress Academy Award for her performance. Deneuve, whose serene, classic looks give her an aloof, almost ethereal quality, delivers one of her strongest performances as Eliane, the long-widowed doyenne of a rubber plantation.

Eliane is a symbol of the French presence in Vietnam. While she is never cruel with the Vietnamese who bleed the trees belonging to her and her father, Eliane treats her workers as serfs. When she protects a father and son from an investigating naval officer, Jean-Baptiste, who has burned their opium-laden sampan, it is because Eliane herself indulges in the occasional pipe dream.

Soon, as ``Indochine'' dollies with slow elegance through its portrait of French colonial society, the young officer becomes Eliane's dream lover, the latest in a long series of men she has taken to her love nest on the outskirts of Saigon. And in time, Eliane's adopted Asian princess daughter Camille becomes enamoured of Jean-Baptiste, too.

For much of its 2 hours, Wargnier's film sets out a series of impeccably composed and handsomely set episodes in the intertwining lives of Eliane, Camille and the man they both love. But the dialogue tends to be cliched or full of heavy symbolism, as in this accusation, hurled at Eliane: ``You treat people like trees. You buy them, and you drain them.''

A rebellion begins, and Camille is drawn into it. The turning point comes when she is drenched with blood during an assassination in the streets. Carried to a house by Jean-Baptiste, who tears off her bloody bodice, Camille falls instantly in love.

As the focus shifts to Camille and Jean-Baptiste, ``Indochine'' deepens and quickens. Wargnier unflinchingly portrays the terrible side of the French occupation of Vietnam, especially the brutal, sometimes murderous round-ups of fugitives who are pressed into slavery.

Yet as ``Indochine'' penetrates ever more deeply into the wild north of Vietnam, the always striking photography by Francois Catonne takes on a stirring beauty.

But more and more, as the struggle that will culminate in the Vietnam War builds, the director and his actors penetrate ever deeper into French Indochina's hearts of darkness.

\ A Sony Pictures Classics showing at The Grandin Theatre. Rated PG-13 for some nudity and bloody murders. In French with English subtitles.

by CNB