Touted as France's most expensive production and the first to be shot in Vietnam, Indochine has a lot riding on it. Written by Erik Orsenna, Louis Gardel and Catherine Cohen, with imput from director Regis Wagner, it's a sweeping, romantic saga set in 1930 during the dying days of France's contentious colonial rule. Veteran French icon Catherine Deneuve toplines as a wealthy rubber plantation owner who discovers that her adopted Indochinese daughter has fallen in love with the same dashing French Navy officer she herself has been dallying with. When he is transferred to a faraway post, the daughter decides to follow him. Her subsequent long-distance odyssey provides her as well as the audience with a graphic estimation of the heady political changes sweeping the country. Complementing Deneuve's cool, icy beauty are Linh Dan Pham as the daughter and Vincent Perez as the handsome object of the women's collective lust. A lushly photographed epic with a strong narrative grip.
