By Steven Rea
Inquirer Movie Columnist and Critic
Philadelphia Inquirer (USA)
Isabelle Huppert looks thin and tired, but appropriately so, in The Sea Wall, an affecting flashback to French colonial Cambodia and a widow's struggle to guard her house, land, and family against forces of nature and human greed.
Loosely based on Marguerite Duras' autobiographical novel of her adolescence in French Indochina, The Sea Wall is not an epic on the scale of Indochine. Rather, this circa-1930 drama offers a sumptuously photographed but brittle portrait of a mother and her two (almost) grown children: Joseph (Gaspard Ulliel), a swaggering 19-year-old, and Suzanne (Astrid Berges-Frisbey). It is Suzanne, a 16-year-old beauty courted by a wealthy Chinese businessman, who represents the young Duras.
Directed by the Cambodian-born, Paris-based Rithy Panh, The Sea Wall portrays Huppert as a proud matriarch with a mercenary streak who tries to barter off her daughter in an effort to save her rice plantation from foreclosure. If the relationship between Suzanne and the Chinese tycoon Mr. Jo (Randal Douc) has a deja vu vibe, that's because Jean-Jacques Annaud already devoted an entire film, 1992's The Lover, to the sexual initiation of Duras' alter-ego.
The Sea Wall, with its dysfunctional family (and intimations of incest), explodes the moral flaws at the heart of European expansionism. At the same time, the film - and Huppert at its center - bracingly dissects a woman's desperate emotional state.
Loosely based on Marguerite Duras' autobiographical novel of her adolescence in French Indochina, The Sea Wall is not an epic on the scale of Indochine. Rather, this circa-1930 drama offers a sumptuously photographed but brittle portrait of a mother and her two (almost) grown children: Joseph (Gaspard Ulliel), a swaggering 19-year-old, and Suzanne (Astrid Berges-Frisbey). It is Suzanne, a 16-year-old beauty courted by a wealthy Chinese businessman, who represents the young Duras.
Directed by the Cambodian-born, Paris-based Rithy Panh, The Sea Wall portrays Huppert as a proud matriarch with a mercenary streak who tries to barter off her daughter in an effort to save her rice plantation from foreclosure. If the relationship between Suzanne and the Chinese tycoon Mr. Jo (Randal Douc) has a deja vu vibe, that's because Jean-Jacques Annaud already devoted an entire film, 1992's The Lover, to the sexual initiation of Duras' alter-ego.
The Sea Wall, with its dysfunctional family (and intimations of incest), explodes the moral flaws at the heart of European expansionism. At the same time, the film - and Huppert at its center - bracingly dissects a woman's desperate emotional state.
2 comments:
If you voted for CPP (Cambodian People's Party):
Also known as:
Communist Party of Kampuchea
Khmer Revolution Party
Khmer Rouge Party
Khmer Krorhorm Party - គណបក្សខ្មែរក្រហម
You're support the killing of 1.7 million innocent Khmer peoples from 1975 to 1979 in Cambodia.
You're support the killing at least twelve innocent men, women and children on March 30, 1997 Grenade Attack in Cambodia.
You're support assassination of journalists in Cambodia.
You're support political assassination and killing in Cambodia.
You're support attempted assassination and murder of leader of the free trade union in Cambodia.
You're support corruptions in Cambodia.
You're support murder of Piseth Pilika (Hun Sen's affaire).
You're support Hun Sen Regime burn poor people's house down to the ground and leave them homeless.
Hun Sen, Chea Sim and Heng Samrin was a former Khmer Rouge commanders.
Now, Hun Sen, Chea Sim and Heng Samrin are Khmer Rouge leaders, since their leader (Pol Pot) is dead.
From 1975 to 1979, these Khmer Rouge commanders responsible for killing 1.7 million innocent Khmer peoples in Cambodia.
From 1980 to present, these Khmer Rouge leaders responsible for killing innocent men, women and children on March 30, 1997, assassinated journalists, political assassination and killing, murder of Piseth Pilika (Hun Sen's affaire) and attempted assassinate and murder of leader of the free trade union in Cambodia.
When is the ECCC going to bring these three criminals to U.N. Khmer Rouge Tribunal?
Khmer Rouge Regime is a genocide organization.
Hun Sen Regime is a terrorist organization.
Hun Sen Bodyguards is a terrorist organization.
Hun Sen Death Squad is a terrorist organization.
Cambodian People's Party is a terrorist organization.
I have declare the current Cambodian government which is lead by the Cambodian People's Party as a terrorist organization.
Whoever associate with the current Cambodian government are associate with a terrorist organization.
Khmer Rouge Regime had committed:
Torture
Execution
Massacre
Atrocities
War Crimes
Crimes Against Humanity
Starvations
Overwork to Death
Slavery
Rapes
Abuses
Assault and Battery
Cambodian People's Party Hun Sen Regime had committed:
Assassination
Murder
Killing
Terrorism
Drive by Shooting
Intimidation
Death Threat
Threatening
Human Rights Abuses
Human Trafficking
Drugs Trafficking
Under Age Child Sex
Mass Evictions
Land Grabbing
Corruptions
Illegal Firearms
Illegal Logging
Acid Attacks
Injustice
Steal Votes
Violate the Constitution
These are the Trade Marks of Hun Sen's Khmer Rouge Regime.
Under Hun Sen Regime, no criminals that has been committed murder and all other crimes within Hun Sen's government ever been brought to justice.
Statement of Heng Peov
http://ia311543.us.archive.org/1/items/HengPoevStatementofHengPoev/Statement_of_Heng_Peov.pdf
Information change without notice as it become available.
The person who posts the "if you vote for the CPP" comment everywhere is pushing anti-CPP readers away by irritating them with the same post. The Khmer word is "Shrinh". Even noncommitted people will get sick of this same post and develop negative feelings toward the poster and his comment.
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