Shot Analysis

In the film Indochine, before Camille’s wedding, there is a shot of both Eliane and Camille sitting on a bench in front of a lotus lake in the Hue temple. To me, this shot is very beautiful and captivating. It is a long shot, slightly high angle, and it is shot directly from behind the two characters. It is a deep focus shot so we can see all that appears in the scene. The lightning is low in the foreground, caused by the roof overhead the two characters. In front of them is a lake filled with lotus. The lotus is often regarded as the symbolic flower for Vietnam, and it grows in water, usually in a small pond or lake at temples, or wealthy houses. The lake takes about ¾ of the scene in this shot, which is very interesting because I feel somehow the lake represents Vietnam, and the people seems less significant and are in the shadows. The lake’s water may not seem so clear, if not a damp itself; it is because lotuses grow in very shallow water. Despite that, the sun is shining directly to the surface, reflecting everything in front of our two characters’ eyes such as trees, bushes and shadows mirrored by the water. From an artistic point of view, this shot is very elegant, capturing a feeling of being lonely, depressed and somewhat confused. The two characters are dressed differently. Eliane, despite being in one of most the well-regarded places in Vietnam traditional culture, wears a western flowered red dress and a big hat. Camille is dressed in normal Vietnamese clothes, which is usually worn by farmers or servants back in that period. At this point we can see that they are really separated. Not only the costumes contribute to that effect, but so do the positions that they are sitting. The two characters sit on both ends of the wooden bench, divided by Eliane’s purse in the middle. This creates a feeling that two of them could never get back together on one side again. But what fascinating is that both of them are looking at the same direction, forward,