A Reflection on the Films Indochine and Queen Margot

771 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Religion

A Reflection on the Films Indochine and Queen Margot Everyday, whenever we read the newspapers, turn on the television, listen to the radio we are constantly acquainted to the reality of power struggle in every aspect of society today. For example, the struggle for power is evident in the spheres of politics, religion, economics and their interplay with one another. While powerful people constantly repress the weaker ones for the sake of claiming more power, many are struggling for survival, to live a life more bearable. "Indochine" and "Queen Margot" are two beautiful films based on true stories from history. The two films vividly captured how people undermine other values for the sake of power. Lessons from history tell us tales of the different detrimental and sometimes devastating effects of the struggle for power. Indochine is a film about Vietnam's struggle in trying to find liberation from the hands of the oppressive colonizers from France. Madame Devries represented Mother France in the film, she adopted a native girl whose name is Camille. Madame Devries had a rubber plantation which symbolized the constant sucking of the colony's resources for the sake of France. A cut had to be done every time you want to harvest rubber from the tree, which symbolizes the constant and forever engraved cut made by the colonizers in Indochine. Camille symbolized a nation whose native roots have been "killed" and was nurtured by the colonizers. The process made her acquire the culture, the habits and the beliefs of her new mother. Even though nurtured in another way, she represented the natives who "owned" their identity as a people. Her eyes were opened, or at least she thought of it that way, by Communism and the need for independence. She even denied Madame Devries' offer to come back home, which is a symbol of the clinching away of the young nation from the Mother Land. The Navy Lieutenant symbolized those French who despised the system of corruption and oppression in the colony. Camille and the lieutenant had a son whom they named Etienne, who symbolized the birth of a new

Show More
Related

  • Princess Bride: Summary and Analysis

    673 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Princess Bride by William Goldman is a tale that is rendered new into many different scenarios. William Goldman uses lovers and royalty to play the fairy tale role in this book while also using evil. In the book the Princess Bride there’s a beautiful young women named Buttercup who lives on a Farm with a servant named Westley. As Westley is leaving for America for a better life Buttercup admits her love for him and asks him not to leave for America. While Westley is sailing to America is ship is attacked by the pirate ship Revenge. They leave no survivors! Buttercup hears the news in goes into a deep depression for a little while. (While all of this is happening the Prince of Florin is looking for a bride because his father is very sick). The Prince hears of Buttercup and her beauty so he asks her to marry him even though they don't love each other. Buttercup has to say yes. Later that day she is kidnapped by Fezzik (the Turk), Inigo (the Spaniard), and Vizzini (the Sicilian). The three men then sail to Guilder to kill Buttercup so Prince Humperdinck can start a war. Inigo then realizes the Man in Black is following them. The Man in Black then has a sword fight with Inigo and a hand fight with Fezzik. After beating both of them he has a mind battle with Vizzini. Also after winning that battle the Man in Black rescues the Princess. Buttercup finds out that the Man in Black is Westley and that he was infact the new Captain of the ship The Revenge which had “killed” him. Prince Humperdinck has had time to track down Westley and Buttercup know and told Buttercup to come with him back to Florin and he will let Westley go. The Prince lied and has taken Westley to the fifth level off the Zoo of Death. Westley is then tortured by the ...

    Read More

  • The Success of Louis in Overcoming the Problems He Inherited in the Period 1816-1820

    726 Words  | 2 Pages

    enabled France to be rid of the Allied army in a short period of time.

    Read More

  • The Insatiate Countess

    2188 Words  | 5 Pages

    Comedy and tragedy would not seem to mix well, as they have opposite conclusions of happiness or sadness. To have comic and tragic plots within one play, then, can be argued as being too distinct to be coherent. In The Insatiate Countess, however, it is the differences between the tragic plot of the countess, Isabella, and the comic plot of Abigail and Thais, that strengthen the play’s message supporting loyalty in friendship.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Princess Bride

    1058 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many old tells have the same stale beginning an end, but none really have a twist. The movie gives many different perspective views of the main character. A delightful postmodern fairy tale, The Princess Bride is a thrilling, intelligent mix of boastful behavior, romance, and comedy that takes an old damsel-in-distress story and makes it fresh.

    Read More

  • French Revolution: Causes Of The American Revolution

    286 Words  | 1 Pages

    King Louis the XVI had made the French people mad when he had put the country in debt so much because he donated so much money to the Americans.

    Read More

  • The Battle of France

    2520 Words  | 6 Pages

    World War I had been fought primarily on French soil, and the military as well as the government never wanted that to happen again, therefore they wanted to reinforce their main border against any future German. Little did they know that only twenty-two years later they would be bested by German forces in a way that would shock the world.... ... middle of paper ... ... Situational awareness was almost non-existent, with many French commanders not even knowing where their own subordinate units were located.11

    Read More

  • Representation of Women and Femininity in She and Arabian Nights

    1369 Words  | 3 Pages

    She written by H Rider Haggard is a novel about two men, Holly and his adoptive son, Leo set out to search for a mysterious queen, Ayesha who killed her lover, Kallikrates. After finding the queen, both of them hopelessly fall in love with her and remain in her control not until she dies. Her beauty is legendary that no man can look up upon her and keep his own will. Arabian Nights is a collection of Arabic short story told by a woman, Shahrazad who willingly to marry her lustful King. The King marries a virgin woman every night and kills them the next day because he is once being cheated by his late wife but not until he is married to Shahrazad. Her generous nature to save other women in the kingdom that motivates her to the marriage. The dominant themes in the two novels are heroism, courage and ever-present sense of danger. Ayesha and Shahrazad are two different women in different situations. Both of these characters have shown the themes of female authority and feminine behaviour but in their own ways. Feminism can be explained in a very simple way that women are equals to men which means that they are as intelligent, as competent, as brave and as morally responsible (Decter 45). Ayesha is a terrifying and dominant figure uses her beauty to seduce and have power over men while Shahrazad uses her intelligence by telling tales to teach the King lessons. Most of female characters in the tales also represent femininity as they have power over male characters. They are both viewed as heroes in the stories. The similarity in them is they uses their femininity as a threat to the masculinity of male characters in the novel and become the causes of the male characters’ downfall.

    Read More

  • The Princess Bride Research Paper

    701 Words  | 2 Pages

    When I was a child my family rarely had the money or time for an outing to the movie theaters, so when we watched a movie it was generally on DVD and, if it was me or my mom choosing the movie, it was The Princess Bride. The Princess Bride had everything a proper fantasy movie should; adventure, battles of strength and wit, and true love. We follow the heroine, Princess Buttercup as she is separated from her true love, betrothed to the repulsive prince Humperdinck, kidnapped by a band of criminals, saved by a mysterious man, and exacts her revenge on the man who hired her kidnappers. This movie sets the precedent for all other media that I consumed. Even now, I have a tendency to compare books and movies to The Princess Bride. The Princess Bride showed me what to expect in life and provided a variety

    Read More

  • Movie Analysis: The Princess Bride

    1259 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Princess Bride is directed by Rob Reiner and stars Robin Wright and Cary Elwes as two lovers who are separated due to a series of unfortunate events. The film is an adaptation of the book of the same name by screenwriter, playwright, and novelist William Goldman, whose book contains elements of fantasy, romance and comedy. Despite its minor popularity as of 2016, The Princess Bride film only made around 30 million dollars domestically when it was first released. It was only when the film came out on VHS that it started reaching a wider audience and was raised to cult classic status. The Princess Bride is an excellent and thoroughly entertaining film because of its impressive and exciting action, it’s interesting and funny side characters,

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Louis Xiv And Peter The Great

    1584 Words  | 4 Pages

    Louis fought his early wars for defensive purposes— to secure France’s northern border and to remove the Spanish from strategic towns. However, the Sun King pursued many subsequent wars to increase his power and influence. For example, Louis believed that if France had once historically controlled a region, France was justified in winning the region once again. Louis believed, as a divine right ruler, that he had the authority to break truces at will. Consequently, Louis made many enemies out of nearby countries, including Spain, England, and the Netherlands. After Louis won the Campaign in the Franche-Comte region in 1668, Europe was not interested in having France become the preeminent power in Europe. Louis believed that trade would generate wealth and by keeping trade within his own colonies, he could capture the profits that would have been otherwise outside of his control. By reorganizing the administrative and financial aspects of his kingdom and developing trade and manufacturing, he improved the prosperity of his empire. Louis sought to finance his military objectives from this new income stream, but ultimately, it was not enough. Louis XIV’s many wars, and the lavish life at Versailles, exhausted France of funds. Since only the lowest French classes such as the farmers paid the

    Read More

  • The Economic Origins of the French Revolution

    2737 Words  | 6 Pages

    Marking a significant beginning stage of the economic downturn was the Seven Years’ War, a battle that saw few positive achievements, but several losses both in terms of land and money, which had been acquired through loans that would establish France’s first significant debt. The reign of Louis XVI would further this debt, while also creating a greater divide between the estates of France by placing the heavy burden of repaying much of the new debt on the poorest class of France, the Third Estate. Participation in another war, only ten years prior to the French Revolution would create even more debt for France as they entered the American War of Independence, again with funding from loans that would need to be paid soon thereafter. Throughout this period of debt creation within France, society worsened in many ways due to the inability of the nation, from royalty to the Third Estate, to evolve economically, socially and agriculturally. With this overall sense of decline throughout France, a nearly unanimous desire amongst France’s Third Estate, the most populous, was to pa...

    Read More

  • The Cotton Gin: A Short Story

    423 Words  | 1 Pages

    A few years past now and we are nearly broke. We couldn't think of anything that could be useful. Then there was an opportunity. A possible war between the U.S. and France is breaking out so we went to work.

    Read More

  • Character and Symbolic Analysis of The Princess Bride

    1519 Words  | 4 Pages

    Provenance: The Princess Bride was written in 1973 by William Goldman and later adapted into a film in 1987.

    Read More

  • Disney Vs French Government

    982 Words  | 2 Pages

    On the other side, the French government had various interests. It put clearly in advance that their major interest was the employment and the revenues created by the project.

    Read More

  • Women’s Roles in Classical Hollywood Cinema

    2563 Words  | 6 Pages

    Women’s roles in movies have changed dramatically throughout the years. As a result of the changing societal norms, women have experienced more transition in their roles than any other class. During the period of classical Hollywood cinema, both society and the film industry preached that women should be dependent on men and remain in home in order to guarantee stability in the community and the family. Women did not have predominated roles in movies such as being the heroin. The 1940’s film Gilda wasn’t an exception. In Gilda, the female character mainly had two different stereotypes. The female character was first stereotyped as a sex object and the second stereotyped as a scorned woman who has to be punished.

    Read More

More about A Reflection on the Films Indochine and Queen Margot

Open Document