Film adaptation of a novel based on Marguerite Duras with Isabelle Huppert and Gaspard Ulliel
This 2008 film (also known as "Hot Coast" in German-speaking countries) by Cambodian director Rithy Panh takes the viewer back to the French colony of Indochina, sometime in the 1930s. The widow (Isabelle Huppert, * 1953) of a French settler lives in miserable conditions with her two almost grown children. Joseph (Gaspard Ulliel, *1984) and his friend Agosti (Stephane Rideau, *1976) lead the sexually dissolute life of a colony playboy who is just waiting to return to metropolitan France. His mother - without any knowledge of rice cultivation - bought a piece of land that is regularly flooded by salty seawater. When the rich Chinese Mr. Jo (Randal Douc) expresses his interest in the very young Suzanne (Astrid Berges-Frisbey, *1986), mother and son sense a warm windfall that could fulfill all their wishes. Together they do everything they can to drive the still inexperienced Suzanne into a love affair with the old Chinese guy...
You can see that all the topics of the great writer Marguerite Duras (1914-1996) are already gathered here. Poverty and misery in the French colonies - everything that people in the mother country didn't want to know in detail. The novel that serves as a model here was published in 1950. In 1985, Duras achieved a sensational success on the international book market with "The Lover". In it she described the details of the affair with the old Chinese man, which probably contained a lot of autobiographical elements. Soon after the bestseller was published, it was made into a film by Jean Jacques Annaud under the same title. Duras's illusion-free view of the colonial efforts of the former world power France is simply admirable.
The two-time EUROPEAN FILM AWARD winner (for THE PIANO PLAYER and for 8 WOMEN) Isabelle Huppert shines as a mother who fights against decline and financial ruin.
Gaspard Ulliel (1984-2022) can exploit all of his film star qualities in his role. The dazzling-looking Frenchman also had beautiful appearances in "A Very Long Engagement" (2004) and in "The Princess of Montpensier" (2010).
The young Astrid Berges-Frisbey masters her role, modeled on Duras' alter ego, very believably. In 2011 she was also in "Pirates of the Caribbean".
Stephane Rideau has been unforgettable since his powerful performance in Andre Techine's "Wilde Herzen" (1994). In it he was confronted with the consequences of the Algerian War. Another painful chapter in French history!
By the way, the dike from the French title of the novel and film ("Un barrage contre le Pacifique") still exists today. It did not bring any financial blessing to Marguerite Duras' mother, but it remains as a memorial to her work there.
