Indochine (1992)

Catherine Deneuve: Éliane

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Quotes 

• Eliane : She had made her choice. And I didn't want to see it, I didn't want to understand. She loved him. He was her first love. Nothing would stop her.

• Mme. Minh Tam : You have to forget this man, Lili. I'll never understand French love stories. They're all about madness, fury, suffering. They're similar to our war stories. You know the secret. I've told you already.

  Eliane : Yes, I know. Indifference.

• Yvette : It's too bad for Mr. Émile. All this training and his team lost. It's too bad. Like Raymond says, "The Indo-Chinese aren't built for that." Right, Raymond?

  Eliane : Calm down, Yvette. They haven't lost yet.

• [first lines] 

  Eliane : I had never left Indochina. Camille's hand was icy in mine. She had just lost her parents. They had been my dearest friends. Their plane disappeared at sea, off the coast of Cap Saint-Jacques. I didn't have children. She didn't have parents anymore. The little princess of Annam became my daughter.

• Eliane : Maybe this is what youth is all about. Believing the world is made of inseparable things. Men and women, mountains and plains, human beings and gods, Indochina and France.

• Camille : Do all Parisians have light skin like you?

  Eliane : The difference between people is not skin color. It's this. This. The taste. The fruit. A child who has eaten apples all his life can't be like me. I'm Asian. I'm a mango.

• Eliane : Luxury, mystery. This is all you need to charm a woman.

• Jean-Baptiste : Aren't you embarrassed by the way they look at you?

  Eliane : Why should I be? They're my coolies.

  Jean-Baptiste : They're men too.

  Eliane : I'm their boss, that's all.

  Jean-Baptiste : Commanding men is a man's job.

  Eliane : That's what men usually say.

• Jean-Baptiste : What about you? What did you dream about?

  Eliane : I wanted to be a boy.

  Jean-Baptiste : And now?

  Eliane : No need to dream. I have everything I like here.

• Eliane : I looked for you everywhere last night. Talk to me, Jean-Baptiste. Say something.

  Jean-Baptiste : I'll always need time for myself. Days for myself. Weeks for myself. Only to myself. Do you understand? It's the same thing for you. We are two persons.

  Eliane : I need you. You're part of my life now. I need your voice, your softness, your hands. Protect me. I need you to protect me.

  Jean-Baptiste : Stop. You are not this pleading woman. I want to experience the world. Not a plot of land no bigger than a tomb. I want to discover the world.

• Eliane : I wanted to protect Camille. She knew nothing of my life, of the men I met, of those I loved. I had flings with men in transit. The kind that doesn't leave traces.

• Eliane : You think, you don't think. There was, there wasn't. Make up your mind!

• Eliane : I tried to save her from you. I don't want her to believe suffering is part of love. Good night.

  Jean-Baptiste : Save her from me? You just want revenge. You can't stand freedom. It threatens you.

  Eliane : Let go of me.

  Jean-Baptiste : You can't let others live.

  Eliane : Let go.

  Jean-Baptiste : You want monopoly on life - giving away little bits once in a while. Me, Camille, your coolies! It's terrible to be this way. What do you want? Smother your daughter like your father smothered you? You treat people like trees. You buy them and you bleed them dry. You drain them! You're vultures!

• Eliane : Life continued as before. Footsteps in dead leaves, sap oozing from the wounded trees, and what I like the most, that others don't: the smell of rubber.

• Eliane : Young people like Tanh will lead this country. We have to help create an Indo-Chinese elite.

  Mme. Minh Tam : We are the elite, because we are rich.

• Eliane : Tanh is an intellectual. He's probably not interested in business.

  Mme. Minh Tam : He should stop dreaming.

• Eliane : I often dreamed of her at night. I don't remember static dreams. I saw her moving, softly, through those mobile landscapes. I felt like they entered her body through her eyes, like blood. I thought, "This is it. Indochina is in her."

• Eliane : Sometimes my despair lessens. It's like it's evaporated, gone. Sometimes it overwhelms me. Swear you're not hiding anything from me.

  Guy : Nothing's changed. We're looking everywhere for her. Our informers are going crazy. We follow every lead, but they're going nowhere. She's become a legend. Joan of Arc of Indochina.

• Eliane : You're nothing. You're nothing but words. You're worse than a coward. You follow people. You look, you sniff, you talk. Do you still wonder why I've never wanted to sleep with you? Because I didn't want to have your child! Women don't want to be pregnant with words!

• Eliane : I heard you're in a bad mood?

  Shen : Tomorrow, fire Mr. Émile's new girl.

  Eliane : Fire Hoa? Why?

  Shen : Too greedy, too expensive. She's a bad girl. Her mouth is too big. She's always asking for more. Today, it's more rice. Tomorrow, it's going to be pig, then buffalo. I know many girls who'd take her place. They're very nice and have smaller mouths.