Plot summary
In 1954, escorted by a sergeant, a French nun travels through Tonkin, spreading the good Catholic word as she goes. A mute child leads her to a remote village. Installed at a carpenter, the travelers prepare the projection material indispensable to their propaganda. At nightfall, in a storm, a group of maquisards surrounded the house. Fortunately, the carpenter is a respected man. The attackers withdraw. After a sudden rise in water, the mute child loses the precious message that had been entrusted to him by a wounded maquis...
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Movie Reviews
Curious amalgam of stories
The message.
It's almost impossible to see "poussière d'empire" in France nowadays.It was broadcast on FR3 (the third channel)about two years after its release and since it vanished into thin air.Like this dust of the title.
The two French stars (Dominique Sanda,De Niro's co-star in "1900" ,and Jean -François Stevenin ,one of Truffaut's favorite actors,notably in "l'argent de poche") disappear in the first third of the movie ,à la Janet Leigh in "psycho".But here we do not deal with a thriller.And although Sanda and Stevenin play a nun and a sergeant coming to Indochine villages to catechize the "natives" ,it is not a war movie.It is not an adventures movie either.It's really difficult to pinpoint where the film belongs.Hence its intriguing charm.
The main theme is a message from a maquis to his wife.Unbeknownst to them ,the two French people carried this message.Then it becomes the star of the movie,becoming a fan ,then a wedge for an old radio.
Lam Lêh wanted to link his culture with the French one and he pulled it off masterfully.
If the French cinema forgets its most innovative works,it's the thin end of the wedge."Poussière d'empire" deserves a DVD release.