This classical Vietnamese film is gentle, and simple, yet transcends its very simplicity
Neurotically memorising the names of the winning films and their directors of the Cannes Film Festival is no fun game. But it is a game cinephiles worldwide are compelled to play until the films are available. Blue Is the Warmest Colour, a film about a lesbian romance by Abdellatif Kechiche, was awarded the coveted Palme d’Or this year.
As we impatiently anticipate the film’s release among many others from this year, it may be a good idea to revisit an old classic from the festival. In 1993, a young Vietnamese-French director named Tran Anh Hung made such an impression on Lazennec Productions that they financed his first feature film, the now famous and revered The Scent of Green Papaya, set in Vietnam but actually shot on a soundstage in Boulogne, France.
Watching the film today, twenty years later, one is still struck by the verisimilitude of the provincial Vietnamese setting that the film depicts with such loving care and attention to detail - something a director can only achieve with a great deal of perseverance, excellent visual memory, and of course, an extraordinary affinity for that specific place or country.
The story in The Scent of Green Papaya is gentle, and simple, yet transcends its very simplicity due to the immense skill of its maker who clearly loves deep character study and realises that the smallest gesture can be the most telling if captured correctly by the camera.
The film centers around a young girl Mùi (Man San Lu) who is brought to work for a rich family at the age of ten. Mùi quickly learns the ways of the household, helping to chop vegetables and preparing traditional Vietnamese meals. We see her blossom as she quietly observes the world around her and wins the heart of the mother of the household with her graceful ways.
Over the course of the years, we watch Mùi (now played by Trân Nu Yên-Khê) grow into a beautiful and thoughtful young woman who has become beloved to the now old mother, but chooses to change households to work for a handsome young pianist.
As we watch her move about the new household, putting things to right and creating a harmony with everything around her, we fall in love with this older Mùi just as the pianist does.
It is no surprise then that this film won the Camera d’Or that year at Cannes, a prestigious prize awarded annually to a director for their first feature film.
Personally, The Scent of Green Papaya is one of my favourite films. It is like a treasured book or poem that I can pull out at any time, either watching it all the way through or skimming to the best parts to be inspired and to warm my soul in a way that only a thing of pure beauty can do.
The scent of green papaya, directed by Tran Anh Hung
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