20-year-old Joseph Dufresne and his 16-year-old sister Suzanne live in the merciless conditions of French Indochina with their widowed mother. Their overbearing mother attempts to exert a hold on her children by involving them in the family's run-down rice plantation. However the siblings seek liberation, and look for this in their romantic lives. Suzanne becomes involved with Michael and Joseph finds a love interest in Claude.
Clément purchased the film rights to the Duras novel in 1956. The original male lead was supposed to have been James Dean, but he was replaced by Perkins after his death in 1955. Mangano, the wife of producer Dino De Laurentiis, was cast in the female lead. Clément wanted Peter Ustinov to play Albert, but he declined due to a theatrical commitment.
Clément shot the film in wide-screen Technirama and Technicolor. Following the end of French Indochina, Clément could not film in the newly independent Vietnam as nationalist struggles continued there. Thus, Clément and production designer Mario Chiari reconstructed the story's setting in Thailand, with studio interiors shot at Cinecittà in Rome.
Reception
The New York Times described Clément as "a specialist in that sort of tragedy that evolves from the inability of deeply pained people to face their own feelings." The reviewer also praised the "great pictorial beauty and admirable psychological truth" of Clément's film. The reviewer also praised how the "crumbling of the dam against the assaults of the river stands as an image of what is going on within the family."
The film was also a critical success in France, being lauded as "a complete success, a chef-d'œuvre", although François Truffaut did not share this enthusiasm, accusing Clément of directing "his career". He added that "For Clément, the essential thing is that the film he is making costs more than the last one and less than the next."
Duras was dismayed by the absence of certain colonial themes that were important in her novel. She said she felt "betrayed" and "dishonoured" by the film.
