 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
EAST-WEST (EST-OUEST)
Régis Wargnier, France/Russia/USA/Spain, 1999
|
|
|
| |
Following Nazi Germany's bloody capitulation, Josef Stalin endeavoured to lure Russian emigrants back to their depleted homeland. Weary of war and seeking a new beginning in a nation of apparent promise, tens of thousands complied. Stalin panicked at the sheer size of the influx and his response was truly horrific: many were murdered, tortured or imprisoned without trial or reason.
Initially, this appears a bizarre backdrop to Régis Wargnier's extraordinary, sweeping love story. However, many of the great cinematic romances have been played out against an appalling period in history and East-West chooses the nightmare of post-war Russia to depict the moving and epic relationship between Alexeï Golovin and his wife Marie.
When the couple leave their adopted home of France and arrive in Odessa with their son, Sérioja, they are ordered into a communal apartment in Kiev and Alexeï is forced to work in a factory. Their subsequent story spans 30 years, covering moments of happiness, despair, affairs, self-sacrifice and escape.
Wargnier remains best known for the critically and popularly acclaimed Indochine, starring Catherine Deneuve. East-West again pairs him with the French icon who here plays a celebrated actress befriending the central couple. Deneuve's presence, however, was not simply an attempt to replicate his 1992 feature. "A famous actress was needed, an actress who imposes her presence as soon as she comes on to the screen," explained Wargnier. "That is what Catherine brings: excess in the right direction, determination and natural authority".
This is a tale of torn-up passports and torn-up dreams, but ultimately, the message delivered is humanistic and hopeful: Love may not conquer all, Wargnier seems to be saying, but have a little faith.
Gavin Collinson
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
East-West lost out to Pedro Almodóvar's All About My Mother for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2000
