EAST-WEST (1999) / ** 1/2 aka EST-OUEST [French; English subtitles]
Directed by Regis Wargnier. Screenplay by Sergei Bodrov, Louis Gardel, Rustam Ibragimbekov and Wargnier. Starring Sandrine Bonnaire, Oleg Menshikov, Catherine Deneuve. Running time: 120 minutes. This film is not yet rated by the MFCB. Reviewed on October 30th, 2000.
By SHANNON PATRICK SULLIVAN
It's somewhat ironic that I saw "East-West" the evening after viewing Rod Lurie's "The Contender". Both are politically charged movies which, although laudable in broad strokes, fail to achieve their full potential because they adopt an overtly simplistic approach to their subject matter. For "The Contender", it was a matter of dismissing potent dramatic issues in favour of an easy, quick-fix resolution designed to make the audience go home happy. In the case "East-West", the problem is somewhat more ingrained.
Featuring French and Russian dialogue (with English subtitles), "East-West" is the decade-spanning story of Frenchwoman Marie Golovin (Sandrine Bonnaire), whose husband Alexei (Oleg Menchikov) is one of thousands of Russians being wooed back to their homeland in the aftermath of World War II. The film, directed by Regis Wargnier, starts beautifully as we watch the homeward-bound Russians celebrating in a sumptuous ship's cabin. Then, without warning, we are deposited into the terrifying midst of the Soviet empire: as the passengers disembark, they are immediately herded into two groups, depending on whether or not the Kremlin believes them to be "imperialist spies".
Marie is initially amongst the condemned, and survives only because of the pleas of her husband, a renowned doctor. They are sent to live in a crowded residence housing several other families. Alexei becomes the head of medicine at a factory while Marie does the laundry for a military choir. They are constantly watched, though, and when the residence's supervisor makes the mistake of revealing to Marie that she knows French, she is soon relieved of her duties and taken away. The woman's grandson Sacha (Sergei Bodrov Jr), now homeless, is taken in by the Golovins. Marie, disillusioned with her husband's apparent unwillingness to stand up to the state, begins a passionate affair with Sacha. Together, they plot to escape Russia by taking advantage of Sacha's position as a member of the Soviet swim team.
"East-West" is a visual treat, as Wargnier fills the screen with contrasts that are, naturally enough, both entrancing and horrifying. The stark beauty of the Russian landscape is set tantalisingly against the sheer brutality of the Communist regime. (The snowswept image of the pond where Sacha trains, now frozen over with ice, is particularly memorable.) Scenes of romance and tenderness are tempered by the knowledge that everyone is being watched and nobody can be trusted. Even Sacha's triumph in qualifying for the national swim team is offset by the fact that it has been engineered for darker, more desperate purposes -- and the powers that be may or may not be aware of the fact.
But unfortunately, Wargnier fails to conjure a story compelling enough to live up to his stirring images. "East-West" is far too conventional in its structure, dwelling not on the oppression of the Supreme Soviet but instead on Marie's efforts to escape the country. It is the Cold War reduced to its most simplistic form -- Communism is bad, democracy is good, and shades of grey are all but nonexistent. "East-West" would have been better served if Wargnier had opted to more strongly establish the effect of the political climate on everyday Russian life. Instead, he concentrates mostly on the more extreme aspects of the regime, such as a Gestapo agent who is almost cartoonish in his villainy.
The result is that Wargnier loses touch with his characters. "East-West" is a movie that looks like a very personal drama, but is executed more like a particularly slow-moving Tom Clancy thriller. None of the leads enjoy much depth, and Menchikov is particularly ill-served by the flimsy, tepid Alexei. Both Bonnaire and Bodrov bring a lot of vitality to their roles, but have little personality. They are thinly-veiled stereotypes; Marie is the Westerner trapped behind the Iron Curtain, Sacha the Easterner rebelling against his Communist masters.
Wargnier never effectively conveys the ties between the characters. Marie and Alexei feel less like husband and wife than casual acquaintances. When their marriage begins to break down and both begin affairs with other people, it is an almost casual occurrence. "East-West" feels populated by shadows, gliding through events without every truly becoming involved in them. There is no resonance to the drama being played out.
Even Catherine Deneuve, portraying a French stage actress named Gabrielle who may be Marie's most important ally, seems to be struggling to lend substance to her character. To make matters worse, Deneuve brings such presence to the film that she dominates any scene in which she appears; Bonnaire and the others simply cannot compete. This would be fine if Gabrielle played a more central role in "East-West", but she does not; she is a facilitator, whose emotional stakes in the drama are limited at best.
Ultimately, then, "East-West" is a lovely but disaffecting drama which settles for simplicity when it should be striving for depth. Lacking the complexity of characterisation and depiction needed to effectively explore the themes it proffers, "East-West" ends up being little more than a pretty (and chilling) pictorial of the Soviet Union in the middle part of this century. This, in of itself, is not altogether without merit. "East-West", however, could have been much more.
Copyright © 2000 Shannon Patrick Sullivan. Archived at The Popcorn Gallery, http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sps/movies/East-West.html
_______________________________________________________________________ / Shannon Patrick Sullivan | "We are all in the gutter, but some of us \ | shannon@mun.ca | are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde | \___________________________|__________________________________________/ | Popcorn Gallery Movie Reviews www.physics.mun.ca/~sps/movies.html | | Doctor Who: A Brief History of Time (Travel) /drwho.html |
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