Erwan Baynaud Movies
French director Regis Wargnier's fifth feature film is a romantic period drama which is also a tribute to the victims of a tragic Stalinist episode. In June 1946, Stalin launched a major propaganda campaign aimed at Russians who had settled in the West, offering them amnesty and an opportunity to be involved in the postwar restructuring of the USSR. Many people who believed Stalin and returned home were executed, interned, or subjected to repression. The protagonist of Est-Ouest, Alexei Golovin (Oleg Menshikov), takes his young French wife Marie (Sandrine Bonnaire) and son Serioja with him on the long journey back to his native land that he has missed so much. On the board of the steamship taking them to Odessa, people like them celebrate the new life that they anticipate. However, reality strikes when they reach shore. Many people are immediately executed or sent to work camps. Alexei is spared to use his skill as an accomplished doctor. He is sent to Kiev to work in a dispensary and live in a communal apartment. Alexei accepts his fate but Marie dreams of escaping to freedom. Opportunity comes her way when she meets Gabrielle Develay (Catherine Deneuve), a famous French actress on tour, passing through Kiev. Tension mounts as the relationship of Alexei and Marie is put to test. For the script of this co-production between France and Russia, Wargnier had three other collaborators: Louis Gardel, who had previously collaborated with Wargnier on Indochine; Sergei Bodrov, a well-known Russian filmmaker best-known for his award winning S.E.R. and The Prisoner of the Mountains; and Azeri scriptwriter Rustam Ibragimbekov, best remembered for his scripts of Nikita Mikhalkov films. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sandrine Bonnaire, Oleg Menshikov, (more)
- 1995
This French family-oriented adventure is set in the Cameroons and Zimbabwe and follows the exploits of a 12-year-old French boy who, following the death of his mother, is sent to Africa to live with his father, the overseer of a large game preserve. The boy, Martin, has not seen his father since he was two. Martin's arrival doesn't make much impact upon his father, Garoubier, who is too busy with his work to pay attention or show affection to the grieving lad. He is sent to school where he is the only white, but soon makes friends with a native boy, Fofana, whose stepfather leads his village and is called the elephant master. One day, Fofana suddenly disappears and during the search, Martin and his dad finally begin to get a little closer. Later Fofana and Martin team up and set out on their own to locate a missing herd of elephants. Trouble follows and adventure ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jacques Dutronc, Erwan Baynaud, (more)
- 1994
This deftly made French psychological thriller terrifies with its exploration of an experiment gone horribly wrong. Dr. Marc Lacroix, a psychiatrist specializing in brain functions, is obsessed with the link between mind and spirit. To find his link he studies the criminally insane. He builds a secret machine, known only to his mistress Marianne, in which he hopes to exchange minds between humans. He simultaneously wants to help the mentally ill recover, and he wants to experience their madness. He chooses the psychotic killer, Zyto, a man who stabbed at least three women, for his experiment. The initial experiment is successful and the two exchange minds. But trouble ensues when Zyto refuses to reverse the switch. There is little Marc can do when Zyto takes over Marc's life, and more ominously his wife and child whom are unknowingly in mortal danger. Marc, encased in Zyto's body, is returned to the asylum. Will Marc's wife recognize the danger? Will Zyto kill again? ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gérard Depardieu, Nathalie Baye, (more)
