WARGNIER, RÉGIS

(1948- )

Director and screenwriter. Régis Wargnier's first features wereLa femme de ma vie(1986) andJe suis le seigneur du château(1989). Two films about the relationships between Europeans and the people in their colonies have stirred critical interest: the epicIndochine(1992), which won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film and aCésarfor its leading actress,Catherine Deneuve, takes place during France's colonization of former French Indochina. His English-language picture,Man to Man(2005), which opened the 2005 Berlin Film Festival, narrates the story of late nine-teenth-century explorers who kidnap Africans and transport them to Europe for scientific observation. Wargnier's feature,Est,Ouest(1999), similarly emphasizes international politics through personal relationships. It tells the story of a French woman and a Russian exile who move to Stalinist Russia after World War II. He also directedUne femme française(1995).