Jean-Jacques Annaud

The renowned French director of "Quest for Fire," "The Lover" and "Seven Years in Tibet" provokes a firestorm over his breathtaking new war film, "Enemy at the Gates."

By Stephen Lemons

Mar 19, 2001 | Loquacious and leonine with a mass of curly white hair, director Jean-Jacques Annaud is the embodiment of French conviviality. The 57-year-old Academy Award-winning filmmaker relishes conversation and especially delights in aggressive questioning. That's a good thing, because he's getting plenty of tough queries in regard to his latest film, "Enemy at the Gates," an $85 million World War II epic set during the 1942 Nazi siege of Stalingrad (now Volgograd).

German journalists were outraged by the film when it premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year. They decried Ed Harris' cold, brutal portrayal of Maj. König, a German sniper on the hunt for his famed Russian counterpart, Vassili Zaitsev, played by Jude Law. Even some non-German reviewers boarded the bandwagon, criticizing the use of British actors such as Law, Joseph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz to depict Russian soldiers with British accents.

Still, if there's any justice, Annaud's brilliant, engrossing cinematic spectacle will be his greatest triumph yet. Reminiscent of both Stanley Kubrick's "Paths of Glory" and Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West," "Enemy" is equal parts history lesson, action flick and torrid romance. Think of it as "Saving Private Ryan" with a far superior story, better acting and none of the schmaltz. But will it be blockbuster enough to turn a profit? Even Annaud is unsure, but he certainly enjoys entertaining the notion.

In America, we're not used to seeing Russians depicted as heroic, or Stalingrad portrayed as the turning point of World War II. Does that make this film a tough sell to U.S. audiences?

I remember watching "King Kong" in Africa, and there were people there who had never seen movies before who were cheering when King Kong was crushing the natives. They identified with the hero, King Kong, and I was in a native village! It's an interesting mental process. When you read about it, you may say, "I'm not going to like a Russian guy." But when you see Jude Law fighting against clear villains -- the Nazi invaders -- you identify with him.

That's especially true when you know what the Nazis did in Russia. They raped all the women, disemboweled the pregnant ones and took pictures in front of piles of dead children. All because they were told that the Russians were subhumans. I think that once you're in the cinema, you identify with the people who are the protagonists. True, it's not an obvious sell. But my movies have never been easy to market. So far, they've found enough people around the world who are interested in something different.

There've been countless World War II stories made into films. What drew you to this one?

I was fascinated by the true anecdote on which the story is based. That duel is extraordinarily famous in Russia. And Vassili Zaitsev is a national hero there. It has all the resonance of a lonely man fighting against the devil. That's why it captivated the imaginations of the Russians, and captivated mine.

This duel took place in the middle of this huge battle, where 5,000 people were dying every day. Why was it that suddenly that bullet was important? That bullet was important because it was made famous by the media, by the Russian propaganda system. It was important to the morale of the Soviets, and therefore to the outcome of the battle -- and that battle was pivotal to World War II. It's quite formidable to think that little guy was instrumental in the destiny of the world today.

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