Watch See the Sea For Free

Beautiful, moving film.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

A scruffy girl backpacker Tatiana (Marina de Van) shows up at the beach house of a Parisian young mom, the English Sasha (Sasha Hails), who has a 10-month-old baby--and demands permission to pitch her tent in the back yard. The dad is working in Paris and only shows up at the end of the film's 52-minute running time. (De Van was to appear again in Ozon's Sit Com). The mom precedes to trust the obviously suspicious and ominously aggressive and affect-less outsider far too much--to the torment of nervous viewers. A rather minimalist horror flick, this shows Ozon's characteristic visual elegance and economy but leans dangerously far toward the more glib aspect of his rarely absent desire to shock. One of the hardest of his films to watch, but not one of the more convincing ones. Various elements strain credulity and others are not even really made clear. Roger Ebert wrote a very good (if typically over-kind) review.. This was Ozon's longest film so far. Though not well reviewed in this country his Criminal Lovers/Les amants criminels (1999), with the naturally combustible couple of Jeremie Renier and real-life girlfriend Natacha Regnier, was longer (96 min.) and a huge improvement.

Ever since I've started writing comments on IMDb I've been writing about European movies more than about American, and I've suggested readers to watch most of them. I gave good marks to French movies, though many others (mostly American) movie-lovers found them pretentious, false artistic or boring. But now here's the movie that expresses everything bad people have ever thought about French movies. Too short for a serious standard movie, too long for its weak story. Too much nudity for prudes, too little to be a soft-porn. Too many unimportant scenes, too little developing of characters. If Americans often make cover versions of French movies, this one shamelessly steels from US movies and still succeeds to make it boring, because we can expect in advance every important event and the revealing of secrets doesn't surprise us very much. Finally, the "shocking" end of the movie is in fact the only logical one.What's good in the movie? Photography maybe, but it is so common in French movies that it's not necessary to emphasize it (no better, no worse than average French photo). The acting is also far below French standards. Paul as character might have also been omitted from the movie, he might have been left just as a person somewhere far away: it would have been intriguing for us to think if he existed at all. But it would be too, too much for writers to understand that.

Saw this film on the Sundance Channel a couple times now. It's really not anything new, but it's still a haunting story of frustration, need, and (mis)trust. Sasha seems to be happy (and even says so) with her current settled life, yet there are displays of her boredom and frustration throughout the film (the baby keeps her occupied, yet at the same time it also won't let her sleep, read, etc.). She is also in need of some sex, as a couple scenes prove.I suppose probably being as bored as she is more so than being polite, she befriends Tatiana after being wary of her at first. Strangely, she starts to place way to much trust in this person (leaving her to watch the baby, etc.), but that just shows Sasha is so pent up that she'll take any chance she gets to have some relief. As they get chummier, Tatiana starts to show to the audience signs of being a bit unstable (you got to see one such scene for yourself!), and later Sasha finds her weird notebook drawings but doesn't seem to think much of it (we all doodle, right?). Later when Sasha offers her most trusting friendliness, Tatiana finally does what she has to do, starting with a scene that at first looks more a return of friendship than what really happens. (Even though what finally happens is a bit predictable, it doesn't take away from its impact since such a thing is always disturbing and tragic.)Overall, this was an enjoyable film, if you are into concise, well shot and acted drama with talented actresses. Also, for this particular film, it's length was just right, at just under an hour. A-

After quite a good setup of the sparse seaside landscape and the frustrated housewife with baby it degenerates into a "thriller" that delivers a few shocks (or more correctly disgusting moments) but no true surprises or twists.The drifter is a stock character with no depth or distinguishing characteristics from other such characters (nor is any added by the actress in a flat performance) so ultimately there is no menace to sustain even a film this short. The housewife fares better, particularly in the first half, with a little more depth but even that is discarded for the "surprise" ending. And if you were surprised then you weren't paying attention (probably because you were nodding off).The film is shot in a harsh, minimalist way that tends towards realism which intrigues during the initial setup but is betrayed by the often unrealistic (or at least they felt that way) goings on that are played straight with no stylistic touches whatsoever. And in such a short film several scenes really have no bearing on the plot and really add nothing to the characters. As such the film ultimately lacks depth and tension and ends up being just, well, dull.