When The Sea Rises (DVD)
APPROX. 93 MINS. - PROD. YEAR: 2004 - MPA RATING: NR
" Their relationship is a low-key l'amour fou, not quite love on the run more like love at a brisk walk.
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In "When the Sea Rises," Irene (Yolande Moreau) performs a one-woman act in which she wears a grotesque, long-nosed mask and tells the audience in a growling stentorian voice about a crime gone wrong, and about her dead lover. This is apparently intended to be a comedy. At least the audience IN the film laughs, though the audience WATCHING the film has no idea why. Or at least this audience member didn't. I suspect it may be a uniquely French kind of thing. Poetry is not the only thing that gets lost in translation, after all. Suffice it to say, I didn't get it. Not one bit.
Dries (Wim Willaert) gets it, though. After helping Irene start her broken-down car one day, she gives him free tickets to her show. He watches it, and is instantly hooked, not only on the show, but on Irene as well. They strike up a romantic relationship that doesn't sizzle, but rather simmers on the lowest possible boil as Dries follows Irene from performance to performance on her road trip.
The formula is a familiar one to American independent film watchers. Eccentric loners who live on the fringes of society meet by happenstance, and forge a connection, each happy to find someone who finally understands them, and respects their many quirks. The formula's success rests almost entirely on the ability of the actors to create plausible, or at least empathetic, characters.
Moreau succeeds, in no small part because of her years of experience as a character actor in European films. She is probably best known to American audiences as the concierge in "Amelie" (2001), but is also known in France (at least in some circles) for her stage performances. In fact, the one-woman play in the film is actually based on a real one she performed in the 90s called "Nasty Business" which I gather was a hit. Like I said, it must be a French thing. In the film, Moreau's sad, knowing face conveys a paradoxical mixture of world-weariness and naiveté, generating a bittersweet hope that breathes real life into her character.
