Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

With the recent success of Swimming Pool, French auteur filmmaker Francois Ozon is now becoming France's most provocative filmmaker bringing a new, younger audience to French cinema. While Swimming Pool, 8 Women, and Under the Sand have given him a cult-like world audience, his career really began with short films in which he gained a substantial following in and outside of France.

Ozon's short films were always filled with ambiguity that often compares him to Alfred Hitchcock while they helped him develop as a filmmaker. In 1996, Ozon released the acclaimed Un robe d'ete(A Summer Dress) that won him acclaim as it became his first major release to the U.S. In 1997, he followed that up with a 52-minute film about a woman living in an island with her ten-month old infant as she invites a mysterious, sullen woman into her home entitled Regarde la Mer (See the Sea).

Written and directed by Ozon, Regarde la Mer can often be compared to Swimming Pool as far as sexual tension and a lush; colorful is concerned along with its elements of drama and intrigue. While the film has the length and feel of short films, Ozon's mastery in plot devices and ambiguity shines where the audience gets captivated. Starring longtime Ozon contributor Marina de Van, Sasha Hails, an infant named Samantha, and Paul Raoux, Regarde la Mer is a chilling, spellbinding film that entrances you for an unexpected climax.

It's a nice sunny day in a quiet, island home for Englishwoman Sasha (Sasha Hails) and her 10-month old infant daughter Sioffra (Samantha). Sasha lives quietly and alone in her coastal French island home only choosing to go out with Sioffra to sit near the beach and play with sand and the ocean. Sasha calls for her husband (Paul Raoux), who is still working in Paris and couldn't be reached. Amidst her alienation and boredom, Sasha only has Sioffra to comfort her. Then one day, a young hitchhiker named Tatiana (Marina de Van) comes to her house. Tatiana is looking for a place to pitch her tent somewhere while Sasha gives her permission to stay in her backyard for a few days.

Sasha invites Tatiana for dinner, as Tatiana is a traveler with a sullen state of mind while Sasha used to enjoy traveling, including a trip in Tunisia, until she got married and had Sioffra. Tatiana chose to stay outside at her tent while Sasha's feeling of loneliness looms in her head. The next day, Sasha decides to make breakfast for herself, Sioffra, and Tatiana while Tatiana is at a supermarket trying to look for food. She returns where Sasha offers her breakfast and a chance to use the bathroom. Tatiana finds herself comfortable when she begins to play with Sioffra and later; they all go to the beach where Tatiana's feelings make her leave the beach. Sasha meanwhile leaves a sleeping Sioffra on the beach where she goes to the woods and encounters a mysterious man (Nicolas Breviere) while Tatiana goes into a graveyard to look for something in the island.

Upon returning home, Sasha finds a book in Tatiana's tent with all sorts of drawings and names. Tatiana returns home to find Sasha and Sioffra bathing where the two women later engage in a conversation of pregnancy that leads to obscene rants from Tatiana that disturbs Sasha. Sasha then gets a call from her husband who is coming home where she lets Tatiana sleep in the guest room for the night in the attic. Sasha's husband comes home finding the house empty and a huge surprise in Tatiana's tent.

Regarde la Mer as a short film is a very clever one in its colorful, entrancing direction along with Ozon's script that is filled with engaging dialogue between Marina de Van and Sasha Hails (who both received uncredited writing in the script's dialogue). While it's a 52-minute film, the pacing of it isn't very slow or very fast but very consistent as it builds up to its climax. The film can be compared to Swimming Pool in many levels, especially the tension between de Van and Hails in comparison to the stars of Swimming Pool, Charlotte Rampling and Ludivine Sagnier. Whereas Rampling and Sagnier challenge each other through intelligence, age, and sexuality, de Van and Hails use just sex and family morality to provide the tension.

Complementing Ozon's wandering directing style is the grainy yet colorful cinematography of Yorick Le Saux who truly captures the sunny, coastal look of the Ile d'Yeu, Verden in France. Particularly since the French sea looks like a moving painting while its lo-fi use works well but is weaker when its comparison to the lushness that Swimming Pool had. Helping the film in its emotional, linear tone is a piano-driven melancholic film score from Eric Neveux along with an operatic song Panis Angelicus by composer Cesar Franck performed by Aatje Heynis that accompanies the sullen mood of Tatiana.

While the smaller performances of Paul Raoux and film's producer Nicolas Breviere are well-used along with the baby Samantha bringing a nice, innocent presence. The film really belongs to Marina de Van and Sasha Hails. With de Van bringing in an engaging performance as Tatiana and Hails as the more repressed Sasha, the two actresses really shine in their scenes together. Individually, they're also well-represented with de Van using a quiet, mysterious tone to her performance while Hails is more relaxed in the beach scenes while is feeling at ease in the woods scene.

For those that liked the colorful sexiness of Swimming Pool and the drama of Under the Sand will definitely enjoy Francois Ozon's short film for Regarde la Mer. In the Region 1 DVD version of the film along with several television showings, the film is often linked with Ozon's other short film, A Summer Dress. With great performances from Marina de Van and Sasha Hails, the film truly belongs to Francois Ozon for its colorful, soothing presentation towards the mystery genre. In the end, Regarde la Mer is an excellent view into Ozon's career as a filmmaker of short films before he would intrigue the world with his off-colored feature-length films.

***Update 12/3/06, Review of A Summer Dress***

When young French cinematic bad boy Francois Ozon was making short films in the early 90s, he found his first real success with the short See The Sea (Regarde la Mer) in 1997. The 52-minute short film revealed the sexual intrigue and dark narrative that Ozon would put later on into his feature films like the melancholic drama of Under the Sand (Sous la Sable) in 2000 and his 2003 international breakthrough film Swimming Pool. Another short that was released before Regarde la Mer was a 17-minute short about a young bisexual man getting into a sexual frenzy only to wear a dress entitled A Summer Dress (Un Robe D'ete).

Written and directed by Ozon, Un Robe D'ete is a simple tale of a young man dealing with his sexual identity in a beach. Taking the same campy style that would later appear in films like his adaptation of Fassbinder's Water Drops on Burning Rocks and the high-camp Douglas Sirk-style musical of 8 Femmes, Ozon reaches into more of a character study territory while putting the same sexual intrigue of his other work into this 17-minute short. Starring Frederic Mangenot, Sebastian Charles, and Lucia Sanchez, Un Robe D'ete is another winning short from the future French bad boy.

One day in a summer cabin near the beach, a young, frustrated man named Frederic (Frederic Mangenot) is being annoyed by his lover Sebastian (Sebastian Charles) love for French pop singer Sheila as he dances to a French cover of an old Sonny & Cher song. Frederic decides to go to the beach on his bicycle as he arrives there. With no one in the beach, Frederic decides to swim in the nude. While sunbathing, he meets a young Spanish woman in Lucia (Lucia Sanchez) as she asks for a cigarette and later, the two go into the woods to make love. While Frederic is noticing an onlooker is watching, he doesn't stop. Then as he and Lucia return to the beach, his clothes are stolen and Lucia, who is wearing a swimsuit all she has is a dress. He returns home waiting for an odd confrontation with Sebastian.

Shot in the same style of Regarde la Mer, Ozon goes for simplicity and camp while having an eye for sexuality and its mystery. Ozon has been compared to Alfred Hitchcock as well as the French Hitchcock, Claude Chabrol for their study on anything that's mysterious. What's intriguing isn't in who stole Frederic's clothes but it's really more of a sexual study of a young man. It's in Ozon's unique script and his observant direction that really gives the short a lot of power. Especially in its location and colorful cinematography of long time collaborator Yorick La Saux and editor Jeanne Moutard for its wonderfully paced tone. The performances of the actors are very natural, especially Sebastian Charles who steals the show as Frederic's flamboyant boyfriend who dances to the old Sonny & Cher classic Bang Bang. Overall, anyone who is a fan of Francois Ozon's films will definitely need to check out Un Robe D'ete.

***End of A Summer Dress Review***

Francois Ozon Films:

Sitcom (1998):

(Coming Soon)

Criminal Lovers (1999):

http://www.epinions.com/content_140499586692

X2000 (2000):

(Coming Soon)

Water Drops on Burning Rocks (2000):

http://www.epinions.com/content_137746419332

Under the Sand (2000):

http://www.epinions.com/content_140736499332

8 Women (2002):

http://www.epinions.com/content_129237159556

Swimming Pool (2003):

http://www.epinions.com/content_135739575940

5x2 (2004):

http://www.epinions.com/content_234372238980

A Time to Leave (2005):

http://www.epinions.com/content_287590551172

A Curtain Raiser (2006):

(Coming Soon)

Angel (2007):

(Coming in 2007)


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age