Besuch am Meer

It's not until a feature filmmaker reaches a certain status that their short films are released beyond the festival circuit. Now the short work of Francois Ozon is available on DVD after a short cinematic release.

Ozon offers impressive tapas here, with concise, impeccably structured short films. Plot twists are reminiscent of Roald Dahl, while the sensual undercurrents approach Anais Nin's erotica, without being nearly as explicit.

In Summer Dress (1996, 15 minutes), two gay teenagers are on holiday at French beach community Isle d'Yeu. While wasp-waisted Sebastian mimes to 'Bang! Bang!', by chanteuse Sheila, his lover Luc begs him to be more discreet. Until Luc dallies with the older, knowing Lucia at the local 'beat'. After Luc's forced to wear her dress home, he comes out of the closet.

The cinematography is flashback 1950s, with azure sea, bronzed boys in swimming trunks and rose-red lips. But this nostalgia avoids sentimentality, instead increasing the dreamlike quality of Luc's experience. And the interplay between the characters demonstrates an essential sexual fluidity present in all Ozon's films – although his characters may have definite sexual orientations, there's no guarantee they'll follow them. In addition, as gay auteur Ozon's focus of desire is men, it liberates his women from the 'male gaze' and allows them to be more interesting.

Sharing the same island setting as Summer Dress, the standout film of the collection is See the Sea (1997, 52 minutes).

Englishwoman Sasha (Sasha Hails) is holidaying alone with her baby daughter when ill-kempt backpacker Tatiana (Marina de Van) pitches her tent in the backyard. From the first, something is not quite right about Tatiana, but lonely Sasha wants someone to babysit. As the suspense develops, Tatiana becomes more repellent but also fascinating, an earthy id to Sasha's ego. At the same time, while Sasha may be clearly normal, she is also a careless mother. While, the relationship between the two is reminiscent of Ozon's Swimming Pool, the outcome is much darker. ****/***** stars.

This is a good shocker, using something of a Wuthering Heights scenario in miniature. It would have made an excellent 30-35 minute short, but was unnecessarily extended for probably commercial reasons. If some scenes appear to add little to the story, try to think about the link between:

-What Tatiana says about the consequencies of women ripping during childbirth

-Tatiana's disturbed personality

-the toothbrush incident

-Tatiana's knowledge of the men in the forest, yet lack of interest in joining Sasha for oral sex there

-The closing scene

The director nicely sets up the atmosphere of foreboding, which after all, is what horror movies depend on. I though the rope on the victim was a clever and disturbing touch; it's something I've never seen before, although I admittedly haven't seen many horror flicks. While you can guess how it ends fairly early on, the twists and turns in getting there, and the denouement, are quite unexpected. Compared with Ozon's other shorts, this has some substance mixed in with his usual puerile, tedious obsession with the dark side of human sexuality.

I like films like this (e.g. 2001: A Space Odyssey)where you have to think afterwards about what you've seen, and maybe see it again, to make complete sense of it. Your mileage may vary.

See The Sea is one of those films that's truly horrifying. This is one

of the few movies that gave me a true scare, not a cheap one. A mother

and her child live in a cottage that's located by the sea. Her husband

is always on a lengthy business trip, leaving the two alone for long

periods of time. One day, a female drifter comes into their lives. This

is when the fun begins. Mere words cannot describe what happens next.

But the end results are down right scary. If you want a nice scare or

if you enjoy a real good thriller every now and then, this one might be

your cup of tea.

Highly recommended.

A-

The film is directed by the controversial François Ozon. See the Sea is also his first long feature, as that said; the film isn't very long, only 52 minutes.

See the sea is very short and very powerful, but it's also very minimal. Like, there are only three characters in the film, and only two of them can talk, and they barley do. And there is no music or sound effects, everything is quiet, and it's stylistic photographed. It kind reminds me of Roman Polanskis masterful film Knife in the Water.

See the sea is a good and very rarely film, but where the film totally failed is the "shocking end", because it isn't shocking, I saw the ending just after five minutes.. So the surprise effect is totally gone, and that ruin the film a lot. But still worth watching.

I taped this due to the recommend in the NYT television section and it was right. I kept getting apprehensive from the moment the backpacker turns up. The suspense of approaching terror reminded me of the growing sense of horror in Chabrol's Le Ceremonie.

Two quibbles: what mother would leave her baby in the bathtub for only a few seconds. And what mother would leave her baby alone on the beach? The mother obviously had a dark side to begin with; she was lonely (trying to reach her husband for several times without success) and was an easy prey to the backpacker. While the ending horrified me, it shouldn't have surprised me. What was great is the movie didn't drag on and was short.

Definitely worth watching and it left me shaken for a long time after-wards. Like Le Ceremonie, it will remain in my memory. Horror doesn't mean slash and gore.