Neither the Sea Nor the Sand

1972
R
1h 35m

ÉVALUATION IMDb

MA NOTE

Fantaisie Horreur Romance Horreur populaire

Ajouter une intrigue dans votre langueWife on Isle of Jersey, meets pilot, they become lovers. Flee to Scotland. While making love on beach, lighthouse keeper dies. Incident triggers further events.Wife on Isle of Jersey, meets pilot, they become lovers. Flee to Scotland. While making love on beach, lighthouse keeper dies. Incident triggers further events.Wife on Isle of Jersey, meets pilot, they become lovers. Flee to Scotland. While making love on beach, lighthouse keeper dies. Incident triggers further events.

Voir l’information sur la production à IMDbPro

ÉVALUATION IMDb

5,7/10

475

MA NOTE

Voir l’information sur la production à IMDbPro

Photos10

+ 5

Commentaires des utilisateurs18

5,7475

Avis en vedette

dbdumonteil

Sous le Sable

If the director had not died in 1975,he could almost have thought of suing François Ozon whose "Sous Le Sable" ("Under the Sand")bears more than a distant resemblance to "Neither the Sea..."The 2000 work ,starring Charlotte Rampling and Bruno Cremer is certainly more satisfying ,but it owes a lot to the obscure (at least in France) screenwriters of this movie.

Direction is amateurish ,and it's really a pity because there were potentially great scenes ,particularly this one when Susan Hampshire keeps on repeating in the car "Talk to me!Don't look at me that way!"There's also a good use of E.Browning's poem ("I shall but love thee better after death").Puritanism shows in the first half:George's brother makes Anna realize she is not really the welcome in the house.The woman says that "they were punished because they lived a life of sin".

The main problem lies in the fact that the "living dead" should not have been "seen " by the others.François Ozon did not fall in the same trap.People who liked this movie should try and see his work too.

5Mosspiglet

A film of it's era

It is certainly slow paced by today's standards but is an interesting piece of cinema folk horror harking back to ideas in The Monkeys Paw by Jacobs. As others have noted there are some good moments. The soundtrack doesn't always work (the jaunty, groovy music expressing the good times only made me giggle). It is certainly a film of it's era. If remade, it would make a good short film.

Some of the reviews below seem a little confused...the main male character is Hugh, not George who is the puritanical brother, and Hugh is not a lighthouse keeper but works at the Jersey airport with another character Colin, who comes into play later in the story. Though the lighthouse does play an important part as a representation of themes in the story.

5CinemaSerf

Neither the Sea Nor the Sand

The opening scenes of this film - Susan Hampshire walking out to a Jersey lighthouse where she encounters "Hugh" (Michael Petrovich) rather sum up the mundanity of this fairly dull romantic drama. It looks good, they look good - but somewhere along the line, the story just runs out of steam as it struggles to stay out of a soup of melodrama. Of course the two become lovers, and of course she has baggage - a marriage that no longer works, but when tragedy ensues they must face reality with a fresh, and frequently, troubling perspective. Perhaps the book was more evocative, indulged the imagination more? This adaptation really doesn't. There is little on-screen chemistry between our two principals, and the obstacles to their happiness all-to-often come across as contrived and over-played with demons galore. Frank Finlay - never exactly versatile - probably has the best character as his rather puritanical brother "George" but the whole really doesn't equal what ought to have been the sum of the parts. It's slow, stodgy and rather weakly scored with a predictable and stilted dialogue that made me cringe on occasion. Some lovely location photography, and plenty of seagulls - but otherwise this is pretty lacking on just about every other front.

heedarmy

A bizarre oddity

This strange film is based on a book by a former British television newsreader and is a combination of love story and ghost story. The settings are striking and the music score effective but it's a slow affair and one is baffled as to what market the film-makers were aiming for.

7adriangr

Slow and poetic

It's a shame that this film does not get much attention, and it's all but disappeared now. Which is a pity because if you allow yourself to go with the very leisurely pace, it's actually an effective little story. Susan Hampshire plays a woman who suffers such profound grief at the death of her lover that she somehow manages to bring him back from the dead. She doesn't do it intentionally though, and is shocked and bewildered by his seemingly miraculous return. Unfortunately, although he can move about he's still dead in every other respect, so things can only go downhill for poor Susan.

Filmed outdoors in lots of cold and grey coastal locations, the film is really a bleak love story and probably bored a lot of people to death. Pretty much panned by all critics on it's release it's now hanging somewhere in limbo, and other than a few TV appearances it would probably be impossible to see it now. A modest DVD release might help it recover some fans, as it's really not the failure it has been described as. Competently made and with good performances, it's a lot better than some of the other trash that passes for "cult" fan viewing.

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Histoire

Modifier

Le saviez-vous

Modifier

Anecdotes
Some sources credit Anthony Booth as playing Delamare, but it is an entirely different actor.

Gaffes
Towards the end of the film, the flowers Collie carries frequently change from being in bloom to not being in bloom.

Citations
George Dabernon: When does a man die? Who knows what happens in the moment of death? The soul doesn't die, simply leaves the body. But what if it didn't? If it went on living in a dead body? A prisoner, in a body decaying around it. Is it possible? What is possible?
Anna Robinson: Hugh was not dead.
George Dabernon: If it weren't for you, this would never have happened. He's possessed, isn't he? Possessed by you. You're a witch, trafficking with the Devil. You have conjured an evil spirit into his dead body.
Anna Robinson: My love for him has given him life.
George Dabernon: It's revolting. His flesh is cold. Dead. There is no pulse. No heartbeat. Hugh's body is rotting. It is disintegrating, hour by hour. And something must be done. Now!
Anna Robinson: Why don't you just go away, leave us alone?
George Dabernon: I'll prove it to you.
[he sets fire to Hugh's hand]
George Dabernon: He fears nothing. He feels nothing.
Anna Robinson: [On seeing Hugh's hand burning sensibly] Oh, God!
George Dabernon: [George extinguishes the flame] I tell you, he's dead.
George Dabernon: [Hugh approaches George] Anna!
Anna Robinson: Hugh! Sit down. Please. Just sit down.
George Dabernon: Unbelievable. Unbelievable. At the trumpet sound, the graves shall be opened, and the dead shall rise again. I know what we must do. We must take him to a priest.
Anna Robinson: A priest?
George Dabernon: Exorcism. Exorcism. This spirit must be exorcised.
Anna Robinson: And then?
George Dabernon: And then he can rest. He can be at peace.
Anna Robinson: He will die.
George Dabernon: Yes.
Anna Robinson: And then it will be over. Everything.
Hugh Dabernon: [overdub] It will be alright, Anna. Don't stop him.
[Hugh walks towards the door]
George Dabernon: You see? He wants it too. He wants to be free. We must go, Anna.
Anna Robinson: I can't go with you.
George Dabernon: Believe me, it's the best thing for all concerned. He died; up there on that beach in Scotland. He died.