The Bottom Line
Julie Lopes-Curval's ensemble drama about locals living in a run-down working-class resort town on the French seaside is deceptively simple and leisurely paced, but if you have the patience, the film becomes increasingly engrossing.
Pros
- Winner of The Camera d'Or at the Cannes 2002
- Nuanced French ensemble drama
- Stylized cinematography inspired by painted Edward Hopper
Cons
- Slow pacing
Description
- First feature by Julie Lopes-Curval
- Starring Bulle Ogier, Hélène Fillières, and Jonathan Zaccai
- Studio: First Run Features
- Rated: NR
- Genre: French, drama
Guide Review - Seaside (Bord de Mer) DVD Review
Young, attractive and lanky, dark-eyed and bitterly sad, Marie (Helene Filieres) is a worker in a pebble factory in a run-down French seaside resort town. She never complains as she quietly goes about her tedious daily life. Julie Lopes-Curval's first feature film centers around Marie's story, while also chronicling the lives of those around her: her love-sick boyfriend, a lifeguard in the summer and grocery clerk during the winter, his gambling-addicted mother, the factory heir who has little interest in the pebble business, the fashion photographer who got away, and many others.
The film is structured around the year's seasons. Lopes-Curval's award winning film has been compared to the work of French filmmaker Eric Rohmer and short story writer Anton Chekhov. The pacing of this ensemble drama is often maddeningly slow and the relationship of characters is sometimes confusing, but eventually, the characters' stories come together for a rich, satisfying ending.
