WHEN THE SEA RISES - DVD review

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.

Wim Willaert, in his first feature film role, is somewhat less convincing. Dries is a feckless drifter, with some pretensions of being an artist, but Willaert doesn't offer much more than a vacant smile along with the occasional temper tantrum. His portrayal renders Dries a certified indie film eccentric, but one with little depth or staying power. Moreau positively swallows him up, and not just because of the size differential between the two. Their relationship is a low-key l'amour fou, not quite love on the run more like love at a brisk walk. At first they simply enjoy each other's company the heat only gets turned up very late in the game. Tragedy looms at the end of the road, of course, but it arrives in a rather subdued fashion.

"When the Sea Rises" has a certain charm to it, mostly because of Moreau's performance, but it doesn't offer any real surprises. Co-director Gilles Porte, a photographer by trade, captures a few beautiful images, all very self-consciously placed, but nothing that really lingers in the mind's eye.

Video:
The film is presented in its original 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio (with the usual option to watch in a 4:3 letterbox ratio as well.) The transfer is not progressive, and shows several examples of combing, some quite bad. Like many New Yorker DVDs, it may be a direct import from the PAL format which means it has several transfer artifacts (including the combing.)

Audio:
The DVD is presented in Dolby Digital Mono. Optional English subtitles support the French audio.

Extras:
None.

Film Value:
"When the Sea Rises" isn't a bad film, nor a particularly good film. It's cute. It's sweet. It's annoying, but not too cloying. It's only 89 minutes. You could do better, but you could do a whole lot worse. I'm going to give it a lukewarm recommendation, but if someone can explain to me why the stage show in the film is meant to be funny, I'd be greatly appreciative.