Ozon certainly has talent. It's obvious from See the Sea (it's even more obvious from his infinitely superior Water Drops on Burning Rocks). See the Sea is impeccably shot and directed. If only some of the other areas were better. Rarely does such an obvious thriller come along, where you can tell from second one where it is going. Ozon might as well have not showed the final shot. It's mostly the fault of the actress playing the camper (apparently the two women had names, but I don't remember them ever being said), or, more correctly, the casting agent who cast her (or Ozon himself, if he's responsible, which he probably is). It's just far too easy to hire this scowling goth chick whom the audience can boo and hiss at - she might as well tied the mother down to a train track and played with her curling mustache. When the mother finds the book with the drawings of gallows and skulls, I had to suppress a laugh. I liked the scene in the graveyard better - it was more subtle. Why didn't Ozon just leave it at that? And I really liked the angle of the mother's sexual frustration. That was excellent, and there are two very explicit, very erotic scenes involving her (although I don't quite believe she'd leave her baby alone on a beach; of course, Ozon does do a good job developing this woman's motherly instincts throughout the film). The end is just cheaply shocking. See the Sea is a decent stylistic exercise, but it is rather a forgettable film. 7/10.
Review of See the Sea
