SEASIDE
Directed by: Julie Lopes-Curval.
Produced by: Alain Benguigui.
Written by: Lopes-Curval & François Favrat.
Director of Photography: Stephan Massis.
Edited by: Anne Weil.
Music by: Christophe Chevalier & Nicholas Gerber.
Released by: First Run Features.
Country of Origin: France. 90 min. Not Rated.
With: Jonathan Zaccaï, Bulle Ogier, Hélène Fillières & Patrick Lizana.

A perceptive and understated drama layered with Chekovian angst. “We’re all waiting for something,” according to Albert (Lizana), the privileged inheritor of a pebble oxidizing plant. Wearing a name plate necklace spelling out princess, Marie (Fillières)--young, pretty, and likewise simmering with anger--is enduring a monotonous job sorting pebbles in Albert’s factory. She brushes off his advances, refuting his belief that they’re alike. (They don’t receive the same pay, she reminds him). Although it is apparent to Marie’s boyfriend, Paul (Zaccaï), a lifeguard, that she is troubled, Marie covers her feelings or literally hides from him. Meanwhile, Paul has his hands full with his mother, Rose (Ogier), whose worsening gambling addiction is leading her to financial ruin. Told from one summer to the next, director and co-writer Lopes-Curval packs in a lot of plot and characters into a lean narrative. In this microcosm of an off-the-beaten-path coastal town, each character is clearly depicted. The actors never strike a false note. Character transitions seem inevitable, never abrupt. They also accurately depict the dismissive quality of long friendships and relationships. Because Lopes-Curval leaves much to the viewer’s imagination, the outcome of many of the storylines, especially Paul and Marie’s, resonates after the film is over. KT
August 11, 2003