Sous le sable (Under the Sand)

Toronto International Film Festival Program Guide
2000

Sous le sable | Under the Sand
François Ozon
FRANCE, 2000
90 minutes Colour/35mm
Production Company: Fidélité Productions
Producer: Olivier Delbosc, Marc Missonier
Screenplay: François Ozon
Cinematographer: Jeanne Lapoirie, Antoine Heberlé
Editor: Laurence Bawedin
Production Designer: Sandrine Canaux
Sound: Jean-Luc Audy
Music: Phillipe Rombi
Principal Cast: Charlotte Rampling, Alexandra Stewart, Bruno Cremer, Jacques Nolot
Production: Fidélité Productions

With this beautifully directed essay on personal loss and what it means to be left alone, François Ozon continues to prove he is one of the brightest lights of recent French cinema. Featuring a brave, understated performance from the luminous Charlotte Rampling, Sous le sable is radically different from Ozon’s other films. The youthful exuberance and zany antics of Sitcom and Les Amants criminels have been replaced by a wistful maturity and deeply moving sense of pain. More personal than his other work, the film conveys profound and subtle emotional truths.

Marie (Rampling) and Jean (Bruno Cremer) are a comfortable, middle-aged couple, satisfied with the daily rhythms and personal foibles that form the core of their lives together. They are on the way to their summer house, a tradition that stretches back many years. Jean goes for a swim in the sea. Some hours later, Marie wakes from a nap to find he has not returned. She calls in the local lifeguards to try to locate him. There is no sign.

Months later, Marie has returned to Paris, and although she puts on a brave face, she remains a recluse. Her friends try to get her to start dating again, but she insists Jean is not dead, that he has his reasons for staying away, that he will return. Even when a body is found that matches his description, she denies its authenticity. But soon she no longer feels his presence and, after much cajoling, begins dating a charming publisher (Jacques Nolot) who helps her rediscover herself, emotionally and sexually. Yet she cannot shake her conviction that Jean is alive...

One of the bitterest ironies of the AIDS crisis is the inexplicable sense of loss it leaves in its wake, such as the one Ozon portrays here. Once only an existentialist thought exercise, these difficult emotions have now become hard reality for so many. It is to Ozon’s credit that he has the courage and formidable abilities to harness them into such a wonderful cinematic experience.
—Noah Cowan