Product Details

• Actors: Sasha Hails, Marina de Van, Samantha, Paul Raoux, Nicolas Brevière
• Directors: François Ozon
• Writers: Sasha Hails, Marina de Van, François Ozon
• Producers: Nicolas Brevière, Marc Missonnier, Olivier Delbosc
• Format: Color, Letterboxed, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: French
• Rated: Unrated
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: New Yorker Video
• VHS Release Date: April 11, 2000
• Run Time: 52 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 156730219X
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #406,768 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

See the Sea is less than an hour long, but offers a full study in quiet menace. A mother and her infant daughter are vacationing at a lonely seaside resort. As they doze on the beach, backpacker Tatiana silently watches them from a cliff top and soon the trouble begins. See the Sea is all the creepier because it never leaves the realm of reality. Director François Ozon is beautifully restrained--he keeps the tension rising without ever going overboard or driving his characters into caricature. It's the tiny things that Tatiana does that give you the shivers. This edition of See the Sea, which is in French with English subtitles, also includes "A Summer Dress," a short film by Ozon. It also has a seaside theme, but is much lighter fare. --Ali Davis

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Scary, erotic, to the point, May 29, 2001

By 

Heather Lowe "hslowe" (Corning NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: See the Sea [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Ozon doesn't mess around with REGARDE LA MER. There simply aren't any extraneous details...everything works together to produce a big ole feeling of dread, the likes of which I haven't experienced in too many other movies. The mother's carelessness and the drifter's sickness are trains rushing at each other on the same track; we only wonder how and when they're going to crash. Beautifully filmed and capably acted, Regarde La Mer is more than just a psychological thriller. It's a work of art.

(By the way, the title is a play on words, because the French word mere (mother) sounds like mer (sea). And the title "Look at the Mother" tells you more about the movie than does "See the Sea.")

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Suspense that pays, August 9, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: See the Sea [VHS] (VHS Tape)

It may be Francois Ozon's time. While his recent films CRIMINAL LOVERS and WATER DROPS ON BURNING ROCKS are excellent studies in the costs of identity and self-transformation, repression and want, neither film (nor his other film, the darkly comic SITCOM) delivers the powerful suspense of SEE THE SEA. This brooding and gorgeous film is a dark examination of the issues that Ozon continues to explore; infidelity, punishment, and libidinous violence. While these themes, in the hands of a lesser director, might play out in predictable and visually sterile scenarios, Ozon explores them with a deft touch that includes a gracefully moving camera, saturated colors, and performances that will haunt you. The tensions that build and finally climax in SEE THE SEA are palpable and horrifying, and despite our best hopes, Ozon does not flinch in giving us the ending that Hollywood never would. I can't recommend it highly enough... a suspense film that delivers more bang in 54 minutes than most directors ever do. Ozon's latest works have grown aesthetically and broadened in scope and theme, but nothing touches this taut and haunting classic. A MUST SEE.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Severe contrasts, May 10, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: See the Sea [VHS] (VHS Tape)

See the Sea is an eerie portrayal of a sadistic wanderer that will really give you the creeps. Ozon is very talented and has a very unique technique that he uses to portray some fairly erotic scenes. The movie was well done but a little bit too morbid and disgusting for me. It is a severe contrast to the short film that proceeds it which is the reason I bought the film. The short, A Summer Dress, is light and funny and at the same time erotic and sexy. The short film is a coming of age story of sorts that explores the bi-sexuality of the main character. The attractiveness of the characters is both physical and by personality. Very sexy and the theme song will stay in your mind forever! Bang!Bang!