Julie Lopes-Curval's debut feature, Seaside, closely observes the lives of about a dozen citizens in a small French village. Paul (Jonathan Zaccai) works as a lifeguard. His sister is employed at the local casino, a building frequented by their mother, Rose (Bulle Ogier). Rose is retired from a factory that currently employs Paul's significant other, Marie (Helene Fillieres), and is lorded over by Albert (Patrick Lizana), the fourth generation of his family to run the business. Over the course
of one year, the lives and fortunes of these people intertwine and change in major and minor ways. Seaside was screened at the Director's Fortnight during the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
[Lopes-Curval's] achievement is so particularly -- and peculiarly -- realized, evoking the enforced parameters and rhythms of small-town life, that the movie itself begins to feels restrictive.
If you were lolling on the beach, casting your eyes at the scantily clad folks around you and overhearing bits of their conversations, it would be akin to the experience of watching Seaside.
Writer-director Julie Lopes-Curval's film is commendable for its resolute honesty in depicting unabating starkness in both scenery and existence, but cinematically galvanizing it's not.
Director Julie Lopes-Curval's deeply thoughtful first feature explores the factors and forces, notably class difference, that determine the direction one's life takes.
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