A Guide to 'See the Sea'

Note: The guide below obviously contains *SPOILERS*

After seeing this brilliant short film, I was completely unable to get it out of my head. The more I thought about it, I realized how the screenplay works like clockwork. It's so clever how the story completely deceives you into thinking it's this artsy, lyrical film metaphor for lonliness, sexuality, and morbidity between two women, only to blindside you with this ending lodged in harsh reality. And the clues were there all along. Now I've read a few reviews of "See the Sea" whose writers claim they saw the ending coming right from the start; perhaps I'm just unusually naïve, but Ozon lead me on right until the last scene. I was so impressed that I re-watched the film twice in a row and wrote out a guide to the story, pointing out how Ozon manipulates the audience away from the impending danger that is Tatiana and giving my thoughts on the significance of certain sequences.

So many scenes in "See the Sea" that we interpret as moments of closeness between the women (because we want to sympathize with the mother, Sasha) are actually Tatiana (the camper) planning Sasha's death with cold, one-dimensionality. It is because Sasha is so willing with her personal information (which she views as these remarkable moments of self-revelation) that she is murdered; Sasha is so desperate for any sort of companionship that she inadvertently reveals the information Tatiana uses to kill her. Note the first real conversation over dinner and how Sasha forms this completely one-sided bond through her self-revelation, while Tatiana seems almost bored (which Sasha reads as being guardedly intrigued). It's remarkable how the audience interprets Tatiana's apathy as this silent, sexually-charged mystique--as we want to see Tatiana as Sasha does (causing us to dismiss or not even pick up on the red flags). "See the Sea" is quite the cautionary tale.

Below, I'm simply going to list first the scenes that indicate Sasha's lonliness (and thus her need to form this strong bond with the semi-responsive Tatiania) and then list the hints the audience should have picked up on that would indicate Tatiana's true motives. Hopefully, after reading this, you'll appreciate how brilliantly misleading Ozon's screenplay actually is.

Sasha's Lonliness:
* her willingness to divulge such personal information
* the scene in which Sasha has sex with a chair
* she risks leaving her baby alone in the bathtub just to answer the door
* when Tatiana returns from the store, Sasha leaves her crying baby with Tatiana while she goes inside (Tatiana is still a stranger at this point)
* Sasha, in order to bike into town, casually leaves her daughter with Tatiana, whom she has known for less than a week
* Sasha leaves her baby alone on the beach to enter the woods where the men were having sex (perhaps hoping to find Tatiana)
* Sasha actually invites Tatiana to sleep in her house

Hints:
* Tatiana comments that she "never stay[s] more than four days" in one place; she's perhaps running from the police (which is why she wouldn't want to stay at a campground)
* Sasha reveals that she's completely alone with her husband away in Paris
* Tatiana bizarrely licks her plate clean in a very base, animal-like manner (paralleing, perhaps, her preoccupation with "sh*t")
* After Sasha has sex with the chair, there is a brief morning beach montage that ends with a focused shot of a long, dead, thorny branch (obvious foreshadowing of imminent danger) presented immediately before the scene where Sasha wakes up (the moment when Sasha decides she will befriend Tatiana and thus puts into motion her death)
* While in the store with the sad opera music, I believe that after walking past the bloody meat and then the aisle with the diapers, Tatiana realizes (when she starts crying) that she will kill Sasha and take her child
* Tatiana wears large, dark sunglasses everywhere in public (concealing her identity)
* Tatiana lies in the tub, putting her head under the water (holding her breath), while masturbating with a bar of soap--perhaps allowing the joint to burn her fingers, and then opening her eyes in the soapy water
* Tatiana later defecates and "dirties" Sasha's toothbrush; a common "warning sign" of serial killers is when the "id" takes supremacy over the "ego" and a person becomes obsessed with feces or urine
* While in the cemetery, when Tatiana walks past a small grave a baby's cries are heard
* (in my opinion, the most disturbing scene) Tatiana places her hand into a hole in a grave while the opera music plays and a baby cries while Tatiana straddles death; it was at this point (after rewatching--because we don't know this yet) that I thought Tatiana didn't have an abortion--perhaps she killed her baby and is thus running from the police (note: this is the only day-time outdoor scene that is not sunny)
* Immediately following this cemetery scene, Sasha finds the disturbing notebook filled with morbid drawings and incoherent writing; audience now senses that something is REALLY not right with Tatiana. This scene is softened when Sasha is in the tub and Tatiana walks in while Sasha is completely naked, which perhaps Sasha takes as a sexual gesture (as does the audience--we begin again to sympathize with Sasha and forget about the mounting oddness of Tatiana). Later, when we find out (over dinner) that Tatiana has had an abortion, we think that it's for this reason that Tatiana is so morbid (and cries after walking down the diaper aisle)--because she's still mourning her child. Thus, the audience begins to disregard all of the warning signs (while, in reality, Tatiana is planning to kill Sasha and take her child).
* Another scene that works entirely on two levels is the lotion scene. The audience views it as this sexual gesture from Tatiana toward Sasha as Tatiana rubs lotion over the topless Sasha; however, upon reviewing the scene, you realize that Tatiana is really just sizing her up. She notes the thickness of Sasha's arm as well as the bones in Sasha's upper spine and the size of her neck (note the subtle gesture in which Tatiana casually puts both her hands around Sasha's neck in a choking position).
* At dinner Tatiana violently tears apart crayfish and, for the first time, wears make-up; perhaps she is beginning to adopt the beautiful persona of Sasha (whose identity, by the end of the film, she has apparently taken on). Notice how Tatiana avoids eye contact: she poses remarkably intimate questions, stares at Sasha's reaction, but then looks away when Sasha responds.
* Sasha talks on the phone with her husband; Tatiana listens. Tatiana asks (after they hang up) when he'll be returning home; Sasha gives the exact time and Tatiana responds, enigmatically, "I'll leave by then..."
* As Sasha pauses before leaving after she's helped Tatiana make her bed, there is a single photograph of a boat hanging on the wall.
* Tatiana walks into Sasha's room after sitting on her bed, which the audience attributes to Tatiana contemplating a sexual encounter with Sasha before Tatiana leaves in the morning (when, in reality, Tatiana is waiting coldly for Sasha to fall asleep so she can kill her), begins to cry (as she always does around death), and takes off her clothes. The audience expects Tatiana will have sex with the nude Sasha; however, Tatiana merely removes her clothes so that she won't get blood on them.
* Lastly, another beach montage of seaweed and a rotting jellyfish covered in flies the morning following the bedroom scene.

And finally the moment when everything falls into place: the beaten, bound body of Sasha in the red tent with her genitals sewn as though her baby never existed. The film ends with that shot of Tatiana on the boat in Sasha's red dress with her head back, paralleling the shot of Sasha sitting in the café earlier in the film.

I think it's a remarkable feat how Ozon is able to suspend this story on two entirely distinct levels; and, because the audience wants naturally to sympathize and agree with the lonely protagonist, we are quick to overlook or write-off the warning signs regarding Tatiana. I think of "See the Sea" as this brilliant short story that seems a mild and sad meditation on a woman's unhappiness with an ending that bitch slaps you back into reality. I couldn't imagine a better casting choice than the actress who plays Tatiana; her wide eyes convey that mysterious depth onto which Sasha develops this remarkably intimate relationship (to the point where she would completely disregard the red flags) that is not at all reciprocated by Tatiana (who is simply shallow and cold). The more I think about it, the more I love it. While you may have picked up on the ending right from the beginning, I was completely under Ozon's spell of isolated atmosphere with a morbid twinge of brooding tension. Tatiana must have been amazed by how gullible Sasha was; and yet, I never for a moment doubted the actions of Sasha toward Tatiana. Not many directors could have pulled this off so successfully.

Well, I obviously have a lot of time on my hands, but I wanted to share my love for this movie with as many people as possible. I'm not saying everything in my 'guide' is correct; suggestions, changes, or additions would be very much appreciated!

Michael Frechen (18)