A Day at the Beach

Ironically, while Roman Polanski was in Europe the same year The Manson Family would violently crash Sharon Tate's party, he was preparing for two movies with the word DAY in the title: scouting to direct THE DAY OF THE DOLPHIN while adapting an obscure Dutch novel for A DAY AT THE BEACH, a film so independent it feels like something more of the John Cassavates wheelhouse...

And this BEACH centers on a raving drunken British man's beeline trek through a mostly barren Danish beach tourist town during sporadic rain bursts, and instead of tourists are an abandoned lot of outdoor and indoor cafe or curio shop or liquor store or pub owners wherein he gets more intoxicated and thus more pontificating and moody along the way, mostly trying for as much drink for as little money possible: a kind of progressively-blasted human coupon...

The primary twist is he's not alone... Tagging along is his niece who's really his daughter from surly starting point ex Fiona Lewis, and while future HIGHLANDER beauty Beatie Edney is a good enough child actress, providing both realistic screaming tantrums and gaping toothless grins whenever needed, her mere existence is to underline just how flaky, downright selfish and dangerously neglectful Mark Burns's Bernie's traipsing-around plight really is...

For example, in one scene he's being hit-on by an openly gay/super effeminate storefront couple... one played capably by Peter Sellers billed as A. Queen; at the same time, right outside, little Winnie gets stuck in some netting along the beach's planked walkway... a path that winds through the sand in a location that's even more art-house from the incessant tempest...

It's never entirely clear what the actual plot or purpose is, but Burns's character is a terrific drunk that'd make Charles Bukowski envy with a mobile, existential life all mapped out, at one point telling a pretentious (passed-out) poet's sexy wife, "I'll be hungover tomorrow, but the next day meet me at noon at..."

As this lost-for-decades curio is, by the end, a dizzying odyssey by first time director Simon Hesera and, while frowned upon by writer/producer Polanski for lack of proper composition, it's through a rip-roaring drunkard's eyes that we're eyeing everything, so in actuality the location is more what the character experiences than the audience visualizes.

Being a great fan of European cinema in the early 60s, I loved Polanski's, Knife in the Water, Repulsion and Cul-de-Sac but was initially very disappointed with the full on colour film, Rosemary's Baby. Having now seen the most impressive A Day At The Beach which should have been released before Rosemary's Baby, I would certainly have been happier back then if the order of release had not been so drastically changed by circumstances. This great little film is much more akin to the director's early b/w features, although this is in colour, and is bleak indeed. Seemingly shot in a single day in the pouring rain on some desolate Danish beach we spend some time with a little girl and her 'uncle' who spends most of the time trying to get another drink. Despicable, though the lead often appears, there is an palpable bond between the two and it is quite startling that when others try to relate to the child, our hero seems peerless. Fascinating, dark and with a brilliant performance from the young girl, this also has some surprisingly horrific sequences (not counting the true horror of Graham Stark as some horrible underling of a gay Peter sellers!). Well worth searching out.

As someone who usually does not like movies soliciting compassion for alcoholics or drug addicts I was surprised how much I liked A Day at the Beach. The title's promise is fulfilled in the best way possible. A young, intelligent alcoholic takes his little niece to a small seaport for a day. The man is most of the time looking for booze or ingesting it, occasionally rendering verbal outbursts which often sound very lucid. The girl is left to her own devices most of the time but fiercely loyal to her uncle.

From the technical side the movie is virtually faultless. Foreground and background are always in very sharp focus, except for two brief episodes with POV shots of the very drunk main character. The drabness of the place (it is always raining or overcast) is occasionally contrasted by bright, vivid colors. It looks all very controlled and there can be no doubt that a true master is behind this picture. The cast is brilliant down to every secondary character. I found Peter Seller's contribution as a fairy unnecessary and superfluous, though.

I watched the DVD release from Odeon Entertainment. There is an informative booklet about the movie, but Roman Polanski's involvement in the actual shooting is not clear. According to the booklet Polanski left the film while the final editing was in progress. Doesn't this mean that the effectively directed the movie? I would not be surprised if this were the case, in my opinion it very much looks like a Polanski movie. Its stunning how timeless his work is!

A Day at the Beach would never have attracted a mass audience, and from the look of it (and the choice of actors) it probably was never meant to be a blockbuster. But everybody who can stand this difficult and rather depressing subject matter (men preferring drugs to other humans) this is a rewarding and aesthetically satisfying movie. It's great that they made it available on DVD.

Special in many ways before you even start watching, this miniature is not desperate to be liked and is in fact rather admirable for its commitment to being unlovely.

If you're wondering where they're going with this, then you may be disappointed; it is a snapshot of the miserable lives that play out in plain site when you truly don't care about anything but forgetting.

Often painful but not quite excruciating, this vision of a man living a day as if it might truly be his last in freedom though he seems anything but free in practice.

An exorcise in the pretentiousness of vulgar people always accompanied by a fairly agreeable child star.

Polanski seems like he can do no wrong in his writing of this.

Films about alcoholism are never going to be easy to watch, but what makes this film special is that we see the full effects of the selfishness and path to destruction alcoholics do to their loved ones.

If you have ever been in the presence of a drunk, when you are sober yourself, you have probably seen the worst aspect of that person, which can often come across as either boring, bullying, or downright nasty. To the credit of this film and the excellent acting by Mark Burns, all of these characteristics are explored in the film. By the end of the film, your heart goes out to little Winnie (Beatie Edney) who deserves a far better dad, whom she believes is her uncle because of the shame that Bernie (Mark Burns) has brought onto his family.

This film has the otherworldiness that Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory suffers from. It features British actors, talking in English, but the film was done in Denmark. It kind of works in a weird parallel universe sort of way. It is not really important because the story counts more.

Anyone who has kids knows the dreaded feeling of trying to kill a day while finding ways to entertain them. So spending a rainy day at the beach just to get out of the house is something parents can relate to. The cameo of Peter Sellers (credited as A. Queen) and Graham Stark was light relief the film really needed because, from then on, it becomes a catalogue of distressing episodes as Bernie self-destructs.

The scene when the selfish parents join Bernie in the pub and leave the kids in the car says a lot about the 70s. Different times. A different world.

A powerful but sad film. I am glad I caught it on Netflix.