Wife on Isle of Jersey, meets pilot, they become lovers. Flee to Scotland. While making love on beach, lighthouse keeper dies. Incident triggers further events.Wife on Isle of Jersey, meets pilot, they become lovers. Flee to Scotland. While making love on beach, lighthouse keeper dies. Incident triggers further events.Wife on Isle of Jersey, meets pilot, they become lovers. Flee to Scotland. While making love on beach, lighthouse keeper dies. Incident triggers further events.
Featured reviews
Some of the reviews below seem a little confused...the main male character is Hugh, not George who is the puritanical brother, and Hugh is not a lighthouse keeper but works at the Jersey airport with another character Colin, who comes into play later in the story. Though the lighthouse does play an important part as a representation of themes in the story.
Direction is amateurish ,and it's really a pity because there were potentially great scenes ,particularly this one when Susan Hampshire keeps on repeating in the car "Talk to me!Don't look at me that way!"There's also a good use of E.Browning's poem ("I shall but love thee better after death").Puritanism shows in the first half:George's brother makes Anna realize she is not really the welcome in the house.The woman says that "they were punished because they lived a life of sin".
The main problem lies in the fact that the "living dead" should not have been "seen " by the others.François Ozon did not fall in the same trap.People who liked this movie should try and see his work too.
Filmed outdoors in lots of cold and grey coastal locations, the film is really a bleak love story and probably bored a lot of people to death. Pretty much panned by all critics on it's release it's now hanging somewhere in limbo, and other than a few TV appearances it would probably be impossible to see it now. A modest DVD release might help it recover some fans, as it's really not the failure it has been described as. Competently made and with good performances, it's a lot better than some of the other trash that passes for "cult" fan viewing.
"We're so happy" opening lasts for 35 minutes - too long, but once that's over the film becomes compelling.
Lovely theme spoilt by a lame piece of artless sixties pop (Land rover on beach scene), jarring to say the least.
Did you know
- TriviaSome sources credit Anthony Booth as playing Delamare, but it is an entirely different actor.
- GoofsTowards the end of the film, the flowers Collie carries frequently change from being in bloom to not being in bloom.
- Quotes
George Dabernon: When does a man die? Who knows what happens in the moment of death? The soul doesn't die, simply leaves the body. But what if it didn't? If it went on living in a dead body? A prisoner, in a body decaying around it. Is it possible? What is possible?
Anna Robinson: Hugh was not dead.
George Dabernon: If it weren't for you, this would never have happened. He's possessed, isn't he? Possessed by you. You're a witch, trafficking with the Devil. You have conjured an evil spirit into his dead body.
Anna Robinson: My love for him has given him life.
George Dabernon: It's revolting. His flesh is cold. Dead. There is no pulse. No heartbeat. Hugh's body is rotting. It is disintegrating, hour by hour. And something must be done. Now!
Anna Robinson: Why don't you just go away, leave us alone?
George Dabernon: I'll prove it to you.
[he sets fire to Hugh's hand]
George Dabernon: He fears nothing. He feels nothing.
Anna Robinson: [On seeing Hugh's hand burning sensibly] Oh, God!
George Dabernon: [George extinguishes the flame] I tell you, he's dead.
George Dabernon: [Hugh approaches George] Anna!
Anna Robinson: Hugh! Sit down. Please. Just sit down.
George Dabernon: Unbelievable. Unbelievable. At the trumpet sound, the graves shall be opened, and the dead shall rise again. I know what we must do. We must take him to a priest.
Anna Robinson: A priest?
George Dabernon: Exorcism. Exorcism. This spirit must be exorcised.
Anna Robinson: And then?
George Dabernon: And then he can rest. He can be at peace.
Anna Robinson: He will die.
George Dabernon: Yes.
Anna Robinson: And then it will be over. Everything.
Hugh Dabernon: [overdub] It will be alright, Anna. Don't stop him.
[Hugh walks towards the door]
George Dabernon: You see? He wants it too. He wants to be free. We must go, Anna.
Anna Robinson: I can't go with you.
George Dabernon: Believe me, it's the best thing for all concerned. He died; up there on that beach in Scotland. He died.
- Crazy credits[epilogue] "Neither the sea nor the sand will kill their love, Nor the wind take it in envy from them...."
- Alternate versionsThe UK cinema version was cut by the BBFC to edit a sex scene between Hugh and Anna. The 2008 Odeon DVD is fully uncut.
- How long is Neither the Sea Nor the Sand?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Runtime
- 1h 50m(110 min)
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1