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When the Sea Rises

Original title: Quand la mer monte...
  • 2004
  • 1h 29m
IMDb RATING
6.7/10
749
YOUR RATING
When the Sea Rises (2004)
ComedyDramaRomance

Irene is on tour with her one-woman-show "Sale Affaire" in the north of France. When she runs into Dries, who carries giants in fairs, it's the beginning of a love story that bears an uncann... Read allIrene is on tour with her one-woman-show "Sale Affaire" in the north of France. When she runs into Dries, who carries giants in fairs, it's the beginning of a love story that bears an uncanny resemblance to the show performed by Irene on stage.Irene is on tour with her one-woman-show "Sale Affaire" in the north of France. When she runs into Dries, who carries giants in fairs, it's the beginning of a love story that bears an uncanny resemblance to the show performed by Irene on stage.

  • Directors
    • Yolande Moreau
    • Gilles Porte
  • Writers
    • Yolande Moreau
    • Gilles Porte
  • Stars
    • Yolande Moreau
    • Wim Willaert
    • Olivier Gourmet
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.7/10
    749
    YOUR RATING
    • Directors
      • Yolande Moreau
      • Gilles Porte
    • Writers
      • Yolande Moreau
      • Gilles Porte
    • Stars
      • Yolande Moreau
      • Wim Willaert
      • Olivier Gourmet
    • 12User reviews
    • 22Critic reviews
    • 62Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 6 wins & 3 nominations total

    Photos2

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    Top cast39

    Edit
    Yolande Moreau
    Yolande Moreau
    • Irène
    Wim Willaert
    Wim Willaert
    • Dries
    Olivier Gourmet
    Olivier Gourmet
    • Le policier
    Jackie Berroyer
    • Le journaliste Béthune
    Philippe Duquesne
    Philippe Duquesne
    • Le patron du café des géants
    Jacques Bonnaffé
    Jacques Bonnaffé
    • Le serveur de bord de mer
    Séverine Caneele
    Séverine Caneele
    • La femme de chambre
    Bouli Lanners
    Bouli Lanners
    • Le patron du marché
    Catherine Routier
    • Femme du bord de la route 1
    Martine Delanoy
    • Femme du bord de la route 2
    Thérèse Flouquet
    • Femme du bord de la route 3
    Jan Hammenecker
    • Jan
    Vincent Mahieu
    • Yves
    Jean-Marie Hardeman
    • Le pilier de bar
    Nand Buyl
    Nand Buyl
    • Le père de Dries
    Tily
    • Le patron du café des Sports
    Isabelle Korber
    • La caissière du Palace
    Cyril Lecomte
    • L'homme du théâtre
    • Directors
      • Yolande Moreau
      • Gilles Porte
    • Writers
      • Yolande Moreau
      • Gilles Porte
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews12

    6.7749
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    Featured reviews

    8higsonr

    Travelling players in a world of their own

    Yolande Moreau and Gilles Porte have created a unique and charming film about travelling players. Anyone who has ever watched carnies at work, or seen a little theatre troupe or circus people in a small town, and wondered about their lives, will love this film. Set around the north of France, and definitely not in scenic touristy areas, it is a love story with a difference. And vivre la difference, as they say. It is based on Yolande's actual stage show, which is a strange one-woman murder mystery, performed in a mask. She's not pretty but is strangely alluring. Each night she chooses a "chicken" from the audience to play her on stage lover, and when Dries, who comes from a carnival family, catches the show, he wants nothing more than to be her chicken in real life. Moreau well deserved the Cesar 2005 for Best Actress and Best First Movie. There are no whiz bang effects, no great scenery and no big budget, just quietly wonderful performances and warm, clever script.
    9s_bourbouse

    A very sweet small budget movie

    That movie is very sweet. At first, you can't help asking yourself what kind of asylum you've been to, but quickly the story takes you and you live the story with the characters.

    The movie is about the loneliness of artists on tour, the kindness and simplicity of people from the North of France and last but not least, it is a nice love story between ordinary people.

    Yolande moreau is famous in France thanks to Les Deschiens a TV program. For her first direction (actually co-direction), she chooses the perfect story. As an actress, she is also marvelous.

    Go and see it if you can, that's worth being seen.
    8noralee

    A Comic Road Romance for Grown-Ups

    "When the Sea Rises (Quand la mer monte...)" is like a French intellectual "Almost Famous" about grown-ups, with a frisson of the Italian "Bread and Tulips (Pane e tulipani)" about a middle-aged woman's self-discovery.

    When Hollywood realizes that an American adaptation can be made by touring small towns, I'm sure the lead will not look like Yolande Moreau's "Irene" 45-year-old Roseanne Barr-look alike comic performance artist touring a satirical one-person show that's translated as "Nasty Business: Sex and Violence." The American will be a thin, pretty chick singer and the never-seen husband (probably will just be a fiancé) at home will be a lot less sympathetic and there will not be a child there to make her feel that much more guilty.

    Doubtless the U.S. version will play up the contrast between romantic lyrics and her life, while this very unusually finds the feeling behind feminist humor about romance. There's funny lines that can be taken verbatim, as she mulls over "sugar waffles or romance". Yes, just her coming out on stage in a shapeless shift with a gargoyle-type mask seeking a lover she declares her "chicken" is funny, let alone that the red powder we see her cover herself in is ostensibly the blood of her last lover. The film sweetly illustrates that old stand by of why a woman chooses a guy: "He made me laugh."

    The work a day world of touring the provinces that we don't usually get to see in French films is marvelously portrayed and is based on the co-writer/director/star's own experiences on the road, as we see many different performances of her actual show and how audience participation changes it. There's very amusing vignettes of the trials and tribulations of performing in county fairs, nursing homes, primary schools and cultural centers of no interest to most in the community to a high-brow comedy festival (with its too heavy-handed, very French philosophical discussion about what is comedy and can women be funny). We can get the class differences of beer vs. wine drinkers without this kind of talk.

    The groupie mechanic she attracts is more problematical and his attitude and actions constantly keep us off kilter. Is he a stalker? Does he have a screw loose? (The American version would make much more of the background TV news stories about a serial killer con man on the loose to raise our and her suspicions.) Can he tell fantasy from reality as he follows her around and ingratiates himself into her show every night as he seems to react to her brazen stage persona so different from her off-stage life, like Leslie Caron with the marionettes in "Lili" or like the hypnotized Giulietta Masina in "Nights of Cabiria (Le Notti di Cabiria)." Does he separate her on and off stage or is she changing? Her discomfort at being seen as "silly" becomes her ultimate put down of him.

    His side avocation of providing the giant puppets for floats (in a poorly translated explanation) for colorful parades seems too symbolic, but is a lot of fun to see, especially as he morphs into her fantasies, such as imagining him as Don Quixote. It almost seemed a satire of all those chick flicks where the up tight woman finds romance in a little village that just happens to have a festival, as in "Under the Tuscan Sun" and "A Walk in the Clouds," as this guy and his cohorts bring their own parade with them. One scene where they chase live chickens on the road is way too obvious.

    The road trip is presented through lovely cinematography, particularly as they take side trips off the beaten path at beautiful settings and surroundings.

    The poor subtitles significantly blunt the film for English viewers, and not just for what seems to be poorly translated jokes. Not only is there a confusing scene where English subtitles are put directly over French ones as the character is speaking in another language (Flemish I'm told) so that they are illegible, but the opera lyrics aren't translated. This turns out to be crucial for those who are made to feel embarrassingly uneducated, amidst feeling charmed by the film, as I didn't realize that was "La Traviata" playing over and over and that the libretto had some resonance to the story. Similarly, it was only by staying through the last credit that I discovered that the movie's title referred to a song that was evidently also not translated so I missed that meaning.

    The credits very nicely thank all the towns and audiences where the show was performed.

    An American version would also have a different ending.
    5Spuzzlightyear

    Ah! The Joys of Stalking!

    While The Tide Rolls In details the flingy romance two schleps get into. The female is a sort of a unattractive, yet successful performer, doing a DREADFUL one woman show. The guy seems to be a desperate creature who is one short of a stalker when he follows her around after a show in which she chose the guy to join up on stage with her. After he keeps showing up, rather then phoning the police, the woman sort of FALLS for the guy. Now, if that's not really the WRONG thing to do, then I don't what is. Anyways, they go up and down the coast of France to perform her silly clown one woman show to large theaters (yeah right) to seniors homes (more likely). Anyways, they learn a lot of each other, and well, that's about it.. Pretty unremarkable.
    6johno-21

    This tide offers a strange ride

    I saw this at the 2005 Palm Springs International Film Festival. This is an unlikely, surreal story of Irène and Dries. Yolande Moreau co-wrote and co-directed this film with first-time Director Gilles Porte and she turns in an excellent acting job here. Irène is a middle-aged woman who has a one-woman comedy show where she dresses in a striped shapeless house dress and wears a pointed nose mask and has bloodstained arms. Her show might theoretically play well in France but to an American audience it's pretty bizarre. Like some kind of early 19th century minstrel performer. Dries, as played by Wim Willaert, gets such a kick out of her show and ultimately her that he goes to every performance she gives. He has an equally bizarre job in that he is a porter of carnival giants. Giant wickerwork and paper-maché effigies of people that are carried about in festivals in some areas of France, Belgium and Germany. The younger good looking Dries and the older dowdy Irène end up in an unlikely romance. This is a strange film but intriguing and displays a visual artistry that is far beyond it's low budget. I would rate this a 6.0 but recommend seeing it just to experience something different.

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    Related interests

    Will Ferrell in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
    Comedy
    Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)
    Drama
    Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca (1942)
    Romance

    Storyline

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    Did you know

    Edit
    • Quotes

      Irène: You shouldn't introduced me to your parents as your wife.

    • Connections
      Featured in Humbert Balsan, producteur rebelle (2006)

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • October 27, 2004 (France)
    • Countries of origin
      • Belgium
      • France
    • Official sites
      • Official site (France)
      • Slant Magazine [Nick Schager]
    • Language
      • French
    • Also known as
      • En smutsig affär
    • Filming locations
      • Grande-Synthe, Nord, France(Palais du Littoral)
    • Production companies
      • Ognon Pictures
      • Stromboli Films
      • Radio Télévision Belge Francophone (RTBF)
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $24,038
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $8,058
      • Jan 15, 2006
    • Gross worldwide
      • $1,443,335
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 29m(89 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
      • Dolby SR
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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