Film: The Sea Wall
Release date: 8th March 2010
Certificate: 12
Running time: 111 mins
Director: Rithy Panh
Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Gaspard Ulliel, Astrid Berges-Frisbey, Randal Douc, Vanthon Duong
Genre: Drama
Studio: Axiom
Format: DVD
Country: France
An adaptation of Marguerite Duras' autobiographical novel of the same name, The Sea Wall chronicles the influential novelist and film director’s childhood in Cambodia.
The Duras family are living in Cambodia after buying land to farm rice. After the death of their father, the family are under constant strain with the children, Suzanne and Joseph, who threaten to leave their sick mother to look after the farm on her own. The crops end up to be trouble, as they are flooded by the sea tides, endangering the family's livelihood. As times worsen - getting turned down by the bankers and receiving threats from the French authorities who intend to seize their land, the family has to start taking drastic measures to support themselves.
With the arrival of a wealthy businessman, who takes a shine to Suzanne, the youngest of the family, they use the opportunity to take advantage for their own personal gain. However, relations between the French and the natives are worsening, and so is the mother’s health, as they try to construct a wall in order to protect from the threat of the sea tides. All the while, Joseph grows increasingly frustrated with home, and his rebellious streak is harder and harder to suppress…
From the very start of The Sea Wall, it is easy to tell that it is an adaptation - it lacks the pace, structure and story arc of a cinematic creation. It feels very accurate in the sense of a biographical tale, sticking to the point of view of the family as a run of anecdotal events that changed their future, and I'm sure as a work of literature this would be quite interesting, but it doesn't truly translate to the screen.
The start of The Sea Wall feels like it is drawing into a story of man-versus-nature, overcoming the odds, or at least trying to in order to rebuild a destroyed livelihood. It opens with some fantastic shots of the Cambodian scenery and the family's destroyed crops, and the promise of a tearjerker, set to the beautiful backdrop and landscape. The problem comes from its roots as a biographical adaptation in that the focus is solely on the family - the more interesting story would be that of the natives who are employed by the rich French landowners.
The story is reliant on the fact that the family are meant to be on the edge of their means - only just scraping by, and pushed to breaking point. As it is, though, they are getting by all right. They have a leaky roof, and they are quite miserable, but they are still going to the bar everyday drinking champagne, being waited on hand and foot by their workers, spending days working on cars, and mixing with the rest of the wealthy elite. There is just an overall atmosphere of malaise and misery that seems to run through the entire film that is so completely unemotional and cold. The mother, for example, angry at seeing the natives’ way of life being torn apart, has a completely dead and unemotional demeanour, understanding that she is not a well woman, lacking energy and beaten down by her troubles, it is still hard to identify with her
When there is the introduction of Monsieur Jo, a wealthy Chinese businessman who takes a shine to Suzanne, it is the family's intention to marry them off together in order to inherit his money and solve their problems. This relationship is cringingly cold and one sided, and it’s difficult to watch as a grown man makes his sexual advances on a 16-year-old girl, whilst all the time she is being taunted and teased by what seems to be pushing towards an incestuous brother/sister relationship. This is definitely the most interesting element of the film, but never delves far enough.
All this time, with the family seemingly whoring out their daughter, the son’s frustratingly smouldering rebellious antics, and the mother’s unenthusiastic anger, the natives are partaking in the most interesting element of the whole story as a very brief and occasional sub-plot. The sea wall, from which the film takes its title, seems to just appear out of nowhere, with no input from the family - simply all the native workers slaving away as the family did nothing to contribute. That seems to be the general perception - the family have things happen to them and do things that should have some consequence (they are thieves, adulterers and frauds), yet there are no repercussions.
Add to all this the fact that for a medium budget film with so many resources in the way of props, costumes and locations, the cinematography is boring. A point and click attitude to filming which feels so detached and lifeless.
If you have a particular interest in the life of Marguerite Duras then I'm sure there are many elements of The Sea Wall that could be enjoyed. As a cinematic experience, however, it falls very short of being engaging and interesting, saved only by the feel of true accuracy to the times and source material. JP
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