Cast:
Irène: Yolande Moreau
Dries: Wim Willaert
The Policeman: Olivier Gourmet
The Journalist: Jackie Berroyer
Awards:
Best First Film, Prix Louis Delluc ( 2004) Best First
Film, Best Actress, César Awards (2005)
Running time: 90’
Production: Belgium / France, 2004
Rating: Not Rated
(very brief nudity)
Gauge: 35mm (color)
Distributor:
New Yorker Films
“Approaches
the eloquence of Fellini’s Strada. As you study
Ms. Moreau’s features, the actress reveals so many
layers of emotional complexity that her face becomes a
map of the world careworn, childlike and profoundly beautiful.”
Stephen Holden, The New York Times
When the
Sea Rises tells the story of Irène (Moreau), a
45-year-old actress travelling from one small town to another
with her one-woman show, “Dirty Business.” Slyly
funny in her masked onstage persona, Irene is a genial pro
at touring alone, phoning home to her husband and child and
sleeping in a new hotel each night. Things change when a scooter-driving
vagabond named Dries fixes her stalled car. After accepting
an invitation to her show, Dries soon appears at every stop
on her tour as her “randomly selected” audience
participant. What develops is a remarkably natural and tender
affair between two true eccentrics, their exuberance and playfulness
mixing with a mature, mutual longing.
