marie ( charlotte rampling , ” aberdeen ” ) and jean ( bruno cremet , ” sorcerer ” ) are a comfortable , sixty-ish married couple looking forward to a peaceful vacation at their second home in lit et mix .
on their first , full day , marie sunbathes as jean goes for a swim .
hours later , marie’s initiated a full scale search when jean hasn’t returned , but no trace of him is found .
marie returns to paris and resumes her life , including chats with jean at the end of each day in francois ozon’s ” under the sand . ”
marie’s ex-pat british friend amanda ( alexandra stewart , ” frantic ” ) and her french husband gerard ( pierre vernier ) try to snap marie out of her denial with a dinner party , where they introduce her to the handsome vincent ( jacques nolot , ” nenette et boni ” ) , yet marie suggests that gerard accompany her and jean to their gym the next morning .
eventually marie does begin dating vincent , but she discusses him with jean and even smiles at jean , hidden behind a bedroom curtain , when she makes love to vincent .
slowly , though , reality continues to chip away at marie’s fantasy life .
her bank advises her that without access to jean’s account , she needs to reduce her spending .
one of her university students ( she’s reading virginia woolf’s ” the waves ” ) turns out to be one of the young men who participated in the beach search .
then police arrive asking her to identify the clothing of a body they’ve found washed up from the ocean .
that night , jean’s not at home when she returns to their apartment .
her mother-in-law ( andree tainsy ) cruelly
insists that jean simply abandoned her out of boredom .
finally , marie goes to the police , insisting on viewing the body .
horrified ( she’s been warned it was
in an advanced state of putrefaction ) , she laughs when handed a bagged watch , insisting that this is not her husband .
” under the sand ” is a character study and melancholy portrait of aging ( ‘i’ve lost my youth , ‘ marie declares ) and loss .
charlotte rampling , given the chance to portray an older , yet still sexual , woman runs with it , bringing us into the mind of the character .
her chemistry with bruno cremet is startlingly natural .
as marie returns from her first date with vincent , she sits on the couch with jean .
‘did he kiss you ? ‘ he asks .
the mood the two create is incredibly intimate and sad .
ozon ( ” water drops on burning rocks , ” ” see the sea ” ) , who cowrote the script with emmanuelle bernheim , marcia romano , and marina de van , has turned in a more mature work than his previous , creepy ” see the sea . ”
while he cleverly never lets us see jean enter the water that fateful day , leaving a number of possibilities – accident ? , suicide ? , escape ?
– open , he definitely tips his hand towards a certain outcome .
cinematography by antoine hiberli and jeanne lapoirie ( ” water drops on burning rocks ” ) glides around marie ( their 180 shot as she initially searches the ocean’s horizon for a sign of jean conveys her panic ) or captures rampling’s exotic face in mood divining closeup .
in an inventive fantasy scene , marie imagines jean’s hands massaging her feet while in a state of auto-arousal .
his two hands become four , then more combined with her own , becoming almost a one person orgy and recalling roman polanski’s ” repulsion . ”
original music by philippe rombi quietly adds to the overall melancholy .
” under the sand ” is a unique portrait of loss .
it would make an fascinating double bill with liv ullmann’s ” faithless ” from earlier this year , another character study of a woman facing loss for different reasons .