François Ozon | Regarde la mer (See the Sea) / 1997, USA 1998

love, look away!

by Douglas Messerli

 

François Ozon (screenwriter and director) Regarde la mer (See the Sea) / 1997, USA 1998

 

Sasha (Sash Hails), of English birth, lives with her husband in the idyllic seaside village on France’s Île d'Yeu. But although her life may seem charmed, her business man husband is often away on trips, and Sasha, who we soon come to see as a young sensualist, is left alone to care for their infant daughter, Siofra, which does not leave her much time to enjoy the landscape and beauty around her. Sasha obviously loves her daughter, but is also clearly uncomfortable with her constant needs.

    We see her frustrations in the very scene of the film when, awakened by her infant daughter, she has difficulty, with child in hand, to even make herself breakfast. A call to her husband fails, and another in which explains that he will be longer away than he originally planned, makes clear her disappointment and loneliness. We might even suspect, and perhaps she does, that his business trips involve some other sexual tryst, but that would turn this film into a soap opera, which Ozon never allows his quirky films to become.

     Enter a young female drifter, Tatiana (Marina de Van), who simply asks for permission to camp in the yard for a day or three. Unlike Sasha, Tatiana is not tied down by familial burdens, and seems to be totally independent, something which we already suspect Sasha admires. But, at first, the married woman is wary about giving permission, particularly since her husband is not home. When assured that it will be only a quick stay of a night or two, however, changes Sasha’s mind. Moreover, she is obviously quite fascinated by the woman who seems to completely in control of her own life. It’s clear that she reminds Sasha of her former self, before the commitments she has now undertaken.

     Tatiana sets up her tent, and Sasha proceeds with her day. But when dinner arrives, she invites the girl in, and begins a rather reluctant friendship, while yet noting the oddities of her new guest, particularly her almost animalistic manner of eating, swallowing down her food as if she has been starved, picking up the plate and licking it clean.

      She behaves in an equally bestial way when she uses the house bathroom, leaving her turds in the toilet, unflushed, wiping down some of the debris with Sasha’s toothbrush. As Tatiana has expressed it, when asked by Sasha whether she gets scared in her travels: “No. I do the scaring.”

      Yet when Titiana admits that prior to her hiking trip without a destination that she worked as a nanny to a wealthy family, Sasha herself decides, the very next day, the leave her daughter in the care of the child while she runs for some needed groceries, and a very few moments at least, some time to enjoy herself, a simple visit to a nearby café for coffee and a sweet.

      She quickly returns home, however, somewhat worried about Siofra, but finds the child safe and well-cared for.

      The next day, she even invites her new yard guest on a trip to the nearby beach, planning to enjoy the sun with her new friend in a nice lunch and conversation. But she discovers that Tatiana has little conversational skills and instead of looking, as would most beachgoers, toward the sea, looks back to the surrounding woods, watching the gay men enter for illicit sex, scene that could be right out of the Alain Guiraudie’s 2013 film Stranger by the Lake. When asked by Sasha what she sees, her answer is blunt: “Some guys fucking.”

      Titiana shows absolutely no interest in anything the beachgoers, male or female, might offer. “I’m bored. I’m leaving,” she declares.

       It has become apparent, even before this scene, that Sasha is curious about Tatiana not only as an individual but as a sexual being. And now, we discover just how much of a sexual being Sasha really is, as she wraps the sleeping Siofra carefully to protect her fun the sun, while she sneaks off the woods, discovering a man there who perfectly willing to engage I heterosexual behavior. She has a quickly sexual rendezvous that is not at all so very different from the quick fucks and suck offs which gay men seek out in such a place.

     That Sasha is so tempted by the allure of that woods that she is even willing to leave her child alone for a short while, indicates something we soon have affirmed when the next day, when she speaks with Tatiana about child birth. Tatiana cannot imagine the pain a woman has to suffer to bear a child and asks if Sasha has had a cesarean rather than a vaginal birth. Sasha argues that she wanted to feel the experience of the pain, insisting upon a vaginal birth with no drugs.

     Tatiana continues to question her about vaginal tearing, where she shat or not, etc., all questions which Sasha suggests will lead the young girl to never have a baby. “I already had one,” Tatiana blurts out. When asked where it is, the girl simply answers, “Dead.” When the empathic Sasha expresses her sadness, Tatiana simple declares she had it aborted.

     That statement again stresses the complete difference between these women. Earlier in the day, while Titiana was out, Sasha has snuck into the woman’s tent, noticing a day book within which is written over and over, a repetition of words and drawings of hangings and other symbols of death.

    Sasha, as I mentioned earlier in this essay is nearly all sensation, while Titiana seems to be almost asexual and emotionless. She does not dine in delight, she devours food like a beast. She does not watch the sea in wonderment but turns her back on the endless waves and the people they attract equally.

     Janet Maslin’s summary the scene above in The New York Times well expresses the horror underlying this scene:

 

“Ozon, whose eerie exactitude owes strong debts to Chabrol and Polanski, builds this simple film to unexpected heights of irony and horror. Late in the story, for instance, the two women share dinner as Tatiana abruptly asks Sasha what childbirth was like. In complacent yuppie fashion, Sasha proudly answers that she took no drugs because she wanted to experience the pain. All Tatiana has to do to set your hair on end at a moment like this is simply to listen, her expression perfectly blank, her eyes dead.”

 

     Even Sasha suspects there is something very different about this woman; but that too attracts her and before the night is out, she offers the girl a bed in the house instead of another night on the ground. By this time, we also realize that Sasha has grown so intrigued by Titiana that she would not at all mind exploring her body in sex.

    And, despite her insensitivity, even Titiana now clearly perceives that fact. For a while both women lay in bed in their respective rooms. But later we see Titiana rise, enter Sasha’s room and remove her blouse as if preparing for sex.

     The next day, the husband (Paul Raoux) returns home, a young handsome man who we realize might be the perfect mate for the attractive Sasha. But his wife and daughter are nowhere to be found.

     He finally discovers the tent in his backyard, unzips its flap, and finds there his wife’s bound naked body, her vagina sewn shut. You may want to look away yourself from what you now witness. This is a world in which both women look away from love

      We watch a ferry on which Tatiana now rides with the couple’s continually crying child now in hand. She has found a way to have a child without having to suffer sexual intercourse or the pain of birth. She has found a child without daring to love.

 

Los Angeles, April 14, 2026

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (April 2026).

 

 

Jason Gould | Inside Out / 1997

catharsis

by Douglas Messerli

 

Jason Gould (writer and director) Inside Out / 1997

 

Aaron Gould (Jason Gould) is cute, charming, and clever—almost everything you might want in a gay man in his 20s. Yet is has a few serious problems. He finds it difficult to meet new men, and more importantly to stay in longer relationships with them. Even the “smart, successful” date “with gorgeous hair and nice teeth” (Steven Flynn) who his best friend Adam (Alexis Arquette) hooks  him up with decides upon their second meeting that the two are just not right for one another, despite Aaron being, as he puts it, “smart and funny,” “a real nice guy.”

     Furthermore, he has a problem with his stepbrother, Simon (Sam Gould) who keeps getting arrested for streaking, as in running nude in public. In California “streaking” is a sex crime, Aaron explains to his date, “Three streaks and you’re out.”

     Also it appears that wherever Aaron goes people are seeking to help him find a better life—which given the comfortable bungalow in which he lives, the lovely meal we see him cook, and the beautiful vase of flowers in brings to that dinner table appears to be quite fine without their help. His therapist (the joke that everyone in California has a therapist is a truism in this case) wants him to go on antidepressants, but his father doesn’t approve of drugs although he was certainly known for taking them when he was young. His father would like him to meet a powerful manager Phylis (Anne De Salvo)—perhaps to kickstart Aaron’s flagging acting career—but which Aaron suspects will lead to a pressured invitation to join Scientology, which is precisely what happens, Adam troubled by his friend’s passive patience with their attempts to convince him that he needs their help, for a very steep price. And then there’s a high school friend, Susan (Katie Asner) who wants Adam to come to “Group” with her run by Christina Crawford—yes, that Christina Crawford, author of Mommie Dearest. One session, in which he’s asked “are you biological,” is enough to convince him that the “group” not for him.

     Moreover, there’s that tabloid headline: “Superstar’s Son Marries Male Model” which understandably irks him since, although he is openly gay, he has not married anyone, let alone a male model. Along with the photographer waiting outside in his car to shoot an entire role of film whenever Aaron might decide to leave his house, it’s been a difficult few days to say the least.

      If you haven’t guessed by this time, Aaron’s biggest problem is that, like the actor portraying this character, is the son of Elliott Gould (who plays his father in this short film as well) and Barbara Streisand. Aaron, this semi-autobiographical work’s nom de plume for Jason, previously appeared as her son in Streisand’s movie The Prince of Tides, so it seems fair play that Elliott should appear in his son’s picture.

     Alexis Arquette—the transsexual actor whose grandfather was comedian Charley Weaver and whose sisters and brother are actors Rosanna, Patricia, and David—was Jason’s real-life friend, whom he commandeered to play the male role of Adam in this film; Arquette died of AIDS in 2016. And Katie Asner, obviously, is the daughter of actor Ed Asner, and has herself appeared in several popular TV comedy shows. Christina Crawford also makes an appearance in Gould’s work, conducting her real-life “Children of Celebrities” group. Jordan Ladd, granddaughter of actor Alan Ladd and daughter of Cheryl Ladd plays a minor role in Gould’s piece.

     And finally, this film’s director, who is gay, really was falsely reported in the tabloids as having married a male model. "It was shocking because it's so untrue," Gould says. "It was just so grotesque to me that they could make up a story like that and claim they had seen pictures of my wedding to a man. And then print this story even though I deny it." It’s quite clear that Gould did not have to roove too far “out” of his California life experiences to find meaty satiric material.

     Although he never was actually stalked by a photographer, he obviously experienced the endless snap of the camera whenever he appeared in public with his mother. In this case the beefy photographer (Sam Polito), who later spies his victim skating on the Venice Boardwalk and, jumping into his car goes on a chase for his photographic prey.

      Hiding out in a portable potty in a nearby parking lot, Aaron—totally worn out by just trying to live a normal life—finally comes out from hiding, shifting into a hilarious strip-tease in which one-by-one he pulls off his knee guards and his shirt, throwing them at his spell-bound stalker, as he skates around him in a stripper’s bump and grind, before he pulls off his undershirt, turns around, and moons the man.

      It felt so cathartic, he admits, quipping, now I know what my step-brother sees in streaking. So absurd has his life become that he walks off with the would-be photographer as if he were a new-found friend, ridiculously confiding that he did in fact marry his long-time secret lover—in a dress.

      When this work was finished, Gould moved to New York, where he admittedly is no longer hounded by people for being a product, so to speak, of the “industry,” and is able to better meet and make real friends. Yet Inside Out, is such an affable comedy that one wishes he would act and direct further works in the future. But as he admits early in this work, he doesn’t like to see himself on the screen, presumably neither inside or out.

 

Los Angeles, January 1, 2021

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog and World Cinema Review (January 2021). 

 

Charles Reisner and Buster Keaton | Steamboat Bill, Jr. / 1928

unsettled. wet and cloudy

by Douglas Messerli

 

Carl Harbaugh and Buster Keaton (uncredited) (screenplay), Charles Reisner and Buster Keaton (uncredited) (directors) Steamboat Bill, Jr. / 1928

Although the stated director of Steamboat Bill, Jr. is Charles Reisner and the writer is credited as Carl Harbaugh, the movie is clearly Buster Keaton’s affair, and it is his remarkable acting and his comically athletic pratfalls that make for some of the very best scenes of American silent film.

     The story, a rather frail one, involves a war between two southern entities, William “Steamboat Bill” Canfield (Ernest Torrence) and a kind-of small town Donald Trump in the form of John James King (Tom McGuire), who owns most the city and has just launched a huge new Mississippi paddle ship which will surely destroy the local business of Canfield, who runs a dilapidated vessel that is later declared “unsafe.”

      Into this cauldron, Canfield’s son, William (Keaton), returns after years away in Boston schools and, on the same day, King’s beloved daughter Kitty (Marion Byron), home on vacation. 

      From his years in Boston, evidently the son of a divorced mother, young William has grown up rather effete—at least in his father’s thinking—and is now completely unsuited to take over as “Steamboat Bill Jr.” Throughout the earliest part of the film, the Keaton figure undergoes a series of flabbergasting events with his impatient father and concerning his basic clumsiness around all things having to do with the boat’s instruments and maneuvers.     

      On top of this, it turns out that the “sissified” William is in love with Kitty, and she with him, which exacerbates a further series of battles between Canfield and King. One of the best skits of the film—and unfortunately, we can describe them as a series of “skits”—involves William’s attempt to trick his father about his desires as he escapes one night onto King’s boat to see his loving Kitty. He succeeds after nearly drowning and tossing many another of King’s associates into the river, before leaping into the waters himself.

      But the great scenes of this film follow, with the sudden jailing of William’s father, when his son attempts to sneak filing tools into his cell within a loaf of bread, and the entirely unexpected arrival of a cyclone (the daily weather report declaring the day as “Unsettled. Wet and Cloudy.”) that almost totally destroys the town, blowing down houses around William, who by this time has been taken in custody to the local hospital, and sending the prison wherein his father remains locked up and is now drowning, into the river. 

      Suddenly, of course, young Bill storms into life, able to leap up several stories of the boat to steer into the prison in order to save his father, able to leap down to save his drowning Kitty, and, finally, amazingly, diving into the “muddy waters” once again to save a local minister. The weak little pansy becomes a hero that can make any macho father proud. And in that sense, Keaton's film bears some comparison with Harry Schenck, Edward Warren, and Alice Guy Blaché's 1912 film, Algie the Miner. His return to the workaday world of the steamboat helps convert him from his queerness (in this case meaning odd) into heterosexual normativity.  

      The amazing scene where an entire house falls down around Keaton might, had he been just a few inches off cue, have killed him. But the actor, brilliant deadpan he was always, seems hardly to be aware of the dangers, which cannot but further delight us with his comedic talents. His position in the whole scene was simply noted with a nail in the ground, a mark which allowed him to remain standing within the frame of a blown-out window. Seldom before, and certainly not in later Hollywood, would an actor be even allowed to take so many chances with his life as Keaton undertakes in order to create this film.      

       Inexplicably, this great comic work was not a success at the box office, and saw the dissolution of his own company. His last original movie would be the 1928 MGM film, The Cameraman.

       Steamboat Bill, Jr., however, has been recognized since by most film critics as a masterpiece of the silent film cinema.

 

Los Angeles, October 28, 2016

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (October 2016).