Under the Sand

Marie Drillon, an English university professor, has spent years vacationing in the Landes region of western France with her husband Jean. On a beach there, while Marie dozes, Jean goes off and never returns. What happened to him stays unresolved, and Marie refuses to accept that he is gone. Back in Paris she carries on as though he were still alive, speaking to him and setting a place for him, while a new acquaintance, Vincent, becomes tied up in her denial. Over time she is forced to confront what she has been avoiding.

François Ozon directed this 2001 French drama, the third film in a career that by the facts given has reached twenty features, following Water Drops on Burning Rocks and preceding 8 Women. He wrote the screenplay with Emmanuèle Bernheim and Marina de Van. Charlotte Rampling leads as Marie, with Bruno Cremer as Jean, Jacques Nolot as Vincent, Alexandra Stewart, Pierre Vernier and Andrée Tainsy among a credited cast of 23. Olivier Delmosc and Marc Missonnier produced.

The film took about 7 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7 out of 10 from around 12,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.7 out of 10 from far fewer votes, while a critics' rating of 7.9 out of 10 from 74 reviews is noticeably higher than the audience scores.