Independent Film Company The Sea North American Premiere TIFF 2013 GAT PR Press Summary
Interviews Completed September 8
September 9
Prime TV (Belgium) Interviewed: Ciaran Hinds Photoshoot with Corbis Images
Independent Film Channel (North America) Interviewed: Ciaran Hinds and Stephen Brown
Tribute.ca (Canada) Interviewed: Ciaran Hinds and Stephen Brown The Epoch Times (Global) Interviewed: Ciaran Hinds and Stephen Brown Stephen Holt Show (US) Interviewed: Stephen Brown and Ciaran Hinds NextProjection.com (Canada) Interviewed: Ciaran Hinds and Stephen Brown Toronto Sun (Canada) Interviewed: Ciaran Hinds and Stephen Brown La Segunda (Chile) Interviewed: Ciaran Hinds and Stephen Brown Saturday Irish Radio/Podcast (Canada) Interviewed: Ciaran Hinds and Stephen Brown The West Australian (Australia) Interviewed: Ciaran Hinds
The Sea: Toronto Review Ciaran Hinds anchors a mournfully romantic Irish tale based on the prize -‐ winning novel by author John Banville. Deborah Young | September 18, 2013 http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/sea-‐toronto-‐review-‐631874
The Bottom Line The story of a man who plunges into childhood memories in the aftermath of his wife’s death is admirably constructed but wingless Venue: Toronto Film Festival (Contemporary World Cinema), Sept. 13, 2013 Cast: Ciaran Hinds, Charlotte Rampling, Natascha McElhone, Rufus Sewell, Sinead Cusack Director: Stephen Brown Screenwriter: John Banville
Sunlight glistening off pounding waves, like a painting by Pierre Bonnard – this is the romantic mood-‐ setter of Stephen Brown’s artfully shot and acted yet totally uninvolving directing debut, The Sea. Adapted for the screen by Irish author John Banville from his own novel, which won the 2005 Man Booker Prize, The Sea suffers from too little action and too much atmosphere. Despite its careful control of tone and a raging central performance by Ciaran Hinds, which is actually sufficient reason to see the film, this story of a man who plunges into childhood memories in the aftermath of his wife’s death remains admirable but wingless. After the obvious places -‐-‐ Edinburgh, Galway, Toronto – it should rather quickly wend its way to domestic release and ancillary screens. Echoing the book’s back-‐and-‐forth temporal structure, Banville’s screenplay offers privileged access to the memories of Max Morden (Hinds), a recent widower who is dealing badly with the loss of his wife Anna (Sinead Cusack). Against the wishes of his concerned adult daughter, he packs up for a stay of indeterminate length at the seaside boarding house of Miss Vavasour (Charlotte Rampling) with the excuse of writing a book on Bonnard’s paintings. It's a house he knew well as a boy, when his unmoneyed parents rented a beach shack down the road. Perhaps the landlady knows this. In any case, she seems sympathetic to her roomer and thoughtfully puts him up in “the children’s room” with all the original furniture. Cusack plays his wife Anna, a successful photographer who resents and mocks the illness that will shortly kill her. Wholly wrapped up in herself and her approaching death, she has no time to reassure her shocked and disoriented husband. In this she’s very similar to someone else he once knew, Chloe, the daughter of a rich family he met when he was 12 years old (Matthew Dillon) and vacationing at the seashore. From his family’s cramped digs, he admiringly eyes the big house where Chloe lives with her mute brother and her flamboyant father (Rufus Sewell) and mother (McElhone), whose beauty and gaiety hold him in thrall. Hard-‐drinking, careless, and cruising for tragedy, they have a Gatsby-‐ish air about them that totally fascinates little Max. And the timing is right: they adopt him as a summer playmate for the kids during the magical summer of his sexual awakening. It’s the kind of film that reverberates with all kinds of literary and film echoes as it charts its erratic course from coming-‐of-‐ager to mystery, from family drama to individual tragedy. There’s a bit of aHenry James ghost story behind the rich kids’ close-‐lipped governess, Rose. She keeps an eye on Chloe and her silent brother but doesn’t look too closely into their little secrets. Could Miss Vavasour’s other boarder, a retired general, have been an army officer in Belfast? And what about the bewitching landlady herself, artistically dressed in Oriental gowns and eccentric headgear? All these tales from the past are jumbled together in Max’s memories as he tramps down the beach pounded by those dramatic dappled waves under a brooding sky, or drinks himself punch drunk at the pub down the road. With his look of bewildered surprise, Hinds can deliver a large register of feelings, as he flees sadness by returning to the scene of an old trauma. The rapidly intercut scenes don’t aid empathy with his plight, however, and there comes a point when one wishes Brown and Banville had chosen to tell the whole thing chronologically. In supporting roles, a raw-‐edged and particularly effective Sinead Cusack, a mysterious Charlotte Rampling and a glowing, evanescent Natascha McElhone give different layers of depth to the story. John Conroy’s dreamlike cinematography really does evoke Bonnard with a mood of natural wonder. Whether the camera is fixed or handheld, it creates the atmosphere of drama against which human passions seem somehow paltry. Another major player here is Andrew Hewitt’s watchful and tentative modern score, promising a chilly revelation.
Top 20 Alternative Picks for TIFF 2013: Stephen Brown’s The Sea By Nicholas Bell | September 2, 2013 http://www.ioncinema.com/news/film-‐festivals/top-‐20-‐alternative-‐picks-‐for-‐tiff-‐2013-‐stephen-‐brown-‐ the-‐sea
Section: Contemporary World Cinema Dates: Saturday 7th, Sunday 8th, Friday 13th Buzz: While The Sea marks the directorial debut of Stephen Brown, it’s based on the 2005 Man Booker Prize Winning novel by John Banville. And perhaps most excitingly, it provides beloved character actor Ciaran Hinds with a leading role, here playing a trouble author retreating to a seaside cottage from his youth, a place that holds many secrets, it seems. Opposite Hinds is the iconic Charlotte Rampling, a revered screen presence that’s worked with a boggling amount of cinema’s most notable auteurs. Drifting in the midst of a sea of other notable titles in TIFF’s Contemporary World Cinema program, we hope it’s not lost there, and stress that the leading performers are worth considerable interest. The Gist: A middle-‐aged art historian returns to the Irish seaside village where, as a boy, he and his family spent their holidays. His visit triggers a series of memories, some romantic, some disturbing, of a summer that saw the awakening of sexuality and an unexpected tragedy. This article can also be seen in the following outlet:
http://www.imdb.com/news/ni56130287/
TIFF List 2013: A Complete Guide To All The Films At The Toronto International Film Festival By Peter Knegt | September 10 2013 http://www.indiewire.com/article/tiff-‐list-‐2013-‐a-‐list-‐of-‐all-‐the-‐announced-‐films-‐at-‐the-‐ toronto-‐international-‐film-‐festival?page=5 The Sea Stephen Brown, Ireland North American Premiere After the death of his wife, Max retreats to The Cedars, a house by the sea where he spent his childhood summers. Re-‐acquainting himself with places past provokes a cathartic reflection as the present draws out powerful memories from one fateful summer many years ago — memories of innocent joy and uplifting warmth, but also of profound tragedy. Based on the 2005 Booker Prize-‐winning novel by John Banville. Starring Ciarán Hinds, Charlotte Rampling, Natascha McElhone, Rufus Swell, Bonnie Wright, and Sinead Cusack
Wild Card @ TIFF: Ciarán Hinds and Charlotte Rampling are superb in the stormy The Sea Nathalie Atkinson | September 13 2013 http://arts.nationalpost.com/2013/09/13/wild-‐card-‐tiff-‐ciaran-‐hinds-‐and-‐charlotte-‐rampling-‐in-‐ stormy-‐the-‐sea/ Directed by Stephen Brown Based on the Booker Prize-‐winning novel by John Banville (who adapted the screenplay himself for director Stephen Brown), the old man is Max (Ciarán Hinds) and the sea is the tempestuous beach at a seaside village in Ireland. It’s there, where he spent childhood summer holidays, that Max returns to find solace and make peace with both events of the past and the recent death of his wife (Sinéad Cusack). As a boy, he’d become smitten with the urbane Grace family and he stays at their grand mansion, now owned by Ms. Vavasour (Charlotte Rampling). The slow pacing and lush cinematography dart back, forth and around the corners of memory – the sun and nostalgia-‐dappled childhood, the cool blue of present-‐day regret. Deft editing somewhat simplifies the book’s complicated chronological structure as Brown builds atmosphere through the landscape, to evoke wistfulness, resignation and rage. Hinds and Cusack are superb
‘The Sea’ Allows the Audience to Sink or Swim By Matthew Little, Epoch Times | September 11, 2013 http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/285030-‐the-‐sea-‐allows-‐the-‐audience-‐to-‐sink-‐or-‐swim/
TORONTO—TIFF has no shortage of insightful films that give audiences an opportunity to think and explore ideas, told beautifully through sight and sound. Such films expect a certain commitment from their audience, and those that enjoy them usually appreciate having their intelligence employed rather than insulted. It is into these depths that director Stephen Brown brings the audience in his stirring vision of John Banville’s Booker-‐prize winning book “The Sea.” It’s a sorrowful tale that compels viewers to contemplate the grief that all must face—without offering the emotional appeasements audiences have come to expect from the regular Hollywood fare. “I think there is too great a burden put on cinema to provide explanation and complete resolution and the tying up of loose ends,” Brown told The Epoch Times. “I think you can challenge that and say, ‘Well I think that’s less satisfying than having an honest attempt to face something and then offer the audience the opportunity to think it through for themselves.’”
With “The Sea,” Brown said he strove for truth in the story, a quality as difficult to pin down in life as it is in the often enigmatic characters that circle around the film’s protagonist Max Morden, played masterfully by Ciarán Hinds. The gentle gloom that rolls through the film reaches a baleful crest as Morden attempts to resolve two separate tragedies that have left him haunted. Hinds says his character is a sour man, plagued by things left unfinished. “Things don’t quite work out with him the way he wanted them to,” said Hinds He summarized Morden’s character with a quote from Irish playwright Samuel Beckett, an influence on Banville: “I can’t go on, I must go on, I’ll go on.”
Sometimes one’s demons can’t be resolved by simply facing them, noted Hinds. “They come at you, you’re besieged by them, battered by them, and you’ve been taken somewhere by your past,” he said. There is a lament that pervades “The Sea” from its opening scenes to its final moments, a sense of regret or loss that propels Morden and cripples him . Brown notes that all must suffer loss, and at one time or another be laid down by tragedies locked away in our past—like the loss of a loved one. “We all go through grief … That kind of unexpected event is not uncommon,” he said. Brown leaves much of the exposition of the film for the viewer to infer, but gives ever-‐swelling clues as to the subtle perversion that runs through the family that adopts a young Morden for one traumatic summer. The climax of that summer comes in tandem with two other stories interweaved throughout the film, telling of three different points in Morden’s life. While Brown faced a challenge turning Banville’s abstract novel into a concrete movie, he had the help of the author himself, who wrote the screenplay and then stepped aside to let Brown do with it what he would. The result is a moving story told by compelling characters.
TIFF 2013 interview: Stephen Brown and Ciaran Hinds on The Sea Jacqueline Valencia | September 9 2013 http://nextprojection.com/2013/09/09/tiff-‐2013-‐interview-‐stephen-‐brown-‐ciaran-‐hinds-‐sea/
Editor’s Notes: The following interview is part of our coverage of the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. For more information on the festival visit http://tiff.net and follow TIFF on Twitter at @TIFF_NET. It’s been a hectic week at TIFF going from interview to film to interview and film again the next day. However, I’ve discovered a few gems, gems that I probably wouldn’t have been exposed to because of all the bigger films premiering here at the festival. What might be termed as smaller films are just films that have subtler voices, but are larger than life because of the experiences they bring to their audiences. Stephen Brown’s first feature film, The Sea, is one of those soul-‐eviscerating films. It’s the story of a widower, Max, who tries to deal with his present by dealing with the secrets of his past. It stars Ciarán Hinds, Charlotte Rampling, Sinead Cusack, among many other greats.
I had to quell both my geek meter and my new director love to meet this very talented duo, actor Ciarán Hinds and director Stephen Brown. We discussed the adaptation books, Ireland, acting, and of course,The Sea. Jacqueline: What was important to you to portray here? Stephen Brown: What is important for me as a director, is if I can make the audience relate to this character. If I have, then I will have succeeded. The important part of that was to take it to a coherent, concise, even entertaining level, while at the same time, also a dark way in Max’s journey. Jacqueline: How do you tackle such a non-‐linear and hard novel, (The Sea by John Banville) on film? Stephen Brown: The script was a very direct rendition of the novel. John Banville adapted his own novel. He simplified things to a certain extent. But I found that we really had discover the film in the edit. So how you deal with the layers of time is very much down to the edit rather than the shooting process. I have an anthropological background. It’s almost like hunting and gathering. It was almost like fieldwork. We’re shooting these scenes from this period, then we’re shooting these scenes from that period. And obviously schedules have a lot to do with it. You’re not really linking anything in the shoot. When we put the film from end to end in an assembly the first time out, it still had a long way to go before we made those layers gel coherently with each other. Jacqueline: It comes out seamlessly. Stephen Brown: It was a lot of work. Jacqueline: How was it working on your first feature film? Stephen Brown: I loved it a lot. I like it more than anything. I like it more than sliced bread. It just resonated for me. I’ve also had a few events that were like this, but that wasn’t it. It was the character Max, who’s a bit bitter and twisted. And we can all be like that on any day of the week. I loved it on that level. It was difficult material, but it became the film that I really had to make. As it goes further, it still is. I still wake up and am delighted. I suppose I just have to make another film because I’m going to have to let go of The Sea. I would love to make films in that human vein. Tackling difficult subjects. Maybe I should have been born in France to be Maurice Pialat, who’s big hero, mentor of mine. Wherever you are there is an appetite, a market for this. Jacqueline: Tell me about filming in Ireland. Stephen Brown: I had to become Irish. How do you become Irish when you’re from Hackney? Ha. Ireland is a place where literature, thought, poetry, and long words are not dirty words. They have minds. This is just the person on the street, it’s not just the filmmakers and the literati…I mean, you could transfer this story anywhere. But Ireland is the place for Max who’s an observant art historian. Ireland is his place. Jacqueline: Ciarán, what did you want the audience to know about Max. What was important to you to convey? Ciarán Hinds: I didn’t want them to be totally put off this man who can be quite sour and a little resentful. He’s suffering something that the audience can connect with through grief and memory. I didn’t want to pull punches with the character or make him sympathetic either. John Banville made him that way. I wanted to take the audience in where Max was going with his journey. It’s a balance and you want to be true to the material and the character. I don’t know if Stephen told you, but there were some scenes were excised. They were ones where Max really turned in his rage. We wondered if it was a good idea. There were scenes with the daughter, although he loved her, he was furious at her. We had to go, is that too much or where do we want to go? Stephen Brown: The jolt that is dealt to Max after the death of his great love ends up making him look at the secrets he keeps to himself. Bingo. It comes up to the surface now, in the film. In the novel, it’s described very
well in the first page: “The silt rises up to the surface…” so how do you portray that cinematically? And that was the challenge. Ciarán Hinds: There’s a bit in the book where he decides to go in the novel, he has this dream. He’s walking in it and his foot hurts and it’s awkward for him. But it’s like he’s been taken up from who he is and has gone up into a time tunnel. It was memories and he started seeing things in his dreams that he hadn’t been looking for, but he was forced to confront. Stephen Brown: There are these great passages in the book, so how do you compress them into the short hand of a movie? Any book as a film has to be broken up, opened up, rearranged, and remodeled so all we get is that “you can’t go back to the past. You’re living in the past.” That’s the dream. That’s the moment. That’s the silt rising. All those pages in the novel has to be one line in the movie. In another era, Tarkovsky would have said no, don’t worry, we’ll go for the four hours. Ciarán Hinds: This is the kind of film you can’t bang big drums for. You have to place it and offer it up, it’s a gift, to place it. Jacqueline: There are some tough scenes of raw truth, especially with Sinead Cusack’s character. How do you elicit these emotions from yourself? Ciarán Hinds: You dig it up from deep inside you. We all have these reactions. The key is to be ready to summon them up at the right time, and not to be ready to early and spend it all up. For moments like that, you have to locate it honestly: to really listen to the moment, the scene, and to surrender everything to it. Everything else just disappears. That moment is also created by the director who ask crews and technicians for the space, to create the environment, to make it happen. Sometimes we can be too emotional as well. That can be contained and held back so that other people that watch it can place themselves in that moment. Stephen Brown: You can see that working with someone with the stature of Ciarán Hinds is not difficult. * laughter * Max’s character is centrifugal. It comes across in the easiness of the shoot and the fun in it. Ciarán Hinds: Even we were all just waiting for the next shoot or scenes or set ups: we all had little rooms. It was in a real house. Normally actors will chat or be on their phones for a while to wait, but when the director said, “Cut!” We’d all just go silently to our rooms and left each other. It wasn’t even planned. It was a synchronicity to our crew. The house had it’s own atmosphere and we all sort of wore that so at the end of the day we would throw it off. — I thanked the both of them profusely. They opened my eyes to a film that can be congruent to anyone facing loss and dealing with that loss. Brown and Hinds have a camaraderie and a chemistry that will work to this film’s benefit.
Ciaran Hinds unprepared for ‘Games of Thrones’ madness
BY LIZ BRAUN ,QMI AGENCY FIRST POSTED: WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2013 05:33 PM EDT | UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2013 06:19 PM EDT
Ciaran Hinds had no idea what he was signing on for when he agreed to take a role in Game Of Thrones. "I only knew about it because it was being shot in Belfast, which is my home town," says the actor, 60, at TIFF to support The Sea, a bittersweet drama from director Stephen Brown about first love and the passage of time. (It co-‐stars Sinead Cusack and Charlotte Rampling.) As for Game Of Thrones, an effort was being made to open Belfast up to new industry, "After all the shenanigans of the last 35 years," he says, so people were pleased that HBO had gone there to shoot. "I knew some people who were in it, they said it was going great, and you know, I don't see much television. Then I was offered a role in it. They said, 'It's a character called Mance Rayder, we'll need you four days at most.' I thought, 'Well, good, I'll go home for a bit and see my mom and my sisters.'" Hinds shakes his head and says, "The way the world moves now with information, it's scary. As soon as I said I'd do it, next thing, I'm walking through the airport and people are like, 'HEY!!! You're going to play him!' and this is all news to me. All before we shot a thing!" he says, laughing. "I had no idea how iconic the character is. I was just given a name." As for the mom and sisters mentioned above, Hinds -‐-‐ who was the only boy among five children -‐-‐ says he was no doubt influenced by the women in his family. For one thing, his mother Moya, now 93, was an amateur actress. "All my sisters were sent to convent school," says the actor, "leaving muggins here at home. And as we all know, your mom needs someone to do the chores, which made me quite adept at hoovering, light dusting, and learning to cook in my teenage years. So i'm a bit of a daisy domestic, if you like," he says. "As well as the King-‐Beyond-‐The-‐Wall."
Ciarán Hinds & Stephen Brown Interview -‐ The Sea Bonnie Laufer |September 10 2013 http://www.tribute.ca/tiff/index.php/2013/09/10/ciaran-‐hinds-‐stephen-‐brown-‐interview-‐the-‐ sea/#.UjC4p8brwWs
A seaside cottage is the backdrop for The Sea (based on the novel by John Banville), which follows a man trying to find peace after his wife’s death. Lead actor Ciarán Hinds and director Stephen Brown discuss the film adaptation with Tribute.ca, including the metaphorical meaning behind the film title and their exciting upcoming projects.
Irish actor Ciaran Hinds and director Stephen Brown Ken Tracey and Mark O’Brien| September 9, 2013 http://saturdayirishradio.com/news-‐article.php?Irish-‐actor-‐Ciaran-‐ Hinds-‐and-‐director-‐Stephen-‐Brown-‐28 The lads meet and interview Irish actor Ciaran Hinds and director Stephen Brown at TIFF on their new movie The Sea which was filmed in Wexford. Listen in to the lads as they will play back the interview on the show. Check out The Sea when it comes to theatres a beautifully shot movie about life, love, loss, regret and memories...
The Stephen Holt Show Ciarán Hinds"The Sea" TIFF'13 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_gfKdVywOw
TIFF Review : The Sea (2013) September 11, 2013 http://www.the-‐filmreel.com/2013/09/11/tiff-‐review-‐the-‐sea-‐2013/
Struggling to cope with the loss of his wife, Max (Ciarán Hinds) moves to a seaside cottage, where he had spent a summer as a child. Miss Vavasour (Charlotte Rampling) looks after the cottage now, and watches as Max begins trying to drink his pain away. While trying to deal with his wife’s death, Max also starts to recall some painful memories of his youth, when he had met the Cedars family at the very cottage he’s staying in. John Banville adapts his own novel for the screen, with Stephen Brown directing his first feature, with The Sea . Banville changes a few things up, but nothing that really takes away from the story, while Brown does a fantastic job directing. Just don’t expect a typical story. Instead of a straight narrative, The Sea is more of an exploration of one man dealing with his past, lost loves, and the death of his wife. The film jumps between past and present, showing us how Max tries to deal with the various losses in his life, from a childhood love, to what will probably be his last relationship with his wife. Ciarán Hinds carries the film as Max, the grieving husband, and his performance, coupled with the beauty of the country around him, make this a moving film. There isn’t exactly a conclusion, but there rarely is in life. The Final Call A spectacular lead performance from Hinds, as well as an outstanding supporting role from Sinéad Cusack as Max’s wife Anna, should be enough for many audience members. Just be aware that this is less a story, and more a journey, and you’ll be in for a treat.
TIFF 2013 Review: The Sea (2013) By Ronan Doyle | September 11, 2013 http://nextprojection.com/2013/09/11/tiff-‐2013-‐review-‐sea-‐2013/ Cast: Ciarán Hinds, Charlotte Rampling, Bonnie Wright Director: Stephen Brown Country: Ireland | UK Genre: Drama Official Trailer: Here Editor’s Notes: The following review is part of our coverage of the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. For more information on the festival visit http://tiff.net and follow TIFF on Twitter at @TIFF_NET. One unfamiliar with the elliptical structure of John Banville’s Man Booker-‐winning novel The Sea might fairly assume the ephemeral nature of its film adaptation’s scenes to be but a desperate attempt on the part of director Stephen Brown to hide the turgid literariness of its lines as best he can. Banville, adapting his own work, certainly needn’t worry about adding an Oscar to his mantelpiece: The Sea, in script form, is a dreadful mess, poorly transforming the diarised stream of consciousness form of the book to a third-‐person narrative with little consideration for cinematic ontology. How poor a position Brown finds himself in then, having to pick up the pieces of this bare and bad translation by an author either ignorant of or, worse, ignoring the requirements of screen storytelling.
Banville, adapting his own work, certainly needn’t worry about adding an Oscar to his mantelpiece: The Sea, in script form, is a dreadful mess, poorly transforming the diarised stream of consciousness form of the book to a third-‐person narrative with little consideration for cinematic ontology. Great writing the script for Albert Nobbs was not, but it at least showed a Banville aware of the way in which cinema’s stories ought to— even need to—be told. No, The Sea is less a willing disregard for the necessities of one medium than an inseparable attraction to the possibilities of another: the Irish writer’s novel told a story rooted in distinct, if not direct, personal experience (here shifted to a more anonymous English setting; the consequence, no doubt, of being a UK co-‐production); the film, in all its flaws, betrays an author simply too close to his own material, too entangled
and involved to step back and see from a distance what ought to be lost. It’s an almighty mess, therefore, with which Brown finds himself landed, all the more so considering his relative inexperience. The Sea is his debut feature after two short films, the more recent of which saw release in 1995; it’s not unfair to say this is a director perhaps slightly ill-‐ equipped to steer an unsteady script back toward the realms of cinematic success. Yet despite himself and his lacking material, Brown emerges from the movie relatively unscathed: his compositions, if a little too keenly colour-‐ coded to distinguish between past and present, make nice use of the eponymous backdrop and its neighbouring shores; his use of music smoothly stitches the disparate fabrics that are Banville’s disjointed timelines; his control over his big-‐name cast is consummate.
Hinds and his co-‐stars carry themselves commendably, rugged shoulders and wearied eyes hinting at a humanity rapidly covered up again as soon as lips are parted and a payload of Banville’s unwieldy dialogue slides from a tongue. They—led by Ciarán Hinds as the art historian come to the site of his childhood summers to grapple with the recent loss of his wife to terminal illness as well as the latent traumas of that gradually-‐exposed youth—do as much as Brown to salvage the shipwreck-‐in-‐waiting the film seems set to be. Charlotte Rampling is alluringly mysterious in a role that only gradually reveals its importance; Sinéad Cusack is sublime as the embittered late-‐wife-‐to-‐be in one of the plots three simultaneous strands; Natasha McElhone solely embodies the teenage longing of Hinds’ boyhood counterpart: all three excel in centring their respective stories and evincing the protagonist’s evolving views on women and, through them, on life at large. Yet every stray glance that teasingly suggests some defining life moment is just that: a suggestion; a vagrant nod to an emotional depth never mined in this flaccid adaptation. Hinds and his co-‐stars carry themselves commendably, rugged shoulders and wearied eyes hinting at a humanity rapidly covered up again as soon as lips are parted and a payload of Banville’s unwieldy dialogue slides from a tongue. It’s not for no reason that his novel won him such esteem; if nothing else, The Sea is a terrific trailer for its own source: showcasing a great story, engaging characters, and devastating drama to be found therein, but giving none of it away itself. 43/100 ~ BAD. The Sea is a terrific trailer for its own source: showcasing a great story, engaging characters, and devastating drama to be found therein, but giving none of it away itself.
Ciaran Hinds Slowly Comes Undone In The Sea Trailer Lauren Humphries-‐Brooks | August 15, 2013 http://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/ciaran-‐hinds-‐slowly-‐undone-‐sea-‐trailer/ Here’s what I hate most about festival season: there are so many trailers for films that I will probably have to wait until DVD or VOD to actually see. This is certainly true of The Sea , the latest film starring Ciarán Hinds that will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. Ciarán Hinds stars as art historian Max Morden mourning the recent death of his wife. He takes up residence at the sea-‐side cottage where he spent his summers, alongside housekeeper Miss Vavasour (Charlotte Rampling). Although looking for peace in the aftermath of his wife’s death, it’s quite obvious from the trailer that Max is not going to get it. He begins to recall his childhood, and from the looks of it, things take a dark turn. Hinds has a long track record of playing slightly disturbed men, and this one looks to be no different. The trailer for The Sea does not give us a lot in terms of plot, still the atmosphere is thick. There’s a sensation of dark secrets underlying Max’s childhood days at the seaside that obviously have something to do with Natasha McElhone and Rufus Sewell as Carlo and Connie Grace. What those dark secrets are, and how the whole thing will play out in Max’s contemporary existence, will be seen when the actual film premieres; unless, of course, you’ve read the book and already know. The Sea is based on the critically-‐ acclaimed book of the same title by John Banville, who also has a hand in the screenplay. Newcomer Stephen Brown directs – his only credit, according to Imdb, is a short entitled The Curious. The Sea will premiere at TIFF, which begins September 5th. You can watch the trailer below and check out some stills from the film. Does this seem a like a movie you’d like to see at your local cinema?
Ciarán Hinds Has a Dark Secret In Trailer For TIFF Drama ‘The Sea’ By Jack Cunliffe | August 14, 2013 http://thefilmstage.com/trailer/ciaran-‐hinds-‐has-‐a-‐dark-‐secret-‐in-‐trailer-‐for-‐tiff-‐drama-‐the-‐ sea/ We recently saw the talented Ciarán Hinds (briefly) stir up some dark secrets in The Debt and now a new film will give him a similar task, but in a leading role. Set to premiere at Toronto Film Festival, the first trailer for The Sea has landed today, coming from John Banville‘s novel. Hinds plays a retired art historian, while mourning the recent death of his wife and wrestling with the demons of his past, takes lodging at a seaside cottage under the eye of a watchful housekeeper (played by Charlotte Rampling). While this look hints at a very small-‐scale affair, the source material has been praised enough that we’ll give it a look. Check out the trailer and stills below for the film also starring Natascha McElhone, Rufus Swell, Bonnie Wright and Sinead Cusack.
The Sea premieres at TIFF, which kicks off on September 5th.
TIFF Reviews: 'The Sea' September 14, 2013 http://www.cinemablographer.com/2013/09/tiff-‐review-‐felony-‐when-‐jews-‐were-‐funny-‐sea.html The Sea (Ireland, 86 min.) Dir. Stephen Brown, Writ. John Banville Starring: Ciarán Hinds, Charlotte Rampling, Natascha McElhone, Rufus Sewell, Bonnie Wright, Sinead Cusack Programme: Contemporary World Cinema (North American Premiere)
A good performance by leading man Ciarán Hinds (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) drowns in the suffocating stiffness of Stephen Brown’s The Sea. The Sea, adapted by John Banville from his Man Booker Prize winning novel, is a disappointingly dull and lethargic tale of mourning as Max Morden (Hinds) takes a retreat to the place of his youth following the death of his wife. Max battles old memories that swish back and forth like waves in the sea. The Sea flashes back between various stages in Max’s memory as he recalls days spent with his wife (Sinead Cusack) and days spent chasing a childhood friend and her mother (Natascha McElhone). Any potential for a haunting tale of the presence of the past is drained via the plodding pacing of the film and overall lifelessness of the production. A gloomy score also makes one wish for less visible signs of life in some instances. The Sea is indeed beautiful in some moments as cinematographer John Conroy captures the ominous beauty of the sea with a filter of sumptuous sorrow and as Hinds gives a compelling turn as the man wrestling a range of demons. Charlotte Rampling, on the other hand, is wasted in a role as the innkeeper who puts up with Max’s nonsense as he visits the ghosts of his past.The Sea is ultimately haunted by one final ghost that doesn’t even appear in the film. It’s a line, often dished out undeservedly in film criticism, which advises, “Just read the book.” Rating: ★★ (out of ★★★★★)
TIFF (2013) – The Sea Trailer #1 – Rufus Sewell, Charlotte Rampling Movie HD http://worthadmission.net/movietrailers/tiff-‐2013-‐the-‐sea-‐trailer-‐1-‐rufus-‐sewell-‐charlotte-‐ rampling-‐movie-‐hd/
TIFF 2013 :: Day 4 :: What To See at TIFF Today http://shannonnkelly.com/2013/09/08/tiff-‐2013-‐day-‐4-‐what-‐to-‐see-‐at-‐tiff-‐today/
The Sea dir. Stephen Brown The story of a man who returns to the sea where he spent his childhood summers in search of peace following the death of his wife. Stars Ciarán Hinds, Charlotte Rampling
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