The Sea That Thinks

Colour, 35mm
Netherlands, 2000, 100 min
Section: Another View

Synopsis

This stylistically sophisticated visual game presents ‘a story within a story.’ The protagonist is scriptwriter Bart Klever who fights persistently with his new text – which is, at the same time, the screenplay of the film we’re watching. In this movie Bart plays a screenwriter writing the script of the film. . . . Bart’s struggle with the text becomes a narrative theme, as does the environment of the flat where he works and takes care of his little girl. The intimate environment offers ample opportunity for games of illusion involving space, light, colours and a couple of cats. The outwardly simple world of the room is further complicated by the unstable dimensions of a text continually influenced by the filmmaker’s interventions, which appears on a computer monitor and serves as a counterpoint to the similarly mutable environment. The constantly changing viewing angle complicates answers to questions which arise: What is ‘truth’ and what ‘illusion’? Which of the observed worlds is primary and superior to the rest? Can anything serve as a basic orientation point in the narrative space?

About the director

Gert de Graaf (b. 1957, Amsterdam) graduated in aeronautical engineering in 1981, and in direction, camera and editing from the Dutch Film & Television Academy in 1987. He worked as an editor for NOB radio in Hilversum, where he now teaches editing and lectures in film history at the Media Academy. He has also worked as editor and cameraman on a number of documentaries. Filmography: He Who Finds Something, Hasn’t Sought Right (Wie wat find Heeft slecht gezocht, 1984) and his graduation film Two (Twee, 1986) which was awarded the Sony Educational Prize and the Tuschinsky Journalist Prize. The Sea That Thinks (De zee die denkt, 2000) is his feature debut as a director, but he also served as the movie’s screenwriter, cinematographer and co-editor. The film won the Joris Ivens Award at the Amsterdam IDFA and was screened in the Panorama section at the 2001 Berlin IFF.