When the Sea Rises

France

Unusual, ultimately charming story about an itinerant entertainer, plying the small towns of northern France, who picks up an admirer who follows her from show to show and eventually becomes her lover. She is middle-aged, well past her prime, with a stable family somewhere...he is an overgrown child with some apparent issues.

This works because of the skill and appeal of the lead...Yolande Moreau. It also intrigues because of the folkways on display...from parades with papier-mache giants to her bizarre act which to my eyes was incomprehensible. She wore a half-mask and broadly enacted a post-crime scenario that had audiences laughing and me bewildered.

But the scenery was lovely and the lovers' dynamic worked so the time was well spent.

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