The defence The Auteur Devotee
“Its refusal to behave is the point.”
The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.
Back to trending 
Under the Sand
Drama · Mystery · 2001
When her husband goes missing at the beach, a female professor begins to mentally disintegrate as her denial of his disappearance becomes delusional.
Movie details
Under the Sand
“Can love vanish without a trace?”
2001 Drama · Mystery 1h 36m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
6.6 / 10
Community rating
When her husband goes missing at the beach, a female professor begins to mentally disintegrate as her denial of his disappearance becomes delusional.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Under the Sand?
For the defence
The Auteur Devotee
“You watch the director, not the movie.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Popcorn Loyalist
“Big screen, big feelings, no apologies.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
Mothers' Instinct
Drama · 2019
When a sudden tragedy uproots the lives of two women and their families, they begin to question the relationships they once held so dear.
Agatha and the Midnight Murders
Mystery · 2020
As bombs fall on London, writer Agatha Christie decides it is time to kill off her most famous creation.
Three Colors: Blue
Drama · 1993
The wife of a famous composer survives a car accident that kills her husband and daughter. Now alone, she shakes off her old identity and explores her newfound freedom but finds that she is unbreakably bound to other humans, including her husband’s mistress, whose existence she never suspected.
Inseparable
Drama · 2012
A troubled engineer faces pressure at work and problems at home with his moody wife. American expat Chuck, rescues him from the brink of despair and becomes an unlikely mentor.
Birth
Drama · 2004
It took Anna 10 years to recover from the death of her husband, Sean, but now she's on the verge of marrying her boyfriend, Joseph, and finally moving on. However, on the night of her engagement party, a young boy named Sean turns up, saying he is her dead husband reincarnated. At first she ignores the child, but his knowledge of her former husband's life is uncanny, leading her to believe that he might be telling the truth.
Torment
Drama · 1994
Working extremely hard to keep his hotel afloat, Paul begins hearing voices in his head. Convinced that his wife has been unfaithful, he begins to see every male guest as a potential threat. What follows is Paul's downward spiral into the madness of deranged jealousy where he finally discovers that hell is not a state of mind – hell is himself.
Remember
Drama · 2015
With the aid of a fellow Auschwitz survivor and a hand-written letter, an elderly man with dementia goes in search of the person responsible for the death of his family.
This Man Must Die
Thriller · 1969
When his young son is killed in a hit and run accident, Charles Thenier resolves to hunt down and murder the killer. By chance, Thenier makes the acquaintance of an actress, Helène Lanson, who was in the car at the time of the accident. He then meets Helène’s brother-in-law, Paul Decourt, a truly horrible individual.
Premonition
Thriller · 2007
A depressed housewife who learns her husband was killed in a car accident the day previously awakens the next morning to find him alive and well at home, and then awakens the day after to a world in which he is still dead.
Hereafter
Drama · 2010
Three people — a blue-collar American, a French journalist and a London school boy — are touched by death in different ways.
Where it lives
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
François Ozon
Written by
Emmanuèle Bernheim · Marina de Van · François Ozon · Marcia Romano
Charlotte Rampling
Marie Drillon
Bruno Cremer
Jean Drillon
Jacques Nolot
Vincent
Alexandra Stewart
Amanda
Pierre Vernier
Gérard
Andrée Tainsy
Suzanne
Maya Gaugler
German Woman
Court is in session
Put Under the Sand on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist
“Oddness is not depth.”
A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.