Tags
Language
Tags
March 2024
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
25 26 27 28 29 1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31 1 2 3 4 5 6

The Sea That Thinks (2000) De zee die denkt

Posted By: Someonelse
SD / DVD IMDb
The Sea That Thinks (2000) De zee die denkt

The Sea That Thinks (2000)
DVD9 | VIDEO_TS | PAL 4:3 | Cover | 01:39:06 | 7,75 Gb
Audio: Dutch AC3 5.1/2.0 @ 448/224 Kbps | Subs: English, German
Genre: Art-house, Adventure, Comedy

Director: Gert de Graaff
Stars: Bart Klever, Devika Strooker, Rick de Leeuw

The Sea That Thinks is a surprising film about itself. A film overflowing with twists and turns and new angles. It focuses on Bart, a scriptwriter who is writing the script for this film. In the film, Bart himself plays the scriptwriter writing the script of The Sea That Thinks. He types what he does and does what he types. In his film, he finds the answer to the urgent question: How do we find happiness? He uses stunning examples to show us that our world is only to be found in our consciousness. What is real and what is illusion? Do we believe in our dream world while we dream? Do we believe in the reality of film while we see it? And why? His combination of pictures and text has a hypnotic effect on the viewer. It provides an exciting, dislocating and humorous adventure. Later it also becomes apparent that the film is not about this tormented scriptwriter at all. In a game filled with optical illusions and continually changing points of view, the surprised viewers gradually find out they are looking at themselves: How do I observe? What do I assume to be true? What do I think I see? What do I think I am? The viewer turns out to bear a striking similarity to the Sea that thinks it’s a Tree.
The director himself on IMDb



The Sea That Thinks (2000) De zee die denkt

Consciousness, the individual’s perception of reality, and humans’ place in the universe are among the underlying themes of this philosophical Dutch feature. Bart (Bart Klever) is a screenwriter whose latest project is a script entitled “The Sea That Thinks.” What he writes is what’s happening around him, and in time what he’s writing begins to affect what’s around him, as his screenplay becomes layered with increasing levels of notes and observations about the reality of his life. As reality begins to turn on him, Bart finds himself caught in a variety of strange illusions that lead him to wonder just what is real and what is not. While the film’s reflexive, self-referential nature straddles a fine line between fiction and reality, this didn’t prevent De Zee Die Denkt from winning the VPRO Joris Ivens Award at the 2000 International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam.
Mark Deming on AMG

The Sea That Thinks (2000) De zee die denkt

An artsy unconventional psychological drama about the illusionary world we create that we seem trapped in, where life is compared to a movie that we star in and might be just as unreal as a movie if we can't let go of the "I" we create for ourselves. It's directed with a droll humor and keen sense of playfulness by first-timer Gert de Graaff. It features innovative optical delusional effects, that make an almost impossible subject to film seem possible. De Graaff makes queries about the individual's place in the grand scheme of things, suggesting we don't know our real self because everything we say about ourselves is only a thought.

The Sea That Thinks (2000) De zee die denkt

The cerebral thinking man's documentary won the Joris Ivens Award IDFA, in the Nederland. It has young writer, Bart Klever, busy writing a screenplay for this film. The Sea That Thinks for the most part turns into a movie about a solitary man writing at home a screenplay about a man writing a screenplay and flipping out when strange thoughts fill his head. While writing and caring for an infant and his cats, the unhappy divorced writer is trying to get his shit together while distracted by his thoughts, surroundings, an unwelcome intrusion from the real world. The writer uses this working opportunity to reflect on his life, on his unhappiness, on the creative process, on raising his consciousness and on all his suffering that's born of desire. The oddball film is oddly attractive fare. It tries to get at what is real and what is fiction by exploring how the writer's immediate environment affects his consciousness.

The Sea That Thinks (2000) De zee die denkt

It relates positively to the Buddhist way of observing, of seeing the thing itself. A way of seeing practiced through meditation, that has led to great Zen poetry and great insights into life.

The Sea That Thinks (2000) De zee die denkt

This unusual film, a little bit like Being John Malkovich but stronger in its convictions as to what grit it takes to be a writer, was produced for Dutch Television. It never got a theater or DVD release in America. Distributors might have feared it was too heady for an American audience.
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"

The Sea That Thinks (2000) De zee die denkt

The equivalent of staring at Escher drawings while contemplating existential philosophy for 100 minutes, this endlessly inventive movie is fiercely self-referential. Incredible, live, 3d optical illusions and uniquely inventive special effects punctuate a meditation on what we are and what is the mind's I, serving as mental provocations in the best tradition of Dada art. The movie shows a character who is writing the movie, and the movie dictates the character and his actions. Real life seeps into the movie but becomes part of the movie, etc. But this is just the tip of the iceberg, as every other minute there is another self-referential game, wonderfully imaginative twists, and jaw-dropping illusions, all coming together as a mental gymnasium while the character reaches an existential crisis and nearly goes insane. The movie has superb momentum and timing, knowing when to pile on the mind-warping tricks, and when to stop for Tarkovsky-esque meditation. This is the movie Being John Malkovich wished it were. Ultimately rewatchable.

The Sea That Thinks (2000) De zee die denkt

Special Features:
- Commentary track by the maker (talking to Hans Beerekamp, in English)
- 'The making of' (56 minutes)
- Things do go wrong … (bloopers)
- Cutting room cut-outs (a short film about scenes not used, but why?)
- What's the time? (a film about optical illusions)
- 'always the first time', for the last time sung by Rick de Leeuw and his Tröckener Kecks
- Thoughts by the sea (the fairytale of the sea that thinks it's a tree)
- Who am I? (filmography & biography of the director)
- Photo gallery
- A short film about (my way of looking for) the right angle
- 'The rotating mask' screensaver (optical illusion)

All Credits goes to Original uploader.