The sea that thinks (2000)

	Also Known As: De zee di denkt
	Year of first release: 2000
	Director: Gert de Graaff
	Actors: Bart Clever
	Country: NL
	Genre: Documentary, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 17.10.2017, Schwankhalle, Dutch with German subtitle
Synopsis: This is a surprising film about its self. It focuses on Bart (Clever), 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. H is looking for the answer to the urgent question that make him forget wife and child: Who are you? 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.
Review: The first part of this experimental movie, we are questioned about ourselves and about to be. Then it turns to a brain storming on the definition of "I" whether we are real, we are a story, we are an illusion written by ourselves or by anybody else. The ever-longer scenes with the wife who we never see are first anecdotal and then hilarious for the multiple cross-purposes. I loved these questioning and several of the image compositions.  To be in trend, Gert de Graaff put a lot of cat porn at a date when it did not exist yet! And a large part of the movie is just showing objects or post-its with a voice on it. This might be good for a while, but the massive use makes it a bit hard to digest. The massive use of optical illusion effects is excellent especially when in a burst of madness Bart destroys it. The image composition is great, to enhance rather effects and the text than to emotions like in Chinese cinema. The text remains the major attraction and originality of the movie. The effect is between meditative and hilarious. Good idea! If you want to think one day about life and that you are patient, this movie is for you!
Rating: 5 /10