Maine Ocean

Beginning with a ticket mix-up and concluding with one of the most unusual scenes in cinematic history, Maine Ocean is a comic odyssey that puts director Jacques Rozier’s unique imaginative skills on full display.

The film charts the meandering course – by train, plane and automobile – of a handful of workers, travellers and hangers-on, as they gradually assemble on the west coast of France. There, their frequent misadventures and misunderstandings gradually transform into a newfound camaraderie.

Hampered by language barriers, pushed and pulled by the pressures of work and the lure of a different kind of life, the motley crew finds new modes of expression as the prospect of fame is dangled in front of train conductor Le Garrec (Bernard Ménez). Rozier’s patient chronicling of these madcap and joyous episodes is a fine example of cinema’s power to both entrance and delight.