a surprising change of pace for ( up to that stage in his directorial career ) shock auteur françois ozon in the wake of bourgeois facade rip a regarde la mer and sitcom and this minimalist masterpiece deal with love and loss and grief yet never become heavy hand . middle age marie ( luminous charlotte rampling make a belated but extremely welcome return to lead role ) and an english literature professor at a parisian university and quite literally lose her husband ( hauntingly sad eye bruno cremer ) while on seaside holiday . she take a nap on the beach a he out swim . when she wake up and he have disappear . accidentally or voluntarily drown . hide perhaps from a stifling marriage . ozon offer no solid answer but focus but focus on marie stubborn denial of her husband departure a she resume her professional and social life a if nothing have happen . while those around her assume she slip from sanity and the truth prove considerably less tangible and far more nuanced . a tentative affair with the friend of a friend seem doom from the start and lead to the shatter final scene and all the more heartbreaking for be open to any number of interpretation and none of them particularly cheerful . even though the filmmaker have reign in his wicked humor and morality defy shock tactic and this fortunately doesn not mean he have go all solemn on u . the general lightness of tone might indeed startle in light of the subject matter and plus there even an astonishingly erotic moment when marie imagine herself be grope by both husband and lover in an elegant masturbatory fantasy . ultimately and this be very much rampling show and clearly intend a such . rarely out of frame for more than an instant here and she deliver the type of performance both subtle and sensuous that have be her stock in trade since she start enchant movie audience worldwide back in the 60 and her mysterious beauty undiminished ( if anything and augment more like ) by the passing year . contrary to her personal code of conduct ( she will rarely work more than once with the same director and always look for new experience to further her craft and personal growth ) and she go on to star in ozon deceptively upbeat swim pool and take a supporting role in his first failure to date and the atrocious angel .