Our Saturday night viewing of late has been la dernière vague - the French supernatural mystery drama on BBC4. As it was shown in two episode chunks - starting at 9pm, we tended to record the second and watch it on the Sunday
I kept falling asleep mid-episode, which is frustrating. The biggest mystery for me was the title - which means "The Last Wave" - when actually the main focus was not the waves on the ocean, but the huge barrel shaped cloud which appeared in the sky.
These roll clouds [technical name arcus volutus] really do exist - appearing in Queensland, Australia around October - and they have also been seen in the USA, the English Channel and the Shetland Islands.
The story is basically that this amazing cloud appears over the ocean on the day of a Surfing Event - and eleven surfers are temporarily lost in freak weather conditions.
How the small community [ a resort in southern France on the Atlantic coast] copes with the aftermath is intriguing and surprisingly relevant to the current pandemic situation. Some people suffer greatly, some make great sacrifices, and everyone is affected in some way. Life changes - and will never be quite the same for those who have been through the experience.
You do need to be able to cope with subtitles [unless,like Mags, Barbara, Jean, and other followers of this blog, you are fluent in French] but the acting is good - my favourite was the little boy, Gael Raes, playing Thomas [on the right of the picture at the top] He was brilliant - and can't be more than about 9.
The series has six 45 minute episodes, and is currently available on BBC i-player. There were one or two odd, inexplicable plot holes [yes, plot holes, not pot holes] But on the whole I found it clever and intriguing even though it isn't my usual preferred genre.The filming was excellent [all done around the resort of Contis, St Julien en Born]
An intriguing tale, well told, set in a hot summer, when everything seems strange.
What are you waiting for? I rate it *****
Hello Angela! I was surprised at how much I enjoyed La Dernière Vague considering supernatural and surfing are genres I'm not particularly interested in. I gave it a go as most of the French dramas I've seen on BBC4 have been excellent (Spiral in particular). I found the storyline gripping and the characters likable and wasn't the area in which it was filmed gorgeous? x
ReplyDeleteWe've been watching it too. There are two episodes that we've not watched yet. I'm enjoying it.
ReplyDeleteDo you read the subtitles FD? I know you're another one who has fluent french
DeleteHi Vic. Like you I'm not into surfing or supernatural either - but yes, I really enjoyed Spiral. The location for this one was amazing. What a stunning expanse of sand
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