Black Ocean

An incredible disappointment from Sounds of Sand filmmaker Marion Hänsel, Black Ocean details the exploits of several young men stationed on a circa 1970s French battleship. There’s little doubt that Black Ocean fares best in its opening half hour, as Hänsel does a superb job of capturing the day-to-day minutia of these guys’ lives – with the inherently fascinating nature of their uneventful exploits proving effective at initially capturing the viewer’s interest. It’s only as the film progresses that it becomes an increasingly interminable experience, as Hänsel’s low-key modus operandi inevitably lends the proceedings a palpable vibe of pointlessness that grows more and more problematic as time slowly marches on. Exacerbating matters is an unusual emphasis on elements of a remarkably mean-spirited nature, with the director’s sadistic streak reflected in several key moments throughout the proceedings – including a jaw-droppingly unpleasant sequence in which one of the central characters angrily handles a seriously adorable dog. Even if one were willing to overlook Hänsel’s use of shock tactics, Black Ocean suffers from a pervasively aimless final half hour that’s nothing short of unwatchable – as the filmmaker stresses the tedious exploits of three soldiers on shore leave (ie the guys hang out and have fun and chat, but that’s about the extent of it). It’s an agonizingly drawn-out stretch that’s capped off with as random and abrupt a conclusion as one could envision, and it’s finally impossible to label Black Ocean as anything more than a self-indulgent and utterly needless piece of work.

* out of ****