"Under the Sand" is a slow but gripping psychological drama about a woman struggling to cope with the most shocking and unexpected loneliness imaginable.

Marie (Charlotte Rampling) and Jean (Bruno Cremer) have been happily married for 25 years. During a break by the sea, Marie dozes off on the beach while Jean goes for a swim. When she wakes up, he is nowhere in sight. Marie calls the police, who mount a full-scale search, but in vain. Marie has no choice but to return to Paris alone.

Did he drown? Was it suicide? Or was it his way of leaving her? Unable to answer these questions, Marie's life descends into confusion as she retreats into her own world.

Instinctively, she still makes breakfast for two each morning and buys Jean presents. It's as if she's trying to convince herself that nothing has changed. She even still sees him around their apartment - has he returned or is it her imagination? This makes it all the more difficult for her to move on when her friends try to set her up with an eligible bachelor. How can she date another man when she's still married and in love?

François Ozon's sensitive and imaginative handling of the story is matched by Charlotte Rampling's deeply melancholic and vulnerable performance. In the tradition of much of French cinema, "Under the Sand" is more a piece of art than a piece of entertainment.