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11 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
An Oddity, 16 June 2000
6/10
Author: mark_r_harris from United States

This very peculiar movie, undoubtedly the most obscure in Roman Polanski's filmography, surfaced from its vault at Facets Multimedia in Chicago for a week's run a number of years ago. I don't believe it had ever been released before, and not too many people saw it in Chicago either. The extremely savvy film buff that I saw A Day at the Beach with hated the movie; but I, perhaps perversely, kind of liked it for its offbeatness and shabby atmosphere. Polanski wrote the screenplay and was originally set to direct this tale of a man wandering through a rundown British seaside resort and encountering odd characters. Although it can't be considered a major or fully successful piece of work, the movie deserves to be available. It continues to nag at my memory in a way that many better films don't. Its "lost" status lends a certain mystique to the film in and of itself, of course; we buffs are always intrigued by the fruit just out of reach.

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6 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
alcoholic dad's day out with his little daughter . . ., 30 November 2005
9/10
Author: gpanderson from Canada

I saw this film at Pacific Cinematheque in Vancouver around 1994/95. The lead character is a pathetic drunk who takes his daughter for a day out. I believe it is set in a Danish seaside town. Certainly northern European of some sort. It is a series of episodes in a search for drinks, and the little girl ends up having to rescue her drunk dad. An allegory of life and the parent/ child relationship, perhaps. Peter Sellers is hilarious as a homosexual stall keeper. The atmosphere is relentlessly bleak, dark, ominous, and finally it rains. Could be depressing if the viewer has a family member similarly afflicted by alcoholism.

Too bad it is not available. Would love to see it again.

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
My brother is the director, not Polanski, 16 December 2008
Author: alain abehsera (arbitre@email.com) from France

I recently had a look at the comments about this film. I am rather amazed that all of them attribute this movie to Roman Polanski. As IMDb writes it, this movie was directed by Simon Hesera, my late brother, and not Roman Polanski. It was his first major feature movie, saluted as a masterpiece by movie critics or other directors (such as Michelangelo Antonioni). Time has gone by, and for some unknown reason, in spite of the fact that Polanski is only mentioned as the one who adapted the story to the screen, the name of the director was skipped and the movie added to Polanski's curriculum. I was 17 years old and remember well the time when this film was made. Polanski, Peter Sellers and my late brother were all good friends and the movie was made "between friends". The story goes that my brother was given, with this sad movie and its tragic subject, a difficult first chance at directing a movie. Had he been given another subject, happier, funnier or more commercial, he would have made a hit and started a popular career as director, no less than Polanski's, who recognized my brother's genius.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
In my opinion a masterpiece, 11 February 2008
9/10
Author: manuel-pestalozzi from Zurich, Switzerland

As someone who usually does not like movies soliciting compassion for alcoholics or drug addicts I was surprised how much I liked A Day at the Beach. The title's promise is fulfilled in the best way possible. A young, intelligent alcoholic takes his little niece to a small seaport for a day. The man is most of the time looking for booze or ingesting it, occasionally rendering verbal outbursts which often sound very lucid. The girl is left to her own devices most of the time but fiercely loyal to her uncle.

From the technical side the movie is virtually faultless. Foreground and background are always in very sharp focus, except for two brief episodes with POV shots of the very drunk main character. The drabness of the place (it is always raining or overcast) is occasionally contrasted by bright, vivid colors. It looks all very controlled and there can be no doubt that a true master is behind this picture. The cast is brilliant down to every secondary character. I found Peter Seller's contribution as a fairy unnecessary and superfluous, though.

I watched the DVD release from Odeon Entertainment. There is an informative booklet about the movie, but Roman Polanski's involvement in the actual shooting is not clear. According to the booklet Polanski left the film while the final editing was in progress. Doesn't this mean that the effectively directed the movie? I would not be surprised if this were the case, in my opinion it very much looks like a Polanski movie. Its stunning how timeless his work is!

A Day at the Beach would never have attracted a mass audience, and from the look of it (and the choice of actors) it probably was never meant to be a blockbuster. But everybody who can stand this difficult and rather depressing subject matter (men preferring drugs to other humans) this is a rewarding and aesthetically satisfying movie. It's great that they made it available on DVD.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Written but not directed by Roman Polanski, 13 September 2008
7/10
Author: TheatreX from Louisville, KY

Bernard is a drunk and an accomplished sponger, who takes a young girl, Winnie, on a trip to the seashore one day in the rain. The girl may be his daughter, with his ex-wife remarried, but she may also be his niece and she does call him "uncle". It's a bit hard to say. At any rate, poor Winnie has leg irons as the result of some handicap, but they don't appear to dampen her enthusiasm for a day at the beach with her uncle.

At any rate, Bernard does not have a squeaky clean reputation & he is barely trusted with his charge, and he's accosted at the train station before they've even left by someone to whom he owes money.

At any rate, he and Winnie do reach the shore, and the weather is terrible, but Winnie is with her uncle and she loves him. And her uncle loves Winnie to, to an extent, but it appears he loves alcohol more, and proceeds to spend the day acquiring and consuming vast quantities, until he's unable to continue and that's kind of where things leave off.

Bernard is a rather pathetic figure, yet his niece apparently adores him and is fiercely loyal to him, despite the fact that he's left her on her own a couple times & she's been left in tears. Bernard does appear to dote on his niece too, but she's obviously not the most important thing to him.

Overall this is somewhat of a depressing film, with lots of rain and a desolate feel to it. The screenplay is by Roman Polanski but this was made around the time his wife, Sharon Tate, was murdered by the Manson family & therefore apparently he had other things to worry about. Still though, if you're a fan of Polanski's films, it's worth seeing, and is sort of an oddity. A very different release for Code Red DVD too, branching out a bit from their usual "schlock horror" flicks (which I still love). The DVD looks great & it worth seeing. 7 out of 10.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
some surprisingly horrific sequences, 4 September 2008
8/10
Author: christopher-underwood from Greenwich - London

Being a great fan of European cinema in the early 60s, I loved Polanski's, Knife in the Water, Repulsion and Cul-de-Sac but was initially very disappointed with the full on colour film, Rosemary's Baby. Having now seen the most impressive A Day At The Beach which should have been released before Rosemary's Baby, I would certainly have been happier back then if the order of release had not been so drastically changed by circumstances. This great little film is much more akin to the director's early b/w features, although this is in colour, and is bleak indeed. Seemingly shot in a single day in the pouring rain on some desolate Danish beach we spend some time with a little girl and her 'uncle' who spends most of the time trying to get another drink. Despicable, though the lead often appears, there is an palpable bond between the two and it is quite startling that when others try to relate to the child, our hero seems peerless. Fascinating, dark and with a brilliant performance from the young girl, this also has some surprisingly horrific sequences (not counting the true horror of Graham Stark as some horrible underling of a gay Peter sellers!). Well worth searching out.

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Well worth watching, 7 January 2008
7/10
Author: nickrogers1969 from Sweden

It's amazing to have finally seen this lost film. Poor Mark Burns died this year without ever having seen the finished film! Why was it lost? It's quite good but I can understand that even if this film had a normal release in cinemas it would not have been a hit. It's too sad and tragic. The performances are great, tho. Mark Burns plays a sensitive soul who loves his daughter but loves his drink a little bit more. Beatie Edney is amazing. One of the best child performances I've seen. It's fantastic to see that she grew up to be an even greater actress as an adult. She was in a chilling part in the TV series Prime Suspect.

It's also nice to see the Danish beach where "A Day" was filmed and also to see the great Bergman actress Eva Dahlbeck in the small role of a café owner.

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Polanski adaptation of a Danish book. Harrowing tale of an alcoholic & his small child out for the day by the beach., 8 June 2006
6/10
Author: twigbum99 from London

This was a dark piece indeed. The original story was a Danish book, I believe. The name of the author escapes me. The other comments are correct. It was a bleak look at alcoholism but hauntingly accurate. I loved the film. Painful to watch yet truthful. The little girl was amazing. Peter Sellars was great & his gay partner, whose name I've forgotten, was another great British comedian. Probably the best piece of trivia is that his wife, Sharon Tate, and others, were murdered in California while Polanski was in England editing the movie at Twickenhan Studios, after shooting insert shots there. Polanski left Twickenham Studios that night when he heard about the murders & never returned to finish the film. Had he done so, I am sure the film would have been released properly & been worthy of standing by his other work. I would love to see this film released on DVD.

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1 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Intriguing air of quirkiness, 29 January 2009
3/10
Author: vanmunchen from United Kingdom

Despite being centred around English characters and attitudes and comprising mainly British actors, this off-beat film is set and filmed in Denmark which gives it an intriguing air of quirkiness. The film maintains interest, even if the main character is too prone to making lengthy theatrical speeches. Ultimately though, the film does not satisfy because whatever message the film is putting across is too obscure.

Technically the film is a bit disappointing. Scenes do not flow well and the dialogue sounds as if it was almost entirely post-dubbed (not surprising because the film was shot mainly on location in pouring rain). Other than interior scenes, the dialogue has an unpleasant "dead" studio sound.

Roman Polanski's script has similarities with the dialogue contained in some of his other off-beat films such as Knife in the Water, Cul-de-sac but the direction, by Simon Hesera, lacks the sort of flair and style which Polanski always brings to his films.

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