Sous La Seine (Netflix, 2024)

Bonus: Jaws (1975), and the influence of Hitchcock on Spielberg

Sous La Seine (a.k.a. Under Paris) is a pretty decent (and at times pretty exciting) shark movie from France.

Released in the run-up to the Olympic Games, the movie by Xavier Gens (Mayhem!) tries to frighten us with the idea of a large shark running (or rather: swimming) amok in the waters of Paris. 

It’s the kind of high concept pitch that could (and should) make for an amusing horror movie, and it mostly succeeds, even though at times it falters, due to some clumsy attempts at comedy, which tend to take something away from the horror aspects of the movie.

Sous La Seine begins three years ago, when an ocean expedition, led by marine scientist Sophia (Bérénice Bejo) goes horribly wrong.

The story then moves to the present time, where Paris is hosting the World Triathlon Championships on the Seine. 

When young environmental activist Mika (Léa Léviant) informs Sophia that a large shark is swimming in the river, Sophia joins forces with Adil (Nassim Lyes), the Seine police commander, in an attempt to prevent a possible bloodbath.

It’s a fine set-up for a quick snack, sorry, shark movie, and it has a proper ecological message to go along with it. Even though at times it gets lost in the labyrinthine system under Paris.

Characters are mostly painted in broad strokes, and only Sophia’s has any real depth, because of her tragic back story. But the actors are game, Gens directs with a lot of flair, there’s some terrific underwater photography, and in the second half things go deliriously over the top.

Under Paris is no Jaws, it’s more in the vein of Deep Blue Sea by Renny Harlin or the more recent Meg-movies, but all together it’s a pretty fun watch.

Bonus article:

Jaws (1975), and the influence of Hitchcock on Spielberg:

With the perennial popularity of shark movies, I thought it might be fun to look at one of Steven Spielbergs undisputed masterpieces: Jaws, and how it was influenced by Alfred Hitchcock.