all at sea
by tolyra | created - 21 Jun 2013 | updated - 04 Oct 2016 | PublicFilms set by the seaside, in a seaport or village. And films that intimate at sea––at nuanced melancholy or quiet vastness.
The preference is towards films set by the British or Irish seaside (concentrated at the top of the list) with transient populations, chill skies and fishing villages.
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1. Local Hero (1983)
PG | 111 min | Comedy, Drama
An American oil company has plans for a new refinery and sends someone to Scotland to buy up an entire village, but things don't go as expected.
Director: Bill Forsyth | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Peter Riegert, Fulton Mackay, Denis Lawson
Votes: 26,714 | Gross: $5.90M
2. The Winter Guest (1997)
R | 108 min | Drama
A recent widow, who is determined to leave Scotland for Australia with her son, gets an unexpected visit from her aging mother.
Director: Alan Rickman | Stars: Phyllida Law, Emma Thompson, Sheila Reid, Sandra Voe
Votes: 3,748 | Gross: $0.78M
3. Dear Frankie (2004)
PG-13 | 105 min | Drama, Romance
After having responded to her son's numerous letters in the guise of his father, a woman hires a stranger to pose as his dad when meeting him.
Director: Shona Auerbach | Stars: Emily Mortimer, Jack McElhone, Gerard Butler, Mary Riggans
Votes: 22,480 | Gross: $1.34M
4. Breaking the Waves (1996)
R | 159 min | Drama
Oilman Jan is paralyzed in an accident. His wife, who prayed for his return, feels guilty; even more, when Jan urges her to have sex with another.
Director: Lars von Trier | Stars: Emily Watson, Stellan Skarsgård, Katrin Cartlidge, Jean-Marc Barr
Votes: 71,594 | Gross: $4.04M
5. Wish You Were Here (1987)
R | 88 min | Comedy, Drama
In a staid English seaside town after the Second World War, young Lynda grows up with her widowed father and younger sister. She eventually becomes pregnant by an acquaintance of her father.
Director: David Leland | Stars: Emily Lloyd, Trudi Cavanagh, Clare Clifford, Barbara Durkin
Votes: 3,340 | Gross: $3.28M
6. The Secret of Roan Inish (1994)
PG | 103 min | Drama, Family, Fantasy
Young Fiona lives with her grandparents in a small fishing village where she takes an active role to unravel the mysterious secrets.
Director: John Sayles | Stars: Jeni Courtney, Eileen Colgan, Mick Lally, Pat Slowey
Votes: 9,875 | Gross: $6.10M
7. Calvary (2014)
R | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
After he is threatened during a confession, a good-natured priest must battle the dark forces closing in around him.
Director: John Michael McDonagh | Stars: Brendan Gleeson, Chris O'Dowd, Kelly Reilly, Aidan Gillen
Votes: 64,365 | Gross: $3.59M
8. Ondine (2009)
PG-13 | 111 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
An Irish fisherman discovers a woman in his fishing net whom his precocious daughter believes to be a selkie.
Director: Neil Jordan | Stars: Colin Farrell, Alicja Bachleda, Dervla Kirwan, Alison Barry
Votes: 22,646 | Gross: $0.55M
9. Gallivant (1996)
100 min | Documentary
When British filmmaker Andrew Kotting decided to tour the perimeter of Great Britain with his grandmother Gladys and his daughter Eden, he brought a film crew along. The result is this often humorous and picturesque documentary.
Director: Andrew Kotting | Stars: Andrew Kotting, Eden Kotting, Benji Ming, Gladys Morris
Votes: 270
10. Doc Martin (2004–2022)
TV-14 | 46 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The trials and tribulations of Martin Ellingham, a brilliant but socially challenged doctor who moves from London to the picturesque village of Port Wenn in Cornwall.
Stars: Martin Clunes, Caroline Catz, Ian McNeice, Joe Absolom
Votes: 20,246
11. In the Bedroom (2001)
R | 131 min | Crime, Drama
A New England couple's college-aged son dates an older woman who has two small children and an unwelcome ex-husband.
Director: Todd Field | Stars: Tom Wilkinson, Sissy Spacek, Nick Stahl, Marisa Tomei
Votes: 42,440 | Gross: $35.93M
12. The Shipping News (2001)
R | 111 min | Drama
An emotionally beaten man with his young daughter moves to his ancestral home in Newfoundland to reclaim his life.
Director: Lasse Hallström | Stars: Kevin Spacey, Julianne Moore, Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett
Votes: 33,924 | Gross: $11.43M
13. Snow Falling on Cedars (1999)
PG-13 | 127 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A Japanese-American fisherman is accused of killing his neighbor at sea. In the 1950s, race figures into the trial. So does reporter Ishmael.
Director: Scott Hicks | Stars: Ethan Hawke, Max von Sydow, Yûki Kudô, Reeve Carney
Votes: 14,568 | Gross: $14.38M
14. Dolores Claiborne (1995)
R | 132 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A big city reporter travels to a small town where her mother has been arrested for the murder of an elderly woman for whom she worked as a housekeeper.
Director: Taylor Hackford | Stars: Kathy Bates, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Christopher Plummer, Judy Parfitt
Votes: 48,422 | Gross: $24.36M
15. Summer with Monika (1953)
R | 96 min | Drama, Romance
A pair of teenagers meet one summer day, start a reckless affair and abandon their families to be with one another.
Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Harriet Andersson, Lars Ekborg, Dagmar Ebbesen, Åke Fridell
Votes: 16,187
16. Storm Boy (1976)
Not Rated | 88 min | Drama, Family
Mike is a lonely Australian boy living in a coastal wilderness with his reclusive father. In search of friendship he encounters an Aboriginal native loner and the two form a bond in the care of orphaned pelicans.
Directors: Henri Safran, Ian Goddard | Stars: Greg Rowe, Peter Cummins, David Gulpilil, Judy Dick
Votes: 1,519
17. Widow of St. Pierre (2000)
R | 112 min | Drama, History, Romance
In a small French colony, a drunken man kills someone. While a guillotine is being shipped in, he changes, becoming a good and popular man.
Director: Patrice Leconte | Stars: Juliette Binoche, Daniel Auteuil, Emir Kusturica, Michel Duchaussoy
Votes: 5,732 | Gross: $3.06M
18. Seducing Doctor Lewis (2003)
Unrated | 108 min | Comedy, Drama
A much-needed boost, in the form of a new factory, is promised to the residents of the tiny fishing village St. Marie-La-Mauderne, provided they can lure a doctor to take up full-time residency on the island. Inspired, the villagers devise a scheme to make Dr. Christopher Lewis a local.
Director: Jean-François Pouliot | Stars: David Boutin, Lucie Laurier, Raymond Bouchard, Dominik Dagenais
Votes: 5,478 | Gross: $0.49M
19. Limbo (I) (1999)
R | 126 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
In an economically devastated Alaskan town, a fisherman with a troublesome past dates a woman whose young daughter does not approve of him. When he witnesses the murder of his shady brother, he, the woman and the kid run to the wilderness.
Director: John Sayles | Stars: David Strathairn, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Vanessa Martinez, Michael Laskin
Votes: 6,392 | Gross: $2.00M
20. Welcome (I) (2009)
Not Rated | 110 min | Drama
Bilal sets off on an adventure-filled journey across Europe and wants to get to England to see his love who lives there.
Director: Philippe Lioret | Stars: Vincent Lindon, Firat Ayverdi, Audrey Dana, Derya Ayverdi
Votes: 7,620 | Gross: $0.01M
21. The Light Between Oceans (2016)
PG-13 | 133 min | Drama, Romance
A lighthouse keeper and his wife living off the coast of Western Australia raise a baby they rescue from a drifting rowing boat.
Director: Derek Cianfrance | Stars: Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Rachel Weisz, Florence Clery
Votes: 60,111 | Gross: $12.55M
22. A Very Long Engagement (2004)
R | 133 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
Tells the story of a young woman's relentless search for her fiancé, who has disappeared from the trenches of the Somme during World War One.
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet | Stars: Audrey Tautou, Gaspard Ulliel, Jodie Foster, Dominique Pinon
Votes: 75,963 | Gross: $6.17M
23. The Piano (1993)
R | 121 min | Drama, Music, Romance
In the mid-19th century a mute woman is sent to New Zealand along with her young daughter and prized piano for an arranged marriage to a farmer, but is soon lusted after by a farm worker.
Director: Jane Campion | Stars: Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, Anna Paquin
Votes: 95,210 | Gross: $40.16M
24. The Vessel (2016)
PG-13 | 86 min | Drama
Ten years after a tsunami destroyed a small-town elementary school with all the children inside, a young man builds a mysterious structure out of the school's remains, setting the town aflame with passions long forgotten.
Director: Julio Quintana | Stars: Lucas Quintana, Martin Sheen, Jacqueline Duprey, Aris Mejias
Votes: 1,193
25. Manchester by the Sea (2016)
R | 137 min | Drama
A depressed uncle is asked to take care of his teenage nephew after the boy's father dies.
Director: Kenneth Lonergan | Stars: Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, Kyle Chandler, Lucas Hedges
Votes: 314,005 | Gross: $47.70M
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