Javier Bardem delivers "an Oscar-worthy performance" in Spanish drama The Sea Inside. After flirting with Hollywood in The Others, director Alejandro Amenábar told this homegrown story of a paraplegic who fights for his right to die. While Bardem was overlooked for a nomination come Oscar time, Amenábar did walk away with the gong for Best Foreign Picture.

Diving In

A Trip To The Sea Inside is a compelling feature-length documentary (85mins) following Amenábar's journey to getting the film made. From the little office where he taps out the script (with co-writer Mateo Gil), to the process of casting, rehearsals, scouting locations, shooting the film and scoring it, this is an all-encompassing investigation. As well as the technical aspects, there's a lot of talk about the responsibility that fell to the filmmakers in telling the story of real-life Galician activist Ramón Sampedro. Bardem shares his actorly angst when he talks about capturing "the essence of Ramón" and sums up his objective as, " I hope to return to Galicia without getting stoned..."

Along the way Amenábar also gives honest insight into the Hollywood machine as it compares to working in Europe. He remarks that Hollywood "can sometimes be blinding and stop you from seeing your own reality that's right in front of your nose". Even so, he says that The Others, along with The Sea Inside and Open Your Eyes, form a personal trilogy "about death" and the question of whether there's anything beyond it. To complete his vision, Amenábar sets about writing the score. When asked why he doesn't leave this job to someone else, he says simply, "I knew my way around a keyboard so I thought I'd try it."

Going With The Flow

The director's commentary is just as engrossing with Amenábar breaking down his approach of 'heightened naturalism' scene-by-scene. He achieves this mainly by combining improvisation with expressionistic cinematography. As he puts it, "We wanted the film to ring true," adding, "I insisted on a film whose mise en scène - music and sound - were fairly sophisticated, but where the acting was transparent." Elsewhere a selection of design and storyboard galleries closely reflect the final cut to hint at Amenábar's care and precision.

Three deleted scenes mostly flesh out the relationship between Julia (Belén Rueda) and Germán (Alberto Jiménez). They include a very emotionally charged sequence where Germán tries to talk Julia out of suicide by painting a vision of their future. Far from being maudlin, this is a sensitive package of extras that, as its title suggests, is marked by unusual depth.

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