"It is true that the unidentified people being filmed are not there simply for the actions they are performing, but the time that the scene is taking to be completed is also beyond any normal definition. The colors vary, and we are plunged many years back in time, no doubt because the shot is suddenly reminding us of Van Gogh or Gauguin and the color-tones they used. We are not at the side of any identifiable lake, we are swept up in a different sort of space-time context by the light, the movement and the colors that the place evoked in Patrick Bokanowski's mind. The shore we are on is the quintessence of lakehood, and, as happens in his previous film, THE BEACH, it's as if the proximity of water metamorphosed everything around, fluidizing all of the matter into endless spirals before our delighted eyes."
- Jacques Kermabon from BREF magazine, March 1994