As far as film plots go, this one's certainly on the simple side. One character, minimal dialogue and one set - in the middle of the deep, blue sea.
All Is Lost is 106 minutes of Robert Redford, struggling to survive when his boat floods after colliding with a shipping container and his equipment breaks down.
Despite its simplicity, filming was a challenge. As a hellish storm hits, Redford, 77, whose rugged good looks and thick hair are still intact, spends a large chunk of screen time being thrashed around and thrown into the choppy waters - and it really was him, as he did a lot of his own stunts.
The director, J. C. Chandor, who also wrote the film, used three huge water tanks as well as wave and wind machines and a giant hose to create the scenes.
Redford, who has five grandchildren, is proud of their efforts.
"If you go to the movies, most of them are full of special effects - this was more pure," says the star, who started acting professionally in the 1950s.
Being "wet all the time, all day long did wear me out", he confesses, but thankfully he's a confident swimmer.
"I grew up in Los Angeles close to the water, so I surfed and swam," he says. He spent time on sailing boats, too.
"But I was never in the deep sea alone," notes Redford, who is also a keen environmentalist and now lives in Utah with his second wife, German artist Sibylle Szaggars.
Special effects aren't the only thing kept to a minimum - there's not much dialogue either, and very little is known about the film's only character, not even his name.
But for the Redford, this was all part of the appeal.
"I saw it as an opportunity to do something I was longing to do - to have a complete experience as an actor and not think about anything else," he says.
He's one of Hollywood's most familiar names and Redford's enjoyed steady success - with notable roles including 1969's Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid and 1973's The Sting, which became one of the 20 highest-grossing movies of all time and saw the actor nominated for an Oscar - but he's always slightly veered away from the mainstream (he set up Sundance Film Festival celebrating independent film in 1978).
"I enjoyed the fact that it [All Is Lost] didn't have much information or dialogue, because it created a challenge for me to be more fully inside the character," he says.
"It also lets the audience have their own interpretation, instead of telling them how they are supposed to feel."
He didn't create a backstory - family, job, the reason he is at sea - for the sailor, either.
"I didn't imagine anything more than what was there," says Redford, who made his directorial debut in 1980 with Ordinary People, and has directed various other things since, including the highly-acclaimed A River Runs Through It.
The only clue the audience is given about this man's life comes from a letter read at the start of the film, to who we assume is his family.
"At the beginning of the movie, when my character says he is sorry and that he tried, it allows us to imagine that there's a family involved and that he isn't a horrible person, but also that he failed at something," Redford explains.
"So maybe this journey that he's on is his way to complete himself, and find out if he can do something. That's all I had, and it was enough for me."
With little by way of distraction, the enormity of the psychological challenge and frustration of the situation is heightened to the max - and Redford says he especially enjoyed the quiet moments, when his character's just pottering about in the boat.
"In those moments of peace, he would just look out and contemplate what's there," he says.
"He could see a vast expanse of nothing but space. And then underneath him on that small boat, just miles and miles of deep water. I can't imagine how you can feel more alone than that."
A lonely man pushed to the limit - it isn't too dissimilar to 1972's Jeremiah Johnson, in which Redford played the titular role, a jaded veteran hoping to become a mountain man.
"Yes, they're both about characters who encounter such hardship that is seems like it's all impossible, and can't go any further. He is alone, either in water or on land, and one obstacle after another just keeps coming, each one greater than the last one," he notes.
If audience reactions are anything to go by, movie-goers are just as intrigued by the lonely man's struggle as Redford is - All Is Lost was a huge hit at Cannes. The actor admits that this came as a bit of a surprise.
"I thought, 'Wow!'. I mean, people could have booed it because it was so open," he says. "But they didn't."
* All Is Lost opens in Australian cinemas on March 6.
