The Odyssey

Lambert Wilson is the innovative underwater explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau in this rather unremarkable depiction of his life and career. He is married to Simone (Audrey Tautou) but has a bit of a wandering eye so they become maritally estranged, even though they continue to live and workout on their converted WWII minesweeper "Calypso". Needless to say, this puts some strain on the rest of the family, not least upon his relationship with his publicity magnet, heart-throb, eldest Philippe (Pierre Niney). The latter man's character is used as a barometer a little here to measure the actions of his father. The exploration activities must face stark realities. Money is needed to buy the 1½ tons of fuel the ship needs each trip, and that's before wages and other costs associated with their more scientific endeavours have to be paid. This leads to Cousteau becoming more of a businessman with almost corporate responsibilities. It's those activities that see a split between father and son that lasts until a trip to the Antarctic that sees a well documented tragedy hit the family. For the most part this is a soap opera of a film with nowhere near enough focus on what made the man famous in the first place. There is some underwater photography to liven things up, and a sequence with an expanding group of sharks that's quite menacingly filmed, but there's not really enough of that to compensate for the listless melodrama that's played out. The camera does love Niney and Tautou, and Wilson is competent enough in what is essentially a light-weight and slightly adulatory tale of a man who was clearly much more interesting, flawed and charismatic than we see here.

I have had a song stuck in my head for a week. I turned this movie on for the first time today. This films' theme song was the same as the song stuck in my head for a week. We loved watching Jaque Cousteau on T. V. when we were children. We also lived on the waterfront, and played on the beach all the time, so it all worked together to create interest in our oceans. Mr. Cousteau's idea about people living under the sea with breathing devices is ahead of his time. Just like other explorers, like the Wright brothers and their flying machine, it's a very extreme idea. Extreme ideas tend to frighten people. I don't think most people are going to pay money to live underwater with a breathing device installed in their body. It's just way too extreme. It does not sound like something the bankers are going to back with lots of cash. Perhaps some day this idea will take hold. However, I really appreciate the director including this information in the film. Mr. Cousteau had so much faith in the unlimited potential of the human race. That is inspiring and heartwarming. It seems more practical to build Seattle Aquarium style housing that have air pumped in through an HVAC. I think people would pay money to live in that. Or, perhaps we could build giant house-boat style apartments to make use of the space on top of the water. I really appreciate Cousteau's enthusiasm for turning the oceans into people-friendly places. The oceans are a vast resource. We aren't making good use of most of it. The main problem is that we keep killing the animals, the fish and each other. We are faithless. We have lost hope in the future. This planet has the potential to last for eternity, but it is up to us to farm it, care for the animals instead of killing them, and to keep up our faith in eternal life. I think salt-water water parks would work to create income from the sea. Lots of people are afraid of the water. They don't understand the oceans. I think if Cousteau could convince governments to build easy-access water parks, and he gave lectures to inform the public, that would make money. The parks would have to be easy to get to, relatively in-expensive, and he should hold short duration lectures. Otherwise, people will loose interest. The lectures need to dispell myths about the ocean. If he held lectures to teach people how to be safe in and around the water, that would help create trust.

If like me you were just periphically aware of Jaques Cousteau, this movie will you an insight. To the man, to the dreams and to his accomplishments, against all odds and all that. I mean some of the dialog (which may or may not be exaggerated) with film producers is just (comedy) gold. But you can see why they only had profit in their mind and he was out there for a different purpose. Now he was able to move his goals/dreams or make them bigger, by thinking outisde the box (no pun intended). The movie is in french but there are quite a few scenes that are also in english. The main thing is, we get an insight into how he became who many got to know or read upon later on. Also an "influencer" as some might call him nowadays. An inspiring movie, that tells us to reach for the stars or the bottom of the sea - whichever is closer to your heart!

So if you dont like that genre, just skip it. but if you like to dive in the ocean and enjoy the silence beneath the sea surface, accompanied with a great and soothing score, a very good story will give you a relentless pleasure and a moment of cinematic glory you wont forget so easy. the kåstå films where part of my childhood, and i know several friends that have become divers because of the inspiration by those films. i tried too ,when in the service, but i was a weak runner and couldnt pass the test, even though i was the fastest swimmer on the trials. so this is history, my friends, the story about one of them that didnt get the divers bends, and embraced the ocean without any frontiers. its a good production, nice actors, and underwater images, it could have a better timelineinfo, but all in all its a gripping story after all, and that makes a grumpy old man pretty stunned, therefore a recommend