The Big Blue
Categories: Film stubs | Free-diving | 1988 films | French films
1988's The Big Blue (French: Le Grand Bleu) was the first film made in English by French director Luc Besson (there was also a French dub recorded by the same actors in the film). Starring Jean-Marc Barr, Rosanna Arquette, and Besson favourite Jean Reno, the film is a fictionalised account of the sporting rivalry between two famed free divers.
It charts the competition and friendship of real-life champions Jacques Mayol (played by former model Barr) and Enzo Maiorca (renamed in the film as "Enzo Molinari", and played by Reno). The action is divided into two timelines - the nascent rivalry between the two divers as children, and (as adults) their final competition at the world free-diving championships at the Sicilian town of Taormina. Mayol's search for love, family, "wholeness" and the meaning of life and death is a strong undercurrent of the latter timeline.
With its extensive underwater scenes and languid score (as with all of Luc Besson's films to date, the soundtrack was written by Eric Serra), the film has been both praised as beautiful and serene, and in equal measure criticised as being dull and uneventful. While popular in Europe, the film was a commercial failure in North America in part due to the studio's recutting of the movie to include a simplified "happy" ending and the replacement of Serra's score with one composed by Bill Conti. The director later released a longer Director's Cut on DVD, featuring the original ending and an extended version of the Eric Serra score.
Trivia
The Omega Professional 600 wristwatch, used in this film, has become one of Omega's most sought after products. Besides being featured in the film, it has since become impossible to replicate due to a lost tool.
See also
External links
fr:Le Grand Bleu nl:Le Grand Bleu pl:Wielki błękit sv:Det stora blå