The Big Blue

Luc Besson draws the film from two real divers: Jean-Marc Barr plays Jacques Mayol, Jean Reno plays Enzo Maiorca, renamed Enzo Molinari; Mayol himself sits on the writing credits. Even so, the sport as shown is heavily reworked: the two were contemporaries but never competed directly, neither went as deep as the film has them go, and neither died diving. Besson first offered the lead to Christopher Lambert and Mickey Rourke, even considered playing it himself, and Barr’s name came later; he appears briefly as one of the divers. Much of the shoot was on the Greek island of Amorgos, and the ice dive set in Peru was filmed at Lac du Chardonnet in Tignes, France. The film opened the 1988 Cannes festival. It sold only 97,817 tickets in its first week in and around Paris, then reached 9.2 million admissions across France, and it drew 7 César nominations for 2 wins, music and sound. The American version was cut down to 119 minutes, given a simplified happy close, and had Éric Serra’s score swapped for one by Bill Conti. A good fit if you want the original version, knowing the ending and the music change with the copy you open. Not for anyone who wants the rivalry at documentary accuracy; the contest itself was invented for the script.