The Odyssey

A biographical film set in France and at sea. Jacques-Yves Cousteau comes from the navy. He works on diving equipment and develops a device. He buys a ship. The Calypso is a former minesweeper. His wife Simone is with him. She lives aboard and is part of the crew. He has two sons. Jean-Michel and Philippe. From there the film is a story of exploration. The team makes films. Underwater footage had never been shot on this scale. They win a prize. Then a television series follows and the fame grows. Money is needed. The ship is expensive and the voyages long. Cousteau works with oil companies. He surveys the sea bed and takes funding in return. The narrative does not hide it. Philippe grows up. He starts working with his father and becomes a pilot. A conflict opens between them. The son takes the environmental question seriously. The father takes the show and the sponsor seriously. One section is in Antarctica. Father and son work together and something changes there. What the narrative is interested in is not the sea but a father: its idea is that the man saw the whole world and never saw his own family. Simone's line is quiet. She stayed aboard for years and the narrative opens it late. Philippe died in an aircraft crash in 1979. The narrative ends there. Cousteau moved into environmental advocacy in his last years and the film gives that in its final section. It was shot at sea. South Africa, the Bahamas, Croatia and Antarctica. The underwater scenes are real; there is little computer assistance. Jérôme Salle directed. Lambert Wilson, Pierre Niney, Audrey Tautou and Benjamin Lavernhe are in the cast. Who it is for: anyone who likes biography and grew up with sea documentaries. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a portrait of a hero; the narrative draws Cousteau plainly as a flawed man.