The Odyssey
Film poster
L'Odyssée
Directed byJérôme Salle
Written byJérôme Salle
Laurent Turner
Based onCapitaine de La Calypso
by Albert Falco and Jean-Michel Cousteau
Produced byMarc Missonnier
Olivier Delbosc
Nathalie Gastaldo
Philippe Godeau
Eric Vidart Loeb
StarringLambert Wilson
Pierre Niney
Audrey Tautou
CinematographyMatias Boucard
Edited byStan Collet
Music byAlexandre Desplat
Production
companies
Distributed byWild Bunch
Release dates
  • 23 August 2016 (2016-08-23) (Angoulême)
  • 12 October 2016 (2016-10-12) (France)
Running time
122 minutes
CountriesFrance
Belgium
LanguageFrench
Budget$22.5 million[1]
Box office$9.8 million[2]

The Odyssey (French title: L'Odyssée) is a 2016 French-Belgian biographical adventure film directed by Jérôme Salle and written by Salle and Laurent Turner, based on the non-fiction book Capitaine de La Calypso by Albert Falco and Yves Paccalet. The film stars Lambert Wilson, Pierre Niney, and Audrey Tautou.[3][4][5][6]

Premise

The film follows Jacques-Yves Cousteau, a French ocean-going adventurer, biologist, and filmmaker. It sticks to historical events, and was based on documentation and interviews with people who worked with Cousteau.

In 1949, Cousteau, an eccentric French naval officer, with a beautiful oceanside house, who wanted to be a pilot. But he quits the Navy to explore and document the ocean. His boat, Calypso, was a 1941 minesweeper. The film is a biopic covering aquatic adventures over thirty years. Cousteau is revealed to be an adventurer but also an inventor. He designed the autonomous regulator, but also had romantic views of colonising the sea. The film documents the decline of his finances and fortunes and banks pull out as the era of 'robotics' and automation begins as a more plausible financial investment than Cousteau's ideas of civilizations living under the sea. While he was influential and ambitious, he is revealed to be disloyal to his wife Simone, who remains on the Calypso year-round while Cousteau travels extensively. He conflicts with and is reconciled with his environmentalist son, Philippe, who is also a filmmaker. A major trip to Antarctica sees him working with his son and loyal crew, to make films he has promised to his investors and producing essential revenue as his business was failing. Cousteau is then shown garnering fame and travelling the world in the late 1970s. The death of Philippe on 28 June 1979, in a PBY Catalina flying boat crash in the Tagus river near Lisbon is the low point in Cousteau's life. Cousteau is shown to be a popularizer of the hidden wonders of the sea, and the person who raised the most awareness of the ocean and the need for environmental protection for many decades. His role in brokering the moratorium on resource exploitation in Antarctica is mentioned in the closing credits.

Cast

Production

Principal photography on the film began on 7 September 2015 in Croatia,[8] where filming took place on islands Hvar, Vis, and Biševo.[9][7] Shooting was also done in South Africa, Antarctic, and The Bahamas, and it ended on 8 January 2016.[8][10]

Release

Lead actors Pierre Niney and Lambert Wilson at a premiere in October 2016.

In France, the film was released on 12 October 2016 by Wild Bunch.[8]

Reception

The film was regarded by critics and audiences as lacking direction and good character development. The undersea and Antarctica scenes were deemed to be stunning, and received an award. Rotten Tomatoes gave a score of 63% based on 19 reviews.[11]

Award / Film Festival Category Recipients Result
César Awards Best Sound Marc Engels, Fred Demolder, Sylvain Réty and Jean-Paul Hurier Won
Globes de Cristal Awards Best Actor Lambert Wilson Nominated
Best Actress Audrey Tautou Nominated

References

  1. ↑ "L'odyssée". JP's Box-Office.
  2. ↑ "The Odyssey".
  3. ↑ The Odyssey (L'odyssée) (2016), retrieved 29 September 2019
  4. ↑ "Watch The Odyssey (2016) Online - Stream Full Movie". @NOWTV. Retrieved 29 September 2019.
  5. ↑ "'The Odyssey' ('L'Odyssee'): Film Review | San Sebastian 2016". The Hollywood Reporter. 25 September 2016. Retrieved 29 September 2019.
  6. ↑ Clarke, Cath (18 August 2017). "The Odyssey review – Jacques Cousteau biopic looks good underwater but doesn't go deep". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 29 September 2019.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Biopic about legendary Jacques Cousteau, The Odyssey, filming in Croatia / News / Filming in Croatia". filmingincroatia.hr. 14 September 2015. Archived from the original on 7 July 2018. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  8. 1 2 3 Lemercier, Fabien (17 December 2015). "Cineuropa - the best of european cinema". www.cineuropa.org. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  9. ↑ "French Film About Life of Jacques Cousteau Filming on Croatian Islands". Croatia Week. 13 September 2015. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  10. ↑ "On the Set for 1/8/16: Robert Pattinson Starts on the Feature, 'Good Time' While Michael Fassbender & Marion Cotillard Wrap 'Assassin's Creed'". SSN Insider. 8 January 2016. Archived from the original on 9 January 2016. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  11. ↑ "The Odyssey (2016)". Rotten Tomatoes.
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