The Big Blue (Review)

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Long before Luc Besson practically gave up directing and spent his days producing and writing, he was one of the most exciting filmmakers to come out of Europe in a long time.  He arguably came to worldwide attention with Léon but had a minor hit with Nikita and the celebrated Le dernier combat (which won him a César for best debut feature).  The Big Blue was his first English language film with regular collaborator Jean Reno teaming up with Jean-Marc Barr in a cast headed by Rosanna Arquette.
 
Reno and Barr play Enzo Molinari and Jacques Mayol, two men who have been rivals since they were young boys who both had a passion for diving, something at which they were extremely skilled.  As adults, they trade world free diving championships and records whilst using their skills to travel the world and see incredible sights.  American insurance investigator Johana travels to Peru as part of an assignment and sees the amazing sight of a man dive under the ice on an Andean lake and stay underwater for an incredible amount of time.  Since their brief meeting, she became obsessed with Jacques and, learning he was going to compete in Sicily, lies to her boss about a document possibly being fraud and having Cosa Nostra involvement to get a free ticket across the Atlantic.
 
 

 
The film is basically a love triangle between Jacques, Johana and the sea with Enzo as Jacques’ roguish rival who needs him to compete.  Reno is perfect as Enzo, a man who doesn’t mind bending the rules, using his own incredible abilities for financial gain but who is married to the sea and can’t hold down a steady relationship with anyone else.  Jean-Marc Barr is impossibly handsome and has a close relationship with dolphins to the extent that, after sleeping with Johana, he doesn’t stay in bed whilst she is asleep but steals down to the ocean to spend the whole time playing with his dolphin friends.  Johana is the least interesting character as she is in love with Jacques but is always unsure about whether to commit and some scenes between them feel tacked on, rather than organic and intrinsic to the story.
 
The Big Blue is all about visuals with some startling underwater photography and amazing footage of the two men free diving – there are no body doubles or trick photography used as both men underwent training to dive to quite a depth, enabling Besson to get the shots needed for the characters without endangering the actors.  The film isn’t as narratively strong as Léon or Nikita but is more aesthetically interesting and the lengthy shoot is an exhaustive worldwide trip to various diving locations.
 
 
 
A tribute to the real life feats of free divers Jacques Mayol and Enzo Maiorca, The Big Blue is a meditative piece on the nature of humanity with both men, especially Mayol, thinking there is more to life below the surface with the real life Mayol philosophising on the nature of man and its aquatic origins.  Jean-Marc Barr has the expressions and body language of someone perhaps more suited to life in the water and looks very at home in all of the underwater shots, extremely relaxed and comfortable, which is needed to portray Mayol.  His rivalry and friendship with Enzo drives the narrative and you know that there is going to be a tragic outcome, but don’t know what it will be.
 
I found The Big Blue to be both beautiful and infuriating as sometimes the contemplative nature of life on our planet got a little much and I wasn’t entirely convinced by the subplot with Johana.  However it is such as glorious film to watch with incredible visuals and diving sequences that, every time they went underwater, all my reservations went away.
 
The odd thing about the disc is the sole option of the PCM French soundtrack where the actors are obviously being dubbed as you can see their lips speaking English!  As this is known as Besson’s first English-language film I can’t understand why there isn’t the original English soundtrack.
 

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