The Big Blue

Infobox Film | name = The Big Blue
Le Grand Bleu


caption = Theatrical poster
director = Luc Besson
producer = Patrice Ledoux
writer = Luc Besson (also story)
Robert Garland
Marilyn Goldin
Jacques Mayol
starring = Rosanna Arquette
Jean-Marc Barr
Jean Reno
music = Éric Serra (Original)
Bill Conti (US version)
cinematography = Carlo Varini
editing = Olivier Mauffroy
distributor = Gaumont
country = FRA/USA/ITA
released = flagicon|France May 11, 1988 (France)
runtime = 132 Min
119 Min (US edit)
168 Min
Director's Cut
language = English, French Italian
budget = ₣ 80,000,000
preceded_by =
followed_by =
imdb_id = 0095250

1988's "The Big Blue" ( _fr. Le Grand Bleu) is the first English-language film made by French director Luc Besson. The film stars Jean-Marc Barr, Rosanna Arquette, Jean Reno and depicts a fictionalized account of the sporting rivalry between two famed free divers.

Plot

The film charts the competition and friendship of real-life champions Jacques Mayol (played by former model Barr) and Enzo Maiorca (renamed in the film to "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.

Production

With its extensive underwater scenes and languid score (as with all of Luc Besson's films excepted Angel-A, the soundtrack was composed by Éric 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'sclarifyme 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 Éric Serra score.The film was dedicated to his daughter Juliette Besson who required surgery, having become ill whilst he was working on the film.

Filming locations

* Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
* Maganari, Ios, Cyclades, Greece
* Agia Anna, Amorgos, Cyclades, Greece
* Kalotaritissa bay, Amorgos, Cyclades, Greece
* Marineland (Antibes), Antibes, Alpes-Maritimes, France
* Peru
* St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands
* Taormina, Messina, Sicily, Italy.

Awards

"The Big Blue" was nominated for several César Awards and won Best Music Written for a Film (Éric Serra) and Best Sound in 1989. The film also won France's National Academy of Cinema's Academy Award in 1989. The movie was also given highest grade by an American psychiatrist Dr. David R. Hawkins who notes in his book Power vs. Force that there is a hidden meaningclarifyme behind the Big Blue whose significance is missed by the majority of viewers. This references a method of "consciousness calibration"clarifyme which registers The Big Blue as the "highest calibrated"clarifyme movie of all time.

See also

*Cinema of France
*List of French language films

The hidden meaning involves the underlying metaphor between the ocean and the esoteric energy known in Eastern religions as the Kundalini energy. As the characters challenge themselves to dive deeper into the ocean, they are also building a progressive tolerance for the Kundalini energy and this progression can be known to result in physical death when it is done in an extreme measure. As one diver, Enzon Molinari dies from a his attempt to go too deep, his friend Jacques Mayol experiences Spiritual enlightenment or what is termed "Samadhi" in Eastern religions. This event is depicted in the film when Jacques has a vision of the water filling his bedroom and turning him upside down in his bed. This also symbololizes a reversal in unconscious energy becoming conscious and explains the hidden meaning behind the film.

External links

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