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| An almost hypnotically pretty, original French poster for Luc Besson's The Big Blue |
The Big Blue is a nature-themed romantic drama that was great French director Luc Besson's (Léon: The Professional/Léon (1994)) third feature film, and, despite many people's high praises for it, I find it quite awful. Perhaps they feel so because of the oceanic serenity that it cultivates or the obviously lovely dolphins that are central in the semi-authentic story, but although I am fascinated with ocean life and adore dolphins, it just isn't my cup of tea.
The story concerns two very different boys in Sicily, who become friends due to their common passion for diving. As adults, they compete in the Diving World Championship as well as for a girl.
It starts out really well with B/W-scenes from the boys' childhood. After that, we are asked to stomach an excessive amount of very smug and self-satisfied Jean Reno (The Pink Panther (2006)), and literally hours of extremely good-looking Jean-Marc Barr (Baby Blues (2008)), an at the time 28 year-old man who must have been able to sleep with just about anyone he wanted, playing a man here who doesn't know A THING about women, and seemingly hasn't ever been with one. His acting goes beyond the annoying, as he seems to flirt bizarrely with Reno in countless scenes, and doesn't so much act as differentiate the cuteness with his Bambi-eyes for most of the film, (which gets old with me after about 10 minutes, wherein I fully admit that he's adorable), - whenever he isn't crying, which he also does on more than one occasion in The Big Blue. On top of this, his character, who needs to carry the movie, is morally reprehensible; addicted to extreme diving, the man truly has a very unhealthy preference for fish over people: SPOILER To underline this, at the movie's end he chooses to dive with dolphins in the dead of night instead of taking care of his pregnant, desperate girlfriend...!
The diving scenes seem endless, and they don't come close to balancing with the cliché sex scenes that seem to have found their way into the story for commercial purposes, or in order to justify even more dolphin appearances perhaps.
The awfully overlong film is the result of a script by Besson, Robert Garland (Tootsie (1982)), Marilyn Goldin (Sweet Revenge (1976)), Jacques Mayol - who is the real life basis for the lead Mayol character, - and Marc Perrier (Subway (1985)). It feels a bit as if the 5 writers came up with a huge list of scenes and simply decided never to get rid of a single one.
Rosanna Arquette (Growing Up (2008)) and Barr have the film's main romance, and they are both extremely photogenic here. Arquette in general lights up the picture tremendously, SPOILER although her character's moving from the US to Europe based on an unconsummated fling is another hard-to-believe element in The Big Blue.
The best thing about the film is probably its photography (by Carlo Varini (The Chorus/Les Choristes (2004))) and the often very beautiful locations. There is also a well-done floating-in-bed-effect towards the end (see a still of it below), and it seems clear that real personal feeling and heart is pumping behind the film. It causes a few laughs, which also helps it from being a complete fluke.
Finally, though, there's the film's music... Two scores exist for the movie; the original's Éric Serra (The Lady (2011)) European version score and Bill Conti's (Rocky Balboa (2006)) US version. I saw and heard the European version with Serra's score, and I thought it absolutely the worst-sounding 1980s keyboard-dominated, languid aberration that I have ever heard accompany a movie. I find the film an overly self-indulgent, mishandled, tedious, super-sentimental splash.
The Big Blue is included in the French 'Cinéma du look' movement of its time: A more visually striking, referential French wave, which was less reliant on narrative and substance than look and style, which certainly seems true for The Big Blue. The wave was made up of the early films of Besson, Leos Carax (Boy Meets Girl (1984)) and Jean-Jacques Beineix (Diva (1981)).
Related posts:
Luc Besson: Taken 2 (2012) - Neeson's in trouble in Istanbul in dull sequel (co-writer)
Bandidas (2006) - Cruz, Hayek take the West in Besson's loose grip
District 13/Banlieue 13/B-13 (2004) - Parkour action in Paris
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| How long can you stare at this photo of Jean-Marc Barr's face? 1 minute? 2 minutes? If you answer 168 minutes, then you might enjoy The Big Blue |
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 80 mil. FRF, equaling approximately 14.2 mil. $
Box office: 3.5 mil. $ - North America only
= Uncertainty - but likely a box office success
[The Big Blue premiered 11 May (France) and runs 168 minutes (there also exists in 132 and 118 minute versions.) Filming took place in Peru, Greece, Tennessee, the Virgin Islands and New York, Italy and France, including Paris from June 1987 - ?. The story differs widely from the real lives of Mayol and Enzo Maiorca, who are the inspirations for it. Maiorca considered the film a poor caricature and did not see it publicly in his native Italy until 2001, when Mayol had died from suicide after a bout of depression. The film was a huge hit in France, where 9.1 mil. paid admission and it played for a year; if the ticket prize was 3 $, this would amount to 27.3 mil. $. It was also successful in other European markets, where it has also been re-released several times, but unfortunately the grosses are not made public. It opened #12 to a 1.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where its release was considered unsuccessful. The film was nominated for 8 César Awards (France's Oscar) and won 2. Without a world gross, I can't ascertain the film's theatrical hit/flop status. Besson returned with Nikita/La Femme Nikita (1990). Barr returned in Le Brasier (1991); Reno in La Femme Nikita, and Arquette in a TV movie, a video short and an anthology before she returned to the big screen in Black Rain (1989). The Big Blue is fresh at 62 % with a 5.51/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of The Big Blue?
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