Le Grand bleu (1988) - film review

Jacques Mayol and and Enzo Molinari are two men who have shared an intense passion for the sea since their childhood.  Molinari, the current world free diving champion, coerces Mayol into competing against him in the next tournament.  When Mayol beats his record, Molinari is determined to win it back again.  A dangerous friendly duel ensues.  Meanwhile, Mayol is pursued by a young insurance clerk, Johanna, who is madly in love with him, although the young diver is unable to respond to her affections.  In the end, Mayol has to choose between the sea and his pregnant girlfriend...

Luc Besson’s most personal film is a haunting visual elegy concerned with one man’s passion to be united with the sea he loves and another man’s obsession to dominate it.  All of Besson’s films are distinguished by a strong visual style which makes characterisation and plot virtually redundant, but in Le Grand Bleu, regarded by many as his finest achievement, he surpasses himself.  From the first scene, the spectator is drawn in Besson’s world and soon begins to share his sense of wonder and understand his undying passion for the sea.

Although the film has been criticised for lacking much in the way of a plot, the film has enough of a plot to give it direction and meaning.  This is very spiritual film, a film which communicates directly with the soul, something which gives it great power and eloquence.  Jacques Mayol is overwhelmed by his love for the sea, longing for an alternative existence, whilst his girlfriend is equally obsessed with a very earthy desire which he cannot participate fully in.  This conflict of the spiritual and the physical is portrayed with great power and sensitivity, and its resolution at the end of the film is devastatingly effective.

Despite being initially mauled by the critics, the film became a major box office success in Europe, attracting nine million viewers in France alone.  It failed to repeat this success in the United States, probably because of a botched re-edit.  The American release saw the film reduced by 50 minutes, switched the ambiguous fairy-tale ending with a conventional happy ending (in which Mayol and Johanna are re-united), and replaced Eric Serra’s brilliant and evocative score (which contributed a great deal to the original film’s impact).  The film was re-released a decade later in its longer form, running to nearly 3 hours, and this is widely acknowledged as the best version.

© James Travers 2001

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