''The Odyssey'' (French title: ''L'Odyssée'') is a 2016 French-Belgian

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...

adventure film An adventure film is a form of adventure fiction, and is a genre of film. Subgenres of adventure films include swashbuckler films, pirate films, and survival films. Adventure films may also be combined with other film genres such as action, an ...

directed by

Jérôme Salle Jérôme Salle (born 1971) is a French film director and screenwriter. Salle directed the films '' Anthony Zimmer'', the Belgian comic book adaptation ''Largo Winch'', and its sequel ''Largo Winch II''. His 2013 film '' Zulu'' was selected as th ...

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 Lambert Wilson (born 3 August 1958) is a French actor, singer and activist. He is best known internationally for his portrayal of The Merovingian in ''The Matrix Reloaded'', ''The Matrix Revolutions'' and ''The Matrix Resurrections''. Biograph ...

, Pierre Niney, and Audrey Tautou.

Premise

The film follows

Jacques-Yves Cousteau Jacques-Yves Cousteau, (, also , ; 11 June 191025 June 1997) was a French naval officer, oceanographer, filmmaker and author. He co-invented the first successful Aqua-Lung, open-circuit SCUBA (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus). Th ...

, 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 was an eccentric naval officer in France, 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 showing gathering 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

* Pierre Niney as

Philippe Cousteau Philippe Pierre Cousteau (30 December 1940 – 28 June 1979) was a French diver, sailor, pilot, photographer, author, director and cinematographer specializing in environmental issues, with a background in oceanography. He was the second son of ...

** Ulysse Stein as young Philippe Cousteau * Audrey Tautou as Simone Melchior Cousteau *

Laurent Lucas Laurent Lucas (born 20 July 1965) is a French actor. Life and career A student of the Charles Dullin school, Lucas soon became one of the most admired young performers in the Strasbourg National Theatre. He first emerged on the scene with his r ...

Philippe Tailliez Philippe Tailliez (; 15 June 1905, Malo-les-Bains – 26 September 2002, Toulon, France) was a friend and colleague of Jacques Cousteau. He was an underwater pioneer, who had been diving since the 1930s. Biography He was the younger son of F� ...

Benjamin Lavernhe Benjamin Lavernhe (, born 14 August 1984) is a French actor. He has appeared in more than sixteen films since 2009. Filmography References External links * Living people French male film actors 21st-century French male actors 1984 ...

Jean-Michel Cousteau Jean-Michel Cousteau (born 6 May 1938) is a French oceanographic explorer, environmentalist, educator and film producer. The first son of ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, he is the father of Fabien Cousteau and Céline Cousteau. Life and care ...

** Rafaël de Ferran as young Jean-Michel Cousteau * Vincent Heneine as Albert "Bebert" Falco *

Thibault de Montalembert Thibault Charles Marie Septime de Montalembert (born 10 February 1962) is a French theatre, film and television actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles in the television series '' The Tunnel'' (2013–2018) and '' Call My Agent!'' (2015� ...

as Étienne Deshaies * Roger Van Hool as Daddy * Chloé Hirschman as

Jan Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Num ...

* Adam Neill as

David Wolper David Lloyd Wolper (January 11, 1928 – August 10, 2010) was an American television and film producer, responsible for shows such as ''Roots'', ''The Thorn Birds'', and ''North and South'', and the theatrically-released films ''L.A. Confident ...

* Olivier Galfione as

Frédéric Dumas Frédéric Dumas (14 January 1913 – 26 July 1991) was a French writer. He was part of a team of three, with Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Philippe Tailliez, who had a passion for diving, and developed the diving regulator with the aid of the enginee ...

* Martin Loizillon as Henri Plé * Chloé Williams as

Eugenie Clark Eugenie Clark (May 4, 1922 – February 25, 2015), popularly known as The Shark Lady, was an American ichthyologist known for both her research on shark behavior and her study of fish in the order Tetraodontiformes. Clark was a pioneer in the fie ...

Production

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

on the film began on 7 September 2015 in

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

, where filming took place on islands

Hvar Hvar (; Chakavian: ''Hvor'' or ''For'', el, Φάρος, Pharos, la, Pharia, it, Lesina) is a Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea, located off the Dalmatian coast, lying between the islands of Brač, Vis and Korčula. Approximately long, wi ...

, Vis, and Biševo. Shooting was also done in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Antarctic The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...

, and

The Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

, and it ended on 8 January 2016.

Release

In France, the film was released on 12 October 2016 by

Wild Bunch The Wild Bunch, also known as the Doolin–Dalton Gang, or the Oklahombres, were a gang of American outlaws based in the Indian Territory in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They were active in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma Terr ...

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 Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

gave a score of 63% based on 19 reviews.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Odyssey, The 2016 films Belgian biographical films Films directed by Jérôme Salle Pan-Européenne films French biographical films French historical adventure films Belgian historical films Biographical films about military personnel Biographical films about scientists Biographical films about writers Biographical films about photographers Films about film directors and producers 2010s biographical films 2010s historical adventure films Films shot in Croatia Films shot in South Africa Films shot in Antarctica Films shot in the Bahamas Cultural depictions of Jacques Cousteau Environmental films Films set in the 1960s Films set in the 1970s Films featuring underwater diving Films based on non-fiction books French-language Belgian films 2010s French films