Grand bleu, Le (1988)

reviewed by
Harvey S. Karten


THE BIG BLUE (Le grand blue)

Reviewed by Harvey Karten Samuel Goldwyn Company/Gaumont Director: Luc Besson Writer: Luc Besson (based on his story), Robert Garland, Marilyn Goldin, Jacques Mayol, Marc Perrier Cast: Rosanna Arquette, Jean-Marc Barr, Jean Reno, Paul Shenar, Sergio Castellitto, Jean Bouise, Marc Duret, Griffin Dunne

After your home team wins a basketball game, it's not altogether uncommon to observe cheering crowds riot in the streets, overturning police vehicles and burning ordinary cars. As the stands overflow into the field when the whistle ends the final quarter of a football game, say goodbye to the goalposts. As for soccer? You're lucky to get out of the stands without being stampeded for one reason or another. There's one competition, however, that's unlikely to draw such robust enthusiasm. Luc Besson takes us into that world in "The Big Blue," a story about two friends who are rivals in the annual diving championships and the woman who makes a bold attempt to get one of them out of the water.

Though the screenplay is simple and the dialogue less than eloquent, "The Big Blue" features some exotic, if not especially lush photography by Carlo Varini, who has captured some of the beauty of such spots as Taormina, the Greek islands, and Manhattan at night. Though "The Big Blue" highlights shots of watery depths (which feature a bland assortment of tropical fish at best and splendid if standard- genre dolphin shows), the real curiosity of this sports-cum- romance travelogue is the Freudian back-to-the-womb ambiance coupled with an astonishing mystical scene toward the end of the new, 163-minutes' director's cut. Nor do we have much difficulty feasting our eyes on the ravishingly beautiful, petite and sensuous Rosanna Arquette, just twenty- nine years old when this film was made.

In his first English-language movie, director Luc Besson ("La Femme Nikita," "The Messenger," "The Fifth Element"), himself an aspiring marine biologist and only twenty-nine years of age when he made "The Big Blue," takes us first to a Greek island in an extended black-and-white sequence where young Jacques Mayol and young Enzo Molinari grow up together and challenge each other in a makeshift diving competition. When they meet several years later Jacques (Jean-Marc Barr) and Enzo (Jean Reno) are again competing for the world diving crown, with some of the most elaborate matches taking place in the beautiful and touristic Sicilian city of Taormina. When insurance investigator Johanna (Rosanna Arquette) joins the party--having met Jacques on the snow-capped Peruvian Andes where he is taking part in scientific research--and pursues him later to Italy, Besson sets up the real competition: it's Johanna versus the dolphins, the latter in the role of Jacques' lifelong true love. Will Johanna excuse the object of her affection after discovering his all-night affair with the big, intelligent fish--which return his love as eagerly as she? Will Jacques--who is as taciturn as his lifelong friend Enzo is swaggering--become as captivated as the movie audience with Johanna, or will he return to the watery depths in search of mermaids?

Silly as the narrative may sound, "The Big Blue" is nonetheless intriguing in its quaint originality, its photography of Mediterranean waters, its thumping original score by Eric Serra, and oh yes, did I mention the astonishing beauty of Rosanna Arquette who, as the Washington Post critic quips, is desperately seeking Scuba?

Not Rated. Running time: 163 minutes. (C) 2000 by Harvey Karten, film_critic@compuserve.com


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