| The Odyssey | |
|---|---|
Film poster | |
| L'Odyssée | |
| Directed by | Jérôme Salle |
| Written by | Jérôme Salle Laurent Turner |
| Based on | Capitaine de La Calypso by Albert Falco and Jean-Michel Cousteau |
| Produced by | Marc Missonnier Olivier Delbosc Nathalie Gastaldo Philippe Godeau Eric Vidart Loeb |
| Starring | Lambert Wilson Pierre Niney Audrey Tautou |
| Cinematography | Matias Boucard |
| Edited by | Stan Collet |
| Music by | Alexandre Desplat |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Wild Bunch |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 122 minutes |
| Countries | France Belgium |
| Language | French |
| Budget | $22.5 million [1] |
| Box office | $9.8 million [2] |
The Odyssey (French title: L'Odyssée) is a 2016 French-Belgian biographical adventure film directed by Jérôme Salle 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, Pierre Niney, and Audrey Tautou. [3] [4] [5] [6]
The film follows Jacques-Yves Cousteau, 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, an eccentric French naval officer, 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 shown garnering 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.
Principal photography on the film began on 7 September 2015 in Croatia, [8] where filming took place on islands Hvar, Vis, and Biševo. [9] [7] Shooting was also done in South Africa, Antarctic, and The Bahamas, and it ended on 8 January 2016. [8] [10]
In France, the film was released on 12 October 2016 by Wild Bunch. [8]
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 gave a score of 63% based on 19 reviews. [11]
| Award / Film Festival | Category | Recipients | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| César Awards | Best Sound | Marc Engels, Fred Demolder, Sylvain Réty and Jean-Paul Hurier | Won |
| Globes de Cristal Awards | Best Actor | Lambert Wilson | Nominated |
| Best Actress | Audrey Tautou | Nominated | |
Jacques-Yves Cousteau, was a French naval officer, oceanographer, filmmaker and author. He co-invented the first successful open-circuit self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA), called the Aqua-Lung, which assisted him in producing some of the first underwater documentaries.
RV Calypso is a former British Royal Navy minesweeper converted into a research vessel for the oceanographic researcher Jacques Cousteau, equipped with a mobile laboratory for underwater field research. She was severely damaged in 1996 and was planned to undergo a complete refurbishment in 2009–2011 that has not been accomplished. The ship is named after the Greek mythological figure Calypso.
Audrey Justine Tautou is a French actress. She made her acting debut at age 18 on television, and her feature film debut in Venus Beauty Institute (1999), for which she received critical acclaim and won the César Award for Most Promising Actress.
Simone Cousteau was a French explorer. She was the first woman scuba diver and aquanaut, and wife and business partner of undersea explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau.
Frédéric Dumas was a French writer. He was part of a team of three, with Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Philippe Tailliez. Tailliez coined for them Mousquemers in allusion to Les Trois Mousquetaires. They had a passion for diving, and developed the diving regulator with the aid of the engineer Émile Gagnan.
Fabien Cousteau is an aquanaut, ocean conservationist, and documentary filmmaker. As the first grandson of Jacques Cousteau, Fabien spent his early years aboard his grandfather's ships Calypso and Alcyone, and learned how to scuba dive on his fourth birthday. From 2000 to 2002, he was Explorer-at-Large for National Geographic and collaborated on a television special aimed at changing public attitudes about sharks called "Attack of the Mystery Shark". From 2003 to 2006, he produced the documentary "Mind of a Demon" that aired on CBS. With the help of a large crew, he created a 14-foot, 1,200-pound, lifelike shark submarine called "Troy" that enabled him to immerse himself inside the shark world.
Philippe Pierre Cousteau 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 Jacques Cousteau and Simone Melchior.
Jean-Michel Cousteau 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.

The Silent World is a 1956 French documentary film co-directed by Jacques Cousteau and Louis Malle. One of the first films to use underwater cinematography to show the ocean depths in color, its title derives from Cousteau's 1953 book The Silent World: A Story of Undersea Discovery and Adventure.
Continental Shelf Station Two or Conshelf Two was an attempt at creating an environment in which people could live and work on the sea floor. It was the successor to Continental Shelf Station One.
Albert Falco was a French scuba diving veteran and champion of underwater conservation. He was one of the longest-serving diving companions of Jacques Cousteau, Chief Diver, and later Captain of the RV Calypso. He lived in France and was active in preserving aquatic ecosystems. He played several leading roles on Cousteau's films, like The Silent World (1956), World Without Sun (1964) and Voyage to the Edge of the World (1976). Falco was the author of a non-fiction book, Capitaine de La Calypso.
Philippe Victor Diolé was a French author and undersea explorer.
Philippe-Pierre Jacques-Yves Arnault Cousteau Jr. is an American oceanographer and environmental activist, the son of Philippe Cousteau and the grandson of Jacques Cousteau. Cousteau has continued the work of his father and grandfather by educating the public about environmental and conservation issues. In 2017, he received an Emmy nomination for hosting the syndicated science series Awesome Planet.
Alexandra Marguerite Clémentine Cousteau is a filmmaker, sustainability keynote speaker and an environmental activist. Cousteau continues the work of her grandfather Jacques-Yves Cousteau and father Philippe Cousteau. Cousteau advocates the importance of conservation, restoration and sustainable management of ocean and water resources for a healthy planet and productive societies.
Philippe Tailliez was a friend and colleague of Jacques Cousteau. He was an underwater pioneer, who had been diving since the 1930s.

Maurice Fargues was a diver with the French Navy and a close associate of commander Philippe Tailliez and deputy commander Jacques Cousteau. In August 1946, Fargues saved the lives of Cousteau and Frédéric Dumas during their dive into the karstic spring of Vaucluse. On September 17, 1947, while attempting to set a new depth record, Maurice Fargues became the first diver to die using an Aqua-Lung.

Mood Indigo is a 2013 French surrealistic romantic science fantasy tragedy film co-written and directed by Michel Gondry and co-written and produced by Luc Bossi, starring Romain Duris and Audrey Tautou. It is an adaptation of Boris Vian's 1947 novel with the same French title, translated Froth on the Daydream in English.

Voyage to the Edge of the World is a 1976 French nature documentary film directed by Jacques-Yves Cousteau, his son Philippe Cousteau and Marshall Flaum. The film follows a four-month expedition through Antarctica undertaken between the end of 1972 and the beginning of 1973. It was Cousteau's third and last full-length film, following The Silent World (1956) and World Without Sun (1964). As a difference with those two earlier Cousteau films, both mainly narrated by Jacques-Yves Cousteau himself, on this film Jacques-Yves' voice-over alternates with co-director Philippe Cousteau's voice.

Yves Saint Laurent is a 2014 French biographical drama film directed by Jalil Lespert and co-written with Jacques Fieschi, Jérémie Guez, and Marie-Pierre Huster. The film is based on the life of Yves Saint Laurent from 1958. The film stars Pierre Niney, Guillaume Gallienne, Charlotte Le Bon, Laura Smet, Marie de Villepin, Xavier Lafitte, and Nikolai Kinski.
Pierre Niney is a French actor. He made his acting debut in the two-part television miniseries La dame d'Izieu in 2007, followed by films such as LOL (2008), The Army of Crime (2009), Romantics Anonymous (2010) and Just Like Brothers (2012). In 2014, Niney starred as fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent in the biopic of the same name, for which he won a César Award for Best Actor. He also co-created, co-wrote and starred in the Netflix comedy miniseries Fiasco (2024), and portrayed Edmond Dantès in The Count of Monte Cristo (2024).