| World Without Sun | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Jacques-Yves Cousteau |
| Written by | Jacques-Yves Cousteau James Dugan |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures (United States) |
Release dates | |
Running time | 93 minutes |
| Countries | France Italy |
| Language | French |
World Without Sun (French : Le Monde sans soleil) is a 1964 French documentary film directed by Jacques-Yves Cousteau. The film was Cousteau's second to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, following The Silent World in 1956.
The film chronicles Continental Shelf Station Two, or "Conshelf Two", the first ambitious attempt to create an environment in which men could live and work on the seafloor. In it, a half-dozen oceanauts lived 10 meters down in the Red Sea off Sudan in a star-fish shaped house for 30 days. The undersea living experiment also had two other structures, one a submarine hangar that housed a small, two-man submarine referred to as the "diving saucer" for its resemblance to a science fiction flying saucer, and a smaller "deep cabin" where two oceanauts lived at a depth of 30 meters for a week. The undersea colony was supported by air, water, food, power, all essentials of life, from a large support team above. Men on the bottom performed a number of experiments intended to determine the practicality of working on the sea floor and were subjected to continual medical examinations.
Funded in part by the French petrochemical industry, the Conshelf Two experiment was originally intended to demonstrate the practicality of exploitation of the sea using underwater habitats as base stations. In the end, Cousteau repudiated such an approach, turning his efforts instead toward conservation. The lyrical and dramatic underwater sequences also likely contributed to the beginning of an era of ocean conservation as well as incidentally promoting sport diving. Memorable sequences involve men cavorting with fishes, an underwater chess game and the diving saucer reaching depths of 300 meters, encountering new and unique forms of life.
The documentary received wide international theatrical distribution, and won Best Documentary at the 37th Academy Awards, [1] [2] Cousteau's second Oscar following The Silent World in 1956, as well as numerous other honors.
Reviews were overwhelmingly positive, although some criticism arose around accusations of "faking" footage, most notably by New York Times reviewer Bosley Crowther, who questioned the authenticity of two of the more dramatic scenes. He stated in his 1964 review, "Oceanographers consulted here yesterday said it was highly unlikely that a deep-sea cavern, containing a "bubble," or pocket of air, at its top, could exist. If it did, the atmosphere in that bubble would surely be noxious, they said. It would be methane or marsh gas. And the pressure in it would be intolerable for man." [3]
The confusion stemmed from Crowther's assertion that the footage was filmed at great depth, an issue not clearly addressed in the film proper. His other complaint was a long tracking shot moving out from the window of one of the underwater structures, which Crowther claimed could only have been produced in an aquarium. Cousteau, taking great offense, went on to demonstrate how he and his son Philippe produced the shot with a combination of ropes and small underwater motorized vehicles.
The Academy Film Archive preserved World Without Sun in 2010. [4]
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.
Aqua-Lung was the first open-circuit, self-contained underwater breathing apparatus to achieve worldwide popularity and commercial success. This class of equipment is now commonly referred to as a twin-hose diving regulator, or demand valve. The Aqua-Lung was invented in France during the winter of 1942–1943 by two Frenchmen: engineer Émile Gagnan and Jacques Cousteau, who was a Naval Lieutenant. It allowed Cousteau and Gagnan to film and explore underwater more easily.
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.
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.
SEALAB I, II, and III were experimental underwater habitats developed and deployed by the United States Navy during the 1960s to prove the viability of saturation diving and humans living in isolation for extended periods of time. The knowledge gained from the SEALAB expeditions helped advance the science of deep sea diving and rescue, and contributed to the understanding of the psychological and physiological strains humans can endure.
Underwater habitats are underwater structures in which people can live for extended periods and carry out most of the basic human functions of a 24-hour day, such as working, resting, eating, attending to personal hygiene, and sleeping. In this context, 'habitat' is generally used in a narrow sense to mean the interior and immediate exterior of the structure and its fixtures, but not its surrounding marine environment. Most early underwater habitats lacked regenerative systems for air, water, food, electricity, and other resources. However, some underwater habitats allow for these resources to be delivered using pipes, or generated within the habitat, rather than manually delivered.
The SP-350 Denise, famous as the "Diving saucer", is a small submarine designed to hold two people, and is capable of exploring depths of up to 400 metres (1,300 ft). It was invented by Jacques-Yves Cousteau and engineer Jean Mollard at the French Centre for Undersea Research. It was built in the year 1959 and usually operated from Cousteau's ship, the Calypso.
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.
An aquanaut is any person who remains underwater, breathing at the ambient pressure for long enough for the concentration of the inert components of the breathing gas dissolved in the body tissues to reach equilibrium, in a state known as saturation.
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 Tailliez was a friend and colleague of Jacques Cousteau. He was an underwater pioneer, who had been diving since the 1930s.
James Dugan was a historian, editor and magazine article writer. Born in Altoona, Pennsylvania, he is best known for his collaborations with Jacques Cousteau.
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.
Mission 31 was an undersea expedition organized by Fabien Cousteau. It was originally scheduled for November 2013, but was delayed to June 2014. On June 1, Cousteau and six crew members descended to the undersea laboratory Aquarius in the Florida Keys. Halfway through the expedition, three of crew were replaced, as had been planned. After 31 days, Cousteau and the crew ascended on July 2.