世界的に有名な海洋学者クストーが、まだ「死刑台のエレベーター」で劇映画デビューする以前のルイ・マルの協力を得て作り上げた海洋ドキュメンタリー。イルカをはじめとする海中生物をユーモラスに描写。
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監督: Jacques-Yves Cousteau / Louis Malle
脚本: Jacques-Yves Cousteau / James Dugan
音楽: Yves Baudrier
制作: Marcel Ichac
撮影監督: Louis Malle / Edmond Séchan
制作会社: Titanus / FSJYC Production / Requins Associés / Société Filmad
As he travels aboard his floating laboratory "Calypso", we follow the exploration of renowned marine adventurer Jacques Cousteau as he and his crew travel the world exploring the depths of the sea. He takes his kit to the deepest part of the water where neither man nor camera have ever been before, nowhere near the bottom but still as black as pitch and only slightly illuminated by their bright lamps. The photography would have offered many their first glimpse of whales, porpoises, giant turtles, sharks - and many in a natural environment that isn't always so easy to watch. Neither, it has to be said, are some of his methods. "In the name of science" would have been a defence for dynamiting fish so they can count the species, or leaving many on the beach to suffocate to death before they are photographed or dissected for the specimen jar. Whilst there can be no doubting this team had a respect and admiration for the natural world, they still had that superiority complex of mankind towards it and at times I simply didn't like the man nor his approach. That said, it was made at a time when the quest for knowledge was more along the lines of the end justifying the means and doubtless some of his astonishing discoveries will have informed a more enlightened touch to investigation in later years. Cousteau was a ground-breaker, no doubt, and his adaptation of technology to take us deeper and deeper in safer ways delivers us an fascinating look at what has long existed without the intervention of man. By no means how Sir David Attenborough would make it now, but of it's time it is an interesting and cleverly photographed look into the unknown.
