Monday, Feb. 01, 2010
Océans: The Fish Story That Is Sweeping France
By Bruce Crumley / Paris
Take that, George Clooney. Though the American film heartthrob is still the favorite actor of millions of movie lovers around the world, in France these days he’s being outdrawn by a bunch of fish. Score that as a win for Océans, a spectacular new French maritime documentary </font id=“red”> that has done not only twice as much business as Up in the Air since both movies were released on Jan. 27, but is also looking to set a new mark for nature films when it rolls out internationally in the coming months. (Comment on this story)
Océans is the work of veteran actor, director and producer Jacques Perrin, who co-wrote and co-produced the movie with sidekick Jacques Cluzaud. The film is a look into the world’s seas and the creatures that populate them, carrying an appeal to halt humanity’s steady destruction of habitat and species. But Océans is no Jacques Cousteau rehash, and its environmental message, while alarming, doesn’t impose the sense of doom central to recent films like Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth or Frenchman Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s Home. Instead it seduces the viewer to the maritime cause with awe-inspiring imagery, creating an almost emotional attachment between viewer and cinematic object by bringing the camera into astonishing intimacy with erstwhile unapproachable beings. At one point, a mother walrus hugs her baby protectively as she swims. At another, a diver caresses and plays with an 18-foot, 1-ton great white shark nicknamed “Lady Mystery.” (Take a closer look at sharks.)
Océans involved two years of planning and four years of filming, spread over 70 expeditions to 54 shooting locations — resulting in 450 hours of rushes. In that process, Perrin consulted with French navy engineers to come up with casings, booms and vehicle technologies allowing cameras to move with the same speed, agility and, at times, airborne abilities of otters, dolphins and whales. He and his c
