# The Odyssey (2016 film)
**The Odyssey** (French: *L'Odyssée*) is a 2016 French biographical drama film directed by Jérôme Salle about the ocean explorer and filmmaker Jacques-Yves Cousteau, starring [Lambert Wilson](https://www.edgepedia.org/lambert-wilson) as Cousteau, Audrey Tautou as his wife Simone, and [Pierre Niney](https://www.edgepedia.org/pierre-niney) as his son Philippe.[1](https://www.sansebastianfestival.com/2016/sections_and_films/official_selection/7/640216/in) It was produced by Pan-Européenne and Fidélité Films in France with Versus Production in Belgium, and released in France on 12 October 2016 by Wild Bunch.[2](https://www.unifrance.org/film/40852/l-odyssee)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and writers | Directed by Jérôme Salle; screenplay by Salle and Laurent Turner[1](https://www.sansebastianfestival.com/2016/sections_and_films/official_selection/7/640216/in) |
| Principal cast | Lambert Wilson (Jacques-Yves Cousteau), Audrey Tautou (Simone Cousteau), Pierre Niney (Philippe Cousteau)[1](https://www.sansebastianfestival.com/2016/sections_and_films/official_selection/7/640216/in) |
| Release | 12 October 2016 in France; distributed by Wild Bunch; French visa number 121720, rated suitable for all audiences[2](https://www.unifrance.org/film/40852/l-odyssee) • [3](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification?visa=121720) |
| Runtime and format | 122 minutes; Scope 2.66 image, Dolby 5.1 sound[2](https://www.unifrance.org/film/40852/l-odyssee) |
| Budget | 20 million euros, after an earlier full-life version was estimated at 40 million[4](https://www.premiere.fr/cinema/news-cinema/six-choses-a-savoir-sur-lodyssee) |
| Music | Original score by Alexandre Desplat[1](https://www.sansebastianfestival.com/2016/sections_and_films/official_selection/7/640216/in) |
| Award | César for Best Sound, 2017[5](https://www.academie-cinema.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/catalogue-officiel-cesar-2017.pdf) |
| French admissions | About 1.2 million (1,252,489 per JP Box-Office; 1,206,547 per AlloCiné)[6](https://jpbox-office.com/fichfilm.php?id=16041&view=2) • [7](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D189535.html) |
## Spoilers
### Story
The film opens in 1948, when Cousteau, his wife Simone, and their two sons live in a house overlooking the Mediterranean. Thanks to his invention, the aqualung, which allows a diver to breathe underwater, Cousteau has discovered a new world and wants to explore it, prepared to sacrifice everything to do so.[8](https://www.versusproduction.be/films/l-odyssee) He resigns from the [French Navy](https://www.edgepedia.org/french-navy), buys a former minesweeper, the *Calypso*, and converts it into an oceanographic research vessel to explore the undersea world and bring its discoveries to the public.[9](https://www.telestar.fr/programme-tv/fiche/152918886/l-odyssee) The Samuel Goldwyn Films press release for the American release instead places the family idyll in the summer of 1946.[10](https://www.samuelgoldwynfilms.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/The-Odyssey-Acquisition-Announcement.pdf)
The story centers on the relationship between the commander and his younger son and designated successor, Philippe.[11](https://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article/2016/10/11/l-odyssee-pour-le-commandant-cousteau-une-statue-sans-relief_5011536_3476.html) It begins during the Second World War, when Cousteau leaves the navy to make underwater documentaries, and ends in 1979 with Philippe's death in a seaplane accident.[11](https://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article/2016/10/11/l-odyssee-pour-le-commandant-cousteau-une-statue-sans-relief_5011536_3476.html) The San Sebastian Festival synopsis describes the two embarking on their greatest adventure aboard the *Calypso*, finding each other before tragedy strikes.[1](https://www.sansebastianfestival.com/2016/sections_and_films/official_selection/7/640216/in) Along the way the film depicts Cousteau's talent for communication, his conflicts with Philippe, his ecological awakening, and his darker sides, including megalomania, infidelities, and financial troubles.[9](https://www.telestar.fr/programme-tv/fiche/152918886/l-odyssee)
## Development
Salle first raised a Cousteau project with producers Marc Missonnier and Olivier Delbosc of Fidélité Films in 2004. Fidélité bought the rights to [Jean-Michel Cousteau](https://www.edgepedia.org/jean-michel-cousteau)'s memoir *Mon père, le Commandant*, while Pan Européenne, Salle's partner on *Largo Winch*, bought the rights to Albert Falco's *Capitaine de La Calypso*. Rather than compete, the two companies joined forces.[4](https://www.premiere.fr/cinema/news-cinema/six-choses-a-savoir-sur-lodyssee)
The first script version covered Cousteau's whole life, from his birth in 1910 to his death in 1997. Salle abandoned it because it lacked a point of view, because no single actor could plausibly play Cousteau from youth to old age, and because a period film on that scale was estimated at 40 million euros. He returned with a script focused on the commander's adult years and his family, at a final cost of 20 million euros, the budget of a large French comedy.[4](https://www.premiere.fr/cinema/news-cinema/six-choses-a-savoir-sur-lodyssee) *Le Parisien* reported the first script as budgeted at 35 million euros before the version restricted to 20 million, which still made it one of the most expensive French films of 2015.[12](https://www.leparisien.fr/culture-loisirs/un-tournage-epique-12-10-2016-6195972.php) Salle has said *The Godfather* was the model for the father-son structure arbitrated by the mother, and [Terrence Malick](https://www.edgepedia.org/terrence-malick)'s *The Tree of Life* a reference for its relation to nature and childhood.[4](https://www.premiere.fr/cinema/news-cinema/six-choses-a-savoir-sur-lodyssee)
Casting followed the restructure. In early versions [Adrien Brody](https://www.edgepedia.org/adrien-brody) was considered for Cousteau, with [Romain Duris](https://www.edgepedia.org/romain-duris) and Pierre Niney envisaged for different life stages; once the script centered on adulthood, Lambert Wilson took the role, and Niney, attached from the start, persuaded Salle to enlarge Philippe's part.[7](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D189535.html)
## Production and filming
Shooting units rotated through France, Croatia, South Africa, Argentina, Antarctica, and the Bahamas.[12](https://www.leparisien.fr/culture-loisirs/un-tournage-epique-12-10-2016-6195972.php) The production designer Laurent Ott found a minesweeper to be repainted and refitted as the *Calypso* before any script or financing existed, but early in the shoot the team discovered that the documents certifying the ship was seaworthy were forgeries, and it could not be sailed.[4](https://www.premiere.fr/cinema/news-cinema/six-choses-a-savoir-sur-lodyssee) The replica was also delivered with faulty engines.[12](https://www.leparisien.fr/culture-loisirs/un-tournage-epique-12-10-2016-6195972.php)
The actors learned scuba diving for the production. About 200 people worked on the film in South Africa in the autumn of 2015, and the crew then endured a storm in [Antarctica](https://www.edgepedia.org/antarctica), where a reduced team of fourteen meant the actors maintained the technical equipment and the boat themselves.[12](https://www.leparisien.fr/culture-loisirs/un-tournage-epique-12-10-2016-6195972.php) The Antarctica expedition was shot on location over 15 days rather than on green screen; Wilson called it the most beautiful shooting memory of his life, describing being dropped with Niney on an isolated ice floe filmed by a drone.[4](https://www.premiere.fr/cinema/news-cinema/six-choses-a-savoir-sur-lodyssee) With its 20 million euro budget the film was the biggest-budget French-language film of 2015, photographed by Matias Boucard.[13](https://movie-men.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Cooke-Book-2016-FDTimes-300.pdf)
## Release and reception
The film was the closing film, out of competition, of the 64th San Sebastian International Film Festival in September 2016.[1](https://www.sansebastianfestival.com/2016/sections_and_films/official_selection/7/640216/in) It opened in France on 12 October 2016 and drew 445,363 admissions in its first week on 525 screens, ranking second for the week.[6](https://jpbox-office.com/fichfilm.php?id=16041&view=2) The CNC's annual report placed it 46th among 2016 releases in France with about 1.22 million admissions.[14](https://spiac-cgt.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Bilan-2016-du-CNC.pdf) On 3 October 2016, before the release, Salle, Wilson, and the Surfrider Foundation Europe took part in a Campus UNESCO event to make young people hear the voice of the ocean.[15](https://www.unesco.org/archives/multimedia/document-3107) Samuel Goldwyn Films acquired all United States rights on November 9, 2017 and scheduled the film for release that winter.[10](https://www.samuelgoldwynfilms.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/The-Odyssey-Acquisition-Announcement.pdf)
Critical response was divided. Télé Star called it a successful biopic that addresses Cousteau's communication talent, his conflicts with Philippe, and his ecological awakening alongside his megalomania, infidelities, and financial troubles.[9](https://www.telestar.fr/programme-tv/fiche/152918886/l-odyssee) Film at [Lincoln Center](https://www.edgepedia.org/lincoln-center) praised Wilson's performance as magnetic and the film as a grandly lyrical dramatization.[16](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/the-odyssey/) Isabelle Regnier in *Le Monde* gave a negative review, calling it a schoolroom biopic that takes the side of building a national myth and glosses over Cousteau's contradictions, including his statements on nuclear tests, frozen fish-bar advertising, and his legal conflict with his elder son Jean-Michel.[11](https://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article/2016/10/11/l-odyssee-pour-le-commandant-cousteau-une-statue-sans-relief_5011536_3476.html) Reviewers noted that the film opens with a flash-forward to the 1979 crash of Philippe's flying boat into a Portuguese river, and that its strongest passages are the underwater sequences.[17](https://godalmingfilmsoc.org.uk/film-archive/2018-19/the-odyssey-lodyssee/)
At the 2017 [César Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/cesar-awards) the film won Best Sound, for Marc Engels, Fred Demolder, Sylvain Rety, and Jean-Paul Hurier.[5](https://www.academie-cinema.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/catalogue-officiel-cesar-2017.pdf) It also received Globes de Cristal nominations for Best Actress and Best Actor in 2017.[18](https://filmeurope.cz/en/movies/the-odyssey)
## Historical accuracy
The closing credits cite the books on which Salle and Turner based the film, including Jean-Michel Cousteau's 2012 memoir, and state the research and interviewing Salle undertook, including testimony from former crew members.[17](https://godalmingfilmsoc.org.uk/film-archive/2018-19/the-odyssey-lodyssee/) • [19](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1659619/) Commentators still flagged simplifications. The journalist Laurent Samuel of JNE argued the film builds a new myth of redemption: it exaggerates a mid-1960s rupture between Cousteau and Philippe over ecology and money, then presents the [Antarctic](https://www.edgepedia.org/antarctic) reconciliation as a conversion, whereas Cousteau had in fact denounced Mediterranean pollution from his earliest films in the 1940s and radioactive waste dumping in the early 1960s.[20](https://www.jne-asso.org/2016/10/16/lodyssee-ou-le-mythe-de-la-redemption-du-commandant-cousteau/) *Le Parisien* noted that the film's portrayal of Cousteau as a lifelong sailor is inaccurate in one respect: he first trained as a naval aviator, and a 1935 car accident injured his arm and ended that ambition.[21](https://www.leparisien.fr/culture-loisirs/vrai-faux-12-10-2016-6195969.php)
## References
1. [L'Odyssée / The Odyssey, San Sebastian Film Festival 2016 Official Selection](https://www.sansebastianfestival.com/2016/sections_and_films/official_selection/7/640216/in)
2. [L'Odyssée, Unifrance film record](https://www.unifrance.org/film/40852/l-odyssee)
3. [L'ODYSSEE, CNC visa and classification record](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification?visa=121720)
4. [Six choses à savoir sur L'Odyssée, Première](https://www.premiere.fr/cinema/news-cinema/six-choses-a-savoir-sur-lodyssee)
5. [Catalogue officiel des César 2017, Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma](https://www.academie-cinema.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/catalogue-officiel-cesar-2017.pdf)
6. [L'Odyssée (2016), JP Box-Office](https://jpbox-office.com/fichfilm.php?id=16041&view=2)
7. [L'Odyssée, AlloCiné](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D189535.html)
8. [L'odyssée, Versus Production](https://www.versusproduction.be/films/l-odyssee)
9. [L'odyssée, Télé Star](https://www.telestar.fr/programme-tv/fiche/152918886/l-odyssee)
10. [Samuel Goldwyn Films Acquires US Rights to 'The Odyssey', press release](https://www.samuelgoldwynfilms.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/The-Odyssey-Acquisition-Announcement.pdf)
11. [« L'Odyssée » : une statue sans relief pour le commandant Cousteau, Le Monde](https://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article/2016/10/11/l-odyssee-pour-le-commandant-cousteau-une-statue-sans-relief_5011536_3476.html)
12. [«L'Odyssée» : un tournage épique, Le Parisien](https://www.leparisien.fr/culture-loisirs/un-tournage-epique-12-10-2016-6195972.php)
13. [Matias Boucard on "The Odyssey", Film and Digital Times](https://movie-men.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Cooke-Book-2016-FDTimes-300.pdf)
14. [Bilan 2016 du CNC](https://spiac-cgt.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Bilan-2016-du-CNC.pdf)
15. [L'Odysée - UNESCO Campus, UNESCO Multimedia Archives](https://www.unesco.org/archives/multimedia/document-3107)
16. [The Odyssey, Film at Lincoln Center](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/the-odyssey/)
17. [The Odyssey [L'odyssée], Godalming Film Society](https://godalmingfilmsoc.org.uk/film-archive/2018-19/the-odyssey-lodyssee/)
18. [The Odyssey, Film Europe](https://filmeurope.cz/en/movies/the-odyssey)
19. [The Odyssey (2016), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1659619/)
20. [« L'Odyssée », ou le mythe de la rédemption du Commandant Cousteau, JNE](https://www.jne-asso.org/2016/10/16/lodyssee-ou-le-mythe-de-la-redemption-du-commandant-cousteau/)
21. [Cousteau, le vrai du faux, Le Parisien](https://www.leparisien.fr/culture-loisirs/vrai-faux-12-10-2016-6195969.php)
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