The Odyssey

This film screens as part of Pix Rendez-Vous. The section is a collaboration between Oslo Pix and Institut Français, and includes nine French titles at this year’s programme. It is a continuation of the festival Rendez-Vous with French film, which for many years has presented the remarkable quality of contemporary French cinema to a Norwegian audience.

In The Odyssey, we are following the footsteps of marine researcher, explorer and film director Jacques-Yves Cousteau who dedicated his life to the sea. Cousteau, one of the most shrouded in legend personalities of our modern times, was awarded with the Academy Award and the Palme d’Or for his documentaries.

Based on the true events of Cousteau’s life, the film begins in 1949 when Coustreau, accompanied by his family and the colourful crew of the ship Calypso, sets of to a trip around the world. During the voyage, Jacques gets absorbed in a visionary maelstrom about building cities on the seabed. Those future visions were about to ruin the relationship to his family, especially the one to his son Philippe. Starring some of France’s most outstanding film stars such as Lambert Wilson, Pierre Niney and Audrey Tautou, The Odyssey is a portrait of an influential, ambitious but certainly not flawless pioneer. JSR

The French director and screenwriter Jérôme Salle (b. 1967) made his debut as a feature film director with Anthony Zimmer (2005), a romantic thriller, and two movies based on a successful Belgian cartoon series. The movie Zulu starring Orlando Bloom and Forest Whitaker was shown as the closing film at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013.