Two-fer Tuesday - July 14
Every Tuesday Big Heads will "program" a double feature of thematically or stylistically similar films. I will provide links so you can track down where to stream them and turn your house into a got-dang Cinematheque.
Today on two-fer a magnificent reminder we used to have nice things like theatrically-released Jacques Cousteau docs, paired with the Wes Anderson film inspired by Cousteau.
Voyage to the End of the World (1976), a film by Jean-Jacques and Phillipe Cousteau
A ubiquitous presence in the 60s and 70s thanks to his t.v. series The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau, occasionally Cousteau would get the budget for a feature length-big screen film that would enthrall adventure-hungry boys like me at the local bijou. This would be the last of its kind. Cousteau, seeming ancient and embittered but still a good twenty years from the end, leads a crew with his son Phillipe (who provides the jaw-dropping cinematography) on a voyage to Antarctica is his trusty vessel, the Calypso. One of the appeals of the film and the series was that while Jacques is the undoubted boss and center of the film, the crew of specialists is delineated and has a life of their own. They just seem like a bunch of great guys, united in the Brotherhood of Exploration. When one crew member dies in an accident (off screen. This is strictly G-rated stuff) the impact is devastating. But the voyage must go on.
Cousteau and crew dance with penguins cavort with seals, and encounter an enormous iceberg they call "the Sphinx." It is the Sphinx, along with some utterly horrible weather, that eventually aborts the voyage.
It matters little if we question the motivations of the project (he was accused of staging the events for filming, but what documentary doesn't do that?). Cousteau himself articulates his mission statement quite well in the film's voice over: "We are in search of harmony and purity on our planet." At the end not much is really accomplished except to reveal the mysteries of the human-uninhabited world to those enthralled adventure-seekers like me. Cousteau may have been an oceanographer and explorer, but we was an entertainer first.
The Life Aquatic, with Steve Zissou (2004), directed by Wes Anderson
The blur between archeology and artifice is at the heart of Anderson's Cousteau-inspired Life Aquatic. Bill Murray plays a popular but not terribly creditable oceanographer hunting a Killer Shark that is his Moby Dick. As with Voyage to the End of the World, the crew is more than just subservient, foremostly the marvelous Pele dos Santos (Seu Jorge) whose covers of the songs of David Bowie are a constant source of delight.
Owen Wilson is along for the ride as Zissou's estranged son, allowing Anderson to exercise his trademark themes of father/son reconciliation and regret. With its rigid proscenium compositions and candy-colored design, this arguably may have been the beginning of the Anderson backlash, as it was greeted with middling reviews and bad box office. I happen to love it (and yes, Anderson haters, it has miles and miles and miles of heart).
