Friday, August 18, 2017


THE ODYSSEY is a beautifully constructed melancholy tale about a man who sacrifices his family for fame, and then tries to redeem himself late in life. That man is the French naval officer turned submariner and film-maker Jacques Cousteau - a figure handed down to us almost as parody as STEVE ZISSOU. One forgets - and it's delicious to be reminded - that he was once a truly respected and international star. That his oceanographic films earned the Palme D'or and huge global TV audiences.  That he was something of a rock star. And yet for all this fame, he was never financially secure.  His wife sold her jewels and fur to finance the refurbishment of his first ship and was steadfast on board despite his philandering.  His banks could barely keep up with the ever more outlandish plans for films.  And he would foolishly mis-sell movies to TV studios at a fraction of their cost. And yet, somehow he prevailed, bringing images of exotic animals and Antartica to his fans. 

The emotional arc of this film creates a two act drama. In the first act we have the relentlessly driven Cousteau neglecting one of his sons in favour of the one who is also a diver. And you have Cousteau having affairs and abandoning his wife.  In a more subversive narrative, we also have Cousteau financing his film with petrodollars, effectively researching the best place to dig for oil in the Arabian Sea. In the second act of the film, inspired by his beloved ecologist son, Cousteau becomes an evangelist for the environmental cause and founds the Cousteau Society. It brings precious little reconciliation with the neglected son and wife, and he becomes even more famous, even though that fame is now tinged with deep personal loss. 

Jerome Salle's film is not afraid to show both sides of Cousteau - his charisma and energy as well as his callous disregard for people and financial facts. He manages to capture the wonder of underwater ocean-cinematography and the majesty of Antartica in a way that - as Cousteau did - inspires us with the romance of ocean exploration.  But he always manages to undercut this with the darkness of family life chez Cousteau.  In particular, I liked the lead performance from Lambert Wilson - capturing all of Cousteau's ambiguity - and some of the touching set pieces - particularly that between Vincent Heneine's Bebert and Audrey Tautou's Simone. 

THE ODYSSEY has a running time of 122 minutes. It opened last year in France, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Russia and Switzerland. It opened earlier this year in Netherlands, Romania, Canada, Bulgaria, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Portugal and Norway. It opens today in the UK.

Sunday, August 13, 2017


Playwright Bryan Fogel is also a keen amateur cyclist, and as many of us, was scandalised not just by the Lance Armstrong admissions, but that Armstrong wasn't brought down by any of the official Olympic or state machinery designed to entrap dopers, but by the fact that his team-mates turned on him.  So Fogel decided that he was going to show exactly how easy it was to evade drug tests bu doping himself, and capturing the entire thing in a documentary.  Originally he tries to get the guy who runs the US anti-doping lab to help design his drug programme, but he backs out.  His Russian equivalent, Grigory Rodchenkov, appears to have no such qualms.  And so Fogel starts taking IPO, and monitoring his progress, and sees predictable and incredible improvements in quality. Although, as I have often pointed out, that doesn't mean he magically becomes good enough to win a Tour de France.  

About 45 mins into this 2 hour film, the real world catches up with Rodchenkov. The extent of state sponsored Russian doping at the Sochi Olympics is exposed, Russia receives a ban on competing, and Rodchenkov is under threat from the state.  The tone then shifts from doping expose to thriller, as Fogel helps Rodchenkov flee the country.  By this point, Fogel is evidently very close to the charismatic Russian doper, and admires his willingness to give detailed testimony against his former employers.  But the very closeness that gets Fogel the story, is also, ironically, the fatal flaw of this documentary.  Fogel wants us to see Rodchenkov as a victim, and maybe he is a little, but he's also equivocal and has done many illegal things that Fogel seems to inclined to forgive him for. The other fault of the documentary is about 20 minutes of running time that could easily be taken out of this rather rambling tale. 

ICARUS has a running time of 121 minutes. It played Sundance 2017 and was released by Netflix this month.