Becoming Cousteau
Liz Garbus provides a timely portrait of a man whose concerns for the planet chime with today’s headlines.
This film by Liz Garbus is the work that won the Grierson Award for best documentary at this year’s BFI London Film Festival. It is a highly efficient piece and, as it happens, the timing of its release could not be better. For those with long memories Jacques-Yves Cousteau, who died in 1997, is revered as the man whose career as an undersea diver led to international fame through the TV series that ran from 1968 to 1976. Entitled The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau, it was a landmark in the development of natural history films seen on television in millions of homes. Earlier still, in 1956, Cousteau, working with Louis Malle, had made the cinema film The Silent World which had won the Palme d’Or in Cannes and went on to win the Oscar for Best Documentary. Despite that success and having had filmmaking ambitions from the age of thirteen, Cousteau had then opted to turn to television in order to reach the widest possible audience.
Becoming Cousteau is first and foremost focussed on his career and features his work as an oceanographer and inventor (in seeking equipment that would aid his underwater exploration he had come up with the aqua lung). However, the key development still lay ahead. When filming The Silent World, he had been ready to include a sequence in which a whale is killed and later, in order to obtain finance for his work, he had undertaken voyages that were assignments to explore for oil. But then he became aware that the oceans he loved were under threat and he switched course to become ardent in campaigning to save the planet. Indeed, in the 1970s he created the Cousteau Society which aimed to protect marine life for future generations. The significance of his role in these endeavours was confirmed when, in 1992, he was invited to speak at the first Earth Summit which took place in Rio de Janeiro and was attended by world leaders.
Despite the emphasis on his work, this documentary does touch on Cousteau’s personal life acknowledging, as he himself did, that he was not a good husband and father. It looks too at a major tragedy when Philippe, the son who took after his father and was favoured over his brother who was unfairly sidelined, died in an air crash at the age of 38. Nevertheless, Becoming Cousteau is more concerned with his work than with the man. So much archive footage exists that Garbus, while inviting Vincent Cassel to speak Cousteau’s own words, has given us a film made up entirely of pre-existing material. It is edited and assembled adroitly so that the movie always keeps on the move and gives a clear picture of Cousteau’s achievements. Even so, this approach arguably has a downside since the film that has emerged lacks a personal signature and adopts a uniform fast pace when a pause or two would have added variety and provided a breathing space. But that does not prevent Becoming Cousteau from being an important reminder of this man at the very time when it is most needed. About forty years ago Cousteau in a veritable cri de coeur was expressing fears that it might already be too late to save the planet. There can be no question but that he would thoroughly approve that through this film his message should be reiterated now just when Cop26 has been dominating the headlines.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Featuring Archive footage of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Pierre Cousteau, Jean-Michel Cousteau, Jocelyne de Pass, Louis Malle, David Wolper, Simone Cousteau, Francine Cousteau, and the voice of Vincent Cassel.
Dir Liz Garbus, Pro Mridu Chandra, Dan Cogan, Liz Garbus and Evan Hayes, Screenplay Mark Monroe and Pax Wassermann, Ed Pax Wassermann, Music Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans.
Story Syndicate/ACE Content/National Geographic Documentary Films-Dogwoof Pictures.
94 mins. USA. 2021. Rel: 12 November 2021. Cert. 12A.
