In 1988, when I was 20 years of age, Jean-Luc Besson's film "Le Grand Bleu" (The Big Blue) was released.
I remembered watching it two years after release. I´d gone to rent a video at the local Blockbusters in a freezing night in Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. The picture of the sea in the cover of the DVD drew me in instantly. How I missed the warmth of the mediterranean sea during those winter days!
Comfortably and warmly facing the small screen TV in my room, the initial scene of the movie will always stay with me. A camera flying over the blue of the sea led to a boy in a bathing suit looking fo a mask he kept under a rock, then jumping from the cliff into the sea. Moments later, he was feeding seaweed to a moray eel. I thought of the countless hous I spent in Ibiza crushing sea urchins to feed fish and octopuses. I was always fascinated by their voracity and their speed in eating the urchin clean until the white of the skeleton is all you could see.
The film is loosely based in the life of wold-class diver and legend Jaques Mayol, brilliantly played by Jean-Marc Barr. We are witnesses at the beginning of the film to the demise of his father, a sponge diver, while the young boy cries and frantically splashes the sea with his hands as his father sinks into the depths never to return. That proximity between beauty and death of the sea has always been in my mind. This is perhaps why I have always respected the sea and I insist on the importance of childen and teenagers exercising caution when entering our snorkelling trips. Crucially, this prudence is what teaches young minds to measure risk in any aspect of life, an invaluable skill to the young and restless.
Le Grand Bleu is the story of a man whose life is inextricably linked to the sea. His enjoyment of life on solid ground is far from satisfying. Only the sea will do. And as the film progresses and we are taken to different locations across the mediterranean in different freediving competitions, the mediterranean in all its colours, textures and forms glides past our eyes.
I don´t want to ruin the experience of watching The Big Blue for the first time for anyone. If you love the sea, it will find a place in your heart. If you are simply curious, rarely has the sea been presented so truthfully and at the same time, creatively.
When I am at sea, I feel the impact on my mood immediately, depending on the time of day. In the morning, a dose of energy and enthusiasm for the new day. At sunset, a moment of peace and reflection. The cold waters of mediterranean winter are now turning into the cleanest, transparent fresh waters of spring. A promise of another exciting summer to come.
