FIDÉLITÉ AND PAN-EUROPÉENNE PRESENT

IN ASSOCIATION WITH WILD BUNCH

THE ODYSSEY

A film by Jérôme Salle

Starring Lambert Wilson, Pierre Niney, Audrey Tautou

FRENCH THEATRICAL RELEASE: OCTOBER 12th

France – 2.66 – 5.1 – 2h02

Material available for download:

http://www.wildbunch.biz/movie/odyssey-the/

INTENATIONAL SALES

Carole BARATON & Fanny BEAUVILLE

cbaraton@wildbunch.eu

fbeauville@wildbunch.eu

Olivier BARBIER

obarbier@wildbunch.eu

Emilie SERRES

eserres@wildbunch.eu

Silvia SIMONUTTI

ssimonutti@wildbunch.eu

SYNOPSIS

1948. Jacques Cousteau, his wife and his two sons are living in paradise, in a beautiful

house overlooking the Mediterranean. But all Cousteau can think of is adventure.

Thanks to his invention, an independent aqualung allowing divers to breathe under

water, he has discovered a whole new world. Now all he wants to do is explore this

world. And he is willing to sacrifice everything to achieve this.

INTERVIEW WITH JÉRÔME SALLE

Before you had the idea of making a film on this subject, what did the name Cousteau

conjure up for you?

It took me back to my childhood… I was brought up in the South of France, my parents

had a sailing boat, and we used to sail to all the places where Cousteau first went

diving, around the Embiez, Porquerolles, all those islands in the Var region. I also

remember his documentaries being shown on TV. Right from the start, the man and his

work were linked to my own life…

The project took quite a long time to set up - we'll come back to that - but how did the

idea first come about?

It all began with one of my children. I was talking about Cousteau at home and I saw

my son had no idea what I was talking about. He didn't know a thing about Cousteau,

had never heard of the films, the Calypso, nor the crew's red hats! It seemed

incredible, because for people of my generation, Captain Cousteau was almost like

Jesus, one of the most famous men in the world… After talking about this with other

people, I realised that he was sinking into oblivion as far as the under 20s and even the

under 30s were concerned. So I started to look at what had been written about him:

on the Internet, in books. I watched the documentaries again, and I ended up

experiencing a tremendous feeling of childhood nostalgia. I also noticed that apart

from Wes Anderson's film "The Life Aquatic", no movie had ever tackled the

extraordinary life of this man… So I began to unravel the details from there and I soon

felt that there was a lot of mystery surrounding him: very little was known about

Jacques-Yves Cousteau. He had total control over his image when filming himself with

his crew, but never revealed anything intimate about himself.

I imagine that the next difficulty was choosing an angle for the story you wanted to tell,

from such a full yet secretive life…

Absolutely, and I had such a hard job doing it, especially as in the meantime I directed

two other films, "Largo Winch" and "Zulu". It really took me several years to get a script

I was happy with… Laurent Turner, the film's co-writer, and I read everything which had

been written about the man, then met the people who had known him, because all

the grey areas surrounding Cousteau were stopping me from seeing who he really was

- a man who lived several lives in the space of a single lifetime… First we had to carry

out a huge amount of investigative journalism before we could begin the work of a

scriptwriter. Once this was done, we settled down to write the script. I thought it was a

good screenplay - in the sense that we got great feedback from it - but I still felt a little

frustrated. I felt it was a little too classic in its approach, too much of a biopic. I think it

was meeting the actors that enabled me to develop it further. Pierre Niney, whom I

wanted to work with, reinforced my idea of giving more space to the role of Philippe

Cousteau, one of Cousteau's sons. At this point, the opposition between Philippe and

his father suddenly seemed an obvious basis for the story… So then I wrote a

completely new version, taking out the first part about Cousteau's younger days. This

had the advantage of allowing me offer the role to Lambert Wilson, who - fortunately

- agreed almost immediately. While I was re-writing, I practically started from scratch,

and yet I wrote it all in one go in the space of three weeks. Thanks to the new angle, I

suddenly had a very clear idea of the story I wanted to tell. But I have to emphasise

that this was only possible because of all the hard work Laurent and I had been doing

for several years! I have been a scriptwriter, and I know only too well how often the

authors of the early versions get forgotten, even though that is by far the most difficult

part of the work. I loved working with Laurent, but I think that at that point, for the re-

writing, I needed to be alone with my subject.

There are, however, two aspects of Cousteau's life that could have made you think

twice about making the film: his family and his heritage…

For the first point, it's true that Jean-Michel Cousteau is still alive, as well as Philippe's

children. I met everyone quite early on, telling them clearly what I wanted to do and

how I was going to do it. I also told them that this would not be a documentary, but a

real feature film, cinema for entertainment. The Cousteau family and even those who

had worked with him should therefore not expect a hagiography. I told them: "Don't

forget that this film is not primarily for you, but for the spectators who do not know the

subject well"… Cousteau's status as an icon did not worry me too much. It is not the

subject of the film even though of course we show Cousteau's fame throughout the

world and his impact on environmental protection towards the end of his life…

It is true that "The Odyssey" is above all the portrait of a man, showing his doubts, his

faults, his weaknesses, his contradictions…

Yes, and this is what struck me most when talking to people who had never met him:

the extent to which their image of him could be completely different. There are those

who love him and are fascinated, and then there are those who sometimes hate him,

often without knowing much about him in fact. Some mix him up with his brother,

Pierre-Antoine Cousteau. Jacques-Yves was awarded the Legion d'Honneur for his

work in the Resistance, even though at heart, like Giono, he considered war an

absurdity that barely interested him. Others, like Gérard Mordillat, have blamed him

for killing sharks and for not always having respected nature early in his career. But this

is precisely what is interesting about Cousteau: the evolution of his relationship with

nature. He is someone who sums up the twentieth century perfectly, in terms of man’s

relationship with the environment. In the 1940s he hunted under water with no

restrictions, thanks to the Aqua-Lung diving regulator he invented with Emile Gagnan,

an engineer from Air Liquide. Then in the 1950s he worked with oil companies,

collecting samples in order to select sites for future offshore drilling! But you have to

put everything back into its context. In those days, man considered himself all-powerful

and nature was something which had to be tamed, its resources exploited without

any second thoughts. No one ever believed that the planet would be in danger. Later

on, Cousteau was one of the first people to become aware of this error. So he became

one of the first ecologists. But he never tried to hide his past errors, and that is all to his

credit! For example, many people wanted him to re-edit "The Silent World" in order to

cut out the shocking scenes, such as the shark massacre. He refused, because he felt

the film should remain as it was, to show evidence of the errors committed by man at

the time - including himself.

At the end of the day, do you feel any affection for this man?

Yes, of course… But above all and like all those who worked with him, I feel admiration

for Cousteau. This is a man who lived a multitude of different lives, who surmounted

unbelievable obstacles, who showed true physical courage many times. A highly

creative man and also a great film director because he knew how to tell stories. I

would also say that he was a great artistic director because he was talented enough

to choose the red hats and the black wetsuits with yellow stripes for his crew… His men

felt affection towards Simone, his wife, "The Shepherdess", the boss of the Calypso, but

they felt admiration for their captain…

Such a large-scale project, shot in all four corners of the world, needs quite a budget.

What was the search for financing like?

It was hell! It was by far the most difficult film to finance out of all those I've made… For

a French film, it is of course a huge budget, but films always need more money! I have

to say that "The Odyssey" was the result of everybody's investment, by which I mean

that everyone made an effort, money-wise: the actors first and foremost, but also the

producers, and myself of course. We all wanted this film to exist. It was a running joke

throughout the filming: "We're doing this for the planet"! I can assure you that no one

did this film for the money in any case! In fact at the end of the shoot, we didn't have

enough money left to shoot some underwater scenes I really needed, including one

with a shark. My four producers, Nathalie Gastaldo Godeau, Marc Missonnier, Philippe

Godeau and Olivier Delbosc, understood this and backed me, taking a real financial

risk. I would like to thank them, this doesn't happen very often.

Do you think that thanks to this film, Cousteau will become known throughout the

whole world?

Cousteau is already known throughout the whole world! And has been for a long time!

He does not need this film. The thing is, young people are not as familiar with him as

their parents and grandparents are. So the film will allow a new generation to discover

him. Which is a good thing! And not just in France, because I think the film has been

sold in many other countries.

The filming took place in lots of different countries: Croatia, South Africa, the Antarctic

and the Bahamas… How did you choose these natural settings so that they fitted in

with Cousteau's real life?

The first part of the film takes place in what I call a "lost paradise": a part of the

Mediterranean coast that is totally free of concrete, which no longer exists in France.

The Croatian islands look a little like our south coast did in the 1940s… It was a place I

didn't know and which gave us beautiful scenery, which was still in its natural state. I

filmed "Zulu" in South Africa and I came across a boat, which was not an exact replica

of the Calypso, but was the same type from the same period. That provided one good

reason to go, as well as the fact that this country is fantastic for filmmakers because

there are lots of different landscapes and very competent technicians. As for the

Antarctic, I was adamant about going there, firstly for artistic reasons, because there

is scenery which doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world, and also for symbolic

reasons, because it was Cousteau's final combat, where he succeeded in 1998 in

getting the world leaders to sign a moratorium freezing the industrial exploitation of

the resources of the region until 2048…

Do film directors get to savour how lucky they are to film in such places from a simply

visual point of view?

Of course: being able to make this film was already an unbelievable piece of luck! In

fact we all felt a little depressed at the end… "The Odyssey" was such an adventure,

in all senses of the word, that we all came out of it changed, both artistically and as

people. The odds of experiencing such an adventure again are extremely slim. As for

the Antarctic, we went at the end of the filming schedule and I warned everyone:

there would be just 12 of us, plus a doctor and a drone pilot, living in the harshest of

conditions. Actors and technicians shared 5 metre square cabins, with two to a

cabin… And we were all together twenty-four hours a day! It was very different to

normal filming conditions… But this part of the world is so sublimely beautiful, it brought

us back to basics in such a way that no-one could complain! Apart from the day

where we experienced a huge storm with winds of 140 km/h, every one of us was very

happy for every minute of the trip.

There are also some incredibly beautiful images in the film, such as the ballets of sharks

or whales…

Yes, these are completely unique moments, crazy… I remember, again in the

Antarctic, when we spent one night in a large bay called Paradise Harbour, the wind

had finally dropped, and the sea became completely still because of the extremely

low temperature. It was one o'clock in the morning and the sun, which never sets at

these latitudes in that season, was very low on the horizon. The light was just sublime. It

was impossible to stop filming, even after 16 or 17 hours non-stop! It was a unique

spectacle, of unbelievable beauty, in fact quite indescribable, which we were trying

to capture on camera… It is one of the last truly wild places left on our planet, and we

were just passing through: it was a very powerful moment. You mentioned the sharks,

and that was the same! When you find yourself face to face with a four-and-a-half

metre tiger shark, it's the same mad, awe-inspiring, emotional feeling!

Let's talk about your actors, starting with Captain Cousteau, alias Lambert Wilson…

I loved working with Lambert, in fact it's not unlikely that we will work together again

very soon… He is an actor who possesses everything I love about many Anglo-Saxons:

a mixture of talent, humility, and respect for the team. He is a man with great moral

intelligence, and enormous generosity… Cousteau was quite a tough character but

Lambert is so kind (in the noble sense of the word), that I could get him to act in some

very harsh scenes, without making his character hateful! He gives off an aura of

goodness… I feel very lucky to have met him and I know that he was the ideal actor

to interpret Cousteau…

With a spectacular physical performance in order to look like Cousteau…

I watched him suffering permanently during the filming: eating and drinking almost

nothing, keeping to a draconian diet and ending up just skin and bone… Lambert was

hungry all the time, but this was the price he paid to become Cousteau. I have to add

that at the start, he did not have the same morphology as Cousteau at all: it is his

thinness, the lean body, which creates the illusion.

There is a character in the film whom the general public is going to discover properly

for the first time: Simone, Jacques-Yves Cousteau's first wife, the veritable soul of the

Calypso. Audrey Tautou portrays her wonderfully…

The character of Simone is essential to the story. I think that Audrey, who is a fine,

intelligent actress, understood this straight away. She also told me that as soon as we

first met, she felt very close to Simone. And it's true that they have several things in

common. First of all, they are both very French - independent, slightly rebellious,

sometimes quite mouthy but basically very modest. Another thing in common: their

ability to find their place in a very masculine world. There were very few women in our

crew, and Audrey fitted in perfectly, completely at ease sitting around large tables

with a dozen men! And like Simone, Audrey loves the sea - she’s a true sailor. I saw her

during the storm in the Antarctic: the wind was over 80 knots and she didn't turn a hair,

was completely calm and serene. I always had the impression that playing Simone

was something self-evident for her. And Audrey also impressed me with her technique

and by the emotion she was capable of conveying, managing to reproduce things

completely accurately, after several takes, managing them, controlling them, but

without us ever sensing the technique behind it.

Let's talk about Cousteau's two sons, beginning with Pierre Niney who plays Philippe,

an important character, around whom the end of the story pivots.

I met Pierre before the "Yves Saint Laurent" film came out, after seeing him in "Comme

des frères" by Hugo Gelin. I offered him the role of Philippe, which at that time was a

much smaller role, and he accepted… So Pierre was attached to the project from the

start, at the point when Adrien Brody, and then Romain Duris were being considered

for the role of Cousteau. He was very faithful to the project, in spite of all the difficulties!

In fact when we were together for the final part of filming, on the deck of the boat

that was taking us towards the Antarctic, we threw our arms around each other and

hugged. We had been talking about "The Odyssey" for so long, especially this journey

to Antarctica to end the shoot, and there we were at last, we'd done it! Pierre is a

wonderful actor who has something very important: a true narrative sense, what the

Americans call "storytelling". I think he'll know how to use it when he begins to direct

feature films, which he will surely do one day… It is a gift he already has as an actor,

managing to understand within a particular scene which moments or lines he needs

to emphasise, to allow the spectator to understand the story or the emotion his

character is feeling at that particular moment. He has this skill, this maturity in spite of

his youth. Although he’s 27, so not really all that young!

Cousteau's other son is Jean-Michel. A smaller role, but crucial in the last part of the

film, which you gave to Benjamin Lavernhe…

I discovered Benjamin in "Radiostars" and I loved his performance. I've been following

his work ever since. When I needed to find an actor for the role of Jean-Michel, I

thought of him, and was very happy he accepted because it’s not a very big role. But

it is fundamental to the story. I liked the idea of him acting opposite Pierre: they have

worked together at the Comédie-Française, standing in for each other in "The Italian

Straw Hat"! In fact they are almost as close as two brothers in real life.

So there are these four main characters but, around them, you managed to create a

crew, with extremely believable faces and physical appearances…

In the first part of the film, we see "Les Mousquemers", a trio composed of Jacques-

Yves Cousteau, Philippe Tailliez and Frédéric Dumas, who made the first underwater

films at the beginning of the 1940s. In the film, Laurent Lucas and Olivier Galfione play

these men: I needed good actors of course, but as you say, I also needed men who

looked like real divers in swimming trunks! Laurent and Olivier also worked hard on their

physiques to achieve this… As for the crew of the Calypso, I mostly cast South African

actors: guys who lived in Cape Town but who had all heard of Cousteau and were

extremely motivated about joining the adventure. I gave them pages and pages of

stories and photos of the boat and the men who had sailed on it. Each one also had

a description of his character and the role he played on board - even those who had

no dialogue. And so I think that on screen, we sense how the crew evolve and how

they all know exactly what their job is… Being a sailor is a state of mind, a way of life.

Have you been in contact with the Cousteau family?

Yes of course. Every one of them, I think, at some point! Jan, Philippe's widow, visited

the set, in fact. I met her three or four years ago in Washington where she lives. We

had lunch together, she began to tell me about her life, and to talk about her husband

who died when she was expecting their second child… As I listened to her speaking,

and saw her cry almost 40 years after her husband's death, I found the story of her life

and love so beautiful that I decided to make Philippe's role more important in the

film… Philippe Cousteau had the characteristics of a true movie hero, including his

tragic end. But I really did meet all the Cousteau family, or almost all of them! When I

look at the number of Cousteau names in my phone contacts, I see that there are

more than there are members of my own family!

You mentioned the Calypso: let's talk a little more about this vessel which is at the

centre of the film and is more than just a piece of décor… practically a character in

its own right…

Filming on a boat is hell! A nightmare from beginning to end. Everything is

complicated. The English have a very nice saying, (and as I used to have a boat, just

a small one, I can confirm this): there are two good days when you own a boat, the

day you buy it and the day you sell it! But all the same, I love that boat which I had

spotted years ago. My production designer Laurent Ott did a fantastic job on board.

As did Matias Boucard my DP with whom I was working for the first time, and for whom

it was only his second film… I believe the choice of crew is really important for a film

director. I try to be faithful and I couldn't have carried out this difficult adventure

without the various head technicians around me, most of whom I have been working

with for years and who follow me around the world. Stan Collet, my editor, Brieuc

Vanderswalm, my first assistant, Carine Sarfati who was already with me on my first film,

“Anthony Zimmer”. And of course Laurent Ott, and Matias Boucard - the new boy.

Did you take this boat to the Antarctic with you?

No, because for a start, you cannot sail wooden boats there because the wood would

not resist the pressure of the ice. In fact this almost killed Cousteau and his crew on

board the Calypso, which was wooden, and therefore not at all adapted to the

extreme conditions of the Antarctic. I am not quite as bold as Cousteau! We went with

a boat that was authorised from a technical point of view, but also from an ecological

point of view, which is imperative in order to get permission to sail in the Antarctic,

which is a huge protected zone, thanks to Cousteau in fact! All the shots of the Calypso

in the Antarctic were added digitally later. And sadly, we also had to do the same

thing to add fish during the scenes shot in the Mediterranean because these species

have disappeared or become too rare in the past 70 years…

A word about the music. Once again you asked Alexandre Desplat to do the

soundtrack, which is a simple, yet spellbinding theme…

I think - and I told him this - that it is the most beautiful theme he has ever written for

me. When a composer gives you this kind of music, it's a gift… Alexandre sat down at

his piano, looking at images from the film, and he found the notes right in front of my

eyes. It was very moving. He understood what I was looking for in terms of mood as

well as emotion. At the end of the studio recording, I stole his sheet music and gave it

to my children, who also play the piano, so that they could learn it! However they're

not quite up to scratch yet…

Here you are at the end of this long journey you and Captain Cousteau have been on

for years. How do you see your "Odyssey" now?

The thing that makes me happiest is to see that the film has touched all those who

have been able to see it up to now, in the same way that the story touched me. I

remember the moment when I had just finished the final draft of the screenplay,

written all in one go over three weeks. I had been working non-stop for hours and hours

and I began to cry… That is the state I was in as I wrote the final pages. I hope that this

emotion will be shared by the spectators because "The Odyssey" is a film which talks

about very simple subjects, which are essential for most of us, like our relationship with

the nature surrounding us or the complicated family relationships which life sometimes

damages. I must add that this adventure changed me as a person as well. I was

already sensitive to ecological issues, but I came out of this even more so. Biodiversity,

global warming… These are crucial subjects for the years to come. We talk about them

a lot but we do little about it, far too little. And finally, the filming was so difficult that it

ended up giving me unbelievable strength! It is surely the influence of Cousteau

rebounding on us: he had this crazy ability to make possible things the rest of the world

deemed impossible… Well, I think that by making this film, we followed his example.

INTERVIEW WITH LAMBERT WILSON

Before you were approached about this project on Captain Cousteau, what did you

know about this man and his life?

His story took me back to my childhood. Everything was familiar: in the same way that

De Gaulle, Catherine Langeais or Léon Zitrone were! French TV icons my family and I

watched religiously. Not with my parents but with my grandparents, because my

father was often away acting on stage so we didn't watch TV together very often…

Cousteau was very present, and so were his crewmembers, like Philippe or Bébert.

There were very few TV channels at the time, so whoever appeared on television

became an obvious conversation topic for everyone. And because of the heroic

music of the documentaries and the incredible images they showed, Captain

Cousteau's adventures were a dream for kids my age. And even though there were

sharks for example, it never seemed really dangerous, just fun, exciting, almost like

going on holiday! It really is a generational thing: recently in Italy I met some fishermen

who told me they used to play at being Cousteau or Falco just like I did, when they

were kids in Portofino near Genoa… When I told them I was making "The Odyssey", it

was something very important to them…

Was it this almost sentimental attachment to the character that made you agree so

quickly when you read Jérôme Salle's screenplay?

I remember the moment my agent called me to talk about the film. I was in London

standing outside a theatre and I didn't hesitate for a second! Jérôme and I met very

soon after that, he gave me the script and for me, there was never any question of

not doing it… The angle of the film was not at all what I was expecting. I had heard it

was going to be some kind of Cousteau biopic, from his youth to his death. Jérôme

had already worked on the story a lot and had realised that finding an actor physically

capable of playing the character over a period of 60 years would be complicated

and more expensive. I also think that it would have been a little tedious. The idea of

concentrating the story on the relationship between Cousteau and his two sons,

Philippe and Jean Michel, was the right choice. Obviously it meant skipping certain

fundamental subjects, such as his invention of the aqua lung in the 1940s, enabling

divers to breathe under water, or the making of his first films which led to the triumph

of "The Silent World" at Cannes in 1956, or the final part of his life after Philippe's death,

which was very important in ecological terms… Although I was frustrated to begin with,

telling myself selfishly that it was taking away acting possibilities, I didn't think this when

I saw the film. Jacques-Yves Cousteau's very essence can be found in "The Odyssey",

with all his faults, his qualities, his contradictions and his relationship with his family.

So you had this kind of immediate desire to portray Cousteau, but after that, did you

feel any kind of pressure or responsibility playing a man who for a long time was the

French general public's favourite Frenchman, as was the priest, Abbé Pierre, another

of your great roles?

Yes, that's exactly what it felt like: Cousteau and the Abbé were successively number

1 and number 2 in the Journal du Dimanche list of favourite celebrities for years! With

hindsight, it was far more risky getting me to play Abbé Pierre than Cousteau: I was

too young at the time, too tall… With Cousteau, I shared a few physical traits with him,

tall and gangly, same shaped nose… Of course I had to work on it but there was such

a mass of information about Cousteau, unlike Abbé Pierre. For this kind of exercise,

directors and actors have to understand very quickly that what we are giving the

public is a sensation, a glimmer of a character, not an imitation. At the end of "Winter

54", I still didn't look like Abbé Pierre, but the finest compliment came from the

members of his community who said that they had felt him in my performance… In

"The Odyssey", I may look quite like Cousteau, but I hope that some sort of truth and

sincerity will come across, and in particular, I hope that those who knew him will be

convinced…

As well as the physical preparation, which we’ll return to, much of the preparatory work

was based on studying the mass of existing documentation about Cousteau, including

his books…

I’m one of those actors who need a model to put my performance into focus. If one

is trying to transform oneself, the model must be accurate… With Cousteau, the sheer

volume of existing material is almost overwhelming! Firstly there are all his

documentaries, in which he appears. Then there are many books, particularly the one

by Franck Machu, a huge volume called "A Filmmaker Called Cousteau" which has

the advantage of being a biography seen through his films. The story begins with his

first black and white films, made with the Mousquemers, then approaches "The Silent

World" as well as all the episodes of the TV programmes: everything Cousteau filmed

is listed and mixed with elements about his life. It is enthralling… I also read Jacques-

Yves Cousteau's own book: "Cousteau, My Testament: Man, Octopus and Orchid", a

sort of great ecological manifesto which doesn't say much about his life but is

interesting. And there is a very good English book called "The Sea King" by Brad

Matsen, which is extremely objective. Anyway, for a whole year before the filming, I

literally gobbled up anything about Cousteau in order to feed my inspiration. Another

important element: the work on the costumes and the make-up, which was achieved

by watching the images over and over again. And Jérôme Salle got me to listen to

recordings of Cousteau's voice, in particular Jacques Chancel's "Radiotelescopie"

programmes. Honestly, when I listened to those, it felt almost as if I'd stuck my fingers

into an electrical socket, with the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end!

Meaning I sometimes got the impression that Cousteau was right there, next to me…

However I gave up on the idea of trying to imitate his voice, and concentrated more

on the rhythm of his speech. I talked to Laurent Gerra, the impressionist, who is one of

those enigmas, capable of capturing and reproducing a vocal range. It would have

meant too much time and work, with the risk of missing some of the more important

aspects of Cousteau: a mixture of charisma, fierce egocentricity but also an incredible

ability to convey energy and the idea of freedom to others. He was a weak character

in terms of his dislike of conflict, the way he fled family or professional tensions, but one

who could convince you to follow him to the end of the world or to take out your

chequebook to finance his projects!

He was also a man who built his dream with Simone, his first wife…

Yes, with and without her at the same time, and this is one of the paradoxes that make

him interesting. This selfish choice of freedom was made by them both. Whatever

anyone says or whatever we know about them, Simone and Jacques-Yves were a

couple and they chose this incredible life travelling the world. It reveals a lot about

them… To begin with they impose this way of life on their children who follow them as

best they can, only learning to read at the age of 8, living like little savages. When the

parents wanted to travel further afield, the boys were sent to boarding school…

Simone chose this eccentric life and afterwards, she remained alone on board the

Calypso with the crew. I had never really made a proper sea crossing; I had mainly

sailed near the coast. For the film, we went to the Antarctic, and through the Drake

Passage, one of the most dangerous seas in the world. I understood right there and

then! The excitement of being out at sea, without the slightest bit of land in sight, the

total freedom, I felt it in my flesh… Cousteau's divers, for example François Sarano, told

us that at the end of one expedition, they stopped at a port in the middle of a storm

off the coast of New Zealand. They just gave themselves enough time to fill up the fuel

tank and restock the food supplies, and then the Calypso was off again into the midst

of the storm! Neither Jacques-Yves nor Simone wanted to remain in port. I think that

deep down, they were both fleeing the rest of mankind, even though he spent part of

his life going to the United States to find money to finance this flight…

Let's also talk about your physical transformation to create a body resembling

Cousteau's, i.e. a diver's body…

It was somewhat of a failure for me. I think that an American actor (Matthew

McConaughy for example) would probably have pushed the boat out further! The

difficult thing with Cousteau was that I had to be very thin, but at the same time, I had

to do very physical things, like diving. The problem is that below a certain weight, you

are weak. I had to swim under water carrying these very heavy oxygen cylinders, with

14-hour days of filming, so I needed to have enough energy. I lost ten kilos quite

quickly, without putting on any more during the filming. In fact Jérôme carried out a

permanent surveillance of my meals because he thought I was too bulky! I do regular

weight training and my body was supposed to be like a diver's: more lean than

muscular…

Learning to dive also took real discipline too, I imagine…

It was a like being handed a gift! Ever since I was a child, as soon as I get in a pool, a

lake or the sea, I spend my time under water. I had even gone as deep as 3 or 4

metres, by decompressing a little… No one ever told me that all I had to do was put

on some oxygen cylinders in order to breathe and be the happiest of men! I remember

that when my brother and I were children, we did diving exercises in our parents' pool

in Bandol (near where Cousteau had lived) by having competitions to place objects

at the bottom of the pool. For "The Odyssey", I had to learn professionally, of course!

French law states that we have to have a recreational diver certification, but also a

commercial diver certification because we are diving for work… That meant an

extremely thorough medical, with a lung X-ray, electrocardiogram, eye and ear

exams etc… And then there was a four-day diving exam, which is what oil rig divers

have to take. I’m very proud of that qualification… The only problem was during our

first lesson (with Pierre Niney, Jérôme Salle and Brieuc Vanderswalm, the assistant

director). We were in Marseille industrial port in extremely dirty water. We couldn't see

our instructor who was just a metre away, and we were standing in mud, silt and oil…

We had to do lots of exercises where we had to take off our masks under water. I

immediately got an eye infection. Awful! Fortunately, for the next few days, we went

to the islands nearby and were able to enjoy ourselves a little at the same time. In fact

I'd like to acknowledge the fantastic guys who trained us, in particular Philippe Le

Meuner, all of them were so incredibly calm, efficient and kind. Diving was a real

revelation to me. I went mountain climbing for "Five Days One Summer" by Fred

Zimmermann, I had to train as a fighter for other films, and I've been horse riding

regularly since I was a child. But with diving, I met some completely different people.

They are all peaceful, calm, nature lovers, reassuring in their promptness to help their

diving buddy. These professionals weren’t with us all through the filming, but their

presence at the beginning, in Croatia, with the sun, the warm water and the

magnificent scenery, helped the whole crew - actors and technicians - to form a close

bond.

Croatia, which was being used as the French Riviera in the 1940s and 50s…

Yes, a kind of lost paradise before the arrival of concrete… A part of the

Mediterranean that has been preserved, and is slightly old-fashioned. It was a

marvellous time: we would go off walking over the great pointed rocks which I had

seen as a child in La Ciotat or Cassis. It all had a strange yet charming sense of

travelling back in time… Then we went to South Africa, but that's completely different:

Cape Town is like an enormous studio. We could recreate scenes in Paris, New York or

Marseille!

How would you define the film?

Now we are getting to one of the most interesting points of the film: "The Odyssey" is

definitely not a hagiography of Captain Cousteau. The film shows that the oil industry

financed his early work, and that he agreed on compromises with the American TV

channels so that they would finance his films, that his relationship with wildlife

fluctuated and that his real ecological conscience was awakened much later on. This

may surprise the audience, which has a very different image of Cousteau…

There are two possible ways of looking at the man. The first is admiring but basic: like

the Abbé Pierre, they are well-loved personalities but we do not really know them. The

second way surprises and annoys me! Amongst a certain section of supposedly more

aware, Parisian, intellectual types, there is a kind of desire to destroy the icon! For

example some people insist on associating Cousteau with the open anti-Semitism of

his brother, Pierre-Antoine, who wrote some absolutely appalling things. These people

are completely misinformed! You mention ecology, but he acknowledged his mistakes

by going very far in the opposite direction, and succeeded in getting a moratorium to

protect the Antarctic for the next 50 years. He was one of the first people to set off the

alarm bells, which all well-informed people hear ringing today. When he made "The

Silent World", he had no idea of the extent to which the ocean was in danger. The

threat can be traced back to the beginning of the industrial revolution… But at the

beginning of the 60s, Cousteau was the one who got the scientists at the Monaco

Oceanographic Institute to agree not to bury nuclear waste at the bottom of the

ocean! He is a true hero of mankind whose message has gone practically unheard.

All the things international organisations are saying about industrialisation, overfishing,

global warming: Cousteau was the first person to speak out about these things. So

putting him on trial over his lack of environmental awareness is stupid and unfounded,

and talking about him through this film is a way for me to put his message back into

the heart of the debate. But this does not prevent the film from showing Cousteau from

every angle…

He was only human, then?

Yes absolutely. He certainly had his faults… in his private life (but who are we to act as

moral censors?) he was a womaniser, who had relationships with many women during

his travels. The part I find less easy to excuse is his relationship with his children… I found

similarities to the way my father was with me. They were both men capable of sharing

all the excitement and value of their work with you, yet at the same time they

abandoned you by hardly ever being with you and in particular, they hated the fact

that you encroached upon their territory by becoming rivals… Cousteau had a kind

of passionate paternal love for Philippe, but he expressed it by showing great

harshness. He loves him, but also wants to punish him for his talent. Some scenes were

quite upsetting for me. I'm thinking of the one where father and son meet in a

restaurant in Los Angeles. In Philippe's voice I heard the sort of recriminations I could

have made to my own father. Yet I was the one who was embodying the very things

I hated! As for Cousteau's financial opportunism, I must admit that I understand that.

He needed a lot of money to live this dream, which has benefited so many people.

He understood very quickly that he was the most important and visible cog in the

machinery of the media. This saga needed a hero and he put himself at the centre,

probably through narcissism, it's true, but also knowing that people needed a point of

reference for it all to be viable. When he went to America to negotiate millions with

the TV companies, it was because the oil industry had cut off his finances. I think this is

a great story because that was when a new adventure began, which put him back

at the centre of his true occupation: Cousteau was more than just an underwater

explorer, he is a filmmaker. From that moment onwards, he concentrated on the

photography, constructed his own cameras, invented things. Louis Malle himself said

that he had learned a huge amount working with Cousteau…

Talking of filmmakers, what about Jérôme Salle? How would you describe him, as a

man and as a filmmaker?

Jérôme is a real chameleon, thanks to his intelligence! He is a man of ideas, an

intellectual, with whom you can talk philosophy for hours or discuss theories about a

character. But he is also a man of action, a decision-maker, a group leader. It’s

astonishing! The Jérôme I met at the beginning over a cup of tea to discuss the project,

was the essence of subtlety. When we went off to train as divers, I discovered his sense

of competition, a real he-man, always willing to take up a challenge! During filming,

Jérôme was always the first one to put on his wetsuit, even when it wasn't absolutely

necessary for him to dive! He is also a filmmaker, and there are not many people who

are able, on the one hand, to film very psychologically intimate scenes between two

characters and on the other, to launch themselves into large-scale stuff with planes,

or men underwater surrounded by sharks! He always remains completely unperturbed

- in fact he loves it. When Pierre Niney and I were on the ice floe together, we were

supposed to be sharing a moment of subtle emotion between father and son, on a

piece of ice where we were not allowed to move so as not to leave any marks behind.

Jérôme filmed the whole thing with a drone, and he was a true leader. When I send

him messages, I still call him "Boss"! He's the only director I've ever done that with…

So Pierre Niney plays Philippe Cousteau, one of your two on-screen sons…

The beautiful thing about a film shoot is when you realise that the actor you are acting

with has the same ideas as you. Like myself, Pierre was playing a character he wanted

to develop at length and defend. I admire him as an actor enormously: he has

incredible finesse and intelligence. He is a quick, funny, sensitive adventurer. I

particularly admire his ethics with regard to his relationship to other people. Pierre is an

elegant person… He is also very ambitious in the noble sense of the word: he wants to

do things properly. In fact it was very touching to find myself in an almost paternal

relationship with an actor who is very similar to how I was at the same age. At the age

of 25, an actor is very determined. He wants to act, to learn… Pierre is very demanding

with himself, he wants to leave an impression, and in this case, he wanted to create a

real person, to make Philippe a hero. He worked on his physique too, and was an

intrepid diver. I was almost jealous of him! It was a film about Cousteau after all, and

he was the one who got to swim with sea lions and sharks! But joking aside, I would say

that the fact that we filmed in all four corners of the globe meant that a bond was

formed between us all… In fact the main difference between Pierre and me is that we

are not starting out in the same world: he is totally part of the generation of

smartphones, tablets and Twitter!

Another important character in the film, who the audience is going to discover for the

first time: Simone Cousteau, beautifully played by Audrey Tautou…

When we saw the film and the lights came up in the auditorium, I turned to Audrey

straight away and just said "Hats off to you"… She is extraordinary in the role, she

manages to create Simone's character in a very subtle, unique way. Audrey knew

how to take inspiration from the real Simone even though very few books or

documents about her exist. She was an admiral's daughter, so a seafaring girl, a

middle-class girl who chose to leave society. Simone also experienced pain in her

marriage, and to piss Cousteau off, she decided to remain on board the Calypso,

leading the boat, as the head of the crew. All those men really respected her: for

those who are still alive, she is untouchable! Audrey knew how to portray Simone's

psychological evolution: she goes through the film becoming increasingly bitter, but

remaining tender, gracious… I loved her performance! And she is one of those

actresses, like Signoret, who is capable of going from great beauty, to something self-

destructive… Simone Cousteau was a highly intelligent woman, who was always very

attentive to what was happening around her, but also capable of toughness. I think

that Audrey has something very close to that. She is someone who loves the sea, who

feels at ease in the company of men. She was very at ease on board the ship… during

the trip to the Antarctic, we were both ecstatic, rushing around filming everything! She

has created a very unconventional role which I am sure will help her to open up an

unbelievable range of possibilities…

You have already emphasised this: the boat you filmed on is an essential element of

"The Odyssey". When you were on board this replica of the Calypso, and you became

Cousteau for the film, did it give you goose bumps?

Yes, absolutely: the first time I stepped onto the deck it was crazy! I had dreamed of

this ship so much, I had read so much about it, seen so much footage of it, that it was

a very weird sensation. I remember when I arrived at the port in Cape Town and I saw

the boat, I couldn't believe my eyes! Everything becomes unique, for example when

you enter the control deck… you know, "The Odyssey" was not just any old film: we all

approached the story, this family, this adventure, at close range. Of course we were

playing characters, but characters we knew or after meeting the people who had

known them. For me there was a culminating factor in all this. At the end of the film, I

weep over the death of my son, Philippe, with my other son Jean-Michel, sitting on a

bench overlooking the ocean. Frankly, at that moment, I really was crying for Philippe.

I didn't need to think of my loved ones, which is a technique actors use in order to cry

on screen… This story had become my own. My sorrow was Cousteau's sorrow for his

son. That had never happened to me before…

Does this mean that the film will remain a very special moment in your acting career,

after forty years of working with some great directors?

Yes, if only because it is very rare to get the chance to play a character over such a

long period of his life, between the ages of 37 and 70. All the make-up artistry by Rick

Findlater to achieve this was exceptional. For me, "The Odyssey" was a great

accomplishment. It is the type of film I dreamt of making when I first discovered

cinema: large-scale, epic… I loved watching David Lean films, or "Out of Africa" where

there were intimate dramas then suddenly, you get totally blown away by the scale.

So of course, I have enjoyed making the art house films I've acted in, but what Jérôme

offered me was impossible to refuse, as this type of film is very rare in France. And I am

convinced that the most precious things in life, more than personal accomplishments,

are travel and encounters. I was particularly spoilt in that respect!

INTERVIEW WITH PIERRE NINEY

What was your first reaction when, very early on in the project, you received Jérôme

Salle's proposal?

I felt very lucky to get to read a screenplay for such an ambitious film, which is very

rare. A great adventure film, poetic, about an extraordinary family, which brought

attention to the beauty and fragility of our planet.

Philippe Cousteau's role is truly at the heart of the story of "The Odyssey". How much

did you know about him before working on the character?

That he was Captain Cousteau's son, that's about it! I had everything to learn about

him!

Philippe is a less well-known character. Yet he co-directed quite a lot of the

documentaries with his father. And Philippe was a very important character in the

Cousteau adventure and a very prominent member of the crew. But Jacques-Yves

Cousteau was such a leader, a pioneer, a "monster" of charisma and energy, that

Philippe, who died young, has naturally been erased a little over time. This is also the

subject of the film, and a very interesting one too, I think.

How did you learn more about him? For example did you meet his wife, Jan, or his

children?

I did a lot of research. Watching the films, of course, the ones he appeared in and the

ones he directed. But also looking at photos, reading interviews and talking to the

former crewmembers of the Calypso who we were able to meet. These men, who

were Philippe's colleagues, were also witnesses to his lack of awareness of danger.

They told me about the crazy risks Philippe used to take in order to get a picture. This

daredevil side to Philippe was an important factor. It reflected his desire to overtake

his father, I think.

But the most precious resource was his letters: a very private and privileged access

into Philippe's world.

I only obtained this access thanks to meeting his wife Jan. Jérôme put us in touch with

each other and we met in Los Angeles a few months before filming started. She was

kind enough to tell me a lot about her relationship with Philippe, and his personality.

She was a great help in my preparation for the role, opening up her archives to Jérôme

and me, and giving us a lot of information about Philippe's life. These private letters

were key for me. In order to understand the man, but also the very strong, unique love

story they experienced. Letters sent from the opposite side of the world by two lovers,

talking about their lives, their plans, their family, the state of the world… Totally inspiring.

The part of Philippe brings a personal dimension to the film, which goes perfectly with

the breath of adventure running through it. Was that the main challenge of the project

for you?

Philippe was capable of great love, which he experienced with Jan, great admiration,

which he had for his father, but he was also quite a solitary character.

He was very close to nature and to animals. Jan told me that he often preferred the

company of birds to that of men. His ecological conscience comes from his

contemplation of nature, landscapes, the sea…

The fact that he passed on this awareness, which was completely unheard of at the

time, to his father, was a decisive element in my desire to play Philippe. I think that

today, it is of the utmost importance to keep on telling people, reminding them again

and again that we must take care of our planet.

Philippe was an explorer, a diver, a pilot: how did you prepare physically for the role,

in particular, the underwater scenes? What memories do you have of this part of the

filming?

Jérôme wanted me to prepare physically: to exercise and also to learn to dive, of

course. I did a diving course in Marseille with Lambert and Jérôme before shooting

started. It was an amazing discovery for all three of us. An important moment in the

project, I think.

There is something very meditative about diving, it imposes a slow rhythm, which rests

the mind, I find. For Lambert and me, it was the opportunity to really meet each other

properly… under the water. I really liked the fact that our first real encounter did not

take place around a table, working on the dialogue and the text, but instead, it was

something much more basic and intuitive, 20 metres under the sea. We were already

at the heart of the film - at the heart of the relationship between Jacques and Philippe.

"The Odyssey" gave you the opportunity to travel to Croatia, to the Bahamas, South

Africa, the Antarctic: what were the great moments of these voyages?

There were so many of them. I will always remember the scene we shot in the middle

of the ocean in South Africa. Lambert and I had some dialogue together on the

surface of the water, when suddenly, in the middle of the scene, a huge hump-

backed whale came out of the water a few metres away from us. Cue general

stupefaction and fascination! I couldn't believe my eyes. It swam around us, then

suddenly a second one appeared, and both swam around us for a good half hour.

So in the end we carried on with the scene… surrounded by hump-backed whales in

the middle of the ocean.

We had several incredible moments like these. Good ones and also some tough

ones… I'm thinking of the extremely powerful storm we were caught in, in the

Antarctic. With 170 km/h winds. Slaloming between icebergs at night…

Did you ever just become a simple spectator of the marvels you had in front of you?

Almost every day we saw the most incredible things. Sometimes it's impossible not to

just stand and stare at these sights. A whale jumping out of the water just a few metres

from the boat, a school of dolphins that were curious about our filming, an iceberg

collapsing before our very eyes in the middle of the Antarctic, diving with sharks

feeding just a few centimetres away… I saw some of the most incredible sights in my

life thanks to this film.

With Lambert Wilson, you shared some beautiful moments on screen. Tell us about

working with him, and your relationship when you were not actually shooting…

Lambert also has a special link to the theatre, and therefore to the text and theatrical

composition. We have the same culture, a common pleasure in acting. Which helped,

I think, to recount a quite complex relationship between a father and a son. A

relationship made up of mutual frustration and admiration, where Philippe was trying

to make his mark yet his father was always the centre of attention. Sometimes he

totally disagreed with his father, but he loved him.

Lambert has a natural elegance and his sensitivity was a real advantage off the set

too. When you are living in such unusual conditions as those we experienced in the

Antarctic, where we were stuck on a boat together for two weeks with just a small film

crew, literally at the mercy of the wind and the tides, it is good to have someone as

gentle and considerate as Lambert.

Tell us about Audrey Tautou who plays your mother, Simone…

I was impressed by Audrey's creation of the role of Simone. I hadn't seen this as such a

strong, touching role when I read the script. She knew how to bring out the weaknesses

and tender aspects of the mother.

Your brother in the film, Jean-Michel, is played by Benjamin Lavernhe, one of your

close friends since you acted in the Comédie Française together. Did this bond help

with acting together?

I first met Benjamin at the Cours Florent acting school. I was immediately struck by how

inventive and in-tune he was as an actor. Then we studied at the Conservatoire

National together, then I asked him to act in my series "Casting(s) on Canal+ and our

paths crossed again at the Comédie Française. Benjamin is a close friend and a great

actor. Acting with him is always a pleasure… and a return to childhood too because

we always have fun together. Too much, perhaps. I can remember being in fits of

laughter with him a couple of times during filming.

It is rare to have such a large-scale film such as the "The Odyssey" in French cinema.

What kind of director was Jérôme Salle and how did he lead the project?

Jérôme had had the idea for the film for a long time. It was a story he was very

attached to and a family he knew a lot about. Jérôme also has a very clear idea of

what he wants to do technically and artistically. In spite of the concentration needed

to direct such an ambitious film, we always felt that he took great pleasure in being

on set. The contagious excitement he had about telling the story of this epic family

history was a real motivating factor for everyone.

For example, for a long time, it was thought that we would film a lot of scenes in a

studio, in particularly the voyage to the Antarctic, which was technically very

complicated. But one day Jérôme phoned me and said: "Pierre, it's going to be very

complicated, but we're going to go to Antarctica…" Then he explained to me that it

was impossible for him to tell a story of adventurers while being stuck inside a studio.

He had to develop the film in a more authentic manner, get closer to the subject. So

we went! And now, I can say that the voyage, as well as diving with sharks, filming in

natural landscapes… all inspired us enormously and gave a real stimulus to the project.

Jérôme is extremely good at creating atmospheres, capturing and filming magnificent

images, while at the same time directing the actors with real consideration.

For the last few years you have worked on some very different projects, all very

ambitious. What was your lasting impression of "The Odyssey"? Does it stand out in

your acting career?

“The Odyssey” will always be an amazing adventure on a personal level. I learnt a lot.

These voyages raised my awareness of many things, but in particular the immense

fragility of our planet. The observation of the damage in the Antarctic is extremely

alarming. Philippe is the emissary of this message, but he also expresses hope too. He

is the one who says to his father at the end of the film: "It’s not too late".

I was very pleased to take on this role and become the emissary of this message… the

emissary of these men who dedicated their whole lives to showing us, and in the end,

protecting, our planet.

If I asked you to choose just one single image, one moment of this adventure, what

would it be?

Our final day of shooting in the Antarctic. We were leaving Deception Island after

filming the final shot of the film, leaving behind us a beach covered in volcanic smoke.

It was an eerie image, and there was a palpable emotion amongst our little crew on

the Zodiac. The end of long months of filming, and probably the last time we would

ever see that magnificent sight.

INTERVIEW WITH AUDREY TAUTOU

The real revelation of the film, even for those who know a little about Cousteau's life, is

your character Simone…

Absolutely, and I realised when preparing for the role that even some real Cousteau

fans knew practically nothing about this woman, even though she had been the true

captain of the Calypso for almost 40 years.

So how did you go about researching such a character?

I must admit that I didn't know anything about her either and I learnt about her as I

looked for archives on her. There was not much to go on… I only found one interview,

for example, for "Le Grand Echiquier". Simone Cousteau kept out of the limelight: she

didn't like being filmed. On the other hand, there are quite a lot of photos of her, which

I used, as well as a very detailed biography, which was a mine of information. I also

met two of her companions from the Calypso, two men who worked with the

Cousteau couple for many years: François Sarano, a diver and oceanographer, and

Roberto Rinaldi, an underwater cameraman. Two wonderful characters who told us

some incredible anecdotes… when you listen to them, you can feel how attached

they were to Simone, and how important she had been to the crew…

Now that you have played the role of Simone Cousteau, and therefore know her better,

how would you talk about her?

I would say that she was not a conventional woman. Simone wanted an independent

life, she was very different to the stereotypes of the time! She was a real adventurer

and a true sailor… I think she is the woman who has sailed the most in the world: she

spent 40 years on a boat. I think her life was incredible, completely atypical. I know

(because I found this out, and people talked about it) that she also had a very strong

personality with a caustic wit, not unlike myself in fact! She was also Cousteau's eyes

on-board, whenever he was away travelling the world to promote his films or to find

money to finance his next adventure…

And we know that during his absences, Jacques-Yves Cousteau had quite a few affairs

with other woman. How do explain the fact that Simone, who was probably perfectly

aware of this, stuck by him in spite of everything?

I think that the Calypso was her whole life… She even wrote a letter directly addressed

to the boat, saying that the day the ship stopped sailing, she would carry on living but

it would be as though she had died inside… I also think that Simone really loved

Cousteau and that she carried on loving him, even though she sensed, or maybe

knew, that he had a double life. But her life on board with her sailors (her "chaps" as

she called them), helped her put up with everything else, particularly her husband's

absences and infidelities. This didn't stop her from feeling very hurt by it though…

Simone Cousteau was also a mother and we see in the film that the two sons are

treated a little distantly at the beginning: taken off all over the world by their parents

and then sent off to boarding school…

It was probably linked to how Simone was treated by her own parents. They didn't

spend much time with her; for example they sent her to boarding school in Japan

where she spent some of her childhood. So she had no strong maternal figure upon

which to base herself, especially as her own mother was a society lady, something

Simone had always refused to become, finding it too superficial… her relationship with

her sons Philippe and Jean-Michel was quite different, but just as clumsy, I would say,

and in the end, resembled what Simone herself had experienced. She did not conform

to modern parenting codes, which say that a mother should completely dedicate

herself to her children…

She was a strong character, a type of character you often get asked to play: I’m

thinking of Amélie Poulain, Coco Chanel, or even Mathilde in "A Very Long

Engagement"…

All these woman have something in common: they do not want to follow the path

which has been marked out for them in advance. They are independent and want to

build a life that resembles them. I can't remember ever having played weak or

submissive women. I don't think anyone has ever offered me those types of roles!

Jérôme thought of you for the role of Simone Cousteau very early on. What was it like

working with him on an epic like "The Odyssey"?

It went really well. You need a real captain to manage such an expedition, and

Jérôme has all those qualities! We met right at the beginning of the project. He talked

to me about Simone, about her character, and explained the angle he wanted to

take in his film. Jérôme is very sensitive to human relationships, but also has the strength

of character to embark on an adventure of this type. We shot practically everything

outdoors, in conditions which were sometimes very complicated. In spite of the

difficulties, he never made any concessions or got discouraged.

Let's talk about your on-screen husband, Lambert Wilson, who plays Cousteau…

We first met when we did "Not on the Lips" by Alain Resnais, but I only really got to know

him when we spent 5 months filming “The Odyssey” together. And I wasn't

disappointed! First of all, Lambert is a brilliant actor and I feel that the more films he

does, the more astonishing and amazing his performances get. On a personal level,

he is very sensitive, considerate, kind, and extremely funny. It was an important

encounter: I like him very much indeed…

During filming he had to follow a strict physical regime to play his character. Did that

have any effect on your complicity, which was necessary for playing an on-screen

couple?

No, not at all, and when I said this man is amazing, I also mean it in this sense too.

Lambert had to follow a draconian dietary regime, hours of preparation and make-

up: he carries the film on his shoulders, and yet he remained so pleasant all the way

through. We got on well right from the start…

Say a few words about your two on-screen sons: Pierre Niney who plays Philippe and

Benjamin Lavernhe who plays Jean-Michel…

I felt very lucky to be their on-screen mum! They represent the best we have in talented

young actors. They are intelligent, talented, inspiring boys and they are very funny

too… Apart from all these very sincere compliments, I don't know what else to say

about Pierre and Benjamin! They were wonderful, and it was an exceptional

experience for all of us.

You went to Croatia, Antarctica, South Africa, the Bahamas… What impressions did

making this film leave on you?

For me, making "The Odyssey" was like a dream come true. Right from the start, I told

Jérôme that I would do the film, on the condition that I would be part of the voyage

to the Antarctic! I had always wanted to go there, and for me, there was absolutely

no question of me missing out. The whole film was one long journey: spending days

right in the middle of the ocean suited me just fine. Once again, it is one of the things

I had in common with Simone: being on a boat is where I feel happiest, and I've felt

like that ever since I was a child! I had a teacher who introduced me to sailing, and I

loved it right away. It's a passion that has never left me, even though I don't get the

chance to sail as much as I would like… Sailing a boat is second nature to me.

You have already worked on ambitious, large-scale films. I'm thinking of Jean-Pierre

Jeunet's films or "The Da Vinci Code" by Ron Howard, for example. How did making

"The Odyssey" compare?

I think of it as an incredible adventure. When you realise we went round the world on

a boat, seeing amazing wildlife, having to constantly adapt to conditions, while telling

a story about family and love. This film enabled to see at first hand all the beauty of

the world and the dangers that threaten it… I'm not an environmental specialist, but I

feel concerned by this. Meeting members of the Cousteau team, who have made it

their life's mission, made me even more aware of the environmental issues.

CAST

Jacques-Yves Cousteau Lambert WILSON

Philippe Cousteau Pierre NINEY

Simone Cousteau Audrey TAUTOU

Philippe Tailliez Laurent LUCAS

Jean-Michel Cousteau Benjamin LAVERNHE from the Comédie-Française

Albert « Bebert » Falco Vincent HENEINE

Etienne Deshaies Thibault DE MONTALEMBERT

Daddy Roger VAN HOOL

Jan Chloé HIRSCHMAN

David Wolper Adam NEILL

Frédéric Dumas Olivier GALFIONE

Henri Plé Martin LOIZILLON

Philippe Cousteau as as child Ulysse STEIN

Jean-Michel Cousteau as a child Rafaël DE FERRAN

Eugénie Clark Chloé WILLIAMS

CREW

Director Jérôme SALLE

Screenplay Jérôme SALLE and Laurent TURNER

Adaptation and Dialogues Jérôme SALLE

Original Music Alexandre DESPLAT

Director of Photography Matias BOUCARD

Production Designer Laurent OTT A.D.C

Editor Stan COLLET

Costume Designer Carine SARFATI

Sound Marc ENGELS, Frédéric DEMOLDER,

Sylvain RETY, Jean-Paul HURIER

First Assistant Director Brieuc VANDERSWALM

Continuity Elodie VAN BEUREN

Casting Gigi AKOKA

Hair and Make-up Rick FINDLATER

Special Effects Supervisor Marc JOUVENEAU

Postproduction director Susana ANTUNES

Executive Producer Christine DE JEKEL

Production director Olivier HELIE

Produced by Nathalie GASTALDO GODEAU, Philippe

GODEAU, Olivier DELBOSC, Marc

MISSONNIER

Co-producers PAN-EUROPEENNE

CURIOSA FILMS

MOANA FILMS

WILD BUNCH

TF1 FILMS PRODUCTION

CASA PRODUCTION

VERSUS PRODUCTION

VOO

BE TV

With the participation of CANAL+, OCS, TF1

With the support of the European Media Programme

and Tax Shelter du Gouvernement Fédéral Belge and Inver Invest

Wallonie

International Sales: WILD BUNCH

© 2016 PAN-EUROPEENNE - CURIOSA FILMS - MOANA FILMS - WILD BUNCH - TF1

FILMS PRODUCTION - CASA PRODUCTIONS - VERSUS PRODUCTION