. 24/7 Space News .
WATER WORLD
'Becoming Cousteau' plumbs depths of French ocean explorer
By Laurent BANGUET
Los Angeles (AFP) Oct 21, 2021

Explorer, inventor, filmmaker, environmentalist and once even an oil prospector: the complicated journey of Jacques Cousteau is laid bare in a new film about one of the world's most famous Frenchmen.

"Becoming Cousteau," which hits theaters in the United States this Friday, traces the extraordinary life of the man through archive footage and interviews, and was compiled by double-Oscar nominee Liz Garbus.

"I grew up on Cousteau, and I grew up watching his shows... And my feeling was as I revisited this childhood hero of mine, that there were aspects in his life that I certainly did not know," Garbus told AFP in Los Angeles.

Garbus trawled through hundreds of hours of footage -- much of it never released publicly -- to capture a flavor of a life lived underwater.

"Cousteau was a filmmaker and because his imagery was so groundbreaking, I wanted our viewer today to be immersed in that imagery," she said.

Born in 1910, Cousteau had never set out to be a diver. His initial focus was on the skies.

But at the age of 26, just after begining his training as a pilot at France's naval academy, a serious car accident left him unable to fly.

During his convalescence, he was advised to take up spearfishing. It was a piece of advice that would change his view on life forever.

"As soon as I put my head under water, I understood; I had a shock: an immense and completely virgin domain to explore," he said.

That exploration required ever more complicated kit -- kit that did not exist. So Cousteau invented it.

Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's "slightly crazy" sketches, he borrowed a regulator designed for car engines and, with engineer Emile Gagnan, produced the self-contained diving suit that forms the basis of those still in use today.

"I didn't want pipes, I wanted to be completely independent", he says.

After World War II, he mounted the first expedition aboard the "Calypso", a converted minesweeper that set sail for the Red Sea in 1951.

And wherever he went, so did his cameras, thanks to his diving suit and the waterproof camera housings that he had developed.

The footage he brought back was the first glimpse that many people had of the vast underwater world.

While the modern day conception of Cousteau is of a crusading environmentalist, that was a period of his life that came later.

Like countless contemporaries in the post-war years, Cousteau did not show any real ecological awareness, using explosives to bring fish to the surface.

In order to finance the "Calypso", he even started prospecting for oil, discovering reserves in Abu Dhabi in the process.

"I think I was naive... but I didn't have a penny!", he would later plead after his conversion to environmental protection.

- 'Sea in distress' -

In the 1950s, Cousteau produced "The Silent World", which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1956 and an Oscar for best documentary the following year.

He was furious to see his films classed as "documentaries", insisting that they were "real adventure films", says Garbus.

The following decade, he abandoned the cinema to go into television with a series of documentaries on underwater life, the first of their kind.

He was never entirely at peace with the medium, but recognised it had its benefits -- particularly as his consciousness grew about the need to preserve the natural environment.

"Though it is an aesthetic sacrifice, it is a way to reach millions of people rapidly," he said.

These "films are no more about beautiful little fish but are dealing with the future of mankind."

As a pioneer in the field of ecology, Cousteau was sounding the alarm about "the sea in distress" to the US Congress in 1971.

By the end of the 1980s, he was telling anyone who would listen of the dangers of global warming --long before the mainstream woke up to the damage humanity was doing to the planet.

His influence was such that at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, Cousteau was the only non-world leader in the official photo.

"What Cousteau was able to do because of all the love he had built up over the decades, to translate that love and respect into something that was a crucial message... There's nobody who has that power today," says Garbus.


Related Links
Water News - Science, Technology and Politics


Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly


paypal only
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal


WATER WORLD
In first, ocean drone captures footage from inside hurricane
Washington (AFP) Sept 30, 2021
In a world first, US scientists on Thursday piloted a camera-equipped ocean drone that looks like a robotic surfboard into a Category 4 hurricane barreling across the Atlantic Ocean. Dramatic footage released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed the small craft battling 50-feet (15 meter) high waves and winds of over 120 mph (190 kph) inside Hurricane Sam. The autonomous vehicle is called a "Saildrone" and was developed by a company with the same name. Powered by win ... read more

Comment using your Disqus, Facebook, Google or Twitter login.



Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle

WATER WORLD
US firm sees 'exciting' moment as space tourism booms

Russia's Soyuz spacecraft lands in Kazakhstan after ISS mission

Russian rocket tests briefly destabilise space station

Russians return to Earth after filming first movie in space

WATER WORLD
South Korea launches own space rocket for the first time

China describes hypersonic test as a space vehicle trial

China says recent test was spacecraft not missile

Japanese billionaire Maezawa 'not afraid' ahead of ISS launch

WATER WORLD
Life on Mars: simulating Red Planet base in Israeli desert

NASA plans careful restart for Mars helicopter after quiet period

NASA selects crew for simulated trip to a Mars Moon

Using dunes to interpret wind on Mars

WATER WORLD
Chinese astronauts arrive at space station for longest mission

China's space station worth ever Yuan

China's 'space dream': A Long March to the Moon and beyond

China to launch latest crewed space mission Saturday morning

WATER WORLD
Conclusions from Satellite Constellations 2 Released

Russian Soyuz rocket launches 36 new UK satellites

Over half OneWeb constellation now deployed

Eutelsat raises its shareholding in OneWeb

WATER WORLD
Concrete: the world's 3rd largest CO2 emitter

In-Orbit cloud computing and storage platform successfully demonstrated

Simulating space on Earth: NASA receives hardware for testing satellite servicing tech

One in three young kids uses social media, use of parental controls spotty

WATER WORLD
Scientists find evidence the early solar system harbored a gap between its inner and outer regions

NASA scientist looks to AI, lensing to find masses of free-floating planets

First planet to orbit 3 Stars discovered

Planets gone rogue could sustain life

WATER WORLD
The unusual magnetic fields of Uranus and Neptune

Hubble Finds Evidence of Persistent Water Vapor in One Hemisphere of Europa

SwRI scientists confirm decrease in Pluto's atmospheric density

Hubble shows winds in Jupiter's Great Red Spot are speeding up









The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.