Jacques-Yves Cousteau was a French naval officer, explorer, filmmaker, scientist, researcher and author who dedicated his life to studying the sea and life underwater. A new film about his life, L'Odessey was released in cinemas last week.
Hailing from Saint-André-de-Cubzac on the banks of the Dordogne, close to the Gironde estuary and the city of Bordeaux, Cousteau's life and legacy will be forever entwined with the French Riviera. He spent much of his life in Toulon as a naval officer and lived in Bandol with his wife Simone and his two sons.
In 1950 Cousteau refitted a former navy ship into his oceanographic vessel 'Calypso', which became a laboratory and studio for diving and scientific research. For the next four decades, 'Calypso' and her crew explored the oceans and the wonders of the world beneath the surface of the sea.
Owned by British billionaire Thomas Loel Guinness, Cousteau's acquisition of the vessel is reported to have taken place over a lunch with Camille Rayon, Prince Rainier of Monaco, Thomas Loel Guinness in the restaurant La Maison des Pecheurs in Juan-les-Pins near Antibes. Philippe Fiori, Cousteau's son says, "That day, Cousteau told (them) his dream (of being an) oceanographer and his desire to film the seabed. He needed a boat and Guinness said bingo! and sold it to him for a symbolic one franc, this would become the Calypso".
During his missions, Captain Cousteau was rarely without his red watch cap. This iconic image has come to be synonymous with his work and his personality.
Jacques Cousteau's films documenting his underwater discoveries are what made him immensely popular with the public; bringing them a world never before seen. He produced more than 120 documentaries, most notably the adaptation of his 1953 book The Silent World: A Story of Undersea Discovery and Adventure. His film, The Silent World, won a Palme d'Or at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival and he remained the only person to win this award for a documentary film, until Michael Moore in 2004 with Fahrenheit 9/11.
In 1957 Cousteau became the director of the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco. It was from here that he orchestrated some of this more exciting and innovative explorations of the oceans of the world. Writing much of the museum's history, Cousteau was almost certainly the reason for the museum's popularity during the 32 years that he was there, with some one million visitors coming through the doors annually.
The film, directed by Jérôme Salle is based on the non-fiction book Capitaine de La Calypso by Albert Falco and Jean-Michel Cousteau.
