Movie Review: "Le grand bleu" (1988)Being the opening film of the Cannes Film Festival on May 11th 1988 in its 41st edition, young, talented and promising director Luc Besson, not yet 30 years of age, already coming to full flourishment in proper exercised cinematic language in color, camera motion and acting beats with fellow casting members Jean-Marc Barr, Jean Reno and Rosanna Arquette struggling within the element of water to find purpose in life, concerning deeper and deeper pushed limits in open water free diving challenges, when suspense works to hyper-realistic conclusions beyond the usual love theme under an hypnotic soundtrack by exceptional composer Eric Serra alongside Besson's directions of utmost passion for his source material felt in every scene of the motion picture.Copyright 2018 Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC

Classic Luc Besson - slightly surreal, other-worldly story about free-diving.Beautifully-shot, this film tells the story of childhood friends and free-divers Jacques and Enzo, and Besson cleverly captures their slowed-heart-rate world, in a relaxed, slow-pace film. Even when there is excitement, it feels slow-motion, from the camera angles and lighting, to the musical score, which also has an ethereal quality.It's a dreamlike film, well-shot and well-acted - on the edge of 'art house' but with enough to be popular with regular blockbuster watchers as well.Give it a look, if you haven't already. 8/10

Interesting but slow, long and clumsy.The story of two childhood friends with a love for the sea and diving. They drift apart but are reunited by the competitive world of free diving. Their eagerness to set new depth records drives them to incredible feats, and great danger...Starts off quite amateurishly. The childhood scenes and the acting therein is quite badly done. However, it gets better after that and the plot is interesting enough. It never does shake that clumsy amateurishness present in the first few scenes though.Is very slow and overly long too. Far too many scenes in the movie that could easily have been cut or at least edited somewhat.Performances are mostly OK, but not brilliant. Nobody really stands out. Jean Reno is probably the best of the bunch.

A lot of people seem to rave about the film because they felt emotionally affected by it. I got recommendations to watch this from so many people. And yet when I asked them what it's about, not 1 could tell me. Well, I'll tell you. Essentially, it's the story of two childhood friends who grow up by the sea and develop an obsession with it. Unable to connect with real people, they become world-champion free divers, and the film is basically about them competing for the world record.This could be an intense, beautifully shot film, but it ends up being long, meandering, and nonsensical. I thought Jean Reno was great in it, as I've known some Italians like him. However, the other characters were completely unbelievable to me, and the story was...well, kind of retarded.Without spoilers, I will say there are several deaths in the film that are ridiculous and completely avoidable, at least from the way Besson shows them, they are.The character choices are also ridiculous, with women reduced to broad, sexist stereotypes of becoming easily obsessed with commitment and children, and chasing men with little or no reason.There are a whole lot of beautiful shots of dolphins and ocean locales, but if you want to see that, you can watch the Discovery Channel or "Planet Earth", no need to make a 3 hour excuse for a story.In the end, I can't possibly recommend anyone waste their time on this. There are so many better films for nearly any way you could look at it...romance, story, acting, atmosphere, etc.