My first introduction to Luc Besson's & Eric Serra.

Rating: 10/10 (19 February 2019)

Unlike many who may remember "The Fifth Element" as Director Besson's first introduction to U.S. audiences, this was my first look at the genius I now revere. Otherworldly plot line - check: Free-Diving. Characters who stand out - check: Jean Reno ( my first intro to his wide and expansive body of work), Rosanna Arquette (who I secretly didn't like but somehow loved in this storyline), & Jean-Marc Barr (immediate fascination in him) together create the main trio of focus....along with some of the most captivating scenery along Le Côte d'Azure, and underwater camera work that is and was astounding before James Cameron found his new hobby, and a few funny characters to lend voice to the audiences need to remember to breathe, and that there is levity in all this beauty. They play - not a love- triangle, for its simply not true, although both Reno & Arquette's characters both love Barry's, they both see him as a man, but sense there is also something else, some - hidden depth, if you'll pardon the pun when proven accurate. Each strives to see the world through someone else's eyes: Reno at Barr as a lost little man outside the water, and at Arquette as the woman who may have a chance to stand with Barr in the world. Arquette sees Barr as a mysterious, incredibly handsome man who she feels pulled toward like nothing else she's ever known, and sees Reno as Barry's friend, but also as Barry's competitor, forever childlike in the way that he never allowed himself to be challenged by Barr when they were children, and has finally now come to the point in his life where he has to lay his personal challenge down, to see where he would stand next to " The little Frenchman". And Barr - in a performance that is entirely subdued yet fiery electric simultaneously, gives us view on a man who has no real attachments to things out of the water, and is daring to explore as Reno's character comments at one point, "walking like a baby". Barr also has a life beneath the surface - of everything. The human experience, the seas, the norms of how one can scientifically control one's own body in a way that defies science. He can feel, we're shown early on, but only with a certain, significant set of friends; ones who like him inspire intrigue, and passion, and study. And he also is an honorable man. He is, as Reno brings him to the Chamionship Free Dive, aware of the implicit challenge, but does not want to lose a childhood friend like Enzo (Reno), even though he innately knows what his own talent will allow him to do. And, as written by Besson and enacted by Barr on the first few scenes, he sees something in Johanna (Arquette) on the surface that maybe he also sees beneath the wave, coming out of a frozen lake, Johanna bringing him a cup of tea to warm him, and he positing , with a hint of amusement, that he'd just met her, under the ice. (A wonderfully eloquent scene for not as much as what is said as by what isn't, and how chemistry between Arquette and Barr make the magic of a single moment enough for Johana to go across the world to find him again.
All contests must have winners and losers: who is best, who has the most, who leaves with the prize. But this is a contest like no other. And Eric Serra's poignant, etherial, and contemporary soundtrack is the perfect counterpoint to each drop of water on the screen. It has been in my personal collection of soundtracks since 1988; in fact, I heard it before having seen the movie. Unlike other times where this has occurred and I'd thought the music would have been used otherwise, Serra's composition is, beat-to-beat the stitch between each frame of celluloid masterpiece. The combination of Besson/Serra in a film is a trail I've followed happily ever since. And enjoyed them as much apart, as well. Besson is an artist of magnificence, in my eyes, though some may wonder where he is actually going sometimes. Perhaps there is no method to his artistic madness, but Directing, Writing, or Producing - I follow his name wherever it goes.
I'm so glad I saw this remarkable, distinctly off-the-trail-a-few steps gentle explosion in 88, when it was still at that place where it would help fashion who I was and what I enjoyed for the rest of my life. That is what this movie did to me and for me - it changed my life. It might not do the same to you, but NOTHING is ever 'the same' after you see this movie. Love it, hate it, feign indifference, "The Big Blue" leaves an indelible mark upon you.
"Go. Go and see, my love." The Big Blue (American Version).