Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-12-22

JdCQueS- YES NOuOIedu anu ills
That there should be such a fl
the material with which it
deals.
There is one. however, because
M. Cousteau and his fellow
spacemen have had the ingenu-
ity to design their amazing
equipment as well as the daunt-
less spirit which led them to
use it. In the increasingly fas-
cinating field of nature films.
this one has the distinction Of
standing alone.
In just under an hour and
one-half, it Identifies Cousteau
as that rarest of modern, the
one who combines equal parts
of artist and scientist.
Fact is fascinatingly imbued
with imagination in 1.-THE Silent
World"
Cousteau and his diving COM
panions have not been content
merely to photograph marine
wonders such as a porpoise bal
let. the turmoil Of playtime for
a vast school of whales. and the
eerie exploration Of a sunken
World War II merchantmen.
They have related these to the
senses and the minds Of crew
members to give them a mean
ing that makes the spectator an
active participant in the life Of
THE Silent World"
In color, and with a deity
blended musical score. Cous-
teau's picture is a widely rang
ing subsea voyage. It's gulf is the
Persian, It's seas are the Medi-
terranean and Red, its ocean.
the Indian. Over $4,000 miles Of
these, the expeditions tidy lab
oratory ship, the Calypso. roams.
It's pauses which are frequent
and long, are occasions for pene-
trating the oldest, darkest and
(no punning) deepest Of mystic
ries. To 80 feet, $50, and once to
247. the acqualunged. motor
scooting diver teams plunge. At
these depths, the lighting and
camera gear find life forms that
are uncanny in their beauty and
dramatically unearthly in form.
Without reSorting to the faint
est of trickery, Cousteau fuses
these into a film which is comic.
tragic and unfailingly engross-
ing. It is comic, for instance,
when the divers make a pet Of
O giant grouper fish and the
grouper. in turn. makes himself
a damnable nuisance ever after.
It is tragic in the fatal mishap
that overtakes a baby sperm
whale playing around the Ca
lypso-and it is also gruesomely
hard to take N so candid a film
sequence.
1t is difficult to select q single
highlight as the outstanding one
of THE Silent World" If he
had to make a choice. however,
this reviewer would name the
one in which Cousteau's diver
probes the skeleton of the sunken
World War II freighter. In the
morbid silence of the sea, the
film proves that ships which look
so alive can look even more dead
in their graves, the deepest in
which human life lies buried.
This, however, is a brief Sc
quence among a multitude which
deal mostly with beauty Of
forms and colors which the
human eye has never before
seen.
In using silent" to describe
the world he has found. Cousteau
is falling back upon the most
amazingly modest adjective In
the history Of movie titles.
\ \ \
CINERAMA REPORT: With
Cinerama's third opus, "Seven
Wonders of the World" due next
Thursday, the drama depart
ment thought it a good time to
check on the impact of the de-
parting "Cinerama Holiday
opus two.
With so many things at it'
fingertips. the local staff coulc
not lay them upon the full fig
ures. however. All it coulc