Océans, a hymn to the world of the sea

After Himalaya and Le peuple migrateur (The Travelling Birds), French filmmaker and producer Jacques Perrin explores the undersea world.

It involved four years of filming in over 50 locations, and 70 expeditions, from the turquoise waters of the Tropics to the ice fields of the Arctic and Antarctic. To achieve this mammoth task, he called upon the most eminent scientists and cutting-edge technologies.

Océans release marked France’s International Year of Biodiversity by the Minister of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and the Sea, responsible for green Technologies and Negotiations on Climate: an extraordinary plunge right into the heart of the oceans and their storms, in search of little-known or unknown marine creatures.

To get to the heart of the matter – marine biodiversity – Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud sought to create a feeling of proximity between the viewer and the undersea world. So it was necessary to retain, through the images, an impression of speed and vitality. To do this, they had a real technical challenge to meet – “travelling at 10 knots amid a school of tuna out hunting, accompanying dolphins as they rush about at madcap speeds, swimming shoulder to fin with the great white shark”. Fourteen French, Japanese and Swedish cameramen set off into all the world’s seas.

Twelve teams braved waves, rain and storms on board inflatable dinghies. Hundreds of biologists on the five continents were recruited. The budget was considerable: 50 million euros.

The innovations are remarkable. In order to film the whale without disturbing it, the team developed a special camera, gyro-stabilised and fixed onto the end of a crane installed on an inflatable dinghy.

Over and above the technical feats, this film is a cry of alarm about the state of our oceans. “And yet, the sea is still an immense wild territory. The ocean gateways still offer spaces of unlimited freedom,” acknowledges Jacques Perrin.