The Silent World
(Le monde du silence)
France/Italy, 1956, 35mm, color, 86 min.
French with English subtitles.
Louis Malle was just twenty-three when he was asked by author and undersea explorer Cousteau to help make a film that could act as an illustrated companion to his immensely popular book also entitled The Silent World. The film surpassed even the book in its popular impact, garnering an Oscar for Best Documentary and the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival. A lyrical meditation on the mysteries of the physical world, and humankind's tentative steps to explore them, the film follows Cousteau and his crew as they navigate the oceans; the underwater cinematography, much of it shot by Malle himself, is breathtaking, the brilliantly colored coral reefs serving as a stationary counterpoint to the teeming schools of sea life whizzing past them.
