The amazing conquest of the world by stopped-breath diving began with the iconic movie The Big Blue, “Le Grand Bleu.” French-Italian film featuring two divers: Jacques Mayol and Enzo Molinari, who competed against each other to conquer successive depths in free diving; at one point breaking the very round number of 100 meters.
“The Big Blue,” the story that was filmed, was just lucky because it is simply a great movie, with very good roles. Jean Reno as Enzo Molinari; Jean-Marc Barr as Jacques Mayol made an amazing duo showing sporting combat and adventure. Amazing story of this sporting but also mutual rivalry between these two men who simply wanted to be the best in the world.
At the same time, the film shows in its ending the difference in attitudes towards the art of filmmaking including Happy End between European and American audiences. Watching the European version of which the ending looks like Jacques Mayol at a depth of 100 meters begins to look around, and from the black depths a dolphin swims up to him. Then the hero swims away from the rope into the darkness. The viewer feels that he is simply committing suicide. Melts. At the same time, also in this European version, there is such a strange scene in the opening credits. Jacques Mayol swims through the Gulf and a dolphin jumps overhead. Such a joyous beautiful scene, which is not in the film (in the European version). In the American version, the ending looks a little different. Jacques Mayol floats to the surface. That joyful scene from the opening credits, this is the scene from the American version where it is shown that Jacques Mayol floats to the surface after all and then returns to shore and his dolphin friend leaps for joy by his side over the water.
The Big Blue ( French: Le grand bleu, English: The Big Blue) is a 1988 French-Italian drama of manners directed by Luc Besson. The film is loosely based on the life story of Jacques Mayol, who was the first person to reach a depth of 100 meters in free diving, and Enzo Maiorca (in the film – Enzo Molinari). The film is known for its spectacular underwater cinematography.
screenplay and direction – Luc Besson
Jean Reno – Enzo Molinari
Jean-Marc Barr – Jacques Mayol
This video was created by FreeDiving.
Records
Freediving has several competitions. In short, these are the rules of the beat:
- record depth
- greatest distance
- The longest breath holding.
History of records
1913 – 60m: Stotti Georghios
1960 – The race to depth was started by Americo Santarelli, who reached 43 meters in Brazilian waters near Rio de Janeiro. Enzo Maiorca accepted the challenge and dived to a depth of 45 meters in Syracuse, Italy.
1961 – Maiorca sets a new record in the 50m, which doctors said was impossible to achieve. They thought that the diver’s lungs would collapse at this depth under pressure, but it turned out that the human body has much greater adaptability.
1965 – In competition with Santarelli by 1965, Maiorca reached 54m. His record-breaking streak in the same year was broken only by Polynesian diver Teteke Williams, who dived to a depth of 59 meters. Unfortunately, we don’t know much about the athlete.
1966 – Jacques Mayol entered the freediving scene with a new 60m record. Mayol was a French citizen born in Shanghai, China. He started diving as a child in Karatsu, Japan, where he traveled with his family every summer. As he writes in his book “Homo Delphinus: The Dolphin Within Man,” he first saw a dolphin at the age of seven. By 1966, Mayol was already an experienced freediver, inspired to train by his rivals. Throughout his career, Mayol has advertised the breathing known from Yoga exercises as a way to control the body and release hidden water potential. He was a proponent of the aquatic ape theory and believed that humans could reawaken their genetic potential for deep diving and become Homo Delphinus through training.
Later in 1966, Maiorca again took the lead with a score of 62m.
1967 – A new name in the freediving record book, Bob Croft descends to a depth of 64 meters in the waters of Florida, USA. Croft had been actively preparing for diving in the military for many years before setting his record, so when he entered the freediving scene, he was already an experienced professional. U.S. Navy diving instructor at the U.S. Naval Submarine Base at the New London Submarine School in Groton, Connecticut. Croft since 1962. trained soldiers in a training tank on how to escape from a damaged submarine. Doing this work five days a week, he improved his breath-holding time from 2 minutes to more than 6 minutes after a year. He was able to descend to the bottom of the 35-meter training tank, sit there for more than three minutes and calmly float to the surface. In 1967, Bob’s instructors encouraged him to try how deep he could go in open water. He gave it a try and set three world records over the next 18 months. Croft was the first freediver to use air packing; he later wrote a book explaining his technique. And it is to Croft that we owe our knowledge of the shift of blood in the body. Since 1962. was the subject of a US NAVY study that ended in 1968. the discovery of blood shifts and other physiological adjustments that increase the possibility of deepening the breath-while diving on held breath.
