| The Silent World | |
|---|---|
 Promotional release poster | |
| Le Monde du silence | |
| Directed by | Jacques Cousteau Louis Malle |
| Written by | Jacques Cousteau James Dugan |
| Based on | The Silent World: A Story of Undersea Discovery and Adventure by Jacques Cousteau |
| Starring | Jacques Cousteau |
| Cinematography | Louis Malle Underwater photography: Philippe Agostino |
| Edited by | Georges Alépée |
| Music by | Yves Baudrier |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Rank |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 86 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Box office | $3 million(rentals) |
The Silent World (French:Le Monde du silence) is a 1956 Frenchdocumentary film co-directed byJacques Cousteau andLouis Malle. One of the first films to useunderwater cinematography to show the ocean depthsin color,[1][2] its title derives from Cousteau's 1953 bookThe Silent World: A Story of Undersea Discovery and Adventure.
The film was shot aboard the shipCalypso. Cousteau and his team of divers shot 25 kilometers of film over two years in theMediterranean Sea, thePersian Gulf, theRed Sea and theIndian Ocean, of which 2.5 kilometers were included in the finished documentary.
The film later faced criticism for environmental damage done during the filmmaking. In one scene, the crew of theCalypso massacre a school ofsharks that were drawn to the carcass of a baby whale for some reason, which itself had been mortally injured by the crew, albeit accidentally (Cousteau had the ship driven into a pod of whales to get a close-up view, striking one whale in the process before the baby was lacerated by the prop). In another, Cousteau uses dynamite near acoral reef in order to make a more complete census of the marine life in its vicinity. Cousteau later became more environmentally conscious, involved inmarine conservation, and was even called "the father of the environmental movement" byTed Turner.[3]
The Silent World opened at the1956 Cannes Film Festival and won thePalme d'Or award;[4] it was the only documentary film to win the award untilMichael Moore'sFahrenheit 9/11 repeated the feat in 2004.
The film was released in the United States on September 24, 1956 byColumbia Pictures and earnedtheatrical rentals of over $3 million.[5]
It was the first of Cousteau's documentary films to win anAcademy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film.