INTERVIEW
Even the most cultured films have their share of false connections, these errors resulting in a lack of coherence between two shots of the same scene. And Le Grand Bleu , by Luc Besson, is no exception. Guest of There is not a life in life , on Sunday, Europe 1, the director of the film released in 1988 delivered the secrets of filming resulting in a gross error, found only at the time of editing.
This false connection is visible in the scene in which Jaques Maillol and Enzo release a Marineland dolphin in which he is kept in captivity, to bring him back into the sea. Problem, in the same scene, Jean Reno wears a striped swimsuit in a foreground that becomes ... black in the next shot.
According to the founder of the EuropaCorp studio, everything started with budgetary problems, and the faulty memory of Jean Reno. Thus, the first part of the scene, where Jacques Maillol and Enzo free the dolphin amusement park then arrive on the beach, is turned "in the city of Taormina, in Sicily, with the dolphin in a stretcher," says Luc Besson, pointing out that the animal is then a fake plastic dolphin.
The defective memory of Jean Reno
On the other hand, the director recalls, "the moment when the dolphin actually goes into the water are shots filmed three months later in the Virgin Islands". Only, he says, because of "budgetary problems", "we do not take the script". Impossible then, for the teams, to remember the color of the swimsuit carried by the star of the film during the first part of the scene, especially since, on the spot, nobody has the rushes. "I ask Jean Reno: 'Do you remember the swimsuit you had on the beach?' Says Luc Besson. Actor's answer: "I have the black swimsuit, I'm sure".
But his memory betrayed Jean Reno, as Luc Besson confirms. "Two months later, at the editing, he is on the beach with a striped shirt, and he enters the water with a black swimsuit," he laughs at the microphone of Isabelle Morizet.