The Big Blue (French: Le Grand Bleu) is a 1988 English-language Cinéma du look film made by French director Luc Besson. The film stars Jean-Marc Barr, Rosanna Arquette, Jean Reno and depicts a fictionalized account of the sporting rivalry between two famed free divers.
Luc Besson was initially unsure of whom to cast in the main role of Jacques Mayol. He initially offered the role to Christopher Lambert and Mickey Rourke and even considered himself for the role until someone suggested Jean-Marc Barr. Besson has a cameo appearance as one of the divers in the film. The Big Blue was the most financially successful French film of the 1980s gaining 9,193,873 admissions in France alone and played in French theaters for a year.
The film charts the competition and friendship of real-life champions Jacques Mayol (played by Barr) and Enzo Maiorca (renamed in the film to "Enzo Molinari", and played by Reno). However the divers were not close in age in real life (four years apart) and did not compete. The action is divided into two timelines - the nascent rivalry between the two divers as children, and (as adults) their final competition at the world free-diving championships at the Sicilian town of Taormina. Mayol's search for love, family, "wholeness" and the meaning of life and death is a strong undercurrent of the latter timeline.
So now let us sing of what remains
There shall be stillness in our hearts
There shall be a sweetness in our lives, bye and bye.
There's a beach I know at the edge of the world,
mist rising up from the breaking waves
towards the cliffs, as green as god.
We'll be flying for the sake of flying, singing for the sake of singing,
looking back down on the lonely world - dive, dive, diving down
Into the big blue we shall lose ourselves, gone are the doubts
and the fear of falling - hate is a curse lifted from our shoulders,
we never meant it in the way they thought.
If we hold our nerve, they will travel right over us;
they'll be going so fast they will never even notice us.
We'll be flying for the sake of flying - singing for the sake of singing,
looking back down on the lonely world - dive, dive, dive
Into the big blue we shall lose ourselves, gone are the doubts
and the fear of falling - hate is a curse lifted from our shoulders,
we never meant it in the way they thought.
Time to die, and die, and die again; doors closing in empty houses;
time to roll, and roll, and roll again - and all I hear is the diesel roaring.
Just like a people put to flight, all blown out in the endless dust storms,
into the West and the rolling hills, to dive, dive, dive again and
Into the big blue we shall lose ourselves
The Day We Played I Was A Mess
I Stood Like A Child
Tugging On A Mother’s Dress Asking Why
As Your Family And All Of Our Friends
Walked In With Awkward Heavy Heads
All Knowing It Just Hadn’t Hit Yet
And Every Time I Saw The Hands
The Burning Candles And The Crosses
Every Time I Glanced Up At The Goodbyes
I Realized I’d Sacrifice The World For It
For One Minute More With You
So Big Blue Can You Hear Me Sing?
Big Brother Are You Listening To Me
When I Say I Wish I Had One More Day?
Do You Know Each Day I See You On The Avenue Of Arts?
Next To That Single Ribbon In A Tree
Right In Front Of Me
And When I Do
I Know I’d Sacrifice The World For Just One Minute More With You
Even Though I Know
Half Of Knowing What You Want
Is Knowing What You Have To Give To Get It
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You think you love me baby, I say you don't
You think that true love lasts, but I say this won't
How long will it take before you say the same thing she said
And her before that, and her before that
You're through... me too... Big Blue
They say that love is simple, that love is kind
That love is never boastful, conceited or blind
That love is never ending like the circle of a ring
But sometimes I really wonder if there ever was such a thing
So you're through... me too... Big Blue
How much time wasted begging for quality time
You want love and affection and quality time
You like my freedom, and so you take it
My independence that is what you say
Do you want me, love, or quality time
So you think you love me baby, I say you don't
You think that true love lasts, but I say this won't
It might take a year, a month, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds
In fact I think I hear it coming right now