Abu Dhabi: Directors Jacques Perrin and Jacques Clauzad of Oceans on Tuesday dove straight into their pet topic as they walked down the red carpet on Monday.
This centerpiece gala, showed marine life in all its magnificent glory, and was the product of shooting for four years in different parts of the world.
“We shot for four years and had more than 480 hours of footage. This had to be brought down to 103 minutes. There is no lesson in this movie. We want to show how the sea lives and it is from the point of view of the marine animals,” says Clauzad.
For the next hour and more, dolphins, sperm whales, giant squids and sardines took to the stage.
As many as 200 species from the marine life were filmed, but only 80 of them made it to the large screen. The remaining film’s footage will soon be made into a television series, say the French directors.
The directors also drove home the point that contrary to popular opinion sea is not a dangerous place.
“I don’t think of the sea as a dangerous place. Often it is the humans who are a threat to the sea. It show what men can do to our planet,” says Perrin.
If the thunderous applause at the end of the movie is any yardstick, the team behind the acclaimed Winged Migration - about birds - did a splendid job of bringing the fascinating oceanic world to the surface. The film, partly funded by Abu Dhabi investors, will be screened on Friday at 9.30pm in Cinestar1, Abu Dhabi.
