TheMirageOfTheSeaStill02Introduction

“The Mirage Of The Sea” is a 1992 documentary by the world-famous French oceanographer and film maker Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1910-1997), for which Vangelis composed an original score. Jacques Cousteau is widely known for his groundbreaking documentary television series in the 1970s and 1980s covering his sea explorations, such as “The Undersea World Of Jacques Cousteau”, “The Jacques Cousteau Odyssey” and “Rediscovery Of The World”.  

In 1991 Jacques Cousteau asked Vangelis to compose the score for two episodes of what would turn out to be his last television series, “Rediscovery Of The World II”: “Indonésie: Les Vergers De L’Enfer” (The Devil’s Orchards) and “Sumatra: Le Coeur De La Mer” (The Heart Of The Sea).

The next year Cousteau produced a special documentary titled “The Mirage Of The Sea”, which shows the destructive impact of humanity on its natural environment and the oceans. It is a call to preserve nature, the oceans and life itself. The music heard in the documentary overlaps with Vangelis’ score for the episodes about Indonesia, but most of it is original music and unique to this film. “The Mirage Of The Sea” is not part of the “Rediscovery Of The World II” series, but re-uses images from earlier Cousteau television series, combined with new narration by Cousteau.

While the documentary is known to have been broadcast on television at least in the US and Spain (and likely other countries), recordings are scarce and not easy to find. A Spanish version titled “El Espejismo Del Mar” can be viewed online (dubbed in Spanish). Unfortunately “The Mirage Of The Sea” has been greatly ignored on the many home video releases of the Cousteau Society, only in Brazil the documentary was officially released on a VHS video cassette titled “A Miragem Do Mar” (dubbed in Portuguese).

From 3 to 14 June 1992 the United Nations organised a conference on the environment and development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, also known as the Earth Summit ‘92. When Jacques Cousteau attended the conference he arranged a screening of “La Mer Volée” at the event, which is essentially is a 26-minute edit of “The Mirage Of The Sea”. On his return in France Jacques Cousteau was a guest of the television show “L’Heure De Verité”, broadcast by Antenne 2 on the 28th of June 1992. During the program a 13-minute film was shown simply known as “Rio ‘92”, an even shorter edit of “The Mirage Of The Sea” mixed with images from Jacques Cousteau interviewing other attendees of the Earth Summit conference in Rio de Janeiro.

For a long time there has been confusion about another Jacques Cousteau-documentary titled “Les Promesses De La Mer”, supposedly produced in 1996. This documentary would also have a score by Vangelis, but it is likely that this is actually the French title of “The Mirage Of The Sea”.

 

TheMirageOfTheSeaStill05Details and credits

  • Title: The Mirage Of The Sea
  • Year: 1992
  • Country: France
  • Length: 48 minutes
  • Produced by Jacques-Yves Cousteau and François Sarano.
  • Written by Jacques-Yves Cousteau
  • Music by Vangelis.
  • Chief editor: Thierry Ragobert
  • Assistent editor: Valerie Lozuet
  • Sound editing: Philippe Sorlin and Karen Muller
  • Re-recording: Philippe Guasch
  • Video post production: Guy Rabache
  • Titles: Cathy Rouhault
  • Executive producers: Jacques-Yves Cousteau and by Jean-Michel Cousteau
  • Production assistent: Anne-Marie Roth
  • Produced by The Cousteau Society Inc. and TBS Productions Inc.

 

TheMirageOfTheSeaStill07Media

VHS

  • Jacques Cousteau, A Miragem Do Mar (Volume 3) Caras 194 Brazil

 

Links

 

Gallery

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