Movies - The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

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	Movies - The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is Wes Anderson's fourth feature length film and was released in the U.S. on December 25, 2004. It was written by Anderson and Noah Baumbach. The film stars Bill Murray as eccentric oceanographer Steve Zissou, who seeks to exact revenge on a shark that ate his partner Esteban. Zissou's character is both a parody of and homage to Jacques-Yves Cousteau, to whom the film is dedicated.

Plot

The film details the adventures of the once famed documentarian Steve Zissou as he creates the last film near the end of his career. His recent film about his best friend Esteban's (Seymour Cassel) death from a "Jaguar shark" is a flop, and for his next project he is determined to find the creature and destroy it. Steve's crew includes Pelé dos Santos (Seu Jorge), a Brazilian musician who sings David Bowie songs in Portuguese, and Klaus Daimler (Willem Dafoe), a lovable German second-in-command who views Steve and Estaban as father figures and feels threatened by Steve's presumed son, Ned Plimpton (Owen Wilson).

Ned is a polite, innocent and childlike southern gentleman whose mother had recently died. After meeting Steve at a premiere, he takes a break from his job as an airline pilot to join the Zissou crew and finance the new film when no one else will. Steve is also followed by a reporter Jane Winslett-Richardson (Cate Blanchett), who is a fan of his, and is pregnant with her married boss's child. She eventually falls in love with Ned. As a result, a rivalry develops between Ned and Steve, who is himself infatuated with Jane. The crew sets off on one last mission, facing pirates, financial problems, rescuing a bond company stooge (who is present at the request of Zissou's producer Oseary Drakoulias (played by Michael Gambon), insistance to make sure Ned's money is spent appropriately) and his successful, suave, rich, and part-gay nemesis Alistair Hennessey (Jeff Goldblum), and reuniting with his wife Eleanor (Anjelica Huston) who was once married to Hennessey. But while searching for the Jaguar Shark, the Zissou helicopter crashes, injuring Steve and killing Ned. Although it is revealed that Steve is sterile, Steve and Ned are as close as genuine father and son. Steve finally tracks down the shark but decides not to kill it, both because of its beauty and his lack of dynamite. Viewing the shark finally validates a daily existence that Steve feared may have become meaningless. Eleanor is moved by this and falls for Steve again. The finished "film-within-a-film" is a hit, and Steve wins an award and respect.

Trivia

The movie was filmed in and around Rome, Italy.

The sea creatures and underwater scenes in the film were created using stop-motion animation under the direction of Henry Selick
, the man behind The Nightmare Before Christmas
and the film version of James and the Giant Peach.

The name of Steve Zissou's ship, the Belafonte, is a reference to Jacques-Yves Cousteau's ship, the Calypso — Belafonte
is the name of a famous Calypso-music singer.

The shark Zissou hunts (which he has dubbed a "Jaguar shark") is actually a fictitious animal created using stop motion animation.

"Zissou" was the nickname of French photographer Jacques Henri Lartigue's older brother. The portrait of Lord Mandrake, Zissou's mentor, is based on a famous photograph of Lartigue, and the photographer (who died in 1986) is even credited as playing the part in the end credits. Wes Anderson also referenced the photographer's work in Rushmore.

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