Europe Images International restores and remasters three of Jacques Cousteau’s feature films in high definition

To mark the centenary of the birth of Captain Jacques Cousteau in 2010 and to contribute to the long-term survival of France’s cinematographic heritage, Europe Images International / M5, the Lagardère Entertainment subsidiary responsible for audiovisual distribution, has embarked on restoring and remastering three full-length feature films from its catalogue in high definition.

Sixty years after the Calypso’s first expedition to the Red Sea, the experiment in living under the sea made famous by the film World Without Sun – which won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 1964 – and the success of the film The Silent World – which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1956 and an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 1957 – Europe Images International / M5 is planning to enable viewers to relive these unique experiences in high definition. The new versions will be available in the first half of 2010.

Three exceptional full-length feature films restored and remastered in HD:

• The World of Silence (1956): Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1956 and an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 1957. This first full-length feature film, the result of a collaboration with Louis Malle, made a permanent mark on the world of documentary film-making with its exceptional, previously unseen underwater images.
• World Without Sun (1963): Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 1964. The Precontinent Experiment. A chance for seven men who lived underwater for a month to explore two new dimensions of marine exploration: depth and duration.
• Voyage to the End of the World (1975): the four-month expedition to the Antarctic made by Captain Cousteau and the crew of the Calypso was the most hazardous but also the most exciting of all their adventures.