Following the success of his book, Jacques Cousteau was now financially comfortable enough to do what he had wanted to do since he was a boy – to make an underwater film.

Louis Malle was born into a wealthy family, and like Cousteau, wanted to pursue underwater film making. Malle was almost half Cousteau’s age, and Cousteau admired Malle for his boldness and creativity. Malle on the other hand, looked up to Cousteau as a film making expert. Hundreds of hours were put into the production of the film, and after two years in the making, The Silent World was finally released during the Cannes Film Festival in 1956.

The audience was greeted with scenes of divers reaching deeps of 250 feet, a depth at which film has never been capture before, dolphins flitting across the screen, sharks feeding on a baby whale, and lastly, gory footage of Cousteau’s own crew entering the water, dragging the sharks onto the boat and killing them.

“The only trouble with the whole thing is that it makes you want to strap on an Aqua-Lung and go.”

-Bosley Crowther, New York Times

The film would later face criticism for its non-environmental and cruel behaviour thorough the entire film. Cousteau himself admitted that these scenes should not be cut in order to illustrate human impacts on the natural world. Despite the flak that it attracted, the film was awarded the Palm d’Or, the highest prize in the festival, and also an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

After the release of the film, Cousteau was contacted by Prince Rainier of Monaco, who was interested in offering Cousteau a job as director of the Oceanographic Museum of Monte Carlo. The museum itself was massive, and included laboratories, libraries, and an aquarium.

(Photo courtesy of Digmyfishy.org)

Prince Rainier offered him generous conditions that Cousteau could not turn down – a huge salary and his own house in Monaco. Furthermore, since there was staff provided to help him oversee the entire museum, this meant that Cousteau still had his own time to devote to filmmaking. He accepted the job and remained Director for many years.