![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/42/34/001d3442_medium.jpeg)
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]
![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/42/34/001d3442.jpeg)
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]
2xDVD9 | ISO+MDS | NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | Cover + Booklet | 01:58:44 | 7,63 Gb + 7,63 Gb
Audio: English DTS/AC3 5.1 @ 755/448 Kbps | Subs: English, French, Spanish (all - SDH)
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Drama | 3 wins | USA
2xDVD9 | ISO+MDS | NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | Cover + Booklet | 01:58:44 | 7,63 Gb + 7,63 Gb
Audio: English DTS/AC3 5.1 @ 755/448 Kbps | Subs: English, French, Spanish (all - SDH)
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Drama | 3 wins | USA
Internationally famous oceanographer Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) and his crew—Team Zissou—set sail on an expedition to hunt down the mysterious, elusive, possibly nonexistent “jaguar shark” that killed Zissou’s partner during the documentary filming of their latest adventure. They are joined on their voyage by a young airline co-pilot, who may or may not be Zissou’s son (Owen Wilson), a beautiful journalist (Cate Blanchett) assigned to write a profile of Zissou, and his estranged wife and co-producer, Eleanor (Anjelica Huston). They face overwhelming complications, including pirates, kidnapping, and bankruptcy. Oscar-nominated writer-director Wes Anderson (2001, The Royal Tenenbaums, Best Original Screenplay) has assembled an all-star cast that also includes Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Michael Gambon, Noah Taylor, and Bud Cort for this wildly original adventure-comedy.
IMDB
Criterion
DVDBeaver
Wes Anderson creates a highly stylized and peculiar world, which either works for you or it doesn't. It works for me beautifully, and 'The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou' deserves to take its place with 'Bottle Rocket' (1996), 'Rushmore' (1998), and 'The Royal Tenenbaums' (2001) as a half-jocular, half-melancholy portrait of dreamers and losers.![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/5f/34/001d345f_medium.jpeg)
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]
![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]]()
As Anderson's career has grown and he's been allowed more money to play with, his onscreen universe has gotten more lovingly, obsessively detailed; his movies seem to unfold in some alternate universe where Futura Bold is the dominant font and an exotic, nonexistent fish like the "rhinestone bluefin" is so taken for granted by the characters it's used as bait.![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/60/34/001d3460_medium.jpeg)
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]
![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]]()
By now, a Wes Anderson movie without Bill Murray (who has graced Anderson's previous two films) seems unthinkable, and here he finally has the lead as Steve Zissou, underwater explorer. There was a time when Zissou's short films about the mysteries of the deep were eagerly devoured by kids worldwide, who belonged to "Team Zissou" by way of an official Zissou Fan Club ring. Now Zissou is 52 and finds himself having to scrounge for funding, often at odds with pompous tycoon Alistair Hennessey (Jeff Goldblum), who happens to be the ex of Zissou's wife Eleanor (Anjelica Huston). Zissou has a new and emotionally urgent mission: find and (possibly) kill the elusive jaguar shark that ate his old friend Esteban (Seymour Cassel) on Team Zissou's last expedition.![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/61/34/001d3461_medium.jpeg)
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]
![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]]()
Owen Wilson turns up as Ned, a Kentucky pilot who thinks Zissou might be his father. Ned was a Team Zissou fan as a kid, and still has his Fan Club ring; we're left to imagine the bittersweet feelings of his mom, who once slept with Zissou thirty years ago, as she gave young Ned the money to send away for that ring. Wilson co-wrote all of Anderson's films except this one (Noah Baumbach collaborated with Anderson here), and if the script is missing Wilson's particular childlike touch, his presence as a drawling gentleman smitten with a visiting reporter (Cate Blanchett) makes up for it. His scenes with Murray resonate with the unspoken, and it's a relief that there's no manufactured tension over paternity — it's never suggested that Ned is a phony out for Zissou's money (what little he has left).![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/62/34/001d3462_medium.jpeg)
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]
![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]]()
As always, Anderson goes in for precise symmetrical compositions, with people framed dead center between bookshelves or doorways. The artifice here is a little self-conscious — such as the cut-away views of Zissou's elaborately furnished ship, the Belafonte — but never takes you out of the movie. Neither does animator Henry Selick's work with the stop-motion sea creatures, clearly not meant to look photorealistic. At heart, The Life Aquatic is a cartoon inhabited by three-dimensional people with adult problems. There are the usual unaccountable touches that somehow feel right, like the Team Zissou member (Seu Jorge) who croons David Bowie songs in Portuguese — a restful sound — or the blue highlights in Anjelica Huston's hair, or the three-legged dog left behind by some Filipino pirates, or Willem Dafoe as an inept German shipmate who loves Zissou like a father and resents the intrusion of (possibly) a real son.![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/63/34/001d3463_medium.jpeg)
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]
![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]]()
The problem, as with Wes Anderson's other films, is how to sell it to the masses (especially The Life Aquatic, which at $50 million is Anderson's most pricey endeavor to date). The commercials emphasize Bill Murray's deadpan wit and some broad humor, but moviegoers will find Murray playing a near-dislikable character, a blowhard too used to getting his own way to notice that not everyone shares his devotion to himself. And the humor here is bone-dry, without even the surefire sight gags of the otherwise rather glum Royal Tenenbaums. Yet Murray triumphs here by being true to Zissou's melancholia, and so does Anderson.
'The Life Aquatic' is an odd, entrancing creature that of course got overlooked at the crowded holiday multiplex and at awards ceremonies, but its appeal, I think, will be more timeless than that.
![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/5f/34/001d345f.jpeg)
![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/60/34/001d3460.jpeg)
![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/61/34/001d3461.jpeg)
![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/62/34/001d3462.jpeg)
![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/63/34/001d3463.jpeg)
![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/64/34/001d3464_medium.jpeg)
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]
![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/64/34/001d3464.jpeg)
It's probably best to admit this up front: Wes Anderson's films can be considered something of an acquired taste. Not everyone digs on Anderson's deadpan fairy tales that view reality through crack'd mirrors; his critics often level charges of infatuation with minutiae, which, when considering The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou , is a fair accusation. Anderson fills his frame to overflowing, packing in as much detail as possible; at times, he functions less as a director and more as a visual novelist.
Bill Murray, returning to work with Anderson a third time after 1998's Rushmore and 2001's The Royal Tenenbaums, easily steps into the role of Steve Zissou, a burnt-out, washed-up oceanographer reeling from the death of his right-hand man, Esteban du Plantier (Seymour Cassel, another Anderson vet) at the hands of a mysterious sea creature known as the "jaguar shark."![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/65/34/001d3465_medium.jpeg)
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]
![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]]()
Anderson and co-writer Noah Baumbach (Kicking and Screaming) stock Zissou's vessel, the Belafonte, with an array of zany characters, such as Pele dos Santos (Seu Jorge of City of God), a Portuguese crew member who croons David Bowie songs in his native language; Klaus Daimler (Willem Dafoe), a needy, insecure German who desperately craves Zissou's attention; and Ned Plimpton (Owen Wilson), a man who may or may not be Steve's son.
Of course, even the most minor players in The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (such as Bud Cort's Bill Ubell) register clearly; Anderson has only refined his ability to deftly switch between narrative threads since the early days of Bottle Rocket. Fiercely literary flourishes such as the ornate character names (Oseary Drakoulias, Alistair Hennessey, Jane Winslett-Richardson, etc.) only enhance Anderson's reputation as that of a high-minded cinematic aesthete.![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/66/34/001d3466_medium.jpeg)
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]
![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]]()
It's also worth mentioning that traces of Italian neo-realism (the film was shot in and around Rome and Cinecitta) filter through The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou; Anderson freely admitted to The New York Times around the film's release that he was going through his own "Italian phase." This marriage of the rough-hewn style of observation popularized by Fellini, de Sica and Antonioni with Anderson's quirky peculiarities makes for an intoxicating, if unconventional, brew.
Murray's portrayal of the irascible bastard Steve Zissou is but one more sterling performance on his resume since the second wind of Rushmore; working with Anderson, who seems to understand the barely contained vitriol that fuels the comic's sublimely timed reactions, Murray is able to further cement himself as a performer equally gifted at comedy or drama.![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/67/34/001d3467_medium.jpeg)
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]
![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]]()
The rest of Anderson's assembled players (a group who, as with other auteurs on the rise in Hollywood, returns again and again to work with the director) are all up to the task of filling the space in front of Mark Friedberg's spot-on production design; of particular note are Cate Blanchett as the intrepid writer Jane Winslett-Richardson and Wilson as the mysterious Plimpton.
The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou is every bit as odd and intriguing as its unwieldy title would suggest; Wes Anderson has created another immersive world teeming with wit, warmth and weirdness. It's one of 2004's great films and unimpeachable entertainment.
![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/65/34/001d3465.jpeg)
![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/66/34/001d3466.jpeg)
![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/67/34/001d3467.jpeg)
![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/68/34/001d3468_medium.jpeg)
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]
![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/68/34/001d3468.jpeg)
SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET:
* New high-definition digital transfer, approved by director Wes Anderson and enhanced for widescreen televisions
* Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 soundtracks
* Commentary by Wes Anderson and co-writer Noah Baumbach
* Ten deleted scenes
* “Starz on the Set”: behind-the-scenes featurette
* Theatrical trailer
* English, French, and Spanish subtitles enhanced for the deaf and hearing impaired
* This Is an Adventure, a documentary by Antonio Ferrera, Albert Maysles, and Matthew Prinzing chronicling the production of the movie
* Mondo Monda, an Italian talk show featuring an interview with Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach, with host Antonio Monda
* New video interview with composer and Devo member Mark Mothersbaugh
* Ten complete video performances of David Bowie songs in Portuguese by Brazilian recording artist and actor Seu Jorge (Pele´ dos Santos)
* Intern video journal by actor and real-life intern Matthew Gray Gubler (Intern #1)
* Multiple interviews with the cast and crew with behind-the-scenes footage
* Behind-the-scenes photos and original artwork from the film
* A fold-out insert featuring a cutaway of the Belafonte, with Eric Anderson’s original illustrations, and a conversation between Wes and Eric conducted in 2005
![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/69/34/001d3469_medium.jpeg)
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]
![The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) [The Criterion Collection #300]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/69/34/001d3469.jpeg)
Huge Thanks to Original uploaders.
No More Mirrors.