The Deep Breath

[jome]

Hey,

The long awaited (at least by me) documentary about Topi Lintukangas was shown in the underwater festival in france and apparently won some award (it's in french, I can't make it out, but won something). It's a 55 min documentary about Topi's preparation for his last record attempt and his approach to freediving etc...

http://www.underwater-festival.com/fr/direct/2005/PALMARES_2005.pdf

Anyway, it's opening in Finland on the 11th november. Don't know yet about international distribution. Very little info can be found from Matila-Röhr Productions:
http://www.matilarohr.com/en/

Propably gets updated after the film launches...

Just thought some of you might be interested

 

[2A1GPS]

For non french readers, some informations from the underwater festival website.
The prize won by this documentary is the Prix Planete Thalassa, a cable channel dedicated to sea and water world.
With 2000 € it is the second most important trophy given during the festival.

 

[jome]

Saw it last night.

I liked it alot. Of course my opinnion is biased by my nationality, but even with objective criteria I think it was good.

It was very different from what I expected and much more personal. It's not as much about freediving, as it is about Topi and his feelings and dealings. But still, a lot of nice freediving footage also, there's never too much of that on film.

I think that in a weird way, the fact that the record attempt failed makes a better film. If it had just been "I've always been the best at what I do" and a big success in the end, it would've been just another cliched "is he a man or a dolphin" type of film.

Instead it's a very honest account of what and why went wrong with the attempt and what did it mean for him.

It's borderline cliche at some parts, but I think it does a good job a steering clear of that. At many points you think "oh no, here comes the money line"...But it doesn't and it keeps on track. It has a very blunt and fact-based approach on freediving, which I like. No mystifying or trying to create a larger than life persona or anything like that. Things are explained as they are.

Of course there are a few things that caught the eye of a freediver, that propably wouldn't mean a thing to anyone else. Like the scene where they talk about static performance and it shows Topi and Timo laying on the bottom with a time counter showing 8+ minutes after Timo finally, very calmly, starts swimming up. Pretty obvious that wasn't "real" Also on some dives, you can't help but notice when they switch from the "real dive" to a staged one. With close ups of the face etc...Propably diving with some kind of camera mounted on the body you don't see on the start of the dive. And also ventilation is explained a bit bluntly..."The aim is to oxygenate the body by long perionds of deep ventilation, which has also the benefit of removing co2" or something like that. I guess it could have been said better, while in essence true.

The only thing that slightly bothered me was the excessive use of "winter images". I got the point, he's from Finland and it's bloody cold. But come on, not every scene has to start with snow and ice But maybe international audiences will find that sort of thing exotic...

And there's something for the ladies as well. Not going into details, I think it's impossible to make a movie in Finland without featuring at least some nudity of the male lead. Just try and prove that hypothesis wrong, watch a couple...

 

[efattah]

Which record attempt did Topi fail?

 

[Epsilon]

I think it was constant weight without fins. The goal was 67 metres and the attempt took place year ago in autumn. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Väinö F.

 

[jome]

Yeah, that's right. CNF attempt in Nice about a year ago. Failed due to equalization problems.

Discussed for example here:
[ame="http://forums.deeperblue.net/showthread.php?t=53770"]Record attempt's[/ame]