The Deepest Breath

Beautiful and profound and a celebration of love and life and living. It gripped me as much as Free Solo did in its edge of seat drama and tension. So cleverly structured and paced. I could sense its foreboding nature throughout but still could not anticipate the final heart wrenching outcome. Emotional and beautiful storytelling. Thank you for sharing this very personal story set against a beautiful score. I could not look away for a second and was transported into this unknown world, not experienced since The Big Blue. If you loved that film, this one will stay with you too. I will carry this story with me for a long time. Bravo!

Where to begin. First, the biggest structural mistake in a documentary is to treat the audience as stupid. This documentary does that tremendously well. 10/10 for that.

It frames everything with a build up to a climax, only to bait and switch the climax on the assumption you dont know the story or you wouldnt look it up prior to watching. In this day and age its a cardinal sin to assume this. Its also why a documentary like Senna is one of the greats. Kapadia doesnt assume the audience is stupid and everyone knows the end, so its more about the journey. Here, its as though youre taken on one journey only to fall down a "lets pretend secret" trapdoor. 0/10.

Second main flaw is the main character isnt very likeable and that seems to be the case from start to finish. 0/10.

Otherwise it was well made. This is where the 5 marks came from.

Ps. What an utterly stupid activity.

From the first pictures of this documentary it is evident that something bad is about to happen. By careful editing the suspense of not knowing what or to whom it will happen is held up until the end. As a result the runtime of almost 2 hours felt more like one.

To my taste the documentary is trying a bit too hard emotionally in some scenes, but it works and I did care for most of the characters. While there is some sublime cinematography it feels partly out of place as the rest of the footage does not hold up. The subject matter itself might seem nonsensical to some and the character's true motivation a bit shallow - although sometimes that is all there is.

Not A24's best film but it's still pretty good.

It's an interesting documentary about freediver Alessia Zecchini and Stephen Keenan on the goals, life, accomplishments and challenges they processes throughout her career with good insightful discussions and some gorgeous camerawork. Director Laura McGann does a pretty good job on capturing the career of Zecchini and maintaining the documentary's tone without feeling sloppy. The camerawork of the underwater sequences were absolutely gorgeous and beautiful. Documentaries about ocean life I always love because of the gorgeous production and shot compositions provided and The Deepest Breath does have some wonderful underwater scenes.

Throughout, there were some really good editing and emotional moments that were genuinely interesting and touching. The conversations between participants were insightful but admittedly there were a few discussion moments that felt a little dragged on. The soundtrack choices felt a little cheesy and some pacing could have improved. Overall, it's a pretty good documentary.

There's much to love about free diving, but you won't find it in this film. The subjects have so much ego, are so competitive and goal-oriented that they degrade what coule be an art, or even a spiritual practice, into just another dumb extreme sport.

The only people with an iota of self-reflection or wisdom are the characters fathers, which is kind of suprising considering how free diving can be a transcendental experience.

The sea is just a backdrop for their ambitions and awards. No mention of the physiology of freediving, the the cultures in which it is tradtionally practiced, the stunning (and threatened) marine environments where they dive. It might as well be a documentary about tennis or golf.