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My wife wanted me to find this movie. She remembers it was being filmed in 1980 when she was in Huihine which is an island in French Polynesia. She remembers they had a plywood constructed submarine that was being used in making the movie. She talked to one of the actors who was French speaking. I'm guessing the story was about WWII?
Early 1980s French film about WWII, filmed in the Tahitian islands
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My guess is South Pacific 1942 (1981) -- right time frame and setting, with some francophone actors. IMDb only lists Belize as a shooting location, but Nova Scotia was apparently another. French Polynesia? Who knows.
[With respect to the plot, the Royal Canadian Navy did not have any submarines in service from 1927 to 1961.]
[With respect to the plot, the Royal Canadian Navy did not have any submarines in service from 1927 to 1961.]
The Bounty was filmed in Tahiti, but that was in 1983.
Pacific Banana was filmed in Huahine in 1980, but that's about modern airline pilots and not a submarine.
Pacific Banana was filmed in Huahine in 1980, but that's about modern airline pilots and not a submarine.
Aside from Das Boot and South Pacific 1942 (and the Soviet film Sluchay v kvadrate '36-80' [Incident at Map-grid 36-80] (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085723/)), the only other submarine movie from the right time period was the Japanese blockbuster Virus / Fukkatsu no Hi (1980). It was mostly filmed in Canada, but scenes were also shot in Antarctica, Chile, and Peru. In-service submarines of the Canadian and Chilean navies were used for interior and exterior scenes, respectively.
Could a plywood mock-up also have been used for a location shot? Possibly, especially if it were in the background and not in sharp focus.
As far as I can determine, there are no scenes set in Polynesia, but close to 50 hours of footage were shot, so a lot of material was left on the cutting room floor (including one scene featuring the Canadian submarine's commanding officer, shot as a "thank you" by the film's director (https://davidgriffiths.ca/virus-the-movie/)).
The full 2½ hour version (in English with Japanese subtitles) is available online (https://archive.org/details/VirusFukkatsuNoHi1980).
P.S. "Sous-marins au cinéma et à la télévision" (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sous-m...9l%C3%A9vision) does not list any appropriate French-language productions
Could a plywood mock-up also have been used for a location shot? Possibly, especially if it were in the background and not in sharp focus.
As far as I can determine, there are no scenes set in Polynesia, but close to 50 hours of footage were shot, so a lot of material was left on the cutting room floor (including one scene featuring the Canadian submarine's commanding officer, shot as a "thank you" by the film's director (https://davidgriffiths.ca/virus-the-movie/)).
The full 2½ hour version (in English with Japanese subtitles) is available online (https://archive.org/details/VirusFukkatsuNoHi1980).
P.S. "Sous-marins au cinéma et à la télévision" (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sous-m...9l%C3%A9vision) does not list any appropriate French-language productions
Last edited by RGC1957; 11-18-23 at 05:45 PM.
The Bounty was filmed in Tahiti, but that was in 1983.
Pacific Banana was filmed in Huahine in 1980, but that's about modern airline pilots and not a submarine.
Pacific Banana was filmed in Huahine in 1980, but that's about modern airline pilots and not a submarine.
Aside from Das Boot and South Pacific 1942 (and the Soviet film Sluchay v kvadrate '36-80' [Incident at Map-grid 36-80] (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085723/)), the only other submarine movie from the right time period was the Japanese blockbuster Virus / Fukkatsu no Hi (1980). It was mostly filmed in Canada, but scenes were also shot in Antarctica, Chile, and Peru. In-service submarines of the Canadian and Chilean navies were used for interior and exterior scenes, respectively.
Could a plywood mock-up also have been used for a location shot? Possibly, especially if it were in the background and not in sharp focus.
As far as I can determine, there are no scenes set in Polynesia, but close to 50 hours of footage were shot, so a lot of material was left on the cutting room floor (including one scene featuring the Canadian submarine's commanding officer, shot as a "thank you" by the film's director (https://davidgriffiths.ca/virus-the-movie/)).
The full 2½ hour version (in English with Japanese subtitles) is available online (https://archive.org/details/VirusFukkatsuNoHi1980).
P.S. "Sous-marins au cinéma et à la télévision" (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sous-m...9l%C3%A9vision) does not list any appropriate French-language productions
Could a plywood mock-up also have been used for a location shot? Possibly, especially if it were in the background and not in sharp focus.
As far as I can determine, there are no scenes set in Polynesia, but close to 50 hours of footage were shot, so a lot of material was left on the cutting room floor (including one scene featuring the Canadian submarine's commanding officer, shot as a "thank you" by the film's director (https://davidgriffiths.ca/virus-the-movie/)).
The full 2½ hour version (in English with Japanese subtitles) is available online (https://archive.org/details/VirusFukkatsuNoHi1980).
P.S. "Sous-marins au cinéma et à la télévision" (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sous-m...9l%C3%A9vision) does not list any appropriate French-language productions
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I talked to my wife and she did remember that the plywood sub was in a lagoon and looked very real until they seen the back side, where it was clear it was just a prop. She also said it had German markings on it, maybe Nazi markings. Though it might not be a war film at all.
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