L'Atalante (1934)

Director:

Jean Vigo

Writers:

Jean Guinée (scenario)
Albert Riéra (adaptation)
(more)

Release Date:

21 June 1947 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

When Juliette marries Jean, she comes to live on his ship, on board of which are, besides the two of them...

Plot Keywords:

Depression | Underwater | Marital Problem | Surrealism | Tattoo

Cast

Michel Simon	...	Le père Jules
Dita Parlo	...	Juliette
Jean Dasté	...	Jean
Gilles Margaritis	...	Le camelot
Louis Lefebvre	...	Le gosse
Maurice Gilles	...	Le chef de bureau
Raphaël Diligent	...	Raspoutine, le batelier (as Rafa Diligent)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Claude Aveline	...	(uncredited)
René Blech	...	Le garçon d'honneur (uncredited)
Lou Bonin	...	(uncredited)
Fanny Clar	...	La mère de Juliette (uncredited)
Charles Dorat	...	Le voleur (uncredited)
Paul Grimault	...	(uncredited)
Genya Lozinska	...	(uncredited)
Gen Paul	...	L'invité qui boite (uncredited)
Jacques Prévert	...	Extra at Station (uncredited)
Pierre Prévert	...	Le voyageur pressé (uncredited)
Albert Riéra	...	(uncredited)

Directed by
Jean Vigo

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Jean Guinée		scenario
Albert Riéra		adaptation
Albert Riéra		dialogue
Jean Vigo		adaptation
Jean Vigo		dialogue

Produced by
Jacques-Louis Nounez	....	producer

Original Music by
Maurice Jaubert

Cinematography by
Jean-Paul Alphen		(originally uncredited)
Louis Berger
Boris Kaufman

Film Editing by
Louis Chavance

Art Direction by
Francis Jourdain

Makeup Department
Acho Chakatouny	....	makeup artist: Michel Simon

Production Management
Henri Arbel	....	unit manager (originally uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Pierre Merle	....	assistant director
Albert Riéra	....	assistant director

Art Department
Jean-Louis Bompoint	....	art director: restoration
Pierre Lestringuez	....	restoration art director

Sound Department
Lucien Baujard	....	sound
Marcel Royné	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Roger Parry	....	still photographer

Music Department
Charles Goldblatt	....	lyricist

Other crew
Fred Matter	....	script supervisor (originally uncredited)
Jacqueline Morland	....	production secretary (originally uncredited)
Jacqueline Morland	....	script supervisor (originally uncredited)

Production Companies

• Jean-Louis Nounez

Distributors

• Gaumont-Franco Film-Aubert (G.F.F.A) (1934) (France) (theatrical)
• Sputnik (2007) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Artificial Eye (1990) (UK)
• Cine Classics (1947) (USA) (subtitled)
• Criterion Collection, The (2011) (USA) (DVD)
• Film Traders Ltd. (1946) (UK)
• Gaumont International
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (2011) (Germany) (DVD)
• Magnus Opus (200?) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Malofilm Distribution (Canada)
• Sherlock Home Video (2005) (Spain) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | Russian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:Btl | UK:PG | Portugal:M/12 (Qualidade) | Spain:7 (DVD release) | Iceland:L | Finland:S (2007) | Australia:PG | USA:Not Rated

Filming Locations:

Bassin de la Villette, Paris 19, Paris, France

Company:

Jean-Louis Nounez

Trivia:

The last film completed by Jean Vigo before his death from tuberculosis at twenty-nine.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Lie with Me (2005)

One of the greatest of all films

Pauline Kael told us that "L'Atalante" was one of those films that are more pleasurable in the memory than while seeing it. Maybe so, but not for me. I knew I was witnessing a masterpiece after the first thirty seconds.

There was not a false step in the whole thing, and many wonderful surprises. There's a brief flash of strange eroticism when Dita Parlo sticks out her tongue at Michel Simon, the old seaman who runs the boat (and I can't even remember why she did it). There's some comedy, with an astoundingly nimble Vaudeville-like cafe performer/one-man-band who serenades Parlo, to her husband's dismay. There's aching heartbreak, with the separated lovers who long for each other so much that it wakes them up in the night and hear each other's yearning. And after all those things, the sensuality, the humor, and the tragedy, the movie just dreams on by as smooth and as fragile as a film can be. I fell in love with it the same way I did with "The Third Man"--the heedless, foolish romanticism just got to me in the end.