L'Atalante (1934)

Newly married couple Juliette and a ship captain Jean struggle through marriage as they travel on the L'atalante along with the captain's first mate Le père Jules and a cabin boy.

Director:

Jean Vigo

Writers:

Jean Guinée (scenario), Albert Riéra (adaptation)

Stars:

Dita Parlo, Jean Dasté, Gilles Margaritis

1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Dita Parlo	...	Juliette
Jean Dasté	...	Jean
Gilles Margaritis	...	Le camelot (peddler)
Louis Lefebvre	...	Le gosse (cabin boy)
Maurice Gilles	...	Le chef de bureau (office manager)
Raphaël Diligent	...	Le trimardeur (tramp / Raspoutine) (as Rafa Diligent)
Michel Simon	...	Le père Jules (old Jules)

Storyline

When Juliette marries Jean, she comes to live with him as he captains a river barge. Besides the two of them, are a cabin boy and the strange old second mate Pere Jules. Soon bored by life on the river, she slips off to see the nightlife when they come to Paris. Angered by this, Jean sets off, leaving Juliette behind. Overcome by grief and longing for his wife, Jean falls into a depression and Pere Jules goes and tries to find Juliette.

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Plot Keywords:

fortune teller | superstition | souvenir | fog | cat | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

France

Language:

French Russian

Release Date:

21 June 1947 (USA)

Also Known As:

L'Atalante

Filming Locations:

Bassin de la Villette, Paris 19, Paris, France

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$9,505

Company Credits

Production Co:

Argui-Film, Gaumont-Franco Film-Aubert (G.F.F.A)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

89 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Radio-Cinéma Fidélité Intégrale)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Voted as the 12th greatest film of all time in Sight & Sound's 2012 critic's poll.

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Alternate Versions

2017 --- Gaumont's restored version in 4K, presented at the Festival de Cannes, Cannes Classics - Copies Restaurées, based on the the closest version to the Director's "cut", after a meticulous research and reconstruction supervised by Bernard Eisenschitz.

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Connections

Edited into Fuori orario. Cose (mai) viste (1988)

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Soundtracks

La Chanson des mariniers
Written by Maurice Jaubert
Lyrics by Charles Dorat (as Charles Goldblatt)

User Reviews

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.