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

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

77 years after Jean Vigo's death, his daughter and film critic Luce Vigo attended a screening of L'Atalante and Zero for conduct and accepted the 2011 Parajanov-Vartanov Institute Award - named after persecuted Soviet filmmakers Sergei Parajanov and Mikhail Vartanov - posthumously honoring her father who died at 29 when she was 3. Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight presented the award and Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese sent a letter for the occasion with words on Vigo, Paradjanov and Vartanov, all of whom had fought against heavy censorship.

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Alternate Versions

1934-04-25 --- Jean Vigo's authorized cut before his death, at 89 min running time, shown to exhibitors and distributors mostly, at Palais Rochechouart, Paris, France. This version is lost.

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Connections

Referenced in Trapped Ashes (2006)

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Soundtracks

Le Chaland qui passe
(1934 version of the re-titled film)
Written by Cesare A. Bixio
Lyrics by André de Badet

User Reviews

Tales of the riverbank

My big problem with "L'Atalante" is how much of what we see and hear was really Jean Vigo's intention (as he didn't finish it) when he was making it? The restored version is the only version and was reconstructed from many disparate bits about 15 years ago, meaning it has had running order interpretations foisted upon it. I think most of the film we see came from the BFI in London, remixed with other clips into some kind of logical sequence by Gaumont in Paris and sold as a Forgotten Masterpiece.

Well, if you can call such luck ending up as a masterpiece it was purely unintentional by Vigo - he didn't see what we do now.

What we have though is definitely a series of relentlessly beautiful, thought-provoking, impressionistic black and white images hung together for 87 minutes with a very flimsy story of 3 people on a barge. The kid was background fluff and doesn't really count. Simon was his usual farcical self, I wish he'd been background as well. Daste and Parla were both later in "La Grande Illusion", can you really forget her as the German widow Elsa in favour of this? The framings and compositions are wonderful to see - how important was it to include distant shots of power stations, cranes etc? Why did Daste stare right into the underwater camera? How come every available surface seems uncomfortable or strewn with bizarre objects or people? Why just the one short aerial shot? And so many other questions which are either pointless or beyond my intelligence; somebody somewhere must know!

I find every time I watch "L'Atalante" it grows on me - I thought it was pants in '91, now I think it's brill! We all move at different speeds - some people will never be able to see this as anything but boring while some people thought it was a classic before they saw it! Whereas I'm still on the voyage of discovery with this one and will definitely watch it again, but not as an indispensable film, more as akin to a trip to the Art Gallery.