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.
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.Written by
dlevy1201
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. See more »
Alternate Versions
2001 --- Gaumont's restored version in 35mm, re-cut with film programmer Luce Vigo and film historian Bernard Eisenschitz as editing consultants. Based on the 1990 version, with a couple of images altered or removed and little changes on the soundtrack. See more »
As wonderful as this film is, it is really a disservice to pronounce it one of the greatest movies ever made. Whether it is or not one of them (ultimately a matter of subjective taste), such a proclamation, especially on the front of the box, puts *way* too much pressure on such a subtle, quiet film. I saw this film with high expectations (because of all of the drooling by critics), and frankly that pretty much ruined the experience. It's just absurd to suggest (by inference) that the majority of other films pale by comparison to this one.
I think it is a fascinating and very interesting movie with some moderately touching scenes, but "may be the best film of all time"? That's not fair to such a quiet, unassuming, subtle film that requires sneaking up on you to have any impact. Honestly, if the director hadn't died young, had such a promising start, and been French, I doubt anyone would have made such a huge deal over the movie. Had Vigo lived another 20 years and made 10 more movies, they would likely have categorized this film as excellent juvenilia.
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As wonderful as this film is, it is really a disservice to pronounce it one of the greatest movies ever made. Whether it is or not one of them (ultimately a matter of subjective taste), such a proclamation, especially on the front of the box, puts *way* too much pressure on such a subtle, quiet film. I saw this film with high expectations (because of all of the drooling by critics), and frankly that pretty much ruined the experience. It's just absurd to suggest (by inference) that the majority of other films pale by comparison to this one.
I think it is a fascinating and very interesting movie with some moderately touching scenes, but "may be the best film of all time"? That's not fair to such a quiet, unassuming, subtle film that requires sneaking up on you to have any impact. Honestly, if the director hadn't died young, had such a promising start, and been French, I doubt anyone would have made such a huge deal over the movie. Had Vigo lived another 20 years and made 10 more movies, they would likely have categorized this film as excellent juvenilia.