L'Atalante (1934)

Taking a look at some French Videos that my dad had picked up for 10p each years ago,I spotted Jean Vigo's final work.Since having heard about Vigo for years,I decided that it was time to take a look at the "first" French New Wave (FNW) film maker.The plot:Getting married to Juliette,Jean decides that they should stay on the L'Atalante,which is a barge that he is the captain of.Never seeing a women on the barge before,crew member Père Jules is taken by Juliette's beauty and tries to get close to her.As the barge sails on,Juliette begins to see the different outlooks on life that she and Jean have on the horizon.View on the film:Shining on the screen like a diamond,the elegant Dita Parlo gives a ravishing performance as Juliette.Lighting up the screen with her bright eyes,Parlo casts an air of awe and wonder over Juliette,as the dazzling lights of Paris make Juliette dream of another life. Covered in grotesque tattoos, Michel Simon gives a hilarious performance as Jules,whose mad barks chip away at Juliette and Jean's dreamy romance.Bedridden for large portions of production,director Jean Vigo draws the outline of the FNW with a magnetic Old Curiosity shop being opened up via Vigo using a sharp depth of field to explore every odds and ends filling the barge.Along with the earthy FNW,Vigo sends the barge down a river of poetic vision,cast across in ultra-stylish slivers of shade over the river,and a steaming with sensuality sex scene being entirely expressed in overlapping fade in/fade out images. Despite all the praise giving the title a dry "cover" the screenplay by co-writer/(along with Albert Riéra & Jean Guinée) director Vigo features a surprisingly comedic edge,thanks to Jules off the cuff one liners digging a gap between the couple.Holding the couple on the barge,the writers glaze Juliette and Jean with an immaculate poetic quality,by the trim dialogue expressing the friction bubbling away in their relationship,as Jean and Juliette's relationship sails down the river with the L'Atalante barge.

Jean Vigo had a short career, he made only 3 short films and one feature before he died of tuberculosis just a few months after finishing L'atalante.Jean Vigo got a great sense of humor throughout all of his films, this one is no different. it falls under the category Romance/Drama but i would add Comedy too.Jean Vigo's short films were all revolutionary for their own reasons, but instead of trying to revolutionize more i feel you aimed for quality. of cource it is also revolutionary since it is a very different love story, i am going to come back to that later.The film is a bit outdated (which is to be expected from a film from '34) for me that has nothing to say, but some people might feel that takes away some of the enjoyment, which is why i mentioned it.It's about a marriage who get's torn apart by nothing, by minor differences in personality. The newly married couple finds out that they are not able to live whit each other, but after being separated a couple of days they find out that they are not able to live without each other either.Jean is a serious, good, but boring man, throughout the film we see that Juliette finds the more special men more attractive even if being special is either a positive or negative thing.There is great imagery all the way through and the story is really original, no wonder it is frequently mentioned on top 10 best movies list Etc.9/10 Fantastic

Country girl Juliette (Dita Parlo) marries Jean (Jean Daste) who lives and works on a barge. She slowly discovers that living on a barge is not what she wants and it leads to complications in her marriage.The story is simple but the movie is GREAT! It's told quickly and quietly with good acting and direction. The director conveys everything through imagery. The cinematography is breath-taking--gorgeous black and white images are all over the film. The actors are as good as they can be with especially excellent work by Parlo and Michel Simon. The director (Jean Vigo) sadly died at the too young age of 30 only completing three films. If he had lived he would have been one of the greats. Highly recommended.

Very magical about this film. But one have to be patient because it will not completely manifest itself before the last scene. I literarily got goosebumps and I could feel my heartbeat.I my opinion, the reason so many are disappointed about this is because it's not a page turner. (but neither is Moby Dick or Thus Spake Zarathustra) Seeing old movie for me is much like meditation. What makes this movie great are: the characters and wonderful combination of sound and image, mind blowing at times. My top 10. No doubt about it.