L'Atalante
Encyclopedia
L'Atalante is a 1934
French
film
directed by Jean Vigo
and starring Jean Dasté
, Dita Parlo
and Michel Simon
. It has been hailed by many critics as one of the greatest films of all time.
), captain of the canal barge L'Atalante, has a new wife, Juliette (Dita Parlo
). They are married, having hardly met, in Juliette's provincial town. The opening sequence — the newlyweds' march from the church to Jean's boat — is filmed in a discontinuous style that anticipates the films of the French New Wave
.
The couple embark on a trip between Le Havre
and Paris
which functions doubly as a cargo delivery and as their makeshift honeymoon. Tensions arise with the crew, who are not used to the presence of a woman. Most of the conflict, however, stems from Jean who flies into a jealous rage, smashing plates and sending cats scattering every which way, when he discovers Juliette and first mate Jules (Michel Simon
), an obsessive cat lover, talking in the latter's quarters.
Arriving in Paris
, Jean and Juliette go to a music club. There they meet a street peddler who flirts with Juliette and asks her to run off with him. This leads to a scuffle with Jean. Growing disaffected with barge life and enamored with the lights of Paris
, Juliette runs off. Jean, furious, casts off, leaving her behind. He slips into a near-catatonic depression. Jules tries to revive him by repairing the boat's phonograph to no avail.
Meanwhile, Juliette wanders the mainland looking for work and diversion. Instead she only finds dark streets and crime. After Jean jumps into the river and is rescued by his shipmates, Jules decides to find Juliette. He returns her to the L'Atalante. The couple are happily reunited.
, the brother of Soviet film maker Dziga Vertov
. He would later go on to shoot Hollywood films such as On the Waterfront
(1954). He described his years working with Vigo as "cinematic paradise."
The original distributors cut the film's running time to 65 minutes in an attempt to make it more popular and changed the title to Le chaland qui passe ("The Passing Barge"), the name of a song from the time, which was also inserted into the film. The film was restored to 89 minutes in 1990 thanks to the fortunate retrieval of a copy featuring the whole footage in the archives of the RAI
, the Italian State broadcasting company, where it had been languishing for decades. As a result the now-whole movie was released on videotape. The entire film was restored in a version released on DVD in 2001. In August 2011 Criterion released a new restoration on DVD and Blu-Ray.
found the film "classical, almost violent and always tormented, fevered, overflowing with ideas and with fantasy; truculent; a virulent and even demonical romanticism that still remains humanistic."
The film became a favorite of the filmmakers of the French New Wave
, whose films contain many allusions to Vigo's work. The French director François Truffaut
fell in love with it when he saw it at age 14 in 1946: "When I entered the theater, I didn't even know who Jean Vigo was. I was immediately overwhelmed with wild enthusiasm for his work."
Yugoslavian film director Emir Kusturica
has said he is a big admirer of Vigo's work and describes Vigo as a poet. This admiration is best shown in Kusturica's Underground, where the underwater scenes are very reminiscent of those from L'Atalante.
L'Atalante was chosen as the 10th-greatest film of all time in the British journal Sight & Sound
s 1962 poll, and as the 6th-best in its 1992 poll. In the 2002 poll, it ranked 17th, with 15 critics and directors (including Jim Jarmusch
) naming it as one of their ten favorite films.
1934 in film
-Events:*January 26 - Samuel Goldwyn purchases the film rights to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from the L. Frank Baum estate for $40,000.*February 19 - Bob Hope marries Dolores Reade...
French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
directed by Jean Vigo
Jean Vigo
Jean Vigo was a French film director, who helped establish poetic realism in film in the 1930s and was a posthumous influence on the French New Wave of the late 1950s and early 1960s.-Biography:...
and starring Jean Dasté
Jean Dasté
Jean Dasté, born Jean Georges Gustave Dasté, was an actor and theatre director....
, Dita Parlo
Dita Parlo
Dita Parlo was a German film actress.Born Grethe Gerda Kornstädt in Stettin , Parlo made her first film appearance in Homecoming in 1928 and quickly became a popular actress in Germany...
and Michel Simon
Michel Simon
Michel Simon , was a Swiss actor. The actor François Simon is his son.-Early years:...
. It has been hailed by many critics as one of the greatest films of all time.
Plot summary
Jean (Jean DastéJean Dasté
Jean Dasté, born Jean Georges Gustave Dasté, was an actor and theatre director....
), captain of the canal barge L'Atalante, has a new wife, Juliette (Dita Parlo
Dita Parlo
Dita Parlo was a German film actress.Born Grethe Gerda Kornstädt in Stettin , Parlo made her first film appearance in Homecoming in 1928 and quickly became a popular actress in Germany...
). They are married, having hardly met, in Juliette's provincial town. The opening sequence — the newlyweds' march from the church to Jean's boat — is filmed in a discontinuous style that anticipates the films of the French New Wave
French New Wave
The New Wave was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema. Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of...
.
The couple embark on a trip between Le Havre
Le Havre
Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...
and Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
which functions doubly as a cargo delivery and as their makeshift honeymoon. Tensions arise with the crew, who are not used to the presence of a woman. Most of the conflict, however, stems from Jean who flies into a jealous rage, smashing plates and sending cats scattering every which way, when he discovers Juliette and first mate Jules (Michel Simon
Michel Simon
Michel Simon , was a Swiss actor. The actor François Simon is his son.-Early years:...
), an obsessive cat lover, talking in the latter's quarters.
Arriving in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Jean and Juliette go to a music club. There they meet a street peddler who flirts with Juliette and asks her to run off with him. This leads to a scuffle with Jean. Growing disaffected with barge life and enamored with the lights of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Juliette runs off. Jean, furious, casts off, leaving her behind. He slips into a near-catatonic depression. Jules tries to revive him by repairing the boat's phonograph to no avail.
Meanwhile, Juliette wanders the mainland looking for work and diversion. Instead she only finds dark streets and crime. After Jean jumps into the river and is rescued by his shipmates, Jules decides to find Juliette. He returns her to the L'Atalante. The couple are happily reunited.
Cast
- Michel SimonMichel SimonMichel Simon , was a Swiss actor. The actor François Simon is his son.-Early years:...
— Le père Jules - Dita ParloDita ParloDita Parlo was a German film actress.Born Grethe Gerda Kornstädt in Stettin , Parlo made her first film appearance in Homecoming in 1928 and quickly became a popular actress in Germany...
— Juliette - Jean DastéJean DastéJean Dasté, born Jean Georges Gustave Dasté, was an actor and theatre director....
— Jean - Gilles Margaritis — Le camelot
- Louis Lefebvre — Le gosse
- Maurice Gilles — Le chef de bureau
- Raphaël Diligent — Raspoutine, le batelier (as Rafa Diligent)
Production and release
The film's much-lauded cinematography was by Boris KaufmanBoris Kaufman
Boris Abelevich Kaufman, A.S.C. was a cinematographer. He was the younger brother of famous filmmakers Dziga Vertov and Mikhail Kaufman....
, the brother of Soviet film maker Dziga Vertov
Dziga Vertov
David Abelevich Kaufman , better known by his pseudonym Dziga Vertov , was a Soviet pioneer documentary film, newsreel director and cinema theorist...
. He would later go on to shoot Hollywood films such as On the Waterfront
On the Waterfront
On the Waterfront is a 1954 American drama film about union violence and corruption among longshoremen. The film was directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. It stars Marlon Brando, Rod Steiger, Eva Marie Saint, Lee J. Cobb and Karl Malden. The soundtrack score was composed by Leonard...
(1954). He described his years working with Vigo as "cinematic paradise."
The original distributors cut the film's running time to 65 minutes in an attempt to make it more popular and changed the title to Le chaland qui passe ("The Passing Barge"), the name of a song from the time, which was also inserted into the film. The film was restored to 89 minutes in 1990 thanks to the fortunate retrieval of a copy featuring the whole footage in the archives of the RAI
RAI
RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...
, the Italian State broadcasting company, where it had been languishing for decades. As a result the now-whole movie was released on videotape. The entire film was restored in a version released on DVD in 2001. In August 2011 Criterion released a new restoration on DVD and Blu-Ray.
Reception and influence
The film has been praised for its prescient poetic realist style. Upon its release, the French art historian Elie FaureÉlie Faure
Jacques Élie Faure was a French art historian and essayist.- Works :* Vélasquez * Formes et Forces * Les Constructeurs * La sainte Face...
found the film "classical, almost violent and always tormented, fevered, overflowing with ideas and with fantasy; truculent; a virulent and even demonical romanticism that still remains humanistic."
The film became a favorite of the filmmakers of the French New Wave
French New Wave
The New Wave was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema. Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of...
, whose films contain many allusions to Vigo's work. The French director François Truffaut
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut was an influential film critic and filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five...
fell in love with it when he saw it at age 14 in 1946: "When I entered the theater, I didn't even know who Jean Vigo was. I was immediately overwhelmed with wild enthusiasm for his work."
Yugoslavian film director Emir Kusturica
Emir Kusturica
Emir Nemanja Kusturica , is a Serbian filmmaker, actor and musician, recognized for several internationally acclaimed feature films...
has said he is a big admirer of Vigo's work and describes Vigo as a poet. This admiration is best shown in Kusturica's Underground, where the underwater scenes are very reminiscent of those from L'Atalante.
L'Atalante was chosen as the 10th-greatest film of all time in the British journal Sight & Sound
Sight & Sound
Sight & Sound is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute .Sight & Sound was first published in 1932 and in 1934 management of the magazine was handed to the nascent BFI, which still publishes the magazine today...
s 1962 poll, and as the 6th-best in its 1992 poll. In the 2002 poll, it ranked 17th, with 15 critics and directors (including Jim Jarmusch
Jim Jarmusch
James R. "Jim" Jarmusch is an American independent film director, screenwriter, actor, producer, editor and composer. Jarmusch has been a major proponent of independent cinema, particularly during the 1980s and 1990s.-Early life:...
) naming it as one of their ten favorite films.