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Movies / On DVD / L'Atalante
L'Atalante

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L'Atalante (1934)

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Reviews Counted:23

Fresh:23

Rotten:0

Average Rating:8.7/10

Runtime: 87 mins

Genre: Foreign Films

Synopsis: Considered by critics to be one of the 20th century's best films, L'ATALANTE is the final work of French director Jean Vigo's (ZERO FOR CONDUCT) tragically brief, but brilliant career. After their... Considered by critics to be one of the 20th century's best films, L'ATALANTE is the final work of French director Jean Vigo's (ZERO FOR CONDUCT) tragically brief, but brilliant career. After their wedding, Juliette (Dita Parlo) and Jean (Jean Daste) set out on L'Atalante, the river barge that Jean captains. In a scene representative of the film's lovely, poetic cinematography, Juliette, both desiring and fearing her new life, wistfully walks atop the length of the barge, wedding dress fluttering in the wind. The couple soon settles into wedded bliss, with the companionship of quirky, tattooed bargeman Pere Jules. He provides many of the film's unexpected comedic moments (watch for the plethora of cats, and the cigarette smoking belly button). Trouble arises, however, as Jean continually foils Juliette's attempts to learn more of life by listening to the radio and exploring the barge's ports. When a charming traveling salesman/entertainer (Gilles Margaritis) entices Juliette with stories of the charm of Paris, she decides to venture out on her own. The question of whether Jean and Julliette's love will win out over their conflicting ideas, along with the naturalistic, dreamlike visual world that Vigo creates, will keep viewers enraptured to the end. [More]

Starring: Dita Parlo, Jean Daste, Michel Simon

Starring: Dita Parlo, Jean Daste, Michel Simon

Director: Jean Vigo

Director: Jean Vigo
Screenwriter: Jean Vigo, Albert Riera
Story: Jean Guinee
Composer: Maurice Jaubert

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Apr 1, 2003

No Details Exist
 
 

Reviews for L'Atalante

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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A major inspiration to subsequent generations of filmmakers, yet no one has ever succeeded in matching it.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
07/24/07
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

One can't help but mourn the films an even more mature, capable and confident Vigo might have made had not TB cut him down at the tender age of 29

Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
04/07/07
Dan Jardine
Dan Jardine
Apollo Guide

Blending naturalism and surrealism, this is a work of unique poetic power, a masterpiece that anticipated neo-realism by a decade; the fact that it's Vigo sole completed feature doesn't lessen his status as one of the world's greatest filmmakers.

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
01/24/07
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

No review available.

comment Comment
10/05/06
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com

Originally released in 1934, Jean Vigo’s first and only full-length feature is one of the cinema’s greatest masterpieces.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/24/06
Geoff Andrew
Geoff Andrew
Time Out

A landmark of French cinema and one of the most beloved film romances.

Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | comment Comment
04/13/06
Colin Covert
Colin Covert
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

This quiet little French number is a gossamer confection, but for a film of its era, it's gorgeous to look at.

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
06/16/05
Christopher Null
Christopher Null
Filmcritic.com

A cine-poem ode to the rhythms of life and love set on a barge travelling along the Seine, Jean Vigo's L'Atalante stands as one of cinema's indisputable masterpieces.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
04/19/05
Jamie Russell
Jamie Russell
BBC

This makes it a film that can be both appreciated by cineastes and enjoyed by anyone looking for a good romance story.

Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
05/24/03
Derek Smith
Derek Smith
Apollo Guide

The action is episodic and diffuse but Michel Simon, as the dour and cat-loving barge hand lends a bit of comic relief to the pallidly poetic proceedings.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
05/20/03
A.H. Weiler
A.H. Weiler
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Stands as one of the most beautiful and rich celebrations of human connection in the history of cinema.

Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
04/22/03
Eric Henderson
Eric Henderson
Slant Magazine

This 1934 French classic is a work of enduring poetry that has launched a thousand other movies.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
03/10/03
Marjorie Baumgarten
Marjorie Baumgarten
Austin Chronicle

A paean to evanescence and, however paradoxically, an enduring embodiment of the same concept: a wispish film from a short-lived director that has nonetheless been dreamed and re-dreamed, never the same way twice, for almost 70 years.

Full Review Source: Nick's Flick Picks | comment Comment
01/10/03
Nick Davis
Nick Davis
Nick's Flick Picks

Hands down one of the most poetic, romantic and sentimental films I have ever seen.

comment Comment
12/12/02
Steven Snyder
Steven Snyder
Greater Milwaukee Today

Brilliantly idiosyncratic and insightful, the warmest film of this great director's career.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
01/01/00
TV Guide's Movie Guide

A favorite of film buffs for decades.

Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | comment Comment
01/01/00
Chris Hicks
Chris Hicks
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

Vigo has created a dreamworld, which makes his film an out of this world cinematic experience.

Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
01/01/00
Dennis Schwartz
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

There is much playfulness and poetry, such visual riches.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
01/01/00
Desson Thomson
Desson Thomson
Washington Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Rapt, exuberant and as fragile as mist, this passionate tone poem drifts in its own bubble of oddly dissonant, almost fatalistic romanticism.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
01/01/00
Hal Hinson
Hal Hinson
Washington Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A poignant story of love's labor's lost for several dire hours in the streets of Paris, a work which is considered by top critics to be among the top hundred films of the twentieth century, a classic of the genre.

Full Review Source: Compuserve | comment Comment
01/01/00
Harvey S. Karten
Harvey S. Karten
Compuserve
 
 
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