Brilliantly idiosyncratic and insightful, the warmest film of this great director's career.
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
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Reviews for L'Atalante
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.
This quiet little French number is a gossamer confection, but for a film of its era, it's gorgeous to look at.
A landmark of French cinema and one of the most beloved film romances.
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
Vigo has created a dreamworld, which makes his film an out of this world cinematic experience.
This makes it a film that can be both appreciated by cineastes and enjoyed by anyone looking for a good romance story.
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.
Stands as one of the most beautiful and rich celebrations of human connection in the history of cinema.
Originally released in 1934, Jean Vigo’s first and only full-length feature is one of the cinema’s greatest masterpieces.
Rapt, exuberant and as fragile as mist, this passionate tone poem drifts in its own bubble of oddly dissonant, almost fatalistic romanticism.
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.
L'Atalante is the world in springtime -- a place where shimmering reflections, smoky breezes, empty streets, and a free-floating sense of erotic energy are the essence of life and of movies.
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.
Even with this limited output, Vigo remains one of the cinema's great masters.
A major inspiration to subsequent generations of filmmakers, yet no one has ever succeeded in matching it.
This 1934 French classic is a work of enduring poetry that has launched a thousand other movies.
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
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| 90% 90% | District 9 |
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