L'Atalante (1934)

Directed by

Jean Vigo

Genre

drama film, romance film

Country

France

Runtime

1h 29m

Rated

NR

Rating

7.5 of 10 from 466 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A newly married couple starts their life together on a barge traveling along French canals. Their love is tested by the struggles of isolation and the influence of a quirky old crew member.

dreamlikeromanticmelancholicslow-pacedintimatewistfulearthypoetic

What happens

L'Atalante, also released as Le Chaland qui passe (English: The Passing Barge), is a 1934 French film written and directed by Jean Vigo, and starring Jean Dasté, Dita Parlo, and Michel Simon. After the difficult release of his controversial 1933 short film Zero for Conduct, Vigo initially wanted to make a film about the French anarchist and illegalist Eugène Dieudonné, with whom Vigo's father (anarchist Miguel Almereyda) had been associated in 1913. After Vigo and his producer Jacques-Louis Nounez struggled to find the right project for a feature film, Nounez finally gave Vigo an unproduced screenplay by Jean Guinée about barge dwellers. Vigo re-wrote the story with Albert Riéra, while Nounez secured a distribution deal with the Gaumont Film Company with a budget of FF 1 million. Vigo used many of the technicians and actors who worked with him on Zero for Conduct, such as cinematographer Boris Kaufman and actor Jean Dasté. It has been hailed by many critics as one of the greatest films of all time. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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