Sight & Sound Poll 2012: L’Atalante
September 11, 2012
Film Info
- France
- 1934
- 89 minutes
- Black and White
- 1.33:1
- French
In Jean Vigo’s hands, an unassuming tale of conjugal love becomes an achingly romantic reverie of desire and hope. Jean (Jean Dasté), a barge captain, marries Juliette (Dita Parlo), an innocent country girl, and the two climb aboard Jean’s boat, the L’Atalante—otherwise populated by an earthy first mate (Michel Simon) and a multitude of mangy cats—and embark on their new life together. Both a surprisingly erotic idyll and a clear-eyed meditation on love, L’Atalante, Vigo’s only feature-length work, is a film like no other.
Cast
| Jean | Jean Dasté |
| Juliette | Dita Parlo |
| Père Jules | Michel Simon |
| Kid | Louis Lefebvre |
| Showman | Gilles Margaritis |
| Juliette’s mother | Fanny Clar |
| Raspoutine | Raphaël Diligent |
| Manager of the Waterways Company | Maurice Gilles |
Credits
| Director | Jean Vigo |
| Screenplay | Jean Vigo and Albert Riéra |
| Music | Maurice Jaubert |
| Photography | Boris Kaufman, Louis Berger and Jean-Paul Alphen |
| Editing | Louis Chavance |
| A production by | Jacques Louis-Nounez |
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Blue Horizon
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L’Atalante poster, designed by Michel Gondry (1990 French rerelease). Read more »
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Jean Vigo
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Let there be no trouble, no pranks . . . Do you realize the enormity of our moral . . . Read more »
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L’Atalante: Canal Music
By August 31, 2011
A man and a woman are married in a small town. The wedding procession follows them to a canal . . . Read more »
