L' Atalante
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Movie Reviews of L' Atalante
Movie Review: aka "The Passing Barge"
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a beautiful film in which the story itself is less important than the way that story is told. Juliette (Dita Parlo), a young woman who has spent all of her life in her native village, marries Jean (Jean Daste), the captain of a river barge. Immediately after their wedding in the village, the two of them set off on the barge. Their only companions are the veteran sailor Pere (Papa) Jules (Michel Simon) and his young assistant (Louis Lefebvre). Bored with the solitary life aboard the barge, Juliette strikes out on her own in Paris - with unfortunate consequences.
The film is told from one beautifully photographed sequence to another. Notable among them are a view of Juliette, dressed totally in white, walking like a ghost along the length of the dark barge in the dark river; Juliette discovering the marvelous toys and other items that Pere Jules has collected through his years as a sailor; and a romantic interlude in which Jean and Juliette, spending the night apart, dream that they are together.
One of the themes of the film is that of jealousy and possession. I've watched a number of fairly recent French films lately and a frequent theme has been a man (and in one case, a woman) going crazy when his woman displays even a small sign of independence. It's interesting to see that this theme was present back in 1934. In this case, though, love ultimately prevails.
Dita Parlo is wonderful as Juliette - I loved the look on her face when she discovers a preserved human hand in a jar in Jules' cabinet - and Michel Simon is superb as the crotchety but ultimately likeable Jules. The other performers do fine, as well - not just those on the barge, but also Gilles Margaritis as a street hawker who plays an important role in the drama.
The quality of the picture varies from sharp to somewhat soft, but that's to be expected from a cut that's claimed to be the most complete possible and coming from different sources. The disc includes an enlightening 20 minute documentary by two film historians (one of them refers to the scenes as a series of tone poems); a filmography of director Jean Vigo; and still photo and poster galleries, the latter notable for their beautiful art deco color and design.
All in all, a wonderful film.
Movie Review: This is what romance is.
Summary: 5 Stars
Others have talked at length about the technical beauty of this film. It is indeed very well-done, but what I enjoyed the most was its wonderful evocation of married love. I've never seen a film that showed so well what it's like to be a newly-wed. The couple are obviously seriously in love, but both are naive and discovering what it is like to live together, and making mistakes, the way you do in those first years. It's wonderful to see a film that celebrates this. So many films are about highly dysfunctional relationships nowadays. This film celebrates the normal--not the perfect, but the normal--in a way that is charming and enjoyable. If you are happily married (22 years in my case), it can really send you down memory lane.
In contrast to the married couple, there is the crazy but fascinating first mate who has lived a much less conventional life than they are clearly going to. (The man keeps his dead best friend's hands in a jar. Like two pickles. Nuff said). He, and this sort of out-there boy who also lives on the barge help to keep the story from being just simply sentimental. The eccentric Pere Jules clearly doesn't quite understand the love that the captain, Jean, has for his wife (he himself is into one night stands, like the one he has with a gypsy who reads his palms) but when he gets how much the young couple need each other, he is the one who goes and brings the wife home, where she wants to be. All of this takes place in scenes of what look like great poverty from a modern point of view, but was just normal life during the depression. The wife only has one dress, besides her wedding dress, and spends most of the movie in her bathrobe, but although her eyes open up wide when she see beautiful and expensive things in the shop windows, all that really seems necessary to her in the end is her husband.
The actors are wonderful--they make the movie seem so real that it's almost like a documentary. When you finish watching this, watch Grand Illusion to see the beautiful Dita Parlo again. She does a German peasant woman in that movie, just as well as she does the little French country girl in this one. And then rent Boudu Saved From Drowning to see a another tour de force performance by Michel Simon, the first mate.
Movie Review: Excellent but too hard a hype to live up to
Summary: 5 Stars
I waited until I watched this movie a second time before I decided to review it. I had bought the movie because it was listed on "Sight and Sound's" all-time top ten best movie lists. I realized (after watching it the first time) that I had just seen an excellent movie but not one of the greatest movies of all time. I gave it a lot of thought and just let it go. Several years later, I put my movie up for sale on Amazon.com and it went quickly. I decided to watch it one last time before I shipped it off the next day and I enjoyed it again. However, as beautiful a story as it truly is, this is NOT one of the greatest movies of all time.
This is the story of young love (i.e.: innocence). We start with a wedding of barge captain and small-town girl. Everybody follows the couple to the barge expecting a reception of some sort. However, the captain merely signals that it is time to shove off and the wedding guest stand there puzzled with the abrupt end of the celebration. This and many other scenes really do tell an intimate story and it is the sum total of all of these intimate glimpses that have given the movie its' fame. The love story reaches out to us and we smile at times and shudder at other times when the newly weds make the newlywed mistakes. The development of trust and understanding, the assertion of who's boss, the realization that being right is no fun if it means being alone, etc, etc, all come together in a beautiful movie. BUT it's still not one of the greatest movies of all time!!!
My problem was in anticipating something greater than I got. It wasn't the first time nor will it be the last. However, maybe my efforts to tone down the praise will give others a chance to watch it without expectations. I'm sure my review would have been a lot different had I been able to see "L'Atalante" that way.
Movie Review: Simply Perfect
Summary: 5 Stars
Finally saw Vigo's L'Atalante, his only feature film, which he reportedly died before completing, and instantly its one of my top favourite movies and easily one of the best pictures ever made. L'Atalante has everything going for it: its sexy, romantic and incredibly funny. Its also immensely genuine - the performances are so good, you are completely drawn into the action. Which is not to say that L'Atalante isn't imbued with the sense of fun and visual fantasy which makes Vigo's Zero de Conduite so great, in fact, its much more developed here. Vigo gets to tell a complete story in L'Atalante, the only complete story he ever told, and it is wonderful. Aside from its great story and vivid, unique characters, the most remarkable thing about L'Atalante is the masterful way it is directed. Vigo had such an eye for what was cinematic - so much of his stuff is communicated through images, yet when he uses words he uses them well (and for comic purposes here). L'Atalante is simply a beautiful film to look at. It has so many beautifully filmed sequences and images (some favourites: the grammophone music scene, the street seller's scene, the swimming underwater scene, the drunk scene). Surely one of the best shot films ever. Watch where Vigo places his camera, and the multitude of exciting compositions here. L'Atalante is a movie buff's dream come true. I'm so glad i found it, and am eternally grateful to the art gallery for giving me the opportunity to see it. The audience i saw it with had a rollicking good time - we enjoyed it immensely. If you ever see it playing at a revival house, or at an art gallery, i thoroughly recommend you go there and discover Jean Vigo.A perfect 10/10 - the only one i've ever given.
Movie Review: Top ten and one of a kind.
Summary: 5 Stars
The restoration and theatrical re-release of L'Atalante a decade ago was nothing less than a cinematic event. The movie had been edited to shreds shortly after it's doomed director, Jean Vigo, had presented his original work to an apparently incenced Parisian audience. Just as with Rites of Spring, the Golden Age and Coltrane/Dolphy, the emnity that the work generated from the French audience was strong evidence to the quality and importance of this brilliant piece of avant garde.The movie has been described as a combination of both surrealism and realism, but in truth Vigo's vision is entirely unique, and the style died with him. The emotional mood is practically labile and often ironic, such as the funeral-like reactions of onlookers to the wedding of the young couple, that opens the story. There are gentley jarring moments scattered about; the images of the later estranged lovers, shots of the two hugging themselves, imagining the other, combined to present a haunting view of romance defies description (obviously) and are unforgettable.
More captivating than the two young leads is Michedl Simon as the first mate. His comedy touches can only be called sublime. The scene when the bride comes to visit his cabin and witness all his wondrous bounty of mechanical diversion is truely one of film's great gems.
The (restored) VHS version of this has remained prohibitively priced. There is no more important film that has waited for it's DVD release. If you haven't had the chance to see it yet, you're in luck.