Directed by Jean Vigo • 1934 • France
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.
Up Next in Adam Gopnik’s Adventures in Moviegoing
-
Adam Gopnik on GRAND ILLUSION
-
Grand Illusion
Directed by Jean Renoir • 1937 • France
Starring Jean Gabin, Pierre Fresnay, Erich von StroheimOne of the very first prison escape movies, GRAND ILLUSION is hailed as one of the greatest films ever made. Jean Renoir’s antiwar masterpiece stars Jean Gabin and Pierre Fresnay as French soldiers he...
-
Adam Gopnik on BICYCLE THIEVES