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Adam Gopnik’s Adventures in Moviegoing

L’Atalante

1h 28m

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.

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