Directed by Jean Vigo • 1934 • France
Starring Jean Dasté, Dita Parlo, Michel Simon
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.
Recorded in 2011, this commentary features Michael Temple, author of “Jean Vigo.”
Directed by Jacques Rozier, this episode of the French television program “Cinéastes de notre temps,” which first aired on October 15, 1964, covers the brief but explosive career of filmmaker Jean Vigo.
