Too many fans seem to be blown away

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

I have mixed feelings about this one: the history of its editing is so long, complicated and all the more dramatic that Vigo died just after having finished it. Famous director Truffaut passion for it is contagious. The story is original even today (the way to become a sailor wife on a ship) and some moments are really beautiful and poetic and offers a vision of Paris faraway of cliches of the city of light and closer to Eraserhead world...But i'm french and this is France and i just can't stand this old, rustic country! It's always the same thing: With King Kong, America just showed how past and future could rejoice while in France, this boat tale doesn't exit a dark, gloomy country, with no comfort, peasant traditions, no visions for a bright future! Actor Simon is a very painful character to watch, between Quasimodo and Planet of Apes, no hygiene, drunk, half mad: for me, he is the anchor that drowns the ship!At the end, Vigo could claim some rights to Cameron Titanic because its poster (Atalante) is clearly the inspiration for the cult moment at the bow (Titanic)!

Taking a look at some French Videos that my dad had picked up for 10p each years ago,I spotted Jean Vigo's final work.Since having heard about Vigo for years,I decided that it was time to take a look at the "first" French New Wave (FNW) film maker.The plot:Getting married to Juliette,Jean decides that they should stay on the L'Atalante,which is a barge that he is the captain of.Never seeing a women on the barge before,crew member Père Jules is taken by Juliette's beauty and tries to get close to her.As the barge sails on,Juliette begins to see the different outlooks on life that she and Jean have on the horizon.View on the film:Shining on the screen like a diamond,the elegant Dita Parlo gives a ravishing performance as Juliette.Lighting up the screen with her bright eyes,Parlo casts an air of awe and wonder over Juliette,as the dazzling lights of Paris make Juliette dream of another life. Covered in grotesque tattoos, Michel Simon gives a hilarious performance as Jules,whose mad barks chip away at Juliette and Jean's dreamy romance.Bedridden for large portions of production,director Jean Vigo draws the outline of the FNW with a magnetic Old Curiosity shop being opened up via Vigo using a sharp depth of field to explore every odds and ends filling the barge.Along with the earthy FNW,Vigo sends the barge down a river of poetic vision,cast across in ultra-stylish slivers of shade over the river,and a steaming with sensuality sex scene being entirely expressed in overlapping fade in/fade out images. Despite all the praise giving the title a dry "cover" the screenplay by co-writer/(along with Albert Riéra & Jean Guinée) director Vigo features a surprisingly comedic edge,thanks to Jules off the cuff one liners digging a gap between the couple.Holding the couple on the barge,the writers glaze Juliette and Jean with an immaculate poetic quality,by the trim dialogue expressing the friction bubbling away in their relationship,as Jean and Juliette's relationship sails down the river with the L'Atalante barge.

L'Atalante is one of those films I've heard of a lot in the well respected critics list, as you can see, it's highly ranked in They Shoot Pictures Don't They's list, but I've never known enough about it besides the fact that the director, Jean Vigo, died after making it at age 29. It is a truly unique, poetic and dreamy film and does deserve its acclaim. At the core, it's a film about the differences between men and women and how the frustration and anger of that tension drives them together and apart. It's surprising to see a film from pre-1950s to feature such vulgarities as a picture of a naked woman, the use of the word "pussy" referring to a vagina and frequent references to sex and sexual pleasure. But perhaps I haven't seen enough pre-1950s films to truly judge.The relationship between the main couple, Jean and Juliette, is incredibly passionate, even if the jealousy and worry can seem ugly on them. Their separation during the second half is upsetting and the audience really wills them to be together. While it plays with surrealism and faux- surrealism - such as the ambiguity of the second mate Pere's gender and showing him play a record on his finger that turns out to be the cabin boy playing the accordion - the eccentric side characters, including Pere, bring a special layer to the film, even making it genre breaking with slapstick and musical moments. The second half of the film is significantly better than the plodding first half though, where the cinematography is more creative and features excellent framing with lots of high and low angles, use of reflections and silhouettes which give the film a marvellous texture and adds to the atmosphere. It is a really complex film which I know I won't grasp on a single viewing and analysis but an excellent film nonetheless. 8/10

I don't remember when I saw this the first time but it left a magical impression.I was thrilled to find it again on TCM. I liked it but didn't love it this time around.Dita Parlo is interesting to watch...the scenes of her and her new husband coming back from the wedding are joyous. It is semi-interesting seeing her adjust to barge life, and the insidiously growing jealousy and brutality of the skipper. After a while you have to wonder what holds this odd couple together.After the blow-up, and "la patronne's" innocent whirl around Paris, you can see it's all about the sex. That's what keeps them together.Pere Jules is an interesting character and I enjoyed his acceptance of the "full-treatment" offer from that fortune teller.I had thought there was more to this. But what I got was OK.